Steam Deck OLED Vs Legion Go Review: Did I Make The Right Choice?

I dumped my Lenova Legion go for this shiny new steam deck olab and what I discovered was surprising but before we get into my personal experience let's dive into a quick overview of each device the Lenovo Legion go has a starting price of $699 with 512 GB of storage and $749 with 1 tab of storage unless you're lucky enough to find it on sale the steam deck OLED starts at $549 for 512 GB and $649 for the 1 TB model the seem deck OLED at face value May significantly cheaper than the legion go but you have to consider that the legion go uses a much stronger chip and makes use of an 8.8 in 1600p 144 HZ IPS display versus the steam deck which uses a weaker chip and has an 800p 90 HZ OLED screen both have 16 GB of lpddr5 RAM and both come with very solid carrying cases however the deck has a twoin one case which I really appreciate the main thing above all else that separates each of these handhelds is the software the legion go is running a full featured version of Windows 11 and the steam deck ol is running valve's custom Steam OS which is based on Linux each of these software choices have their pros and cons which make a huge difference in day-to-day usage I will get into this more in depth later in the video but considering the legion go has doubled the resolution almost double the refresh rate and double the power that would mean that the legion go is twice as good as the steam deck right well in my personal experience with both devices I've actually learned that things aren't that straightforward the first thing that became immediately noticeable to me after switching to the steam deck ol is how much lighter and more comfortable it is to hold the steam deck's weight comes in 140 G and the Lenova Legion go weighs 8544 G while the added hefton the legion go may feel more expensive at first it quickly becomes very tiresome when you're holding it for Long play sessions because the controllers really dig into the palms of your hands I also have grown to appreciate the joystick and button orientation much better on the steam deck ol the joysticks are placed at the top of the device with the buttons and d-pad to the right and left of each joystick if I had to make a comparison it would be to the Wii U gamepad but despite out offputting it appeared to me initially it surprisingly felt completely natural to hold the moment I picked it it up the thumb sticks are also much more normal sized than the legion go which has smaller thumb sticks and I do find them to be more comfortable as well however the legion go uses hall effect joysticks so you will never have to worry about them drifting which could be a huge deel breaker depending on who you ask but the joysticks on the steam deck OLED are replaceable if need be side note the seam deck OLED also just looks a lot more adult or less gamery in design which in my opinion is preferable for using in public or on a plane or train or whatever you guys want to use with it but I know that Aesthetics are completely subjective so you can completely ignore this session if you really don't care or you have a different preference whatever but less subjective are the features of each device the steam deck ol has two track beds of haptic feedback and often makes maneuvering the UI very smooth and easy Legion go also has a singular trackpad however it wasn't nearly as responsive but I still appreciate that it had one because it made using Windows much easier but the Dex trackpads which I thought I would never actually use in the first place quickly became a game changer for me I find myself using these to navigate the UI and even sometimes as a pad in certain games heck even though left one doubles as a scroll wheel in desktop mode which makes browsing super easy however I can't help but feel the legion go got it right with including a built-in kickstand while this is mainly due to the gimmick of being able to remove the controllers I still believe the steam deck Ola could have greatly benefited from one especially because I find plain Shooters on devices like this a bit awkward and difficult to aim without a keyboard or mouse or a real dedicated controller the legion Go's main selling point however is its detachable controllers which is similar to how the Nintendo switch works with the right control being capable of turning into a vertical Mouse while this is really cool I don't find myself missing it as I barely used it outside of saying to a friend dude you got to check this out watch this and it's definitely a feature I can live without and one that I don't miss Since switching over to the steam deck if I really wanted to I could use a mouse on it but wait I would need a kickstand for that um yeah valve you you guys better have a kickstand next time around fingers crossed for the steam deck 2 kickstand now let's talk about the elephant in the room and that is the display of the Ste steam deck OLED as we discussed earlier the deck uses an 800p OLED display capable of HDR 1000 nits and that OLED display is immediately noticeable in games like cyberpunk 2077 Elden ring and doometernal which make great use of HDR but the real game changer here is the contrast paired of HDR the OLED obliterates the legion go when it comes to contrast and in some cases makes a more dramatic difference than better graphic settings do originally I thought that going from 1600p to 800p would be a dramatic change and would instantly make me regret my decision to switch to the steam deck olet and I would be returning it immediately but in reality I barely noticed a difference and I promise you it's not because I have bad eyes I I checked I I wear context guys okay I go to I I see an eye doctor but I think this is mostly because the legion go has its best performance in battery life running at 800p internally on the 1600p screen with some upscaling or stretching which didn't always really look the best to me however the smaller screen on this steam deck OLED helps a a little with pixel density which makes the perceptual difference in resolution a little bit less dramatic than you think while 1600p 144 HZ is better than 800p 90 HZ it is rarely relevant considering the hardware limitations and cost to battery life but if I had the steam deck OLED and Legion go play next to each other would I notice the difference yes but is the higher resolution display a game changer in most games no is native 1600p worth the battery life and performance sacrifice on a handheld not at all however I do find myself wishing for the higher resolution higher refresh rate display from the legion go when I play Indie titles but the true blacks from the OLED screen and 90 HZ do more than enough to make me quickly forget about it so with the steam deck OLED you'll be getting half the resolution at 800p but double the value with lower latency true blacks and HDR 1000 but now let's talk about software and user interface as I stated earlier the steam deck OLED using Linux over Windows has its pros and cons one of the greatest advantages of using Linux and Steam OS instead of Windows is that the experience on Steam OS is console likee and that I can just pick up the steam deck OLED tap the game I want to play and not have to think too much about it in my opinion this is the ideal entry point into PC gaming for console Gamers Steam OS and Linux are also much better optimized for gaming and it allows the weaker chip in the steam deck to really shine through as there are very few games as dig founder puts it that are too big for steam deck however using a Linux based OS has its drawbacks as well like the fact that you can't play Xbox game pass on here well this isn't a huge issue for everyone it is however a bit of a bummer because Game Pass has a massive library of games that I would love to test on the steam deck OLED but can't without purchasing each individual title on Steam but not having Game Pass is not the end of the world as you can also use tricks to get epic games Ubisoft EA and other launchers to run on it but if you are a fan of certain competitive shooters that Implement anti-che you might be so because I discovered quickly that certain anti-che platforms just don't work on Linux this became clear to me when I tried to play Call of Duty on here and it wouldn't run so yeah not every game can run on the steam that goed while the legion go can the retically run everything I still had to deal with Windows which at times was a bit of a pain in the you know what and with Windows you also have to make sure that each of your individual drivers are all up to date deal with bloatware and updates that sometimes mess up files without any notice at all so I really hope Windows comes out with an Xbox operating system similar to what valve did with Steam OS so finally let's discuss the gaming experience on the steam deck OLED and how it has differ and switching over to it to be completely honest I've discovered that there are very few games that can run on Legion go that can't run on the steam deck solely because of power and this is because of valve's optimization which only works on Linux or their custom operating system and the performance Gap really isn't that noticeable between the two devices when you're not comparing them directly side by side will you have to lower settings yes but are those lower settings really that noticeable at 800p not really is the frame rate lower yeah but you can lock it at any refresh rate between 30 and 90 FPS and call it a day there are some frame drops in modern AAA games but it's to be expected on a handheld that's running at 15 watts on on a battery but like I said earlier pretty much any game with HDR properly implemented in it is going to look great on the deck OLED and in some cases blows me away at how much of a difference it can make but darker games especially like Resident Evil 4 really shine in the steam deck OLED and make me forget about the lower resolution lower FPS and low settings because of the contrasting HDR implementation in my opinion this is the definitive handheld for horror games at least for now plus the battery on the steam deck go is the best I've experienced on a handheld this year the amount of performance you getting with the length of battery life is quite frankly amazing the steam deck is still the king of 15 watt gaming as the legion go tends to struggle at 15 watts in comparison this is where the steam deck really separates itself from me the whole point of having a handheld gaming device is to be able to play your video game library on the go and the steam deck ol allows you to do that for the longest amount of time one area however where the legion go really shines over the steam deck OLED was with emulation the 1600p display is amazing for switch emulation and I really do miss the legion Go's display because of this it's like having a souped up Nintendo switch before it even comes out however the steam deck ol can still emulate games perfectly but you are stuck with 800p but the lower red screen really doesn't matter for older games that might actually benefit from the OLED especially those that are natively 4x3 due to the lack of a back light at the end of the day choosing a handheld is challenging because each device has features I'd love to combine to my ideal gaming device if I could I'd take the HDR OLED battery life and form factor from the steam deck and I'd also take the power screen resolution in effect joysticks of the Legion go to create a super handheld but everyone seeks different things in their handheld gaming device and you really can't go wrong with any of them but overall what genuinely amazed me throughout this experience was how the decrease in performance transitioning from the Z1 extreme in the legion go to a less powerful Apu in the steam deck was almost imperceptible to me I could tell there was a difference but it quickly became irrelevant to me when I discovered all the other advantages the steam deck OLED has over it the steam deck is more comfortable it has a more console like gaming experience it has an amazing 800p 990 HZ OLED display with true HDR and most importantly the best battery life I've had in a gaming handheld outside of maybe the Nintendo switch which I'm not even sure even counts in this conversation however the legion go is a very good handheld in its own right when you consider that the display has the best specs I've seen in a handheld at 1600p 144 HZ coupled with interesting features such as FPS mode Windows if you prefer it Xbox game pass a more powerful chipset and most importantly a kickstand but after using the steam deck OLED for 2 months it definitely won me over as my daily driver for gaming handhelds and is my number one recommended handheld at the moment but we will see if that changes very soon with a growing number of competitive new handheld slight to hit the open market this year but in the meantime if you enjoyed this video leave a like And subscribe to see more content on upcoming handhelds and other new interesting gaming devices and until then this has been killer cam 1020 see you in the next one [Music] peace [Music]

Channel: Killercam1020

Views: 35,322

Keywords: steam deck oled, lenovo legion go, steam deck, handheld gaming, lenovo legion go review, legion go, steam deck oled vs legion go, steam deck oled battery life, lenovo legion go vs asus rog ally, steam deck oled vs rog ally, steam deck oled review, handheld pc, steam deck review, legion go vs steam deck, legion go review, lenovo legion go vs steam deck oled, killercam1020, asus rog ally, lenovo legion go vs steam deck, rog ally, msi claw, performance, review, pc gaming, valve

Id: -0sRKblIeqs

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2024