Lenovo’s Legion Go S combines Steam Deck software with some new ideas

Valve’s Steam Deck is a dominant force in the portable gaming PC market, thanks in part to its easy-to-use SteamOS. Now others want in – and Valve seems happy to help.

At CES 2025, Lenovo announced a brand new handheld PC, the Legion Go S, running Valve’s first operating system. The Go S comes pre-installed with SteamOS and features an 8-inch variable refresh rate (VRR) display, Hall effect joysticks, adjustable trigger switches, and other attractive features not found in any model of the Steam Deck.

The Legion Go S with SteamOS will launch in May for $499.99, with hardware specs that put it on par with – and in some cases well above – the Asus ROG Ally and other powerful handhelds. For the base price you get the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme CPU and a 1,920 x 1,200 LCD display that can go up to a 120Hz refresh rate with VRR support, meaning the display’s refresh rate is synced with the frame rate, so it will not show screen cracks. It comes with a microSD card slot, two USB4 Type-C ports (up to 65W charging speed) and a headphone jack, and in terms of additional storage, it supports M.2 PCIe 2242 or 2280 SSDs.

There will be a $599.99 version of the Legion Go S (also running SteamOS) that will include the new AMD Ryzen Z2 Go processor (a new CPU exclusive to Lenovo, according to a press release), 16 GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

Rather than trying to build something completely different from the Steam Deck, Lenovo has clearly borrowed some ideas from Valve for Legion Go S, then iterated on it with hardware features that many players will love. For example, there’s only one set of programmable rear paddles around the grips, but you can adjust the throw of the triggers to travel the full distance, or be shorter, like a mouse click. There are no touchpads, as Lenovo opted for the Xbox-like arrangement of sticks, D-pad and face buttons. There’s nothing wrong with that; it has a fingerprint sensor just below the right analog stick, in case you want to lock your system.

For those who prefer Windows 11: Lenovo has a version of the Legion Go S ready for you that will be released this month. The $729.99 version with the faster AMD Ryzen Z2 Go, 32 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD will ship first, followed by a $599.99 configuration in May with the Z2 Go, 16 GB RAM and 1 TB storage.