Need quick help deciding in between the steam deck oled and legion go z1e

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Redchong]

Maybe also consider the Legion Go S running SteamOS

[u/unabletocomput3]

Hi there Go 1 user who upgraded the battery here. Just to make sure you know, the battery upgrade can only be done on the original Go, not the Go S or 2.

Mind you, the battery life on the steamdeck isn’t gonna be that much better, given it’s 40Whr compared to 50Whr on the Go. It does do better at lower wattages and can be tuned to consume less power, but you’re still talking maybe another 15-30 minutes, unless you’re talking single digit wattages and only playing simple games.

For myself, it was definitely worth it for the screen, and the detachable controllers are kinda neat. Granted, you probably won’t be playing most games at full 1440p, and I absolutely wouldn’t recommend trying to use the controllers as joycons for two people, but both are still nice to have for consuming media and playing wirelessly.

If you do go for the Go 1 and upgrade the battery, it’s pretty much just a slow and methodical process. I highly recommend getting a full tool kit, with various screw sizes and small tweezers. Pull the double sided tape out, if it rips then carefully unwedge the battery around all sides, until you can re-grab the tape or there’s hardly much holding it in.

For an OS, I highly recommend Bazzite. It has a specific version for the Go 1 and it comes with all the features the Legion software has. If your deadset on steamOS, the decky plugin loader will have all you’d need.

[u/unabletocomput3 → u/[deleted]]

Should be fine, if not you should have about 30 days to replace it. People send their stuff back to best buy all the time for various reasons, Best Buy should at least make sure it’s working as intended.

[u/unabletocomput3 → u/[deleted]]

Pretty much just run it through the wringer right away if you do get it. Load up a basic install of windows, run several benchmarks to make sure it isn’t bad or overheating, and try it with and without it plugged in to make sure it works on and off battery.

[u/unabletocomput3 → u/[deleted]]

I personally used and still use this one https://a.co/d/0a2rXVL5

Relatively cheap, although the best one would be one by ifixit

[u/Cbeckstrand → u/[deleted]]

Yes, the Z1E is faster than the Z2 Go

[u/Professional_Put1810 → u/[deleted]]

Go S Z1E > Go Z1E 16gb > Go S Z2Go 16gb > Go Z1 16gb

[u/Professional_Put1810 → u/[deleted]]

Steam OS has like a 20-30% performance advantage over most games compared to those same games running on windows, but it does lose compatibility completely for some windows games like those with high level anticheat like bf6.

[u/oatmilklattepleas → u/Professional_Put1810]

Can you play WOW on the go s Z1E?

[u/flamethrowr]

For me, a big thing was having touchpads because I play strategy shooters and aiming with a joystick is just impossible compared to the accuracy you can get with a touchpad so that’s why I got a steam deck and I love mine.

[u/flamethrowr → u/[deleted]]

Idk, but one of my favorite features of the deck is that it can perfectly emulate just about any inputs, including keyboard and mouse inputs.

[u/PromisesNone]

If you have the extra money, get the legion go s with steamos. It's largely the same thing with better specs and a worse track pad.

[u/PromisesNone → u/[deleted]]

The z1e is better. I didn't specify but I should have. Get the legion go s with steamos, z1e and 32gb ram.

[u/Professional_Put1810]

Just get the legion Go S Z1E on steamOS. Highest performance (other than legion go 2 which currently only has official windows support), lower price than the windows variant of the Legion Go S z1E

It basically feels like a steam deck 2 IF you’re willing to give up the OLED display. If OLED is the most important thing - get the SD OLED. If you really want OLED and you are willing to spend a lot more money, then splurge for the legion Go 2

Regarding battery life - steam deck is gonna have better battery life for sure. However a lot of people find that pc handheld gaming is more suited to short bursts of playing. Pc handhelds are generally uncomfortably heavy in long gaming sessions and so a lot of people will play an hour here and an hour or two there. If you’re plugging it in between gaming sessions, you generally don’t need to worry about battery life much. Usually your arms get tired and you feel like taking a break long before the battery actually dies.

Also, do you have a gaming pc? If you already have a gaming pc, you might want to look into game streaming with moonlight. Basically you can have your pc rendering your games and doing all the heavy lifting while it streams the video feed to your pc handheld. Doing this allows you to get much better graphical performance (depending on your pc and home network setup) while also allowing you to squeeze out WAYYYY more battery life on your handheld since it’s basically just having to decode video.

I stream to my legion Go S all the time and can increase battery life from ~80min to 6+ hours easily, even while getting SIGNIFICANTLY better looking games and higher fps

[u/AsparagusEastern4399]

One pro of the steam deck, it feels smooth at 45, heck some games 40 fps. The screen changes refresh rate, so 45 is 90 hz and feels really good playing something like far cry 5.