SteamOS officially runs on a non-Valve system

Summary

Lenovo recently revealed that its upcoming Legion Go S gaming handheld will ship with Valve's SteamOS operating system.
Valve has been working on extending SteamOS to third-party devices for quite some time now, and the Lenovo Legion Go S is the very first implementation of the same.
The Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS will cost $499 and will be released in May 2025.

The newly announced Lenovo Legion Go S is the first third-party gaming handheld to ship with ValveSteamOS operating system. SteamOS was previously only available on the Steam Deck, but starting with the Lenovo Legion Go S, Valve is finally expanding the operating system to third-party devices.

Although the Steam Deck faces stiff competition from newer, more powerful gaming handhelds such as the Asus ROG Ally X and the MSI Claw 8 AI+, Valve's system has always had an ace up its sleeve. Where other gaming handhelds rely on Windows, which isn't fully optimized for portable use, the Steam Deck's Linux-based SteamOS offers a much smoother console-like user experience. While SteamOS is one of Steam Deck's prominent competitive advantages, Valve has been working to make the operating system available on third-party devices for several years now, and now is the time.

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Some recent leaks claimed that the upcoming variant of Lenovo's Legion Go S gaming handheld will come with SteamOS pre-installed, and CES 2025 has confirmed these claims to be true. Lenovo took to the stage at CES 2025 to announce a pair of new Legion Go handhelds, namely the Legion Go 2 and the Legion Go S. The former is expected to be a proper successor to the Lenovo Legion Go, while the Legion Go S offers similar performance. like the current model in a lighter and more compact design. However, Lenovo Legion Go S paves the way for greater consumer choice in the handheld gaming PC space, as one of its two versions will be powered by SteamOS.

Details on the Lenovo Legion Go S handheld gaming PC

SteamOS version

It uses Valve's Linux-based SteamOS operating system
Launching in May 2025 for $499
Available only in 16GB RAM / 512GB storage configuration

Windows version

It uses Windows 11
Launching in January 2025
$599 for 16GB RAM/1TB storage, $729 for 32GB RAM/1TB storage

Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS will be sold for $499 (16GB RAM / 512GB Storage) when it goes on sale May 2025. Valve also confirmed that SteamOS will have full feature parity on the Lenovo Legion Go S, and every SteamOS device will receive the same software updates as the Steam Deck, with the exception of hardware improvements. For those who prefer the familiarity of Windows, Lenovo will also offer a Windows version of the Legion Go S. This variant is to go on sale in January 2025 and starts at 599 dollars with 16 GB RAM / 1 TB storage up to 729 dollars for 32 GB RAM / 1 TB storage. As for the Legion Go 2 flagship, Lenovo currently has no plans to ship the handheld with SteamOS, but that could change if demand for the SteamOS Legion Go S is strong enough.

At the time of writing, Lenovo is the only manufacturer working with Valve for licensed SteamOS devices. However, owners of other gaming handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally will soon be able to try out SteamOS on their systems. Along with the Lenovo Legion Go S reveal, Valve published a blog post on Steam confirming that a public beta version of SteamOS will be shipping to “users on other handhelds” in the coming months.

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