The stars are aligning on CES 2025 being a big one for PC gaming handhelds — from the rumored launch of the next-gen AMD Ryzen Z2 chipsets to various hardware leaks including the budget Lenovo Legion Go S.
Well, we now have another interesting piece of this puzzle. Lenovo is running an event about “the future of gaming handhelds,” and as noted in an email received by The Verge, Valve — the company behind the Steam Deck and SteamOS — is set to be on-stage with Lenovo.
Surely, that can only mean one thing, right? I mean with all the “Powered By SteamOS” branding guidelines that Valve has and my reporting on turning any PC gaming handheld into a Steam Deck leading to improved performance and battery life, we could be looking at implicit confirmation that Lenovo’s going to launch a SteamOS-powered handheld.
Microsoft must be Steam-ing
It’s not the first time we caught wind of this, as reliable leaker Evan Blass also revealed that a Steam Button has been spotted on a Lenovo Legion Go S (in a now-deleted X post). Pair that with the January 7th event titled “Lenovo Legion x AMD: The Future of Gaming Handhelds,” and you can see all the pieces being put together.
SteamOS and Steam Deck co-designer Pierre-Loup Griffais will be Valve’s special guest for this event. And if I was to be a betting man, I’d start to tie all these threads together and predict a Lenovo Legion Go lineup with AMD Ryzen Z2 and Z2 Extreme that come with SteamOS.
That’s not to say that Windows won’t be a part of this. Jason Ronald, Microsoft’s VP of Xbox Gaming Devices and Ecosystem, will also be on stage with Lenovo.
But as Tony Polanco said in our Asus ROG Ally X review, Windows “absolutely sucks” on a gaming handheld, and it looks as if hardware manufacturers like Lenovo are responding by giving people the choice between this and SteamOS. Translation: users may be able to opt for either Valve or Windows at the checkout screen.
And with an Xbox gaming handheld still seemingly a long ways away, this could be Valve’s chance to spread its dominance and bring its stellar OS and storefront to more hardware. All we can hope is that Ronald is jumping on stage to talk about a more handheld-centric gaming version of Windows that ditches the traditional start screen.
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