Although affordability was a key factor in the success of Valve’s Steam Deck, its greatest strength lies in the brilliance of its operating system, SteamOS. So far, only a few other handheld devices have also sported the Linux-based software, but now there’s one more: Lenovo’s Legion Go 2.
Launched at CES, this is actually Lenovo’s second device to natively use SteamOS. The first was the superb Legion Go S, which just so happens to be the best handheld gaming PC you can buy right now. That said, the hardware inside is somewhat last-gen, and that’s something the Legion Go 2 offers over the Go S.
The newer model sports an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, whereas the older device gets by with a Z1 Extreme. These are APUs—a single chip comprising a CPU and GPU—and while they both house eight processor cores (supporting 16 threads), the Z2 Extreme uses AMD’s Zen 5 and 5c architectures (three of the former, five of the latter).
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The rest of the Legion Go 2 is standard fare for a high-end handheld: 32 GB of LPDDR5x-8000 and up to 2 TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage. Just as with the original Legion Go, the side controllers are detachable, so you can prop up the screen on a desk and play it console-style, and you can even mount the right controller in a base so it acts a bit like a gun in FPS games.
Basically, just think of it as being like the brilliant Legion Go S, only a little bit bigger but an awful lot more pokier. And now that you’ll be able to pick one up with SteamOS installed, you’ll be able to happily tell Microsoft to get rekt as you play your favourite games in bedtime comfort. Assuming, of course, that the ramopocalpyse doesn’t price it into oblivion.
In Lenovo’s store, you can buy the Legion Go 2 with a standard Ryzen Z2 processor (which is just a rebadged Z1 Extreme) and 16 GB of slower LPDDR5x, but it’ll set you back an absurd $1,100. At the time of writing, Z2 Extreme versions aren’t in stock, though they are in Lenovo’s UK store (where they cost £1,100).
The combination of the Lenovo Legion Go 2’s hardware and Valve’s SteamOS might be a portable PC gamer’s idea of heaven, but if prices continue to rise (and they probably will), those pearly gates might be shut for everyone.
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