Lenovo announced at CES 2026 that it would be launching an official SteamOS version of the Legion Go 2 gaming handheld. In anticipation of that launch, ETA Prime, the YouTuber known for his handheld gaming PC testing, has tested SteamOS on the original Windows version of the Legion Go 2 to get an idea of what the performance and experience will be when the official version launches around mid-2026. Right off the bat, it seems as though Lenovo and Valve's ongoing efforts to improve SteamOS support for the Legion Go 2 have paid off, as the SteamOS experience on the Legion Go 2 is almost feature-complete, with the only missing feature being software control of the RGB rings under the joy sticks—aside from that, everything from display brightness and networking to TDP and TGP control and performance profiles appear to work just as well as they do on Valve's own Steam Deck.

In the Legion Go 2, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme performs admirably under SteamOS. Even at a low 16 W TDP, running at 1600 × 1000 pixels, and with the Steam Deck preset enabled, the Legion Go 2 managed around 49 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077. Stepping that up to 35 W in Performance mode and 1200p resolution, the Z2 Extreme kicks up the frame rate to 61 FPS. It also proves to be quite efficient, drawing just 9 W from the battery in Low Power mode while playing lightweight indie games at a locked 60 FPS. Even the notoriously challenging Borderlands 4 manages to run at 57-60 FPS in Performance mode on the Legion Go 2 in the default Steam Deck graphics mode. In our in-depth performance review of Borderlands 4 , we found that the Steam Deck only managed around 20-25 FPS, which we found to be unplayable, even if you're used to the lower frame rates associated with gaming handhelds. Other games in ETA Prime's test suite included Mortal Kombat 1, Spider-Man 2, and Doom: The Dark Ages, and in all of them, the gaming handheld managed to maintain a smooth frame rate at or above 60 FPS, even at the display's native 1200p resolution. With a spot of FSR, Spider-Man 2 even averaged above 70 FPS at medium settings and at 35 W TDP. Battery life also seemed quite decent, with the Legion Go 2 getting over seven hours of use in Low Power mode while playing indie games. AAA gameplay in Balanced mode, meanwhile, dropped that down to two hours and 45 minutes, while unleashing the full 35 W in Performance mode with AAA gaming loads resulted in a runtime of an hour and 20 minutes. The full video is available below for more details.