Lenovo reveals first Steam OS handheld not made by Valve

Lenovo has revealed the Legion Go S, the first PC gaming handheld to use Steam OS that isn’t made by Valve themselves.

Since the launch of Valve’s Steam Deck, the handheld gaming PC market has boomed in popularity.

Multiple brands have released their own handhelds, with the Asus Rog Ally and Lenovo Legion Go being the most popular Windows 11 handhelds on the market.

Many have been itching for a new handheld running Valve’s Linux-based Steam OS, and Lenovo’s latest announcement has them excited.

The Lenovo Legion Go S comes in a Steam OS variant

Lenovo debuted several new handhelds at CES 2025, and MicroCenter has shared the details on its blog. Adding to its existing lineup is the Legion Go S, a smaller version of its massive 8.8″ Legion Go Windows handheld with detachable controllers.

Most importantly, though, it comes in a Steam OS variant, making Lenovo the first company to release a Steam OS handheld that isn’t Valve itself.

On top of that, Lenovo is also going to offer a Windows version of the Legion Go S for those looking to maintain easy access to things like the Xbox game store and games like Apex Legends that don’t work on Linux.

As for the design and specs, Microcenter says they’ll both offer either AMD’s new Ryzen Z2 Go processor or its existing Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which is the CPU used in Asus’ higher-end Rog Ally. It’ll also feature an eight-inch IPS display at 1920×1200 and 32 GB of RAM.

The Windows version will be released in January 2025 for $729, with the Steam OS variant coming in May of this year for an as-yet-unknown price.

This comes just after one of Valve’s developers took to his Bluesky account to debunk rumors that AMD’s new Z2 processors will power the Steam Deck 2.

Valve has previously stated that they are waiting for a “generational jump in performance” before releasing a refresh of the aging handheld, and it looks like the wait is going to continue.