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

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.

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. And at $499, it’ll be a true Steam Deck rival, joining it as one of the lower-priced PC handhelds you can buy.

Valve is making a notable shift with its portable gaming strategy as Lenovo debuted a new edition of its Legion Go gaming handheld that runs Valve’s custom operating system.

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.

Lenovo has announced two new iterations on the Legion Go, a PC gaming handheld it released in October 2023. The Legion Go 2 will be a beefier—and likely pricier—version of Lenovo's first-generation device,

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.