Everything You Need To Know About The Legion Go S Powered By SteamOS

After a seemingly endless drip feed of leaks and substantial rumors, today is finally the day. Forgive me for getting sentimental, but this is an important day. Lenovo has officially pulled back the curtain on the Legion Go 2, Legion Go S, and the star of this article, the Legion Go S Powered by SteamOS (yes, that appears to be its proper name). It’s a day that must feel like a monumental victory for Valve after literally a decade of hard work to perfect an elegant Windows alternative for the gaming masses.

In 2022, the Steam Deck jump-started the modern PC gaming handheld scene, and confidently showed the world that Linux could be leveraged for a smooth and performant gaming experience. A mainstream audience embraced it. Critics applauded its ease-of-use compared to Windows 11. And now Lenovo validates it all with the world’s first officially licensed handheld powered by SteamOS.

I assure you that this is the first of many.

Legion Go S: Powered by SteamOS and the Ryzen Z2 Go

I’m framing this article around the SteamOS-powered model, but all the specs I’m listing apply to both Legion Go S variants — the “Glacier White” one with Windows 11 and the “Nebula Violet” version featuring SteamOS. There’s only going to be one major difference between the two: the SteamOS model starts at $100 less.

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The first thing to know is that the Legion Go S is designed to be the more budget-friendly option in the Legion Go family. Where the Legion Go 2 receives major upgrades in several key areas, the Legion Go S scales things back. Gone are the detachable controllers, and that’s perfectly fine for this form factor.

Legion Go S buyers will eventually have a choice between the Lenovo-exclusive Ryzen Z2 Go processor, or the Ryzen Z1 Extreme.

What we know so far is that the Ryzen Z2 Go has four Zen 3+ cores with 12 Graphics Cores and RDNA 2 graphics. Compare this with the Ryzen Z1 Extreme — already used in the original Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally — which has four Zen 3 cores and 12 Graphics Cores using RDNA 3 graphics.

Confusingly, the Ryzen Z2 Go is a slight step down in performance. It will outperform Steam Deck, but should turn in lower gaming framerates than devices with AMD’s Ryzen Z1 Extreme. This poses an interesting dilemma without a concrete solution until we see real-world gaming results for the Ryzen Z2 Go.

On the display side of things, the Legion Go S features an 8-inch, 1920x1200 LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support. Nice!

It also receives a small bump in battery capacity, going from the Legion Go’s 49.2Whr battery to a 55.5Whr one with the Legion Go S.

Rounding out some of the major differences when compared to the original Legion Go is a maximum RAM capacity of 32GB, up from 16GB. It will have two USB4 ports, but they’re both on top this time.

By the way, that tiny little square underneath the right stick is a miniature trackpad, not a fingerprint sensor.

Legion Go S: Prices And Release Dates

Lenovo is staggering the rollout of the Legion Go S models, but here are the basic takeaways:

• The Legion Go S with Windows 11 will be available beginning this month (January 2025) for a starting price of $729. This is likely the “flagship” version with maxed out specs. We don’t have an exact date yet.
• Lenovo will launch additional configurations of the Windows 11-powered Legion Go S beginning in May, and those are expected to start at $599 with 1TB of storage.
• The Legion Go S Powered by SteamOS won’t launch in any configuration until May, and its starting price will be $499 with 512GB of storage.
• I sure wish the SteamOS model came in Glacier White. Who’s with me?

You’ll notice the SteamOS model clocks in at $100 cheaper than the baseline Windows 11 equivalent. That’s because of the smaller storage capacity and the lack of a Windows Tax™.

It’s great to see the landscape of gaming handhelds growing and becoming more diverse. This year, we’re truly going to be spoiled for choice.

I’ll close with a quote from Lenovo that I particularly enjoyed. The company describes the Legion Go S Powered by SteamOS as “a big step forward in freedom of choice for gamers who are looking for an OS that is optimized for handheld gaming.” I couldn’t agree more!