Powering the Legion Go S is AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Go, a custom chip with four cores and eight threads on Zen 3+ architecture. It’s paired with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD—plenty of muscle for a handheld, right? Well, sort of. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 720p medium settings, I got a steady 36 FPS at 30W TDP. Not bad, but the ROG Ally X with its Z1 Extreme hit 38 FPS under similar conditions. Cyberpunk 2077 at 720p low averaged 33 FPS. It’s playable, but the Steam Deck OLED outpaces it at 52 FPS on less power.
The Z2 Go isn’t a slouch, but it’s no beast either. It’s a step down from the Z1 Extreme in raw grunt, and I felt it in CPU-heavy titles. Battery life takes a hit, too. 55Wh sounds beefy, but at 25W “Performance” mode, I barely scraped 90 minutes. Plugged in, it charges fast via dual USB 4 ports (100W each), which is a godsend. Still, I kept it tethered more than I’d like for a “portable” device.
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