Almost exactly a year ago, we publicly longed for the day when more portable gaming PC makers could ditch Windows in favor of SteamOS (without having to resort to delicate unofficial workarounds). Now, that day has finally arrived, with Lenovo announcing the upcoming Legion Go S as the first non-Valve handheld to come with an officially licensed copy of SteamOS preinstalled. And Valve promises that it will soon ship a beta version of SteamOS for users to “download and try for themselves.”
As Lenovo's slightly scaled-down follow-up to 2023's massive Legion Go, the Legion Go S won't feature its predecessor's detachable controllers. But the new PC gaming handheld will come in two distinct versions, one with the now-standard installation of Windows 11 and another edition that's the first to sport the (recently leaked) “Powered by SteamOS” branding.
The lack of a Windows license appears to contribute to a lower starting cost for the “Powered by SteamOS” edition of Legion Go S, which will start at $500 when it becomes available in May. Lenovo says the Windows edition of the device, available this month, will start at $730, with “additional configurations” available in May starting at $600.
The Windows version of Legion Go S will come with a different color and a higher price. Credit: Lenovo
Both the Windows and SteamOS versions of the Legion Go S will weigh 1.61 pounds with an 8-inch 1200p 120Hz LCD display, up to 32GB of RAM, and AMD's new Ryzen Z2 Go chipset or an older Z1 core.
Careful, Windows?
Valve said in a blog post on Tuesday that Legion Go S will have the same version of SteamOS that is currently on the Steam Deck. The company's work to bring SteamOS to the Legion Go S will also “improve compatibility with other handhelds,” Valve said, and the company “is working on SteamOS support for more devices in the future.”