The Lenovo Legion Go S: A New Xbox and Windows Device for the LHC, aka The Warped Z1 Extreme Experiment
Lenovo wants to have between 2 and 2.5 hours of battery life for heavy games, which is in line with the basic math of dividing 55 watt-hour battery by 20 watt, assuming the system doesn’t eat up a lot more. The Z1 Extreme chip fromAMD will be available in some markets. All Legion Go S can fit full-length M.2 2280 solid state drives.
Meanwhile, Valve is still looking ahead to a future version of its own Steam Deck, saying that partnering with companies like Lenovo hasn’t reduced the desire to build its own. The jump Valve has been waiting for is not the case with the Z2 according to Griffais. There won’t be a Z2 Steam Deck.
It is a real dream to pull a PC handheld out of a box and have it work just like a Nintendo device, no matter how bad the result is. That’s why Lenovo is working with Valve: Zhu agrees that SteamOS has the best out-of-box experience. The company believes its customers still want Windows, that’s why it offers a whole assortment of gaming and productivity.
But the Windows version shipping in January will cost $729.99, with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. In May, the true experiment will begin when anyone can choose between the four versions, two of which are available in either a Windows or Steam OS version and both of which costs more than $500.
But they are not going all in on steamOS. The Legion Go S will ship with Windows this month four months ahead of the SteamOS models, in order to hedge its bets. There is a Windows model.
That handheld will be the 1.6-pound Lenovo Legion Go S, a new and improved version of the company’s eight-inch handheld that ditches the Nintendo Switch-like detachable gamepads and kickstand for a lighter and more traditional design, with a sculpted grip that felt supremely comfortable in my hands.
It’ll also be one of the few handhelds on the market to offer a 120Hz variable refresh rate screen — a highly desirable feature that lets low-power handheld gameplay feel smooth, even if it’s not generating lots of frames. That screen will be lower in resolution at 1920 x 1200, too, and feature a hopefully power-sipping new AMD Ryzen Z2 Go chip. By the way, this is aLenovo-exclusive chip.
It could address every major complaint I had in my Legion Go review by adding a small 55 Wh battery, more than one lever to reduce throw of the Trigger, and a Configurable lighting around the joysticks.
Griffais and his co-designer Lawrence Yang would not confirm which handhelds might just start working, though there are some obvious candidates: the company confirmed to us in August that it had been adding support for the Asus ROG Ally’s controls.
About Bazzite, or: What do we really want to hear about VR headsets and VR headphones? Yukawa comments on Valve
Speaking of Bazzite, Valve seems to be flattered! “We have nothing against it,” says Yang. “It’s a great community project that delivers a lot of value to people that want a similar experience on devices right now,” says Griffais, adding later “In a lot of ways Bazzite is a good way to kind of get the latest and greatest of what we’ve been working on, and test it.”
As far as other form factors, like possible SteamOS living room boxes, Valve says you might have a good experience trying that. And partnerships are a possibility there too: “if someone wants to bring that to the market and preload SteamOS on it, we’d be happy to talk to them.”
Valve wouldn’t tell me anything about the rumors that it’s developing its own Steam Controller 2, VR headset with wands, and possibly its own living room box, but did tell me that we “might expect more Steam Input compatible controllers in the future.”
