The market for portable gaming devices has been gaining momentum for a long time, but Lenovo just dropped a firebomb all over the stage. For CES 2025Lenovo showed three new Lenovo Legion portables, including the first true competitor to Valve’s popular Steam Deck and a sneak peek at the next-gen Legion Go games.
Lenovo Legion Go S is a new premium gaming handheld that takes the fight straight to the battlefield. ASUS ROG ally with an elegant design, but it’s not easy Windows 11. Later this year, gamers will also be able to buy a variant of the Legion Go S running SteamOS, the same custom-designed user interface currently used exclusively Steam deck. Legion Go (Gen 2) doesn’t have a date yet, but it’s coming and it looks great.
I had the opportunity to spend some time with all three handheld devices, and I was more impressed with the Go S than I expected.
New Legion Go S – with Windows and SteamOS
The real star of today’s show is the Lenovo Legion Go S, which still represents a departure from Lenovo’s portable gaming strategy. The Legion Go S is not a utilitarian but very practical design that is sleek and clean.
Lenovo Legion Go S
• Price: From $499.99 (Ryzen Z2 Go) to $729.99 (Ryzen Z1 Extreme)
• Display: 8″ IPS LCD, 16:10 aspect ratio, FHD+ resolution (1920 x 1080), 120Hz refresh rate, 500 nits peak brightness, 97% DCI-P3 color gamut, multi-touch, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support
• PROCESSOR: AMD Ryzen Z2 Go (4 cores, Zen3+ architecture) | AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme (8 cores, Zen4 architecture)
• GPU: AMD Radeon 700M Series (RDNA 2 for Z2 Go, RDNA 3 for Z1 Extreme)
• RAM: Up to 32 GB LPDDR5X @ 6400 MHz
• Storage: Up to 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD (M.2 2242 and 2280 supported)
• Battery: Fast charging USB Type-C 55.5 Wh, 65 W
• Dimensions: 299 x 127.6 x 22.6 mm (11.77 x 5.02 x 0.88 inches)
• Weight: 740 g (1.63 lb)
The two-tone black and white design is much closer to the existing ASUS ROG Ally or Steam Deck than the first-gen Legion Go, since there are no longer detachable controllers. You’re looking at an 8-inch IPS LCD display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, 120Hz refresh rate and multi-touch support. does Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) feature, which was oddly missing from the original Go.
On either side you’ll find new Hall effect joysticks, which should be more precise and help combat stick drift, as well as a rounder, more ergonomic D-Pad. There are also new two-stage triggers that are locked via switches on the back of the handheld controller. This portable is still quite large and heavy compared to some other options, but it’s definitely more modest than the powerful Legion Go that came before it.
Oddly enough, this reminded me Logitech G Cloud Android Portable Reviewbut in a good way. The Legion Go S was much more comfortable to hold than I expected, as it cleverly hid its rather large size in an almost unbelievable way. You still get a built-in touchpad for navigating Windows, although it’s tiny (in my limited experience, it still works well).
Inside, you’ll find either the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go, a more affordable chipset designed specifically for the Legion Go S, or the familiar Ryzen Z1 Extreme that we’ve seen in all of the most premium gaming laptops. The Ryzen Z2 Go is expected to offer modest performance, but (hopefully) greater efficiency and a lower price. This chipset will support up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, which is still replaceable.
You also get two USB Type-C 4.0 ports, which greatly enhances the connectivity options. I’m a big fan of this design, although you lose out on the versatility that the Legion Go offers with its detachable controllers and built-in kickstand. The Lenovo Legion Go S will be available starting this month for an expected price of $729.99, but it will be a more expensive configuration with an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor inside and running Windows 11.
Yes, the standard Legion Go S runs Windows 11 like most other gaming laptops, but Lenovo has another trick up its sleeve. This year Legion Go S will be first An officially licensed third party SteamOS handheld gaming device. This is the same interface that powers the Steam Deck, meaning gamers who prefer that OS will finally have a hardware alternative with more powerful hardware inside.
The SteamOS version of Legion Go S will have a purple chassis, but will otherwise be identical to the standard Legion Go S. You’ll lose the flexibility of Windows, but SteamOS is much more optimized for portable devices, so it’s more intuitive. Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS is expected in May 2025 with a starting price of $499.99 with a Ryzen Z2 Go processor inside.
The SteamOS version of Legion Go S will be around $100 cheaper than the Windows equivalent depending on your region, and that’s thanks to Windows licensing fees. Around the same time, we should be getting the new entry-level Legion Go S with Windows for around $599.99, which will also feature the Ryzen Z2 Go processor exclusive to Lenovo’s handhelds.
Lenovo Legion Go owners can also look forward to an updated Legion Space software package with new features and an improved interface, which is always great to see. The Lenovo Legion Go S looks and feels great, with a sophisticated design and feature set, and the new Legion Space software is the icing on the cake. It’s more modern, responsive, and intuitive, which will help a lot when navigating a clunky Windows system.
Next-gen Legion Go is on the horizon
Along with the Lenovo Legion Go S, Lenovo offered us a look at the upcoming flagship of its line of portable gaming devices. Lenovo Legion Go (2nd generation) We don’t have a release window or any pricing information yet, but we at least know more about the ultra-premium portable’s hardware and how Lenovo plans to improve it. Legion of Go.
This will be for gamers who can’t give up the versatility of the first-gen Legion Go, as the next-gen upgrade will still have detachable controllers and a built-in kickstand. In fact, Lenovo has made significant improvements to the ergonomics of these controllers. The big upgrade here, however, is the display, which was already a highlight of the Legion Go.
We now get an 8.8-inch OLED display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and VRR support, so we can expect the Legion Go (Gen 2) to offer one of the best visual experiences of any gaming handheld on the market. The power supply for this display will be upcoming AMD Ryzen Z2 or Ryzen Z2 Extremewhich should hopefully result in improved performance and efficiency over the Ryzen Z1 platform we’re used to.
You’ll also be able to pair the Legion Go (Gen 2) with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. With the Ryzen Z2 Extreme and 144Hz OLED display, it should be a monster for mobile gaming. We also expect it to be extremely expensive, but we’ll have to wait longer to find out exactly how much it will cost. After all, the Lenovo Legion Go (Gen 2) we saw at CES 2025 was a prototype. Beyond that, I’m really happy to see Lenovo investing in portable gaming, and it’s great to see SteamOS coming to more hardware.