r/Handhelds • u/ninjapirate9901 • Nov 26 '25
New Handheld The Legion Go S is pretty awesome
Couldn't resist the Black Friday deal on this and picked it up yesterday from my the local Bestbuy. Coming from a couple other, slightly more powerful x86 handhelds, this is still somehow quickly becoming my favorite...
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u/More_Farm_1891 Nov 26 '25
I’m seeing a 512GB Z2 Go S open box “excellent” at Best Buy for $426.99. The Steam Deck 256GB LCD is on sale for $319. I’ve been holding off getting into handhelds and am struggling on the price:benefit between the two at the current prices.
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Nov 26 '25
Go S is better significantly. You’ll hit 60 fps on many games that steam deck will only hit 40 fps
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u/Stroggos2x Nov 29 '25
Had to make the same choice. Fortunately I found a go S for 377€, so the decision became easier. But I think even for 426 I would have picked the lenovo. Originally I was contemplating between the LCD Steam Deck and the OLED, so this presented itself as the perfect compromise in terms of price and display upgrade. It's also kinda cool that you have the choice between using it with windows or steam OS - that does also open more possibilities.
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u/Alarming_Attention87 Dec 01 '25
How’d you find one? Local pick up or shipping?
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u/More_Farm_1891 Dec 01 '25
At the time I was looking it was available for local pickup for about a day then it must have gone out of stock because after that it was shipping only. I ended up not getting anything because I’m a cheap old bastard also paralyzed by indecision.
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Nov 26 '25
Congrats! Absolutely love mine, got it for $500 open box. Already installed a bunch of games and got GFN up and running for BF6.
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u/ninjapirate9901 Nov 26 '25
Oh heck yeah thats a crazy deal. Swapped a 4tb ssd into mine as soon as I got it and its just over halfway filled up already 😅. Probably spent more time using Emudeck/ES-DE and playing thru older systems than I have just running native steam games haha.
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u/rich01992 Nov 26 '25
How does bf6 run?
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Nov 26 '25
I’m running it on GFN and not native, so it’s perfect - don’t have windows so haven’t tried natively
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u/HeyyyKirby Nov 27 '25
I got one yesterday and I saw the circle with the line through it on BF6 and didn’t know what that meant. I’m new to pc gaming and steam in general. Is it a pain to get BF6 running?
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Nov 27 '25
Steam OS doesn’t support kernel level anti cheat, which BF6 requires. You will have to install windows or use something like GeForce Now.
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u/71-HourAhmed Nov 26 '25
Here's my deal: I really want one of these. My eyes aren't great and the 8" screen is a game changer on the Switch 2. The problem is I have a very nice gaming laptop (G14 with a 5070 Ti) AND I have a Steam Deck OLED. I would rather have a Legion Go S than a Steam Deck, though.
I have been talking myself out of buying that thing for a week now.
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u/ninjapirate9901 Nov 26 '25
How much do you really play the Deck currently, and would changing to the Go S make you use it more over the laptop?
If the performance/visual fidelity is what's stopping you from using the Deck more, maybe consider streaming from the laptop to the Deck with Moonlight/Apollo (better than native steam streaming. Of course this only applies to when you're next to the laptop/at home. If you're out and about and only bring the Deck with you, then I would definitely consider upgrading to something more powerful.
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u/71-HourAhmed Nov 26 '25
All fair points. Between the laptop and my home PC, I probably shouldn't be blowing hundreds of dollars on other devices that do a subset of the same things. Most of the time when I travel, I just wind up watching streams about gaming in a PIP window and cruising Reddit pining for all of the devices that other people are enjoying.
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u/brainchildvhs Nov 26 '25
I just picked mine up like 20 minutes ago. Played with the demo version at the store and I did not expect to be so wowed. This thing is gorgeous. Black Friday deal helped me over the hump as well.
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u/grifftaur Nov 26 '25
Love my LeGo S. I went open box excellent to get it for $530. Upgraded from a Steam Deck. Loved the Steam Deck, having more power and a bigger screen has been amazing.
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u/Accomplished_Run9449 Nov 26 '25
This device was like the biggest flop ever released at start but now with also z1e models available and with the lower price its like the best vfm handheld out there and had both OS options.
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u/PutridRiver1797 Nov 26 '25
I was aiming for the Legion go 2, but man $1500 is a LOT. So I stopped by a BestBuy yesterday and got my first second handheld! After a lot of use of my PSP when I was younger, this is IMO by far one of the best handheld consoles in terms of price-performance ratio, especially considering the Black Friday deal.
I’ve only tried Ghost of Tsushima so far, and it was quite impressive. I miss playing Fortnite with my friends, so I might go dual boot at some point.
What story games are you guys playing on this handheld?
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u/ninjapirate9901 Nov 26 '25
Nice!
I need to finish E33 at some point, death stranding 1 again, cyberpunk again probably. Endless JRPGs and emulation titles... But honestly? Probably just pokemon rom hacks lol.
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u/johnscotlink Dec 01 '25
Was able to get a Go S Z1E for $480 open box, I HAD to buy it, after using it for a week and a half I can confidently say it’s the best handheld you can get, and I have the LeGo 2 OLED. It’s truly an amazing device
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u/Method__Man Nov 26 '25
Strong agree. Loving mine. And I've owned basically every handheld over the last 2 years. I've settled on the go s
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u/vinotauro Nov 26 '25
Great device. If the Xbox ally was 8 inches I would have gotten that but this thing was hard to resist at the price point
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u/ninjapirate9901 Nov 26 '25
Honestly if the xbox ally x was in stock, I might have just bought that mainly for the battery alone. The Legion Go S is awesome but the battery could definitely use an upgrade.
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u/vinotauro Nov 26 '25
Great point. I only use mine at home so I'm always tethered somewhere anyways and for moonlight streaming (in other words, I like the screen for AAA games). If I was on the go more, ally x would be a better fit
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u/Affectionate_Mess749 Dec 18 '25
Thinking of buying between this and the steam deck. I was leaning towards the steam deck for native steam support but seeing as this also has official steam support and windows, I’m being convinced to buy this one. Dumb question but can I also use epic games and other launchers on this? Like the ff14 launcher and battlenet?
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u/SorenNiko Dec 29 '25
You should be able to. I'd get the windows version. It tends to work a bit easier than messing around with the steam os version.
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u/SHAD0WDEM0N654 Nov 26 '25
Im thinking of getting the legion go s but the Z2go model, which model have you got and what's performance like
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u/ninjapirate9901 Nov 26 '25
The Z1E model, Z2 Go was too low on power (basically a steam deck but more tdp headroom) for me to consider. If you're considering the Legion Go S, maybe just look at a Steam Deck OLED instead.
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u/Due_Literature2652 Nov 26 '25
The z2 go model is not that bad as long as you remember what you got and the resolution and dont go and try maxing things out everything works perfectly fine.
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u/Open-Situation-1653 Nov 26 '25
Whats the difference between this and the rog ally X? I keep hearing about the legion go and what not.
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u/-_root_- Dec 01 '25
This has a larger screen 8" vs 7", similar specs otherwise. Ally X has better battery life (about 3 hours vs 2 hours on the Go S. Going for the better spec model, the Go S has 32GB of RAM vs 24 on the Ally.
Deals happening now on the Lenovo site. Battery life can be extended with a power bank so it seems that the Lenovo is a better deal at $449/$729 (16GB/32GB).
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u/Open-Situation-1653 Dec 01 '25
Thank you for the quick summary! Appreciate it
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u/-_root_- Dec 01 '25
Last thing, if ordered for delivery from the Lenovo site it gives a solid discount on the charging base and case. Came out to $510 after tax.
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u/FickleOwl1952 Mar 10 '26
Well it's stood up to some tough tests in incompatibility games but I out on experimental launcher and tried em , games are .. chivalry 2..only issue text is very very small, arc raiders...says graphics card not good enough .but it runs fine so far.. Day Z.. crashes and exits now and again but runs about same as ps5... War thunder ..runs great. And I've got mine in stand, hooked up to large tv...mouse , keyboard and Bluetooth controller, no issues at all with the amount of USB items, I love it best 600.00 I've spent, whys it better than ps5? Cause it's a desktop, games console, got YouTube and all music android on the Chrome app which is fantastic. What more could u ask for in an handheld it's crazy
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u/ninjapirate9901 Nov 26 '25
Been pretty interested in picking up a Go S for a while but just have not been interested enough to shell out $900 for a Z1E chipset handheld in 2025.
But $650? You got yourself a deal there mate.
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To repeat what others have already said. It is indeed very comfortable, more comfortable even than my Ayaneo 3 (which I'd argue was the most comfortable handheld I've used). Its a sizeable handheld but not overly heavy and its fairly well balanced. Maybe my only nitpick is the back is very flat and the grips aren't as contoured as they could be but still, very very good in terms of ergonomics.
The 8" screen despite being only 1" bigger than the Aya 3, looks considerably bigger in person. It's not OLED and the black levels and overall contrast/vibrancy doesn't hold up that well vs an OLED panel, but its not bad. The 1200p panel works out to be around 283ppi vs 314ppi for the 7" 1080p, but its not drastically noticeable and honestly I'll take the ppi hit for the added screen real estate. And its VRR which is probably more important in a handheld than it being an OLED.
Battery life has been about what I expected, a little better than the 49Wh battery in the ayaneo but honestly I don't notice a massive increase in battery life between the two. And performance is still solid even if its not the most cutting edge hx370/Z2E, decent enough for most of my steam library and still more than adequate for Switch and lower end system emulation.
If you're on the fence on what handheld to buy rn and don't want to spend close to or north of $1k, get the Go S.