One of the most exciting gaming announcements to come out of CES 2025 was Valve's plans to expand the Steam Deck's superior SteamOS to third-party handhelds. The first of which, the Legion Go S, is now available for pre-order — albeit with a price tag that's $50 over what Lenovo initially announced.
On Friday, Lenovo opened pre-orders for the Legion Go S powered by SteamOS at Best Buy, with the console set to release on May 25. Prices start at $549.99 for the baseline model with an 8-inch, 120Hz OLED display, 500GB of storage, 16GB of RAM and the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go chip. For $749, you can get an upgraded version with 1TB of storage, 32GB of RAM, and the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme found on the flagship Lenovo Legion Go.
PC-class gaming, now in your hands. Pre-order the new Lenovo Legion Go S with Steam OS at https://t.co/3jqjW1logY pic.twitter.com/5qb5nyzcTnMarch 28, 2025
And of course, both come pre-loaded with SteamOS, Valve's Linux-based, handheld gaming operating system that blows Windows out of the water. To put it simply, Windows 11 sucks for gaming handhelds. It's not designed for controller inputs or to be used on such a small screen, which makes navigating the UI a serious headache.
That starting price is nearly $200 cheaper than the existing Windows-powered Legion Go S model, but it's still a bit of a disappointment considering Lenovo announced in January that the SteamOS version would start at $499. At $550, you could get the Steam Deck OLED instead and enjoy its more vibrant display, lighter design, faster Wi-Fi and improved cooling over the original.
Odds are the $50 price jump won't be a dealbreaker for gamers looking to get their hands on one of the best Steam Deck alternatives. Though it does throw a bit of cold water on a big first for SteamOS.
Thankfully, the Legion GO S isn't the only third-party handheld getting SteamOS this year. Valve has already confirmed its operating system is headed for the Asus ROG Ally, with Pierre-Loup Griffais, one of the lead designers of SteamOS and the Steam Deck, telling The Verge at CES 2025 that a beta will ship sometime after March.
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