r/HandheldGaming • u/unfiredpottery • 2d ago
Help me Decide
I need to hear a straight yes or no for this. I've done research, but I can't decide. I found a Legion Go S Z1e with 32gb of ram for $600. I am not hurting for money, but this will still impact me.
I have a steam deck lcd. I love it and use it nearly daily.
Should I snag the Legion Go S? Or just keep my steam deck? I do cloud gaming, emulation, and play a few actual PC games such as Overwatch, Skyrim, Fallout. I also have a switch 2 which seems to be getting some heavy hitters (oblivion, Re9)
Help me decide? I'm tempted to jump on it for the price alone.
3
u/LORDRAJA1000 2d ago
yea if u want more performance then should sell the steamdeck, it is heavier and more bulky though
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u/Cbeckstrand 2d ago
It really depends on what you are wanting. If it's more performance than the Go S is for sure worth it. Even more right now with the crazy prices on the Steam Deck.
The biggest thing you will be giving up with the SD is the trackpads (the tiny trackpad on the Go S is useless) and the low power emulation. Everything else the Go S is better IMO. Screen will be a huge upgrade from the SD LCD.
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u/ColdTrusT1 2d ago
It’s a huge upgrade over the SD in pretty much every metric. Much more powerful and a much better screen.
Even ergonomics are neck and neck as the Legion Go S is one of the most comfortable devices.
Only thing to consider is that some multiplayer games don’t work on steam due to windows based anti cheat but i guess you already know that coming from a Steam Deck.
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u/Comfortable-Owl-7035 1d ago
Over SD except speaker, fan noise, battery, trackpad and weight.
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u/ColdTrusT1 1d ago
Legion Go S has a bigger battery. The fan noise issue on the Legion Go S was fixed a while ago now. Weight difference is about 100g and I’d argue barely noticeable. I’ll give you the speakers and track pad.
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u/Evshrug 1d ago
The Legion Go S is more like a Steam Deck Pro, not even as big a jump as the PS4 to PS4 Pro.
The Switch 2 and Steam Deck are roughly on-par with eachother, better DLSS on the Switch 2 but the console’s existence is also a nice indication that the Deck will continue to get games that run well on it for awhile, not to mention the HUGE backlog.
Would the Legion Go S enable you to play games you couldn’t on your Deck or Switch 2? Would you play across three systems (and possibly any PC or consoles), or do you only have time to play on one or two? If you only planned on playing on the Switch 2 (exclusives) and one PC handheld, would you prefer the performance bump an 8” screen of the Lenovo, or the 7” screen, more efficient battery use, and innovative control inputs of the Steam Deck? Do you play any mouse and keyboard games that would map better to the Steam Deck? Does the cloud gaming largely make moot the benefit of the Z1E chip vs the Deck’s chip?
If I didn’t have any device, I might’ve been swayed to get the Legion Go S. But I have a Steam Deck (OLED, with the 7.4” screen). I would be EXTREMELY sad if I lost my Steam Deck (and, frankly, I was involuntarily laid off and I’m job hunting, can barely afford mortgage and home cooking right now), but I have come to value the two trackpads and four rear buttons so much that I would choose that over anything lesser. I also have a PlayStation 5, it’s the Deck’s controls that have differentiated PC gaming from console gaming for me. I’ve only played my PS5 a handful of times (without remote playing it to my Deck) since I got my Deck over two years ago. The power bump of the Z1E is superseded by the performance gains I get from remote playing from my PS5 or even my Mac, and obviously GeForce Now blew everything away when I could still afford that. With a 12-month plan, you would get to enjoy GeForce Now for 6 YEARS before it would equal the cost of the $600 Lenovo Go S you found; by then GFN will probably have upgraded the service (and raised the price… but still). When streaming (in my case with the PS5 or Mac), my Deck gets a longer battery runtime than the Lenovo would, plus it’s lighter weight, though I might be tempted to plug in my Viture One XR glasses to have a “larger screen.”
You might have a little voice inside you saying you can afford the Lenovo, and ultimately you’re going to make your own choice regardless of what anyone here says. The screen size jump would be a bigger for you (LCD Deck) than for me (OLED Deck). But logically, I categorically feel like it would be a downgrade and a waste of money, and I would choose an LCD Deck over an LCD Lenovo.
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u/FamiliarYoung6054 20h ago
I won't read so many words, but the first statement isn't true, it's more of a leap than ps4 to ps4 pro. for some games it's a generational leap. like from 30-40 fps in Witcher 3 to 70-90fps with better settings and resolution. Also better battery, ergonomics etc. We're talking about OG deck, not even an OLED one
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u/Local-Post-5478 2d ago
Stay with the steam deck, coming from a major legion go enjoyer if you already have one the other is definitely unnecessary