The Legion Go S (SteamOS version) is the best handheld gaming PC on the market right now, but it’s not without its issues. As I found out when I tested and reviewed it, there are some issues that make it feel like somewhat of an incomplete port over the operating system. One of those issues was lack of joystick RGB lighting support, but that’s now been baked into a new update.
The July 14 Stam Deck Beta Client Update adds in the ability to turn the Legion Go S SteamOS’s joystick RGB lighting on/off, choose from some effects (solid, breathe, chroma, or rainbow), and adjust the brightness. If you’re on the Beta update channel and have the latest update, you can find these options by going to Settings > Customization.
It would be nice if there was the option to only enable the lighting when the handheld is plugged in, because it’ll certainly take a little off your battery life to have the LEDs running. Maybe Valve will add that in as an option in future.
Previously, you had to use a third-party plugin to manage RGB lighting, which did make the Legion Go S SteamOS feel a little unready for the operating system port.
Another thing that made it feel a little unready was its shoddy mini trackpad support; I found it not to work at all in gaming mode (it isn’t even registered as an input), and while it did eventually work in Desktop mode it’s basically unusable as it feels more like clumsy joystick input than one-to-one mouse movement. This problem still persists, so I just pretend the little trackpad nubbet doesn’t even exist when I use the handheld.
I suppose it’s saying something about the Legion Go S that it’s still the best handheld gaming PC around even with these problems. But I probably wasn’t the target market for that joystick RGB anyway. I’ll be leaving it turned off to maximise that battery life, but I’ll be a little happier knowing the option is there should I ever change my mind.
Best handheld PC 2025
