Customer Ratings & Reviews

Never owned a handheld before so I did a lot of research before buying one. My analysis led me to this device and my gosh do I love it. Am not a fan of small screens so the 7inch on the Ally devices was just not it for me. The Chinese handhelds are too expensive and the legion go devices are a tad bit heavy for long sessions. The deck albeit amazing is unfortunately a little behind in power. So this device just feels like the sweet spot for everything. Screen not too big and not too small. Really good performance. (I know the z2E devices are out but it’s not an extreme jump in performance) Plus it has steamOS so you get the best out of good performance and a good handheld OS to match. If you’ve never used steamOS you might feel like people are exaggerating when they say it’s good. And that’s how I felt till I used it. Gosh it’s amazing. Battery life is honestly acceptable and with the fans, it’s not as loud as I was led to believe. The speakers are the only bad thing about this device lol but to be fair all the other devices don’t really have amazing speakers. Nothing wowed me when I was trying the devices out. Sadly no OLED but the screen is amazing 120hz plus VRR so yeah! P.s Hall effect thumb sticks. And if you’re not sure what that means. Essentially it means stick drift is something you won’t have to worry about. And on a device that has thumb sticks attached to it. That’s a major reason for concern. Unlike a traditional console you can always just buy another controller when stick drift develops. Rather than having to buy a whole other 900$ device lol.

Ergonomics: the device is extremely comfortable despite its very large size. The weight is a little heavy but well distributed. Can absolutely play for long sessions exceeding an hour without fatigue. Performance: the performance of the Z1 extreme is solid and plays nearly all games that could be asked of. Has a high TDP potential especially when plugged in. The 32 gigs of RAM are 7500MT so it may be even faster than other similar Z1 extreme SOC handhelds. Software experience of steamos has been solid. Although there have been a few crashes here and there, it is not a common experience. The most impressive part of about about Steam OS on this hardware is the perfect sleep mode for pause and resume play at any point. Battery: it's not great. On balanced settings for most games it can typically last around 2 hours but not much more. On low power indie or lightweight games, it can be 4 to 5 hours. Screen Quality: it's a pretty good screen overall with VRR down to 48Hz. It's an 8-in screen with 16x10 aspect ratio that has pretty good color. Vibrancy and the black levels are okay. Although cannot compete with an OLED. The touch screen is responsive. Value: at full price of $899 this is too expensive but on sale at $649 it is a very reasonable deal.

This is a really nice handheld but I got it on sale for $750 making it more justifiable, I probably wouldn’t pay full retail for it. Pros: Comfortable, large screen, SteamOS. Cons: The battery life is terrible so expect to bring a charger or portable battery on the go. That’s the only reason I docked a star. The fan is also loud when using max voltage but it doesn’t bother me that much. Some people report terrible screen response time but honestly I don’t notice. No 2tb storage version requires you to upgrade it yourself. Not everyone is comfortable opening a handheld and cloning a M.2 drive to expand storage. If you look up how to download lossless scaling on SteamOS it really helps with FPS on more demanding games. SteamOS feels way more like a console than windows with their gimmick version of full screen mode but it’s not without issue. Installing outside games and launchers requires a bit more work than a windows handheld but honestly I’m happy with just my steam library on the go anyways. I did manage to get BattleNet and Epic on here though. Overall this is comfortable to use and plays most games well enough. It is a handheld after all, don’t expect PC or laptop quality. Overall very happy with it for the amount I paid.

The Legion Go S on sale is the best deal anyone could find on the market as of right now, beating even the steam deck in terms of value. The 32GB of ram paired with Steam OS and the Z1 extreme make it a force to be reckoned with. This handheld can pretty much handle any game you throw at it (excluding anti-cheat games). The 32GB of ram allows you to push higher textures on games that wouldn’t be possible on other handhelds, and pair that with Steam OS which manages its ram very efficiently, you could potentially have a much clearer and better viewing experience compared to other Z1 extreme handhelds. The chip on this device has been proven to be an extremely successful powerhouse too, as it can run many AAA titles fairly well. The screen is good on this device, being an 8 inch IPS panel with VRR it is honestly the best choice for a device like this. Just keep in mind the battery on this device isn’t the best, as it’s only 55.5Wh, meaning you’ll reasonably only get around 2 hours of battery life, maybe 2.5 hours if you optimize it right. Overall though, this device is easily recommendable for the ease of use, screen, chip, ram, and ergonomics.

The Legion Go S is an impressive evolution in the handheld gaming space, delivering a premium feel the moment you pick it up. Its compact design fits naturally in the hands, with ergonomics that make long play sessions surprisingly comfortable. The bright, smooth high-refresh display brings games to life, and performance is a clear step up from previous models—titles run beautifully with fewer compromises, making the experience feel closer to a true portable PC than ever before. What really stands out is how well-balanced the device is: strong performance, great build quality, and a sleek form factor that’s easy to carry around. And while the price point sits on the higher side, it matches the level of refinement and the significant upgrade under the hood, making the Legion Go S a worthwhile investment for gamers who want both power and portability in one polished device.

As my granddaughter finally claimed my SteamDeck as her own, lol, I thought about buying another or this device. Sale price + Certificates + Newer chipset helped with my decision. The only 3 caveats to me (not so much for others) is the fan noise, battery life and touch pads. 1- I use my device 60/40 docked/ handheld so battery matters when traveling. I do have a great INIU power bank that mitigates the less than optimal battery duration. 2- Fan noise - waiting for a Decky plug-in to assist (several are "almost there"). 3- Touch pads. That was a tough one as I used them on my OLED, but they are an afterthought on this device. Again, my opinion. Your use case may be different. Otherwise a SOLID DEVICE that plays several AAA Titles ("Out-Of-The-Box") that the SD can't touch without Frame Gen, FS4 and the like. Recommended esp as it is back ON SALE at Best Buy.

This little handheld has been one of the best things I've purchased in a long time. I originally bought the cheaper one, but the next day this one went on sale for only a tiny bit more than what I bought the other for, so I returned it for this. I have owned a couple of Steam Decks, and loved it, but the Legion Go S was a step in the right direction. What really sold it for me, was I ended up trying windows on it and realized it was what was missing from my handheld gaming experience. Sure it may run a few FPS less, but I can play all of my games and mods across all platforms with ease now in a comfortable environment for me. All of the for a few hundred less than the windows variant and still have the same experience. Though it is not perfect, overall I am very happy. If you know to what to expect going into a handheld purchase, the experience will be more than satisfying! The only issue I have with it is battery life, but I use it plugged in almost all of the time so its not enough to knock off anything.

The Legion Go S is powerful and convenient. I love it! The z1 extreme is a surprisingly powerful APU. It can run AAA games like Hogwarts Legacy at 1200p at a solid 40fps with a mix of high and medium settings with the help of FSR upscaling, and frame gen makes it even better! I was worried about the screen not being OLED, but it's beautiful! Also, it's a wonderful size for immersion especially with its 16x10 aspect ratio. Hall effect joysticks are definitely appreciated. The ability to switch L2 and R2 between full travel analog triggers for racing games and hair triggers for shooters is a plus. The thing I love most about it is that it is so convenient! With the ability to suspend games at any point (including mid-cut scene!), I can finally play games. Heating something up in the microwave? Waiting to be called at the doctor's office? Have some down time between tasks for work or need a quick break from studying? Whatever the case may be, unsuspend and play, unlike playing on your PC (where it's just inconvenient and a waste of electricity to keep your game running in the background). I can't recommend this handheld enough! My one minor complaint is that I wish the ergonomic grips were at a bit of a wider angle like console controllers. (See photo)

Excellent handheld, with plenty of RAM and the Z1e chip can play pretty much most of my backlog of games. Battery is not the best, but you can squeeze more hours by adjusting TDP and frame rate in the settings. SteamOS is top notch and the 8 inch screen is beautiful. VRR is amazing, and though it’s not OLED, the display is absolutely beautiful. TLDR: good performance, not so great battery. Overall? Worth it IMO

Excellent Handheld. Totally worth the money. I got it on sale and it was the cheapest Z1E handheld in the market. Has good screen, performance and hall effect sensors Battery life is poor though

I purchased this and the Xbox ROG Ally X within a few weeks of each other and while this seems competitive to the newer device there are some issues that really make this a poor value when compared to the new unit that is only $100 more. For the record, this is not a bad handheld, it is just a bad value for the money. _______________________________________________________________________ Performance The performance of the two devices is fairly similar in many ways and that honestly made this comparison more difficult as the Z1 Extreme pretty much only uses Performance cores and that means there is no slowdown as long as Ample power is provided, even if the means efficiency is compromised. _______________________________________________________________________ Ergonomics The screen size is also something that is nice to look at and have on the go, but the ergonomics aren't as good as the Xbox Ally X and this makes for a real issue when trying to handhold it as the curvature of the Legion Go S is too smooth and has a constant feeling like it is slipping in your hand. I find the ergonomics of the controllers on the Xbox Ally X to be rivaled only by the Steam Deck itself (My friend has one of these and the comfort is similar). _______________________________________________________________________ Battery As for the battery, Lenovo going with a smaller 55 Watt Hour battery, when combined with a less efficient APU, was a poor choice in my opinion. This effectively delivers half the gaming time at the performance equivalent of the Xbox Ally X. This remains the largest reason why I have any reservations when it comes to recommending this handheld. ______________________________________________________________________ Ports There is however, one more area where the Legion Go S just loses me completely. The USB 4 support is only 1st Generation and that means getting better performance from this thing out of an external GPU is severely limited and is only half as capable as the Xbox Ally X USB4 2nd Generation port. I want this device to be docked on my desk as a Desktop replacement and the Legion Go S failed hard in this area, because of this one port. _______________________________________________________________________ Operating System Another point of contention is the operating system. While Steam OS is currently more performant, lacks features like kernel level anti-cheat which limits Online gaming and Gaming largely relies on a translation layer to make the game even run. This means that adding features to any new Direct X and using them in games, would severely delay or even block the use of any such games on Steam and DX 12 is long overdue for an update. With Windows you're waiting for performance improvements, but you're getting much better compatibility and reliability with regard to games being stable. Still, either system will eventually be able to run both operating systems. _______________________________________________________________________ AI Xbox Ally X has it and the Legion Go S does not. You might not care about this, but it does affect efficiency and could eventually be used to enable FSR4 for lossless upscaling of games. _______________________________________________________________________ Controller Technology Legion Go S - Uses HE Triggers and Control Sticks. Xbox Ally X - Potentiometer Based Control Sticks for improved durability and reduced drift. Impulse triggers to incorporate feedback like rumble functions. 8 Way D-Pad for better compatibility with retro games. On paper the Legion Go S appears to have the advantage for reliability, but the controls themselves appear to have smoothing technology turned on, as there is a noticeable latency when using the two devices side by side. This was not something I was expecting when making my decision on which to keep. _______________________________________________________________________ Overall The handheld is decent and at $600 to $700 it would definitely be worth pausing on the Xbox Ally X, but the current price range of $829 to $899 makes this a much harder sell when compared to the Xbox Ally X. The biggest issues for me are the Battery Life, Controller Latency, and USB 4 implementation. If Lenovo turns off the controller smoothing, it might cause other issues, and somebody could potentially come up with a larger battery mod, but you're never going to be able to fix the USB 4 issue and that means eGPUs are out with this device. So, if you do not currently have a device and this is your first device, I would look elsewhere if you can afford better.

I had a Steam Deck OLED for a while before I picked up the Go S on a great sale (plus open box). I haven’t found myself picking it up much over the Deck. Sure, it could potentially have greater performance but that’s only when you keep it plugged in or run it at such a power that the battery only lasts about 1.5-2hrs. Limiting power under 20w really hinders performance. For example, running games like Hades 2 just SIPS power on the Deck OLED, providing up to like 6hrs of battery life, at 90fps. But the Go S has to run at almost twice the TDP and gets up to 3.5hrs of battery life. Reducing the TDP of the Go S so that the total power draw matches the Deck, for equal battery life, tanks the fps to 45. Even at 800p. Streaming with Moonlight is the same deal…Go S requires more power leading to less battery life. And when limiting TDP to help, input latency increases a TON. Comfort for me, the Deck wins. The Go S controller is too bulbous at the bottom, too tall, and then paired with the more “inward” positioned top buttons makes it much more uncomfortable. Vibration quality - the Deck wins. The Go S vibration can sometimes sound and feel like your first Android phone’s vibration. There’s no nuance to it to provide a greater sensation of immersion. Certain actions in some games don’t even produce any vibrations on the Go S that are present on the Deck. The vibrations on the Go S are loud. Buzzy. Speakers - I don’t know. About the same. Maybe slightly less bass on the Go S. Screen - there’s no comparing an OLED to this IPS. Play a game like Hades 2 or Deadzone Rogue and you can CLEARLY see the difference. The Go S does not get close. To be expected. Where the Go S does win is the VRR. Even on the Go S, the VRR is needed and a welcome addition. Because both handhelds do have moments where they will drop frames. You don’t notice it as bad on the Go S thanks to VRR keeping it relatively smooth (not “60fps” smooth but better than when the Deck drops frames). Picture 1 (blue benchmark screen) - Immortals Fenyx Rising at 1200p Go S vs 800p Deck OLED (medium preset) - Go S is at 33w TDP (absolute max power….loud fan action) Picture 2 same settings and config as above. Showing a large overview of an open world game. Picture 3 (Hades 2 at the cooking pot) - both locked to 60fps = 7.7w total power on Deck OLED; 15.6w total power on Go S (balanced mode) Picture 4 - Hades 2 again, this time showing when TDP is lowered on the Go S to try to match Deck total power draw, fps tanks to 45. Picture 5 - Stray at 800p on both devices. Go S running full tilt (39.7w total draw) gets 51fps vs Deck’s 36. Picture 6 - Stray at 800p with Go S in balanced mode gets the same fps as the Deck.

Coming from the Stan deck oled is a huge improvement in literally every aspect. From the screen to ergonomics with the only real downside being is you were a taco pad user since this much eliminates them. Very happy with this and with the z2 extreme cups being close to only 15%faster at max wattage in most scenarios I’m happy with the lower prices with this go s as it plays all the games I want with great performance. And as a side note I would also recommend the dbrand killswitch case since it doesn’t come with any sort of case in the box. 10 out of 10 would definitely recommend to someone that’s on the fence between this and the new Z2 extreme chips that handheld that are coming out soon to the market for much more in price.

I’ve been really enjoying the Lenovo Legion Go S so far. The performance is great and games run smooth without any major lag or stuttering. The battery life is better than I expected for a handheld, and I can play for a good amount of time without constantly worrying about charging. It’s also very comfortable to hold. the design feels ergonomic and my hands don’t get tired even during longer gaming sessions. Overall, it’s a solid handheld and definitely worth it if you want good performance, decent battery life, and comfort.

Steam OS on this beautiful device packed with this much power is just AMAZING, i bought this for the screen size, although its not OLED, but the IPS display panel on this device is color vibrant and the Ergonomic is just surpurb, super comfortable to hold. I would absolutely recommend this to everyone. The only thing i am not a big fan is the color of the device, but its nothing a decal Dbrand skin can not fix. Highly recommend this for a BIG steam deck upgrade.

I went back and forth on buying a handheld for months. While I saved up, I constantly wondered if it was worth the expense as someone who pretty exclusively games on PC. After owning this for a couple weeks, the answer is yes. I use it every single day, and it’s making me feel less tied down to my PC. The performance is excellent, the battery isn’t too bad if you fiddle with the settings, and I’m so glad I went with SteamOS.

After a few weeks of owning the legion go s, I can say that it was definitely worth the price I paid during the black friday sale. Performance in games is honestly even better than what I expected and the screen is the perfect size for me, can see everything pretty clearly. Don’t know if I would’ve paid full price for it though, so I’d recommend waiting for a sale to make it a bit more reasonable.

Best handheld for the money. Good ergonomics and awesome screen. Only wish the battery were larger.

I bought this Legion Go S steam-os during the 4th of July sale, and it's absolutely awesome. It plays all the AAA games that I've tried without any issues whatsoever. I bought over 55 games during the Steam Summer Sale for a fraction of the price that they cost everywhere else. I've been playing Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, High On Life, Dead Cells, Dead Space, Mad Max, Ace Combat 7, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered, Need For Speed Heat, Forza Horizon 5, Assassins Creed Black Flag, Assassins Creed Shadows, Stellar Blade, and a bunch more games with excellent graphics and awesome frame rates my only complaint is the battery life isn't the greatest on performance mode, but put it in balanced mode & you will get over 2 hours with games like Ace Combat 7 with excellent frame rates. I really love this handheld & I haven't touched my PS5 since getting it.

Solid performance and very comfortable to use. The screen looks great and games run smoothly for a handheld. I like using it on the couch or in bed instead of sitting at my desk, which makes longer sessions more enjoyable. Battery life is decent and controls feel responsive. Overall, a great option if you want flexible, portable gaming at home.