2025
For the last several years, most of us thinking about buying a handheld PC have heard the refrain “just get a Steam Deck.” The reasons are two-fold: one, the OLED version at $550 is the cheapest of its class, and two, it’s so damned easy to use thanks to SteamOS. No other company has come close to offering similar bang for the buck—until now.
At $600, Lenovo’s Legion Go S with SteamOS is a superior handheld for on-the-go gaming compared to the Windows version released earlier this year, which felt compromised because of Microsoft’s desktop operating system. Lenovo also sells an $830 model with a better chip that may seem more enticing, but as you’ll see in this review, you shouldn’t feel bad about choosing to go cheaper.
Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS The Lenovo Legion Go S is the only other handheld that comes with SteamOS out of the box, and it's so much better for it. See at Best Buy Pros Great feel and ergonomics
Great feel and ergonomics Large display with slim bezels
Large display with slim bezels Solid performance from Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip Cons Z1 Extreme costs almost as much as an ROG Ally X
Z1 Extreme costs almost as much as an ROG Ally X Limited battery life, especially at 30W+ TDP
Limited battery life, especially at 30W+ TDP Occasional audio issues
The Legion Go S is a side-grade from the Lenovo Legion Go from 2023. It still has an 8-inch display, but it’s a single-body design that doesn’t sport the Legion Go’s two detachable controllers ala the Nintendo Switch 2. As comfortable as the earlier Legion Go S was, Windows combined with poor performance drastically hampered what it could be. I could tell from the jump that, at $730, the Windows version was relatively overpriced and underpowered—a real “just get a Steam Deck” system. The new version is cheaper and comes with SteamOS, the same small screen-friendly Linux-based operating system made by Valve. I tested the $600 Legion Go S with SteamOS in a beautiful deep “nebula nocturne” purple color that reminds me of the goth kid I wish I was in high school. It comes with a Ryzen Z2 Go processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. That’s $50 more than a Steam Deck OLED with the same 512 GB storage capacity. Valve’s $400 Steam Deck LCD is the cheapest of its kind, though it comes with only 256GB of storage.
The more powerful Legion Go S with SteamOS, powered by an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor and 32GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM, is close to what you might pay for an Asus ROG Ally X, which boasts a better battery life though slightly worse ergonomics. I have not tested this model, though.
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