First Lenovo Legion Go S benchmarks posted online, here’s how it compares to the original and the ROG Ally
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At CES 2025 earlier this month, Lenovo launched the Legion Go S. It’s in a bit of a strange position as far as availability goes; the handheld has gone up for pre-order, but it won’t arrive in the US until mid-February according to Best Buy, whereas gamers in the UK have already got a hold of it.
One of those UK consumers is YouTuber Mash IT, who has unboxed and given their first impressions on the device, and perhaps more importantly, ran some quick and easy benchmarks to talk about today. In addition to that, more results have been posted online, including one Reddit user who has some gaming benchmarks to tuck into.
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- CPU: AMD Ryzen Z2 Go
- Graphics: AMD Radeon Graphics, 12 cores
- Display: 8-inch, 120Hz, IPS, VRR, 1920 x 1200
- RAM: 32GB 6400MHz LPDDR5X
- Storage: 1TB PCIe SSD
Lenovo Legion Go S versus the original and ROG Ally Z1 Extreme
Moving straight into the benchmarks now. These scores have been compiled thanks to benchmark tests from Mash IT, Jason Evangelho, and u/Narrow_Confusion_70 on Reddit, who posted their results across several different games. As for the Legion Go S, all benchmarks were performed on the 32GB RAM model.
First of all, the Legion Go S was tested in the 3D Mark Time Spy benchmark, a popular DirectX 12 benchmark that is useful for gauging graphics performance relative to other hardware. Looking at the ‘graphics score’ in particular, the Z2 Go hit up to 2,400, while the Z1 Extreme on the Legion Go and ROG Ally scored 2,874 and 2,643 respectively. So, the cutdown Z2 Go, despite being newer, falls behind the Z1 flagship chip – this is to be expected.
| Benchmark | Legion Go S (Z2 Go) | Legion Go (Z1 Extreme) | ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3D Mark Time Spy (graphics score) | 2,400 | 2,874 | 2,643 |
Moving onto gaming benchmarks now versus the ROG Ally Z1E:
| Game | Legion Go S (Z2 Go) | ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) |
|---|---|---|
| Hogwarts Legacy (Low, FSR 2 quality) | 35-45 FPS | 40-45 FPS |
| Disney Dreamlight Valley (High) | 40-45 FPS | 62-77 FPS |
| Cult of the Lamb (High) | 30-35 FPS | 50-60 FPS |
| Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Low) | 23-30 FPS | 43-50 FPS |
| FFXIV Dawntrail benchmark (Fullscreen, default high) | 30.8 FPS (average) / 12 FPS (minimum) | 32.9 (average) / 17 FPS (minimum) |
As we can see from the results, the Legion Go S performs worse on average compared to the last-gen ROG Ally Z1E. It is worth noting that the Go S targets a slightly higher resolution than the ROG Ally (1920 x 1200 versus 1920 x 1080), which may be affecting performance by a small amount. Additionally, the Z2 Go offers notable improvements such as much more system RAM, better battery life on the Z2 series chip (plus a larger battery), and an 8-inch screen; the ROG Ally is 7-inch.
The last thing to mention is that the Legion Go S will be available in a few different variants, including one fitted with a Z1 Extreme chip. However, the one we’re looking forward to the most is the SteamOS model arriving this May, which hopes to offer a blend of excellent hardware and the lightweight Linux-based operating system that helped make the Steam Deck such a hit.
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