We would have a brand new contender for the perfect handheld gaming PC, as a result of Lenovo’s simply introduced a SteamOS model of its mega Legion Go 2

Although affordability was a key issue within the success of Valve’s Steam Deck, its biggest energy lies within the brilliance of its working system, SteamOS. So far, only some different handheld units have additionally sported the Linux-based software program, however now there’s yet another: Lenovo’s Legion Go 2.

Launched at CES, that is truly Lenovo’s second machine to natively use SteamOS. The first was the excellent Legion Go S, which simply so occurs to be the perfect handheld gaming PC you should buy proper now. That stated, the {hardware} inside is considerably last-gen, and that is one thing the Legion Go 2 provides over the Go S.

The newer mannequin sports activities 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).

However, handheld devices are rarely held back by their CPUs, as games are far more GPU-limited than anything else. That’s another area where the Z2 Extreme edges over the Z1 Extreme: its GPU has 16 RDNA 3.5 compute units (CUs), whereas the older chip has 12 RDNA 3 CUs. They’re generally clocked to the same level, so the Z2 Extreme offers around 33% more rendering performance.

That’s a good match for the Legion Go 2’s 8.8-inch, 144 Hz, 1200p screen, though you will still probably want to lean on FSR upscaling with more graphics-heavy games.

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 normal Ryzen Z2 processor (which is only a rebadged Z1 Extreme) and 16 GB of slower LPDDR5x, however it’ll set you again an absurd $1,100. At the time of writing, Z2 Extreme variations aren’t in inventory, although they’re in Lenovo’s UK retailer (the place they price £1,100).

The mixture of the Lenovo Legion Go 2’s {hardware} and Valve’s SteamOS could be a conveyable PC gamer’s thought of heaven, but when costs proceed to rise (and so they most likely will), these pearly gates could be shut for everybody.