SteamOS is slowly becoming an alternative to Windows for handheld gaming devices. After launching the Steam Deck with SteamOS, its own operating system,

Lenovo is trying an experiment. In May, it will officially become the very first company outside of Valve to ship a handheld gaming PC with the Steam Deck’s wonderfully pick-up-and-play SteamOS instead of Microsoft Windows.

The Lenovo Legion Go S with Windows or SteamOS also joins a prototype for the Lenovo Go 2, now with controllers you can comfortably hold.

Valve is making a notable shift with its portable gaming strategy as Lenovo debuted a new edition of its Legion Go

Lenovo is now the first officially licensed company outside of Valve to adopt the company’s SteamOS into one of their in-line devices. Valve’s operating system SteamOS will provide Legion Go S users with a seamless gaming experience equipped with the power and flexibility of PC gaming.

SteamOS was always supposed to be bigger than Valve’s own Steam Deck, and 2025 is the year it finally expands. Not only will Lenovo ship the first third-party SteamOS handheld this May, Valve has now revealed it will let you install a working copy of SteamOS on other handhelds even sooner than that.

Acer joins the PC handheld market as Lenovo reveals a new Legion Go, but there’s only one PC gaming brand I’m looking for - and it still hasn’t shown its hand.

The Steam Deck launched in February 2022 and within months, it had changed the landscape of the video game industry and popularized the idea of handheld, portable gaming PCs. But the Steam Deck wasn’t powered by Windows as most gaming PCs are these days.

The Steam Deck has been the biggest PC gaming hardware story of the last few years. So it’s no surprise that the idea of running SteamOS (perhaps the most celebrated component of that machine) on other handhelds like the Legion Go S is also a big deal.

Windows 11 is often cited as the worst thing about handheld gaming PCs - but it looks like Microsoft could soon fix this.