Latest news with #SteamOS
Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- 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.
Gizmodo
4 days ago
- Gizmodo
Lenovo's Legion Go S With SteamOS Is the Only Real Alternative to a Steam Deck
For the last several years, most of us thinking about buying a handheld PC have heard the refrain 'just get a Steam Deck.' The reasons are two-fold: one, the OLED version at $550 is the cheapest of its class, and two, it's so damned easy to use thanks to SteamOS. No other company has come close to offering similar bang for the buck—until now. At $600, Lenovo's Legion Go S with SteamOS is a superior handheld for on-the-go gaming compared to the Windows version released earlier this year, which felt compromised because of Microsoft's desktop operating system. Lenovo also sells an $830 model with a better chip that may seem more enticing, but as you'll see in this review, you shouldn't feel bad about choosing to go cheaper. Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS The Lenovo Legion Go S is the only other handheld that comes with SteamOS out of the box, and it's so much better for it. Pros Cons The Legion Go S is a side-grade from the Lenovo Legion Go from 2023. It still has an 8-inch display, but it's a single-body design that doesn't sport the Legion Go's two detachable controllers ala the Nintendo Switch 2. As comfortable as it was, Windows combined with poor performance drastically hampered what it could be. I could tell from the jump that, at $730, it was relatively overpriced and underpowered—a real 'just get a Steam Deck' device. The new version is cheaper and comes with SteamOS, the same small screen-friendly Linux-based operating system made by Valve. I tested the $600 Legion Go S with SteamOS in a beautiful deep 'nebula nocturne' purple color that reminds me of the goth kid I wish I was in high school. It comes with a Ryzen Z2 Go processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. That's $50 more than a Steam Deck OLED with the same 512 GB storage capacity. Valve's $400 Steam Deck LCD is the cheapest of its kind, though it comes with only 256GB of storage. The more powerful Legion Go S with SteamOS, powered by an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor and 32GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM, is close to what you might pay for an Asus ROG Ally X, which boasts a better battery life though slightly worse ergonomics. I have not tested this model, though. For shits and giggles, I grabbed the $730 white Windows-powered Legion Go S sent to me earlier this year and installed SteamOS on it to see what happens when you add more RAM to the mix, but I didn't experience a significant jump in performance between games. The Ryzen Z2 Go is the lower-power APU, or 'accelerated processing unit,' designed specifically for the cheaper-end Legion Go S models. Both the Ryzen Z1 Extreme and Z2 Go are a type of processor that combines the capabilities of a CPU and a GPU, or graphics processor. The Z2 Go is running on AMD's older Zen 3+ microarchitecture and has half the number of cores as the Z1 Extreme running on Zen 4. Either way, all Legion Go S models share the same IPS LCD display with a max resolution of 1,920×1,200. It doesn't support the deep blacks and contrast of the OLED panel on a Steam Deck, but it's still bright enough for playing indoors or outside. The larger display resolution can eat into performance with fewer GPU cores and less RAM. Few gamers want to drop their resolution specs lower than their display's max for the sake of performance, so the juggling act of in-game performance settings becomes that much more finicky. The important thing is whether the device can achieve a happy medium between playable frame rates and pretty graphics. In my experience, the Z2 Go with SteamOS can achieve a good equilibrium to play some intensive games, and it's so much better thanks to the Valve-made operating system. I conducted multiple rounds of tests with each Legion Go S plugged in and running at 30W. I set games to the max resolution they could. Both devices can hit 40W of TDP, aka thermal design power, which provides more power to the chip to help them eke out more frames from each game. Still, you likely won't play with higher power unless you plan to keep close to an electrical outlet. Overall, the Legion Go S with a Z2 Go outperformed the same hardware with Windows. Across games like Control and Baldur's Gate III, I saw a performance increase of close to 10 fps after I installed SteamOS. Cyberpunk 2077 at 1200p went from hitting 27 fps in benchmarks to netting nearly 40 fps. Windows introduces a host of background tasks that slow down performance, whereas svelte SteamOS doesn't have that problem. See at Best Buy Comparing the Legion Go S to the Steam Deck's custom AMD APU, Lenovo's SteamOS-powered device has an easy edge thanks to its wider range of TDP beyond the max 15W on Valve's device. With the higher degree of versatility, I could hit the same frame rates at 1200p versus 800p on the Steam Deck across several games, whether they were older, less intensive titles like Weird West or Hades II. In Monster Hunter Wilds benchmarks, the Legion Go S with Z2 Go at 1200p and 30 TDP managed to top the Steam Deck at 800p by a few frames. Of course, doubling the wattage will also affect battery life. If you want to play your games at their best, at the max resolution and graphics setting the system can handle, you'll get less than two hours of playtime. That's not much less than a Steam Deck at half the TDP, but the end result is that you'll need to have a charger handy or else limit your play sessions. SteamOS offers better frame rates than Windows, and if that wasn't enough, it's so much easier to use. Games are easier to download and faster to load, especially when they're built for Steam Deck and limit the number of extra launchers you need to click through. Unfortunately, the experience between playing on Steam Deck and SteamOS on third-party devices is not one-to-one. The big difference is how Valve calculates whether a game is 'SteamOS Compatible' versus 'Steam Deck Verified.' While Valve will determine whether a game can run at playable frame rates on a Steam Deck, it will only label whether a game is technically compatible on the Legion Go S. That means you may install a game expecting it to run well but find you can't even control it with thumbsticks. I managed to install my go-to apps on Steam Deck to the Legion Go S. This included Decky Loader for plugins like Junk Store, which offers easier access to my Epic Games library than going through the trouble of installing Heroic Launcher. I also managed to get EmuDeck operational, which means I could port all my retro games to the new system without any fuss. Did I miss access to apps like Razer Cortex as my preferred way to do PC-to-handheld streaming? Yes, but I would trade access to every Windows app for a clean UI without a second thought. When I'm not worried about popups asking me to sign in to OneDrive or dreading what will happen when I dare put the device to sleep while in-game, I can instead focus on playing my games at their best. In every way, the Legion Go S can become a Steam Deck, but there are still some major considerations if you're trying to decide between the two. For one, the Steam Deck OLED is lighter at 640g, or 1.41 pounds, versus Lenovo's 740g, or 1.6 pounds. That doesn't sound like much until you're feeling the strain in your arms after an extended play session sprawled out on your bed. The Legion Go S has slightly better ergonomics, but either device conforms to the hands better than most other similar devices on the market. What is missing from Lenovo's design are the Steam Deck's two trackpads. Those haptic trackpads add a surprising amount of versatility in some games, especially in CRPGs or strategy games like Tactical Breach Wizards. The minuscule trackpad on the Legion Go S didn't even seem to work out of the box. I had such a bad experience with it on the Windows version—with it vibrating like a rabbit dipped into a freezing-cold lake—I wasn't keen to fix it. I would also give the edge in audio quality to the Steam Deck for clear sound, but the Legion Go S' twin 2W speakers offer enough clarity that I didn't immediately feel the need to reach for a pair of headphones. I did experience odd audio bugs with my review unit that led to crackling when in-game, though it was inconsistent, and it wasn't present on the older model even after I installed SteamOS. The real distinction between Lenovo's and Valve's handhelds is the screen. You get close to 8 inches of real estate on the Legion Go S and a higher max resolution, but it's still LCD. If I have both screens sitting side-by-side, I can't help but gravitate toward the device with better contrast and those ever-touted 'inky' blacks. So the Legion Go S is currently your only out-of-the-box Steam Deck alternative, and that alone makes it worth your time, especially if you don't feel like loading an OS other than Windows. That being said, this year's future slate of handhelds is getting more interesting. We've yet to see any devices launch with AMD's Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, but we know they're coming from companies like MSI, Asus, and Lenovo themselves. The other big consideration is how Microsoft can finally make its OS workable on a 7-inch display with the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally. That upcoming handheld will potentially mark a turning point with Windows gaming, not just in performance but overall usability. If you want a handheld now, go with either the Legion Go S or Steam Deck. Either would serve you well. If you're still on the fence, you should wait to see what the future holds. See at Best Buy
Tom's Guide
4 days ago
- 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.
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Turn 2D retro games into stunning 3D worlds: How to use 3dSen emulator
Jun 27, 2025 04:46 PM IST Are you a fan of old-school NES games? Then this news is for you. 3dSen is a new NES emulator available for PC that lets you relive those games in 3D. Right now, there are more than 100 retro games to choose from, and there is a VR version too. It is available on Steam and can be played on Windows, Mac, and SteamOS/Linux. 3dSen brings your favourite NES classics to life by transforming 2D retro games into immersive 3D worlds.(Geod Studio) It took more than 10 years of development to bring this concept to reality. The developer, Tran Vu Truc, had to reconstruct the NES games into 3D because he had to map every element in 3D space. All that was done to bring this unique and polished experience to each of the titles. Now, imagine doing this for every game supported by this emulator. Rather than applying a generic 3D filter to the games, 3dSen relies on custom profiles which define how each element is transformed. These custom profiles are crafted to ensure that every movement in the games feels natural and seamless, just like in the original game. At launch, there were about 70 games, which increased to more than 100 titles, including some of the most popular classics like Super Mario Bros., Contra, The Legend of Zelda, and Mega Man. Key features of 3dSen A complete 3D transformation of classic NES games, giving players a fresh perspective and experience. To add immersion, real-time lighting has been implemented with reworked shadows and animated skyboxes. The game is not only set in a 3D world, but users can customize the camera angle to view and play games from different angles every time. Generic emulator features are also available, like save states, rewind, and fast forward. A VR version called 3dSen VR is also available apart from the regular version for standard monitors. You need to pay a little more than the standard version to experience the NES games in virtual reality. A new way to experience old school classics 3dSen lets you rediscover your favourite NES games in a completely new way. Playing classics like Zelda in 3D gives a chance to experience familiar worlds from a fresh perspective, with new depth and immersion that makes every adventure feel exciting all over again
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.
