What’s next in the SteamOS, Legion Go, and ROG Ally lineups? Lenovo isn’t going all in on SteamOS
First off, although AMD told journalists in a pre-recorded briefing that Valve’s Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go, and Asus ROG Ally lineups would all feature the new chips, it’s not clear that’s actually true.
The Z2 Extreme combines the Zen3 and Zen 5c cores with RDNA 3.5 graphics, four more than last-gen, and can boost the total performance of the package by 5 watt, though no one has provided details on how much that will cost.
The basic math of dividing a 55 watt-hour battery by 20 watt is used to determine the maximum battery life for heavy games, which is between two and 2.5 hours. Versions with AMD’s existing Z1 Extreme chip will also be available in some markets. Legion Go S can fit full M.2 2270 solid state drives.
Zhu agrees that SteamOS is an experiment for Lenovo and says it’ll look at the feedback and momentum before making its next move. Speaking of what’s next, Lenovo is also building a larger Legion Go 2 with detachable controllers and an 8.8-inch OLED screen, and it brought prototypes of that unit to CES:
Valve tells me Lenovo is currently its only partner for a SteamOS device — there are no other third-party SteamOS devices currently in the works. But Griffais hints that Valve is close to publicly releasing a new beta of its SteamOS that just might possibly start working on other handhelds as well. (Valve previously confirmed to us that it was building toward some level of support for the Asus ROG Ally in SteamOS as well.)
The Windows version will cost $799.99 in January and there is no memory or storage space available for backups. In May, the true experiment will begin when gamers can pick between a $499.99 SteamOS version with 16GB / 512GB, a $599.99 Windows version with 16GB / 1TB, or the Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED at $399 and $549, respectively.
But Lenovo isn’t going all in on SteamOS. Not only will it hedge its bets by shipping a Windows version of the Legion Go S as well but it’ll also ship with Windows this month — four months ahead of the SteamOS models. The model of the computer is not black.
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 will be one of only a few handhelds on the market that will have a 120 hertz variable refresh rate screen, which will allow low- power handheld games to feel smooth even if they aren’t 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. The chip is an exclusive one from the Chinese company, by the way.
In other words, it might address every major complaint I had in my Legion Go review, while additionally adding fun configurable RGB lighting around the joysticks, a slightly larger 55Wh battery, a pair of levers to reduce the throw of the triggers, and a less obtrusive touchpad, too, while retaining the dual USB 4 ports.