It’s no secret that Windows 11 isn’t exactly tailored for handhelds, but Lenovo’s new Legion Go S puts that problem under a particularly harsh spotlight. In theory, it’s a great little gaming companion: portable, cheaper than the original Legion Go at £479, and packing a good AMD chip. But in practice, the real bottleneck isn’t the silicon. It’s the operating system.
Dave2D recently put Windows 11 and SteamOS head-to-head on the very same Legion Go S hardware. By loading up both operating systems on identical machines, he showed in no uncertain terms how SteamOS simply runs better. Smoother framerates, lower power draw, quicker wake-up times, and all from the very same hardware. There’s no fine print or driver asterisk here: SteamOS just gets the job done cleaner, and that shouldn’t really surprise anyone.
We’ve known since Steam Deck launched that Windows 11 is more of a square peg in a round hole when it comes to portable play. Installing Microsoft’s OS on Valve’s handheld has always been a kludge; usable, but far from elegant. It lacks proper scaling, juggles unnecessary background services, and still doesn’t have a meaningful game-first shell like SteamOS’s Big Picture. That Legion Go S highlights these shortcomings so starkly is more a consequence of Microsoft’s inertia than Lenovo’s design.
It’s not just about boot times and interface awkwardness, either. Dave2D’s tests found that performance was, on average, worse on Windows despite the OS technically offering more flexibility and compatibility. With the exception of Marvel’s Spider-Man performing 1fps worse on SteamOS, Helldivers 2, Doom Eternal, and The Witcher 3 all raced past their Windows 11 counterparts with higher frame rates. Cyberpunk 2077 showcased the starkest uplift, with Valve’s compatibility layer touting a 28% leap going from 46fps to 59fps, close enough to that coveted 60fps mark we always aim for.
It’s not all doom and gloom, of course. There’s talk behind the scenes of Microsoft working more closely with OEMs to improve the Windows-on-handheld experience. That includes collaborations with Asus and even murmurs of a dedicated Xbox handheld. What form this may take is anyone’s guess, but I’d err on the side of it being more UI and navigation-based than core optimisations that’ll improve performance if I were a betting man.
Until then, SteamOS continues to feel like the future, while Windows 11 clings stubbornly to its desktop roots. And for devices like Legion Go S, that’s a shame, because the hardware deserves better.
