The first authorized third-party SteamOS handheld is sold by the Lenovo Legion Go S

The Steam Deck Experiment: Where Are the Ryzen Z2 Chips for PC Gaming? Why the AMD-Valve partners AMD and the Lenovo Experience?

AMD has just officially announced its full lineup of Ryzen Z2 chips for handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck, after a brief tease this fall — but as of today, it’s pretty muddy who they’re for or what they’re going to do for handheld PC gaming.

Each of these new chips has a higher minimum minimum power density (MtP) than the previous generation which could mean less battery life if you crank down the power mode for less intensive games. (Not everyone changes power modes, though, so the TDP manufacturers ship it at may matter more; the Z1 Extreme’s sweet spot was around 15-17W TDP, while the Steam Deck’s chip nominally runs at 15W but can dip as low as 4W.)

The basic calculation of dividing 55 watt-hour battery by 20 watt is used to calculate the battery life for heavy games, as shown by the figure of two and 2.5 hours. Versions with AMD’s existing Z1 Extreme chip will also be available in some markets. All Legion Go S can fit full-length M.2 2280 solid state drives.

Precompiled shaders and similar features are not included in the key Steam Deck features. It will be one SteamOS and the Legion Go S can get the same updates as the Deck, minus hardware-specific changes.

But the real dream is to pull a PC handheld out of a box and have it just work, the way a Nintendo Switch works, not to shoehorn an operating system on it afterward, no matter how good the result. That’s why Lenovo is working with Valve: Zhu agrees that SteamOS has the best out-of-box experience. But, he says, Windows offers a whole ecosystem of gaming and productivity that the company believes its customers still want.

But the Windows version shipping in January will cost $729.99, with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The true experiment will begin in May, when anyone can choose between a $499.99 SteamOS version with 16GB or 512Gig, a $599.99 Windows version with 1Gig, or the $349 and $589 Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED versions, respectively.

It is not going to be all in on SteamOS. Not only will it hedge its bets by shipping a Windows version of the Legion Go S as well but it’ll also ship with Windows this month — four months ahead of the SteamOS models. The model of the computer is not black.

I had an eight-inch Lenovo Legion Go S handheld and it was the lightest and more traditional version of the company’s game console, with a sculpted grip.

One of the desirable features that will make it one of the few handhelds on the market to offer is a 120Hz variable refresh rate screen, a feature that lets low power handhelds feel smooth even if they aren’t generating lots of frames. The screen will be lower inresolution at 1920 x 1200, as well as it features a new chip called the Ryzen Z2 Go. It is an exclusive chip by the way.

In other words, it might address every major complaint I had in my Legion Go review, while additionally adding fun configurable RGB lighting around the joysticks, a slightly larger 55Wh battery, a pair of levers to reduce the throw of the triggers, and a less obtrusive touchpad, too, while retaining the dual USB 4 ports.