Lenovo Legion Go S review: feels good, plays bad

Lenovo Legion Go S is built far better than the original Legion Go , whose flat-faced controllers felt awkward in my hands.

The new portable has some of the best-sculpted grips I’ve felt on a handheld.

The only weak control is the touchpad, which is so tiny I flick repeatedly to move the cursor an inch at a time.

In some games, it can’t beat the Steam Deck at all.

With the Steam Deck , which runs at 15-watt TDP, I can average 52 frames per second at an upscaled 720p resolution and low settings on battery power alone.

But even if I feed the Legion Go S with 40 watts and plug it into a wall, the open-world game runs slower at 49fps.

In other games, cranking up Lenovo ’s TDP by five , 10 , or 15 watts can give it a comfortable lead over the Deck.

Lenovo 's Legion Go S runs smoother at lower frame rates than its predecessor's 2560 x 1600 panel.

The original Legion Go with Z1E runs anywhere from 15 percent to 40 percent faster comparing Windows to Windows .

Even if you crank up the Z2 Go , its turbo” modes are never anywhere near as effective as the Z1 Extreme in last year’s portables.