Latest news with #LenovoLegionGoS
Tom's Guide
4 days ago
- Tom's Guide
4K at 240Hz is 'no longer a future concept' — Lenovo exec says the future of gaming monitors is already shifting
With new GPUs, gaming monitors always take an evolutionary step forward — that much was obvious with the launch of Nvidia's RTX 50-series cards and the adoption of 4K 240Hz panels. But what if I told you that gaming panels are evolving even further beyond this? I spoke to George Toh, Vice President and GM of the Visuals Business at Lenovo, and while some of these future trends are clear to see (OLED gaming monitors, for example), some surprised me. A simple one being that gamers are done tweaking settings, and that displays should adapt to them with AI. Now, as a D1 settings tweaker myself, I felt a little personally attacked (sarcasm), but in all seriousness, this makes a world of sense — having a monitor that learns to adapt to you, and not just be the screen you have to work around to get just right. And then there's the question of catering to more ways that people play. Gaming handhelds like the Lenovo Legion Go S have exploded in popularity, and as gaming laptops go from strength to strength, the need for versatile portable gaming panels is going to grow stronger looking ahead. So, what does the future of gaming monitors look like? Well, this is what Lenovo thinks. Gamers today demand more than just speed or colors or brightness—they want immersion, precision and a visual experience that keeps pace with the speed of today's titles. As we look at the next generation of gaming monitors, both OLED and Mini LED will play critical roles in the evolution of gaming monitors. OLED continues to impress with its incredible contrast ratios, depth of color and fast response times, making it ideal for immersive single-player experiences and content consumption. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Mini LED, on the other hand, offers high peak brightness and excellent HDR performance while mitigating some of the burn-in concerns associated with OLED, which is valuable for long hours of competitive play. One could make a case for either OLED or Mini LED, but based on industry shipments, we are currently seeing a preference for OLED gaming monitors. I believe we'll also see hybrid innovations — displays that integrate the strengths of multiple technologies — along with advances in panel control and pixel-level tuning. Whatever the technology is, the end goal is very simple: giving gamers more choice and more control over how they experience their games. Absolutely. As devices like the Legion Go 2 redefine what's possible in portable gaming, there's a growing demand for monitors that can match that flexibility without compromising performance. We're already seeing increased interest in lightweight, USB-C-powered displays that deliver high refresh rates and vibrant visuals — and this is just the beginning. I see hybrid and portable gaming monitors becoming a much more mainstream category, especially for gamers who want a secondary screen for on-the-go setups, LAN parties, or even creative work. We are constantly exploring ways to bring new experiences to life, and portable or hybrid gaming monitors will perfectly complement our broader Legion ecosystem. Balancing refresh rate and resolution is one of the biggest technical challenges and opportunities in the gaming display space right now. Gamers want the best of both worlds: incredibly sharp visuals and smooth gameplay, but factors such as economics often play a role. We're investing heavily in panels that can deliver both, as well as in technologies like VRR (variable refresh rate) and advanced overdrive tuning to ensure the experience lives up to the spec. We've also taken a holistic approach — pairing high-performance displays with GPU and thermal innovations across our Legion devices to make sure the full system can support high frame rates at high resolutions. 4K at 240Hz was novel before, but is no longer a future concept; it's something we're actively testing and optimizing for real-world gaming use cases. AI and software optimization are rapidly becoming foundational to the future of gaming displays. From dynamic backlight control to real-time upscaling and latency reduction, we're seeing smarter systems that adapt to the user, the content and even ambient lighting conditions. I'm particularly excited about how AI can personalize the visual experience — whether it's through auto-calibration, scene-based color tuning or adaptive refresh management. These aren't just enhancements — they're tools that let gamers focus more on their performance and immersion, and less on manual settings. We're already integrating AI capabilities into our Legion products, and you can expect to see even more intelligent display features in our upcoming lineup. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Tom's Guide
04-07-2025
- Tom's Guide
Switch 2 dock supports a key feature Nintendo won't let you use — so what's going on?
While docking the Nintendo Switch 2 does unlock better picture quality, including 4K resolution and up to 120fps refresh rates, there is one feature still locked off. Even if your TV supports variable refresh rate (VRR), it seems Nintendo won't let you take advantage of it with the new console. Weirdly, it turns out that this isn't an issue with the Switch 2 dock itself. They tested this over at The Verge, plugging various other handheld gaming systems in using the Switch 2's dock. Evidently the Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go S and Asus ROG Ally X all supported VRR through the Nintendo dock. And that was tested with actual VRR testing tools, rather than just taking the handheld's promise that it was at face value. Plus, this confirmed VRR worked at up to 120fps. The Verge did note that connecting a handheld to the Switch 2 dock did require an extra USB-C cable, naturally. Unfortunately the Switch 2 dock is spring-loaded, and kept pushing the cable out — which means it's a less than ideal way to connect your handheld to the TV. The Switch 2 supports VRR in handheld mode, so if you're playing on the built-in screen you should see dynamic refresh rates as you play. But since the console and the Dock both support VRR, why the heck can't you get VRR working on a compatible TV or monitor? Well, we just don't know. We do know Nintendo originally advertised that the Switch 2 did support VRR in TV mode, but then removed those references from its website and support pages. Nintendo did apologize for the error and confirmed the feature was only available in handheld mode. But the company hasn't actually explained why things are the way they are. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Digital Foundry did find that VRR suffered "clear problems" on the Switch 2 in handheld mode — including "juddering" in various games like Cyberpunk 2077. Though it was noted that Welcome Tour, the $10 Switch 2 demo, did have proper VRR support. So it's not like Nintendo is secretly saving us from crappy performance because VRR doesn't actually work properly. Sadly Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter told The Verge he has no idea why VRR support hasn't been included in TV mode. Only that he doubts Nintendo removed the feature last minute, and that the company's previous promises were likely a mistake. So this is down for Nintendo to explain, and so far the company has been staying quiet. It's a pretty weird situation all round, though.
Tom's Guide
30-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
Hurry! The Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS is $50 off right now — perfect timing to ditch Windows gaming handhelds
Buying the best gaming handheld for you is becoming pretty costly for peak performance across your PC game library. As you head closer to Prime Day, you start to see some savings crop up, but to see the latest and greatest get a price cut even got me blindsided! Right now, the Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS is $50 off at Best Buy, which drops the price of the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go model to just $549 and the more powerful Z1 Extreme to $779. Given these have just come out, this is one of the most surprising deals I've seen. This is the option for the indie gamers. The Ryzen Z2 Go is perfect for less demanding titles, and its lower power demands mean you're getting a better battery life too. Just bear in mind if you do want AAA gaming too, you'll have to go one step up. Based on my experience with Z1 Extreme and SteamOS (more on that later), you're getting a ton of horsepower for even the most demanding AAA games to run at a smooth 50-60 FPS. This is the versatile beast for the diverse gaming library of top tier games and indie darlings alike. As Tony found out in his Lenovo Legion Go S review, this is a fantastic gaming handheld with a vibrant display and impressive gaming performance. The amount of RAM is balanced just right for each — with the Z2 Go model getting 16GB and the Z1 Extreme maxing out at 32GB for more demanding titles. But what's always most impressive is the ergonomics, which Lenovo has nailed here. The shape of the system fits perfectly into your hands, the joysticks have a nice smooth movement to them and all the buttons have a great tactile feel to them for playing. If you were looking at the aging Steam Deck and wanted more oomph, this is the one to get. But the Windows versions of these handhelds are also $50 off right now too, which leads to another question… Well, it comes down to three things in my past year of testing — when I installed SteamOS on my Asus ROG Ally X (near-identical spec to the Z1 Extreme Go S): Of course, there are limitations to SteamOS — namely that it's just Steam. But since it's Linux-based, you can figure out workarounds to get Epic Games and the like on there too. If you want everything, Windows is the way to go, but I think you're giving up way too much for that. Not only is the SteamOS Go S nicer to use, faster and lasts longer, but it's cheaper too. That Z1 Extreme configuration with Windows is $849 after a $50 discount. So why waste your money? Until we see what Microsoft is able to do with the ROG Xbox Ally, this is your best bet.
Tom's Guide
27-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
New benchmarks reveal SteamOS beats Windows on handheld gaming performance — here's the results
We now have more proof that SteamOS is better than Windows 11 for gaming handheld performance. Ars Technica (via TechSpot) recently tested five PC games on the Lenovo Legion Go S running on SteamOS and Windows 11. With one exception, games run at higher frame rates on Valve's operating system than on Microsoft's. As someone who has tested the best handheld gaming consoles for years, I'm not surprised by the results. For testing, Ars Technica started with the SteamOS version of the Legion Go S and tested five 'high-end' 3D games using the games' respective built-in benchmarking tools at two different graphics and resolution settings. The site then installed Windows 11 on the handheld and downloaded updated drivers from Lenovo's support site, and ran those same benchmarks again. For good measure, Ars Technica also installed AMD-compatible drivers from Asus, since those drivers are closer to the drivers included with SteamOS. Per Ars Technica's numbers, we can see that SteamOS delivers improved performance in four of the five games the site tested. Borderlands 3's performance remained roughly the same on both operating systems, though Windows with Asus' drivers had a slight advantage. For games like Returnal, SteamOS has an extreme advantage over Windows. Sideloading the Asus drivers showed an improvement in Windows performance, but SteamOS still generally has the advantage. The Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS is a true Steam Deck rival and arguably puts Windows 11 handheld to shame thanks to its snappy interface and strong performance. While its fans can get overly loud and its battery life isn't great, SteamOS alone makes up for any shortcomings. I tested a handful of games on both the SteamOS and Windows 11 models of the Legion Go S, but the numbers I saw had a caveat since those machines have different components. Ars Technica tested games on the same machine, which provides a clearer picture of the performance differences. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. I'm not at all surprised by these results, given how SteamOS is specifically designed to work with gaming handhelds. Valve's operating system also doesn't have the overhead of Windows. That said, Windows has greater game compatibility than SteamOS, so that operating system might be preferable for more enthusiast PC gamers. If you're a more general gamer, however, SteamOS has a cleaner, handheld-friendly interface in addition to offering generally better gaming performance for some titles.
Tom's Guide
20-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
Watch: Steam OS on Lenovo Legion Go S: Best Tips, Settings & Games to Start With!
Picking up the Lenovo Legion Go S running SteamOS—or just curious if SteamOS is actually worth it over Windows 11? @PaulAntill dives into everything you should know to get the best experience out of this gaming handheld. From navigating Steam's Gaming Mode to installing third-party launchers like Epic and GOG, here's how you can unlock more from your Legion Go S. We'll also break down the biggest limitations (like Xbox Game Pass and anti-cheat issues) so you know exactly what you're getting into. And once you're all set up, we're sharing five of the best games you should play first on SteamOS, all of which run great on the Legion Go S. SteamOS is fast, clean, and seriously console-like—but it's not for everyone. So before you make the switch, here's what you should know.
