Valve revealed earlier this yr that it’ll assist the ROG Ally handheld with its Steam Deck working system, and now it seems like Lenovo will quickly have its personal SteamOS handheld, too. Evan Blass has posted photos of an unannounced Lenovo Legion Go S on X in the present day, revealing black and white variants of a handheld gaming PC. The attention-grabbing half? The black one has a Steam button.
Whereas the low decision photos don’t instantly scream SteamOS, when you look intently you’ll discover a Steam emblem is seen on a button to the left of the show. Curiously, the white mannequin doesn’t have the identical Steam button — which might point out Lenovo is making ready Home windows- and SteamOS-powered fashions of its Legion Go S.
PC makers like Lenovo, Asus, and MSI have all opted for Home windows-based handhelds to this point, however as shopper persistence with Home windows on tiny screens wears skinny and Microsoft’s progress in enhancing the expertise is gradual, it looks like OEMs are on the lookout for a greater different.
Lenovo’s potential entry right into a SteamOS handheld comes simply days after Valve quietly up to date a doc with new branding tips that embody “Powered by SteamOS” {hardware}. It’s the surest signal but that Valve is working with extra third-party {hardware} producers, past Asus, to certify gadgets with SteamOS. With CES 2025 only a few weeks away, we may very well be about to witness much more SteamOS-powered {hardware}.
Valve has been right here earlier than, although. At CES in 2013, it tried to tempt PC producers to enroll to its Steam Machines initiative, but it surely didn’t get far sufficient with builders to persuade them to port video games to Linux to make these machines profitable. There’s purpose to consider this time issues will likely be very completely different, due to Proton. The Steam Deck makes use of the Proton software program compatibility layer and has already proved that many Home windows video games may even run higher on Linux because of this.
