Lenovo’s Legion Go S was supposed to be the more approachable entry in the company’s handheld gaming lineup. That idea is looking very shaky now.
According to current US listings highlighted by TechPowerUp, the Legion Go S has taken a serious price jump, to the point where the so-called budget model is now brushing up against premium territory.
The bigger picture is already rough. Lenovo’s Legion Go 2 recently went from US$1,349.99 to US$1,999.99, which is a brutal increase for a Windows gaming handheld. Now the same pricing pain seems to be hitting the Legion Go S lineup too.
The new Legion Go S prices are wild
At launch, the Legion Go S was positioned more sensibly:
- US$899.99 for the Ryzen Z1 Extreme model with 32 GB RAM
- US$649.99 for the Ryzen Z2 Go model with 16 GB RAM
That is no longer the situation.
Based on current Best Buy pricing in the US:
- The Legion Go S with Ryzen Z1 Extreme, 32 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD is now listed at US$1,579.99 with SteamOS
- The Windows version of that same config is listed at US$1,679.99
- That said, the Windows model is currently shown with a discount down to US$1,049.99
- The Ryzen Z2 Go, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD version is now at US$989.99
On Lenovo’s own US store, there is also a SteamOS Legion Go S with the Z2 Go chip listed at US$1,049.99.
Why this matters
The main problem here is value.
Even before this increase, the Z2 Go version was already a bit awkward. TechPowerUp notes that it was hard to recommend when the original Legion Go could offer a stronger CPU and iGPU, while costing around the same on the used market and only a little more if you could still find it new.
With these new prices, that value gap looks even worse.
The comparison gets uglier when rivals enter the chat. At US$899.99, the ASUS ROG Ally X suddenly looks much more attractive. For shoppers comparing handhelds on pure price-to-performance feel, Lenovo’s latest pricing makes the sales pitch a lot tougher.
Why Malaysian and SEA buyers should care
Even if these are US prices, this kind of jump matters for us in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia too.
Handheld gaming PCs are already expensive in this region once reseller margins, shipping, and limited stock get involved. So when a device gets a major bump in the US, local pricing usually does not become prettier. If anything, it makes these machines feel even more niche, especially for buyers who are already comparing them against a gaming laptop, a PS5, or a cheaper handheld option.
For Malaysian gamers, the Legion Go S was easier to understand when it sat closer to the “high-end but still maybe can consider” bracket. At these newer prices, it starts entering the kind of territory where people will ask a very simple question: bro, why not just get something else?
And honestly, that is the issue Lenovo now has to deal with. Once buyers start cross-shopping against stronger alternatives, or even older models with better hardware balance, the Legion Go S stops feeling like the practical choice.
If this is part of a wider memory-cost squeeze, handheld buyers may need to get used to uglier pricing for a while. But for now, Lenovo’s “budget” handheld has lost a lot of the value appeal that made it interesting in the first place.
Source: TechPowerUp