We’re THIS close to getting official SteamOS on a non-Valve handheld. And by “this” I mean a couple of months or so.
SteamOS is coming to PC handhelds other than Valve’s own Steam Deck. We heard a short but official confirmation last year, and then Lenovo confirmed a SteamOS-flavored version of its new Legion Go S design at CES 2025. We’ve got a vague idea of how far away the launch is—the Windows version is already out—but it looks like SteamOS developers are hard at work preparing for it.
Near the top of the patch notes for the recent SteamOS 3.7.0 preview (spotted by Windows Central) is “Beginnings of support for non-Steam Deck handhelds.” Go ahead and put that champagne on ice.
Now, there’s certainly a lot of work that needs to be done for any new hardware. SteamOS is Linux-based, so it doesn’t have the same kind of plug-and-play goodness that Windows does… and even Windows isn’t without its own hiccups. Steam Deck alternatives usually have a few hardware foibles, like the ROG Ally’s lack of touchpads and both the Ally’s and Legion Go’s more high-res screens. But it should also be a fairly smooth transition since most current handheld gaming PCs are based on extremely similar AMD APUs.
With the disclaimer that I am not a software developer, I’d venture a guess that most of the work Valve needs to do is in testing rather than full-on development. SteamOS is already pretty darn robust after more than ten years, and end users have already booted up something that’s nearly identical to the “official” SteamOS on these devices using tools like Bazzite. Considering how shaky Windows 11 is on handheld PCs, who could blame them? Hopefully, with some official support for third-party hardware, these options will expand.
The Legion Go S Powered by SteamOS—Lenovo’s full and terrible title—is roughly slated for release in “the first half of the year.” It’ll be less powerful, but also cheaper, than the white Windows-powered version, which has already been released. You can check out our review of it here.
