Lenovo Legion Go S review: A gaming handheld that’s all beauty with little substance

Budget-friendly gaming gear is always a balancing act of trade-offs to get the best value at the right price. The Lenovo Legion Go S is a perfect example, but does it balance its compromises well enough to be worth your money? That’s what I kept wondering while reviewing it.

The Legion Go S is the entry-level counterpart to the flagship Lenovo Legion Go. It features a significantly different design that cuts some of the perks of the original Legion Go, like the detachable controllers. The Legion Go S doesn’t look or feel cheap, though, and it offers some significant advantages.

If you’re new to PC gaming or looking for the best cheap gaming laptop, the Lenovo Legion Go S could be a highly appealing option. While budget gaming always comes with some trade-offs, there are a few things you should know about the Legion Go S before buying one. Can it balance its weaknesses enough to be a good value for budget-conscious gamers? Let’s see if it makes its mark as one of the best handheld gaming devices.

Lenovo Legion Go S: Specs and benchmarks

Lenovo Legion Go S: Price and configurations

The Lenovo Legion Go S includes an AMD Ryzen Z2 Go processor, AMD Radeon integrated graphics, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. It comes in a clean matte white colorway and costs $729. At the time of writing this is the only configuration available, running Windows 11, but there is a SteamOS version slated to arrive later this year.

The Legion Go S is priced noticeably lower than its rivals, such as the MSI Claw 8 AI+, which starts at $899, or the Asus ROG Ally X, which goes for $799. While there are trade-offs with the Legion Go S, as I’ll get into below, its $729 price tag does make it a more affordable entrypoint for PC gamers on a budget.

Lenovo Legion Go S: Design

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The Legion Go S features a clean, all-white plastic chassis with black and silver accents. It’s not as flashy as some other handhelds, like the MSI Claw 8 AI+, but I like the monochrome look. And the RGB light rings around the joysticks add a splash of color if enabled.

I was a bit concerned about ergonomics on the Legion Go S since my hands are on the smaller side, but I found it very comfortable while gaming for a couple hours at a time. The gently rounded edges fit nicely in my palms, especially with the help of the subtle grip texture etched into the sides of the handheld. This area also stayed nice and cool while I was gaming, so I never had issues with losing my grip from sweaty palms.

I found the button placement on the Legion Go S comfy overall, although some with larger hands may wish the rear paddle buttons were closer to the center. Even I occasionally hit them by accident. Additionally, if you have smaller hands like me, you may find the right joystick a bit hard to reach at the same time as the trigger buttons. It’s placed a tad lower than I’d like, but that wasn’t a problem in most of the games I played.

The Legion Go S measures 11.77 x 5.02 x 0.89 inches and weighs 1.6 pounds, which is fairly average for a handheld gaming PC but on the lighter side for a model with an 8-inch display. To put that into context, here’s how a few competitors compare:

• Lenovo Legion Go (8.8-inch display): 11.76 x 5.16 x 1.6 inches, 1.88 pounds
• MSI Claw 8 AI+ (8-inch display): 11.77 x 4.96 x 0.94 inches, 1.75 pounds
• Asus ROG Ally X (7-inch display): 11.0 x 4.4 x 1.0 inches, 1.5 pounds

Lenovo Legion Go S: Ports

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The Legion Go S features a fairly standard selection of ports for a gaming PC, including all the basics most gamers need:

• 2x USB Type-C (support for DisplayPort 1.4)
• 1x MicroSD card slot
• 1x 3.5mm headphone jack

Those ports should be more than enough for most handheld gaming needs and even allow you to connect an external monitor if you wish. Of course, if you still need more ports, you can always hook up the Legion Go S to one of the best USB Type-C hubs or docking stations.

Lenovo Legion Go S: Battery life

Like gaming laptops, handheld gaming PCs tend to struggle with battery life. Even by that standard, the Legion Go S could have performed better in our lab tests. It lasted 8 hours and 32 minutes in our web browsing test and just 1 hour and 42 minutes in our gaming test. All three of its rivals outscored it in the gaming test. Personally, I’d prefer 2 to 3 hours of battery life, so the Legion Go S’s score is a bit underwhelming.

While that gaming battery life result is on par with my hands-on experience, I did notice generally longer battery life (and better performance) when I lowered my graphics settings. That brought the battery life up to 2 hours or so, depending on the game.

Lenovo Legion Go S: Display

The Legion Go S features an 8-inch WUXGA IPS display with a 1920 x 1200 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. It features relatively small bezels, although the asymmetrical design annoyed me. The top and bottom bezels are wider than the left and right, and the bottom is larger than the top. That doesn’t affect the display quality, but it is aesthetically disappointing.

Bezels aside, the display on the Legion Go S performed well in our tests, outpacing more expensive rivals, and looks great in-person. It’s sharp, vibrant, and got plenty bright enough for my needs.

The moody, saturated graphics in Death’s Door were smooth and crisp at full resolution, with rich shadows and textures all around. On the other end of the spectrum, the colorful pixel graphics in Fields of Mistria were bright and vivid. While they weren’t quite as vibrant as on my usual ViewSonic Omni 1440p gaming monitor, the game still looked great.

The high-quality colors on the Legion Go S are also reflected in its display scores. Despite its lower price, it featured a higher color gamut score and better color accuracy than the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and the Asus ROG Ally X.

Lenovo Legion Go S: Audio

I loved the audio on the Legion Go S. There are speakers on both the front and back, which creates a surround-sound effect that makes for a very immersive gaming experience. They get quite loud, too. I never had to turn my volume up past 50% to hear dialogue, music, and background ambience well.

The audio quality itself is crisp, detailed, and well-balanced. The intricate piano melodies of the Death’s Door soundtrack were a joy to listen to and balanced nicely with the rich, crispy audio sound effects for activating my weapon, opening doors, and interacting with enemies and the environment.

Likewise, the upbeat music in Fields of Mistria was vibrant and immersive with smooth, clean sound effects. The speakers on the Legion Go S were especially good at capturing the game’s background ambience and sound effects. I felt like I picked up a mote of magic in real life with how nice the gentle pop effect came through.

Lenovo Legion Go S: Gaming and graphics

Like most handheld gaming PCs, the Legion Go S relies on integrated graphics, in this case AMD Radeon graphics from its Ryzen Z2 Go processor. It’s designed to be an entry-level counterpart to the more premium flagship Legion Go (along with the upcoming Legion Go 2). So, its gaming performance is generally lower than what premium rivals like the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and Asus ROG Ally X can offer.

I wasn’t surprised to see the Legion Go S lag behind those more expensive handhelds in our benchmark tests, but that doesn’t mean gaming on the Legion Go S is a bad experience. It depends heavily on the types of games you play and whether you’re willing to change your resolution or drop down to Medium, Balanced, or Low graphics settings.

For instance, in our tests, the Legion Go S averaged 14.5 frames per second in Borderlands 3 in 1080p resolution, but it nearly doubled to 26.3 fps in 720p. Likewise, in Enshrouded I got an average of 15 fps with the Balanced graphics preset and bumped up to 25 fps when I switched to the Performance preset.

The Legion Go S does struggle with AAA and graphics-heavy games, which is important to keep in mind when setting your expectations here. One of the trade-offs with a handheld gaming PC is the lack of space for a dedicated GPU. However, if you enjoy playing lightweight titles or indie games, you can have a great time on the Legion Go S. I got a solid 40 fps in No Man’s Sky in 1080p and 55 fps in Death’s Door, both of which looked, sounded, and played great.

It’s worth noting that we run our benchmark tests on the High graphics preset. So, while the Legion Go S may not have outscored its rivals in most games, none of the other handhelds have particularly high scores either, at least not compared to a typical gaming laptop.

These scores are better for giving you an idea of how these four handhelds perform relative to each other, but you can generally expect performance below what a laptop with a dedicated GPU could offer.

Lenovo Legion Go S: Performance and heat

The Legion Go S is equipped with an AMD Ryzen Z2 Go processor, the entry-level, second-generation version of the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor in the original Legion Go.

While the Legion Go S can technically perform typical Windows 11 tasks, it’s specifically built for gaming. The form factor doesn’t lend itself to things like web browsing, although there is a mini touchpad for using the mouse if needed.

So, you can use the Legion Go S for tasks like watching YouTube videos or checking your email, although typing on the touch display isn’t ideal compared to the streamlined experience you’d get on a typical laptop. While we did praise the original Legion Go for a good movie watching experience, even that doesn’t exactly apply to the Legion Go S since it doesn’t have detachable controllers or a kickstand.

On top of those logistical and ergonomics hiccups, the Legion Go S didn’t perform particularly well in our benchmark tests. It scored thousands of points lower than its rivals and even the original Legion Go on the Geekbench 6 benchmark, which clearly shows how much performance was compromised on the Ryzen Z2 Go compared to the last gen Ryzen Z1 Extreme.

One area where the Legion Go S performs better than its scores might show is heat management. Like any other handheld, it can get pretty warm when you’re running a game. However, it never felt warm in my hands. The fans can get pretty loud, but luckily the speakers also get loud enough to hide that.

Plus, the fans are pushing air out through the top edge, where your hands wouldn’t normally be anyway. The display gets warm to the touch, but the buttons, joysticks, triggers, and side edges where you’re actually holding the Legion Go S don’t heat up noticeably, which is nice.

Lenovo Legion Go S: Software and warranty

The Lenovo Legion Go S runs Windows 11, so it comes with all the standard Microsoft apps pre-installed, such as the Windows Store, Microsoft Edge, and the Xbox app. It also includes Legion Space, which acts as a hub for viewing your game library, buying games, viewing system settings, and customizing controller settings. This is also where you can personalize the RGB light rings around the joy sticks.

Finally, the Legion Go S comes with Lenovo’s standard one-year limited warranty, which can be upgraded for an additional cost.

Bottom line

The Lenovo Legion Go S is good at what it aims to be: an entry-level, budget-friendly handheld gaming PC that can deliver solid performance on lower settings. While it’s currently one of the most affordable current-gen handhelds on the market, it does make compromises when it comes to performance. It consistently fell short of the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and the Asus ROG Ally X in our testing. However, the Legion Go S can still deliver a fun gaming experience on Medium or Low graphics, particularly in lightweight titles and indie games.

So, the Legion Go S can be a good option for entry-level PC gamers or gamers who are looking for something under $800. With that said, though, you can get a significant bump in performance for only $70 more with the Asus ROG Ally X, so if you have a little bit more money to spend, it would be worth it. The only trade-off is the slightly smaller 7-inch display on the Ally X.

Overall, the Legion Go S is a balance of compromises. It’s comfortable to hold for long gaming sessions, features clicky, responsive buttons, sports a great display, and offers stellar audio and reasonable performance for the price. For many gamers out there, that could be the perfect balance of features, even at the expense of some game performance.