Dec 6, 2024

It's been public knowledge for a while now that Lenovo is planning an imminent successor to its Legion Go handheld that has proven rather popular among handheld gamers. Previous leaks and rumors indicated that the Legion Go S 8ARP1, as it will apparently be named, will be a more affordable version of the current Legion Go. Now, thanks to Roland Quandt, Windows Central, and WinFuture, more details about the upcoming Legion Go S have leaked, including images of the device, supposed specifications, and a potential price. According to the leaks, the new affordable handheld gaming PC will feature some substantial hardware changes, including a slightly smaller eight-inch display, this time with a much lower 1920 × 1200p resolution and a slightly lower 120 Hz refresh rate. Gone, too, are the Nintendo Switch-style detachable controllers, with the Legion Go S instead featuring a white unibody design. What's more interesting than the leaked images of the Legion Go S or the hardware changes—detachable controllers or not, the Legion Go is still intended to be used as a handheld—is the new AMD APU that will seemingly power the Go S. The as-yet unannounced AMD Ryzen Z2G looks like it will be an odd core configuration featuring an AMD Radeon 680M iGPU and Zen 3+ cores. Ultimately, the APU seems like it will put the Legion Go S somewhere between the current-generation Legion Go and devices featuring the AMD Ryzen Z1 (non-extreme), which is a good place to be if Lenovo hopes to compete with the likes of the Steam Deck OLED, which will seemingly cost around the same as the Legion Go S, depending on which region you are in. According to German-language publication, WinFuture, the Legion Go S will cost around €600 (~$635) when it launches sometime early next year, which is around €200 less than the original MSRP of the original Legion Go and around €80 cheaper than the Steam Deck OLED was when it launched. It's also possible that the Legion Go S will be slightly cheaper outside of Europe than the raw currency conversion suggests, since import taxes and tariffs often mean hardware costs more in European countries. By the looks of it, the Legion Go S will be a much more conventional handheld gaming PC, similar to the likes of the ASUS ROG Ally and Valve Steam Deck, although slightly larger than both of those, given the larger screen size. In addition to the smaller screen and potentially less power-hungry CPU, we will supposedly see a 55 Wh battery, which is slightly larger than the one used in the extant Lenovo Legion Go, meaning the new gaming handheld may offer longer play times than its bigger brother.