00:00the lenovo legion go s is back and this time it's running steam os
00:06if you're getting a little deja vu it's because a couple months ago i reviewed the original legion
00:10go s windows 11 and told you to wait for this one now it's here so the question is was
00:16it worth the
00:16wait and more importantly is it a legit rival to the steam deck according to this steam deck user
00:21let's get into it what we're looking at is the first non-valve handheld to run steam's native
00:28operating system out of the box in case you didn't know valve steam parent company has been keeping
00:33steam os locked to its own hardware until now for me this is the reason to get legion go s
00:39steam west is designed for handhelds that means the whole experience from waking the device to
00:44launching a game is much faster smoother and more reliable to anything you get on windows 11. i've
00:49always said i wanted to handheld with the rog ally xs specs but with steam os instead of windows the
00:54go s is that device and it feels awesome to use let's dig a little deeper into performance right
01:00off the bat i can tell you that the performance difference alone between this and the windows
01:04version is night and day because of that it offers stronger performance than the windows 11 legion go s i
01:09reviewed however keep in mind that the latter runs on the weaker amd z2 go chip and has 16 gigs
01:16of ram
01:16for my testing i played doom the dark ages on the new legion go s at 1200p resolution medium graphical
01:22settings and fsr disabled the dark ages can run at around 25 frames per second with fsr enabled the
01:28fps jumps to 35 i got a smooth 56 to 61 frames per second at 800p resolution with fsr though
01:34the game
01:35doesn't look so good at that lower resolution the legion go s with windows 11 didn't do quite as well
01:40doom the dark ages runs at an abysmal 15 frames per second at 1200p and medium settings enabling
01:46frame generation bumped the fps count to 27 which is better but still not great i got a decent 45
01:52fps at 800p resolution with fsr on and graphical settings at low however the image quality looked
01:57muddy at those settings for our lab tests we ran the in-game benchmark tool for a handful of titles
02:03at maximum graphical settings assassin's creed mirage ran at 32 frames a second on the steam os
02:08legion go s that's not the 60 fps i would want to see but it's far better than the horrendous
02:1221 fps we
02:13saw on the windows 11 model we saw similar results with games like dirt 5 and shadow of the tomb
02:18raider
02:18overall performance is snappy across the board on the steam os legion go s compared to the windows 11
02:23version side note i recently reviewed the switch 2 on this channel and while you should definitely
02:28check out that review i gotta be honest and say that the legion go s with c os has made
02:32me forget
02:32about the switch 2 but don't tell nintendo that oh no before we move on to reasons to skip i
02:39want to
02:40take a moment of appreciation for the fact that legion go s comes with a sleek new dark colorway that's
02:45honestly way cooler than the original white model it still feels the same which is great since this
02:50handheld is just as ergonomic and premium feeling in this color it even looks similar to the steam deck
02:55so you know i'm not going to complain about that either while this machine has that lcd instead of
02:59an oled panel it still looks bright and colorful to my eyes the upcoming legion go 2 will have an
03:04oled panel so it would be nice if the company updates the legion go s with a similar display
03:08and perhaps an amd z2 extreme chip but i'll get to that in a minute real quick if you're enjoying
03:13this
03:14breakdown hit that like button subscribe for more buy or skip videos on this channel we keep it honest
03:19cut through the hype and save you from buyer's remorse now let's talk about the reasons to skip
03:25the legion go s now here's the thing if you're already a happy steam deck owner i don't think you
03:30need this handheld yes it's newer and offers better performance but cmos makes every device feel like a
03:37steam deck and most people don't need to but to be clear if you've been waiting for a non-valve
03:42steam
03:42handheld this is still the one to get it's just that i don't know how many people that applies to
03:47the legion go s with steam west starts at 599 for a model packing the amd z2 gold chip 16
03:52gigs of ram
03:53and 512 gigs of storage the model i review retails for a heftier 829 and features the more powerful
03:59amd z1 extreme chip along with 32 gigs of ram and one terabyte of storage no matter which one you
04:05opt for
04:06you'll be paying a premium if you're price sensitive the base model might sound tempting but it really
04:10doesn't show off what this device can do and if you're going to be spending a steam deck oled
04:15amount of money you're going to compare it too hard and for me i might choose the 649 steam deck
04:19oled
04:20that doesn't mean the steam os legion go s is necessarily overpriced but it does mean you need
04:25to really want a handle like this to justify that price and here's the final catch new chips are on
04:31the
04:31way amd z2 extreme is suspected to power a new wave of handhelds later this year like the legion go
04:372 i mentioned before if any of those launch with steam os this legion was could feel outdated fast
04:43so if you're the performance-minded type who hates buyer's remorse you might want to wait a few months
04:48and see what else drops i know i told you to wait for this handheld a few months ago but
04:52things are
04:52different now that valve is allowing steam os on other handhelds not to mention the performance boost
04:56the z2 extreme promises but hey i'm looking at as a positive there's a ton of innovation happening
05:02in the handheld gaming space and it's good to be spoiled for options keep in mind that there
05:07was no handheld market to speak of just five years ago things are changing fast so it's smart to
05:11slow down to see which current or upcoming machine is best for you so should you buy or skip the
05:18lenovo
05:19legion go s buy it if you've been waiting for a steam deck style experience with better hardware if you
05:24missed out on the deck entirely or if you want what i'm officially calling the best pc handheld of 2025
05:30right now skip it if you already own a steam deck or if you want to see what the next
05:34generation
05:34of handheld's offers before buying in drop a comment are you switching to the legion go s or are you
05:40staying loyal to team steam deck if this episode of buy or skip helped you out give us a like
05:45hit that
05:45sub button and turn on notifications so you won't miss what we're reviewing next thanks for watching
05:49and i'll see you next time later
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