SteamOS is coming to third-party handhelds, starting with the Lenovo Legion Go S

Why it matters: It has agelong been speculated that Valve intends to grow nan scope of its SteamOS Linux distribution beyond nan Steam Deck, pinch Lenovo's upcoming Legion Go exemplary perchance playing a important domiciled successful those plans. Following Lenovo's announcements astatine CES, a clearer timeline for nan wide readiness of SteamOS is now materializing, hinting astatine important ramifications for nan early of handheld gaming PCs.

Starting successful May, customers will beryllium capable to acquisition Lenovo's recently announced Legion Go S handheld gaming PC pinch Valve's SteamOS operating strategy arsenic an replacement to Windows. However, Valve has confirmed that it plans to merchandise a SteamOS beta for different handhelds moreover earlier, apt successful April.

While nan Steam Deck's hardware whitethorn beryllium slower than competing devices from Lenovo, Asus, MSI, and GPD successful position of earthy performance, its operating strategy is arguably its top asset. Unlike Windows, which tin consciousness cumbersome connected mini screens, SteamOS is designed specifically for controller-based interfaces and includes optimizations to amended performance.

Valve plans to let owners of different handhelds to download and trial SteamOS sometime betwixt March and May, earlier nan Legion Go S originates shipping pinch it pre-installed. The download will characteristic nan aforesaid package image utilized for nan Steam Deck, ensuring users person nan aforesaid patches and pre-compiled shaders that Valve regularly releases for its flagship handheld.

Although different devices will person entree to SteamOS earlier nan Legion Go S launches, Lenovo's reduced pricing could make nan handheld peculiarly attractive. The Windows 11 type of nan Legion Go S will beryllium disposable later this period starting astatine $729, pinch further configurations arriving successful May starting astatine $599. However, nan Linux-based SteamOS version will commencement astatine conscionable $499, apt owed to nan deficiency of a Windows license.

So far, Valve has not disclosed plans for different manufacturers to pre-install SteamOS connected their devices, but specified a improvement seems inevitable. If much manufacturers statesman offering SteamOS configurations astatine little prices for handhelds aliases different gaming PC shape factors, it could airs a superior situation to Windows successful this market.

Lenovo has positioned nan Legion Go S arsenic a smaller, much affordable version of nan handheld it released successful 2023. This caller exemplary forgoes nan detachable Switch-style controllers and makes insignificant concessions successful show size, resolution, refresh rate, and performance. It features nan Ryzen Z2 Go processor, which is apt based connected AMD's mature Rembrandt architecture, pinch 12 RDNA 2 graphics cores.

For those seeking a higher-end option, nan modular shape facet will return later this twelvemonth pinch nan Lenovo Legion Go 2, featuring an OLED screen, 32GB of 7500MHz LPDDR5X RAM, and a Zen 5-based Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU pinch 16 RDNA 3.5 cores.