Technologies

Lenovo Legion Go S Is My New Favorite Way to Play Call of Duty Anywhere

With Battlefield 6 on its way, its time to take the fight on the road with my new gaming handheld, the Lenovo Legion Go S.

As a tech enthusiast, I do buy a lot of stuff (you know, just doing my bit!), but I believe the Lenovo Legion Go S is the best purchase I’ve made since the pandemic. The reason why? Sitting in bed and playing Call of Duty multiplayer is one of my new favorite things to do. It does come with some compromises, but playing my favorite game without setting foot on the floor? Worth it.

I spent a lot of time trying to decide which handheld to buy, whether the Steam Deck, the Nintendo Switch 2 or any one of a number of Windows devices. Here’s why I chose the Legion Go S and why I’ll probably never install SteamOS on it.

Also read: Best Handheld Gaming for 2025

Which handheld should I choose?

When I was looking for a handheld, I had only tried a handful of them before. I have used the ROG device and both Switches (and I own the original) but have still not played the OG: the Steam Deck. I have also envied friends’ Decks, but they have always seemed kinda janky, and you can’t play the latest Call of Duty or Battlefield games on SteamOS due to their respective antipiracy restrictions.

I was a little tempted by the prospect of the $450 Nintendo Switch 2, but having to build up a brand new library — and pay an eye-popping $80 a game — put me off. With the Legion S, I had the ability to enjoy every PC game I’ve ever played, and just for an extra $50 over the Switch.

Yes, I have read Scott Stein’s review of this Lenovo handheld, but I come at this device from 30 years of playing FPS games on PC. I know a lot about Windows’ shortcomings, and its… longcomings? Strengths? Strengths! Even so, I think this PC/gaming hybrid is exactly what I have dreamed about since playing Doom on my first 486.

A PC, but for your hands

The Legion Go S I bought features an AMD Ryzen Z2 Go chip with 32GB of RAM and a roomy 1TB of drive space. It cost $500, and that price is still available. You can buy the Legion Go S with Steam OS for $100 more right now, but it has lower specs.

I’ve seen a lot of people on Reddit who either bought the SteamOS version or bought the Windows version and installed Steam over the top— the latter is what I planned to do, too. However, I had the console in my hands for less than 5 minutes and decided it didn’t make sense to swap the OS. Keeping Windows not only gives me access to Steam and Xbox Games Pass, but also Blizzard and all of the other gaming apps I use.

There is the option to dual-boot into both Windows and Steam OS, but I haven’t seen the need so far. I have seen people complain about having to wait for Windows to boot, but I just leave it in standby with a click of the power button. Click again. It’s almost instantaneous.

I’ve just come back from a walk to the park, to eat some lunch and play a little of the new Battlefield beta on the Legion Go S (Windows). While my dog wasn’t impressed by the lack of walking we were doing, I had a real blast just killing time (and bad guys). It’s worth noting here that, as a beta, Battlefield 6 is not in any way optimized for specialized devices like the Legion Go S. For instance, I needed to calibrate the Legion’s joysticks to make them more responsive — they were very slow — and so in the meantime, Call of Duty is a much more streamlined experience.

On that point, Call of Duty on the Legion Go S is super smooth, and it’s fun to pick up a quick round of Gun Game. It’s the more casual games that work best on this device, and I can plug in for a few minutes, get some frags and get on with my day. If I’m looking to play something more involved — like Battlefield Conquest, then a PC is better.

However, I do think Scott Stein’s review of the device is right on the money with many of his points. Particularly in terms of loading times of games — the handheld can just look like it’s stopped working — and it takes about a minute for Call of Duty to load every time. Not great for the «casual» vibe, but meh, I can live with it. In addition, you will definitely need to turn some of the settings in FPS games right down.

Bridging the gap

Until now, all of my PC gaming was done on an Intel desktop — which I did buy in the middle of the pandemic — and so it’s getting a little long in the tooth now. I do top it up with more storage and RAM when it’s needed. My main game machine for the past few years has actually been the Xbox Series X, but now the Lenovo is helping bridge the gap between lean-forward and lean-back gaming on the couch.

While my PC and Xbox are still great, it’s not always convenient to game in the ways I want. For instance, in addition to loads of Call of Duty and Battlefield, I also play Steam library party games like Pummel Party and Jackbox Games. Until now, I’d stream them from my PC into the living room using Steam Link. But this method does introduce some lag and the occasional image defect, and not to mention that it’s clunky — sometimes I’ll need to duck back into the other room to fix something. Now, with the addition of a $30-plus dock, I can plug the Legion straight into my TV.

As a longtime Windows user, it’s the ability to do anything on the Legion that a PC can do that is most enticing. I even used its on-screen keyboard to write this sentence. Though… I just found that more awkward than a physical keyboard, and the text was filled with errors — it would be OK to use in a pinch, but a physical keyboard is still king. The lack of a keyboard has another downside: It’s not possible to do shortcuts as easily. It’s a matter of learning a bunch of new buttons, and forget about navigating with the onboard «pointer» — it’s awkward and quite imprecise.

Final thoughts

Do I top the Call of Duty leaderboards using a handheld? I did… once. But mostly, I’m terrible. The Go is a little too heavy and bulky to be fully agile with the right joystick, in particular, as you’re usually supporting the device’s weight. You can put it on a table, and when I did that with the natty 8BitDo Lite controller, it was a lot easier to control. I still died a lot, though. I am better with a mouse and keyboard.

Mostly, though, I play on the Legion Go S because I can get my CoD fix without the hassle of sitting at a desk or turning on the living room TV and Xbox. Dead Kennedys said it best when it named its album «Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death.» Ideally, those deaths would involve those of the opposing team, but really, I’m just happy to be involved.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 24, #927

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Dec. 24 #927

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough. Ooh, that purple category! Once again, you’ll need to look inside words for hidden words. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Cash out.

Green group hint: Chomp

Blue group hint: Walleye and salmon.

Purple group hint: Make a musical sound, with a twist.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Slang for money.

Green group: Masticate.

Blue group: Fish.

Purple group: Ways to vocalize musically plus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is slang for money. The four answers are bacon, bread, cheese and paper.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is masticate. The four answers are bite, champ, chew and munch.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is fish. The four answers are char, pollock, sole and tang.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ways to vocalize musically plus a letter. The four answers are hump (hum), rapt (rap), singe (sing) and whistler (whistle).

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Toughest Connections puzzles

We’ve made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they’ll help you see patterns in future puzzles.

#5: Included «things you can set,» such as mood, record, table and volleyball.

#4: Included «one in a dozen,» such as egg, juror, month and rose.

#3: Included «streets on screen,» such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.

#2: Included «power ___» such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.

#1: Included «things that can run,» such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Dec. 24

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 24.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I’m Irish-American, but yet 6-Down, which involves Ireland, stumped me at first. Read on for all the answers.. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Wordle or Boggle
Answer: GAME

5A clue: Big Newton
Answer: ISAAC

7A clue: Specialized vocabulary
Answer: LINGO

8A clue: «See you in a bit!»
Answer: LATER

9A clue: Tone of many internet comments
Answer: SNARK

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Sharks use them to breathe
Answer: GILLS

2D clue: From Singapore or South Korea, say
Answer: ASIAN

3D clue: Large ocean ray
Answer: MANTA

4D clue: ___ beaver
Answer: EAGER

6D clue: Second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland, after Dublin
Answer: CORK

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

Quadrantids Is a Short but Sweet Meteor Shower Just After New Year’s. How to See It

This meteor shower has one of the most active peaks, but it doesn’t last for very long.

The Quadrantids has the potential to be one of the most active meteor showers of the year, and skygazers won’t have long to wait to see it. The annual shower is predicted to reach maximum intensity on Jan. 3. And with a display that can rival Perseids, Quadrantids could be worth braving the cold to see it.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

The show officially begins on Dec. 28 and lasts until Jan. 12, according to the American Meteor Society. Quadrantids is scheduled to peak on Jan. 2-3, when it may produce upwards of 125 meteors per hour. This matches Perseids and other larger meteor showers on a per-hour rate, but Quadrantids also has one of the shortest peaks at just 6 hours, so it rarely produces as many meteors overall as the other big ones.

The meteor shower comes to Earth courtesy of the 2003 EH1 asteroid, which is notable because most meteor showers are fed from comets, not asteroids. Per NASA, 2003 EH1 is a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun once every five and a half years. Science posits that 2003 EH1 was a comet in a past life, but too many trips around the sun stripped it of its ice, leaving only its rocky core. The Earth runs through EH1’s orbital debris every January, which results in the Quadrantids meteor shower.

How and where to see Quadrantids

Quadrantids is named for the constellation where its meteors appear to originate, a point known as the radiant. This presents another oddity, as the shower originates from the constellation Quadrans Muralis. This constellation ceased to be recognized as an official constellation in the 1920s and isn’t available on most publicly accessible sky maps.

For the modern skygazer, you’ll instead need to find the Bootes and Draco constellations, both of which contain stars that were once a part of the Quadrans Muralis. Draco will be easier to find after sunset on the evening of Jan. 2, and will be just above the horizon in the northern sky. Bootes orbits around Draco, but will remain under the horizon until just after 1 a.m. local time in the northeastern sky. From that point forward, both will sit in the northeastern part of the sky until sunrise. You’ll want to point your chair in that direction and stay there to see meteors.

As the American Meteor Society notes, Quadrantids has a short but active peak, lasting around 6 hours. The peak is expected to start around 4 p.m. ET and last well into the evening. NASA predicts the meteor shower to start one day later on Jan. 3-4, so if you don’t see any on the evening of Jan. 2, try again on Jan. 3.

To get the best results, the standard space viewing tips apply. You’ll want to get as far away from the city and suburbs as possible to reduce light pollution. Since it’ll be so cold outside, dress warmly and abstain from alcoholic beverages, as they can affect your body temperature. You won’t need any binoculars or telescopes, and the reduced field of view may actually impact your ability to see meteors.

The bad news is that either way, the Quadrantids meteor shower coincides almost perfectly with January’s Wolf Moon, which also happens to be a supermoon. This will introduce quite a lot of light pollution, which will likely drown out all but the brightest meteors. So, while it may have a peak of over 100 meteors per hour, both NASA and the AMS agree that the more realistic expectation is 10 or so bright meteors per hour.