It’s been easy to close myself off to other handheld gaming PCs since I have the $649 Steam Deck OLED. After all, the OS is easy to use, it has a great screen, and most importantly, many games run well on it. Save for the screen, the same could be said for the $399 Steam Deck that has an LCD screen instead of OLED.
And yet, I’ve always wanted to spend time with a Windows-based handheld, since they offer wider game compatibility (PC Game Pass and Epic Games Store, to name a couple), and usually more power to make games run better. So, the new $729.99 Lenovo Legion Go S seemed like a great place to dive in. I’m no stranger to using Windows on desktop, laptop, and in other interesting form factors. But this is my first time spending a serious amount of time with Windows on a handheld, and wow. It’s terrible — the OS, that is, not the device.
The Go S is one of the most comfortable handhelds that I’ve tried yet, and it’s generally a bit more powerful than the Steam Deck OLED I typically use. It also stands out by letting you customize the pull distance of its rear trigger, just like the Sony DualSense Edge and Xbox Elite Series 2 controllers; with a flip of a physical switch near each trigger, you can shorten the pull to feel almost like a mouse click.
Above all else, the screen is my favorite aspect of the Go S. Its 8-inch display makes all the difference in making game UI elements easier to read and graphical details easier to appreciate. While its contrast and color accuracy aren’t on par with the Steam Deck OLED (dark scenes are particularly difficult to parse), it partially makes up for that with brightness, going up to 500 nits.
Digging deeper into what makes its screen great, the Go S is one of a few gaming handheld PCs to have a variable refresh rate (VRR) screen. That means its refresh rate will remain in sync with your game’s frame rate, so long as it’s within the range of 48-120 Hz. Without VRR (the Steam Deck lacks it), you may notice screen tearing as the display attempts to course-correct during gameplay. As for games that have no issue hitting the 48 Hz VRR boundary, Doom (2016) and Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain (who among us doesn’t occasionally go back to these classics?) run much smoother on the Go S than on the Steam Deck, as do hundreds of other games I didn’t compare, I’m sure.
I spent a lot of my time testing the Go S with Avowed, a graphically demanding open-world game that rarely ran above 30 frames per second — not a good showcase for VRR on this device, as that’s too low to engage the feature. Note: This device doesn’t have low frame rate compensation (LFC), unlike Asus’ ROG Ally handhelds, which would let VRR engage well below that 48 Hz boundary. Avowed’s performance often dips into the high teens and low 20 frames per second. That middling performance made more sense when I saw Digital Foundry’s technical impressions of the game, which showed how CPU-bound it is regarding frame rate (its performance is heavily dictated by the processor you’re using). Despite the Go S’ boosted power versus the Steam Deck, the gains in some games were more uneven than I’d prefer, or just not apparent enough in a device this costly.
When it comes to hardware, the Go S uses the new-for-2025 AMD Ryzen Z2 Go, and you’d be forgiven for expecting better performance than the Z1 Extreme found in the $799.99 Asus ROG Ally X. I didn’t have one on hand for a direct comparison, but my former colleague Sean Hollister reviewed it at The Verge, and his testing indicates that the Z1 Extreme in the ROG Ally X offers higher frames per second in games. So, the Ally X’s higher $799.99 price might be worth it if you’re after the best performance you can currently get in a handheld form factor. Alternatively, you could just get the cheaper ROG Ally with the same Z1 Extreme, but with a smaller battery, fewer USB ports, and less memory than the Ally X (it sometimes sells for just $449.99!). Or just wait for the Z2 Extreme to start popping up in devices later this year.
It’s worth noting that Lenovo has other Legion Go S configurations coming later this year. In May, it plans to release a $599.99 variant that has the same specs as the model I’m reviewing, but with half the RAM (16 GB versus 32). It will also debut a Z1 Extreme-powered model in April, but there’s currently no price attached to that version.
To compare performance of the Go S directly with my Steam Deck, I opted to play most games at the same 1,200×800 resolution offered by the Deck. Running off its 55.5 Wh battery, the Go S impressed me most with Doom (2016) with Ultra graphics settings, achieving frame rates near 90 compared to the Deck’s 45 or so. The Go S could only achieve that with the battery-guzzling “Performance” mode turned on, which amps the chipset wattage beyond what the Steam Deck is capable of (additionally, Vulkan graphics enable significantly faster performance in this title on both devices compared to OpenGL).
Notably, Baldur’s Gate 3 is playable, which is more than I can say about my time trying it out on the Steam Deck. It runs on the Go S with the lowest of low graphical settings at about 30 frames per second, depending on the environment. Sometimes it’s higher than that in low-density areas (like campsites), but I’ve seen it plunge below 20 in more hectic scenes (especially in the late game). While playable, it’s not good enough to lure me away from playing it on my desktop.
OK, about Windows. Despite offering wider game compatibility than the Steam Deck, Windows feels so much more cumbersome and uninviting, to the point that its benefits don’t feel worth the effort or the extra money. (Deck owners: You can run Windows off an SSD, complete with Valve-made drivers, connected to your console. It’s not too difficult!)
If progress has been made to make Windows more handheld-friendly since the Steam Deck launched three years ago, I can’t find evidence of that in daily use of the Legion Go S. From the first boot, as well as all subsequent boots, it doesn’t feel like you’re using a gaming device. Instead, you’re using a Windows device with games on it, cloaked in tacked-on software that can never hide the OS’ biggest flaws well enough. Windows, as it is currently designed, is deeply uninterested in serving gamers — particularly those who are using a gaming handheld.
After I power on the Go S, swipe up on the lock screen, then peck my PIN on the lock screen, it dumps me into Windows — yet the keyboard usually remains up until I tap the small X button on it. Almost every one of the Legion Go S’ inputs are useless to navigate the OS, save for the small, square trackpad I initially thought (and still wish) was a fingerprint reader. Navigating most apps and typing requires you to touch the screen, which isn’t my preferred input method on a handheld, especially after being spoiled by Valve’s generously large trackpads on the Deck.
Lenovo’s Legion Space is the gaming-focused app carrying the weight that should be on Microsoft’s shoulders, both to recognize this handheld’s inputs and understand the intent of gamers using its OS. It’s a one-stop shop for launching installed games and buying new ones. This is also where you can update drivers and configure all settings relating to how the Legion Go S performs, from its screen resolution and refresh rate to its power level. Inconveniently, this app (which is important enough to have its own hardware button dedicated to it) didn’t work out of the box; a Legion Space placeholder showed up when I pressed it, hanging indefinitely. As it turns out, the executable was preloaded onto the device, but not preinstalled, and nothing in the interface pointed me in the direction of this solution. And, even when it is working as intended, it’s a serviceable, but not great, user experience.
Even after I got the hang of the Go S’ quirks, I’d experience something new to annoy me that I’d never encountered on the Steam Deck. For example, during gameplay, the overlay that lets you adjust performance, refresh rate, and other settings sometimes takes around five seconds to display on the screen after you push the hardware button that’s supposed to make it pop up. Or the fact that, once the Go S let me boot two games simultaneously, it predictably tanked the performance and battery life. Or that a game might seem to take forever to boot, only for me to realize that a hidden pop-up needed me to choose if I wanted to make a firewall exception for it. Windows is lucky to have the upper hand when it comes to game compatibility, because I don’t think I’d consider using it in a handheld form factor otherwise, since SteamOS exists.
The Legion Go S is the latest opportunity that Microsoft has squandered to make a better impression on handheld users. And, judging by Lenovo’s announcement of a SteamOS-flavored Go S coming later in 2025, it could be the case that companies — not just users — are getting tired of waiting for Windows to get better on handhelds. The SteamOS version will start at $499.99 with specs that are very similar to this device (16 GB of RAM instead of 32), and will come in a “nebula violet” color scheme. Thankfully, the Go S’ best assets are coming along, too, like its great ergonomics, its big VRR screen, and the adjustable triggers.
While it will be the first official SteamOS handheld not made by Valve, it won’t be the only non-Steam Deck running official SteamOS software. Valve is preparing to release its SteamOS in beta with support for Asus ROG Ally by April, giving gamers more options when it comes to handhelds. It’ll be great to have more choices, making it all the easier to avoid this one.
The Lenovo Legion Go S is available to purchase at Best Buy. It was tested using a retail unit provided by Lenovo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
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