This week, the Steam Deck OLED with 512GB of storage went from $549 to $789, putting it even further out of reach for those who were considering getting one as they came back in stock after months of unavailability. I consider it a tiny consolation that there’s a decent PC gaming handheld that is currently selling at its old price. The Lenovo Legion Go S is currently $549.99 at Woot (originally $729.99). It’s the kind of deal that wouldn’t have stood out as much a year ago as it does now.
We didn’t particularly like the Legion Go S at launch, though part of that was due to its high price. Sean loved its gorgeous 8-inch 120Hz screen and noted that its ergonomics are superior to most gaming handhelds, including the Steam Deck. But the price didn’t make sense considering it didn’t perform as well as Valve’s handheld in some (but not all) games. Also, it launched when Windows 11 was a nightmare to traverse in handheld mode, though things have improved a bit since then.
The Legion Go S isn’t a device we can wholeheartedly recommend, but I’m willing to make an exception in silly times like these. I’d be happier to recommend the Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor-packed version of the Go S — we found its performance gains are anywhere from 10 percent to 40 percent improved over the Ryzen Z2 Go, depending on the game — but absolutely not at its current $1,452.99 price at Lenovo’s site.