New Lenovo Legion Go handheld reportedly discovered, but there’s a massive catch

Found in an unlikely place, the Lenovo Legion Go S is the reportedly the company's next PC gaming handheld to take on the Steam Deck.

The Lenovo Legion Go could be getting a smaller sibling if new reports are to be believed. Lenovo’s competitor to the Steam Deck hasn’t set the world on fire, but now the company appears to be taking a different approach.

Launched last year, the Lenovo Legion Go features a Nintendo Switch-like controller setup. The two controllers can be removed, with the Go propped up like a Switch. It features a massive 1600p screen as well, earning it a place on our best gaming handheld guide.

Now, the Legion Go S appears to follow on from earlier rumors in the year. Originally leaked as the Legion Go Lite, we now appear to know more than just the screen size and potential color of the device. Unfortunately, it won’t be the step up expected, as Lenovo appears to be looking to downgrade and make a cheaper alternative. For now, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU still hasn’t seen the light of day.

Instead, Lenovo seems set to launch the Legion Go S with a Rembrandt APU, rather than one of AMD’s Phoenix-based Z1 chips. This AMD chip features a weaker CPU, using eight Zen3+ cores rather than Zen4.

It also has a weaker GPU, in the form of the Radeon 680M. Currently, the most recent high-end handhelds have latched onto the AMD Radeon 780M via the AMD Ryzen Z1 or 7040 chips.

The 680M is based on the RDNA 2 GPU architecture, rather than RDNA 3. It isn’t a bad GPU – this is the same GPU architecture used by the Steam Deck, but it lacks the performance improvements found in the newer chips. You should still find that games like Forza Horizon 5 – with some tweaking and supersampling – should run at 60fps.

All this information stems from an accidental publishing of a BIOS update on Lenovo’s website for the unannounced device. Dug up by VideoCardz, it appears to reveal a fair bit about a new cheaper Lenovo handheld, although the BIOS website now shows an error page.

Original rumors indicated that the Legion Go S (then Lite) might feature a smaller screen, but newly leaked Legion Go Lite images put a stop to those rumors.

There are still rumors surrounding the true follow-up, the Lenovo Legion Go 2, as AMD is expected to announce its Z2 chips in the coming weeks. Currently, only Asus and Lenovo feature the AMD Z1 chips in their handhelds, and we’re expecting these companies to announce their next handhelds in the weeks following AMD’s announcement.

In the meantime, check out our Lenovo Legon Go review to see what we think of the current model, especially as this Lenovo Legion Go deal means it has a bargain price right now.