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

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.

The Windows version of the Legion Go S is up for preorder ahead of its imminent release, while the SteamOS version is expected to arrive in May.

The SteamOS Legion Go S model is the most interesting of the two since it's the first non-Steam Deck handheld that utilizes Valve’s operating system. If you’ve read any of our handheld reviews, then you know Windows 11 has been a major sore spot for these systems since Microsoft’s OS doesn’t work well on these systems.

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.