SteamOS Will Be Available for Third-Party Handhelds Starting This April
[summaraize]
It’s been four years since Valve released the Steam Deck, and although the company isn’t quite ready to release a successor, they’ve certainly inspired many other manufacturers to create their version. Many of their competitors have already managed to beat out the Steam Deck regarding raw power and other features. That has prompted many in the community to ask, where is the Steam Deck 2?
While we’re sure that will eventually be a thing, it seems that Valve has given a rather ingenious answer to that question, as they’ve announced that soon, people will be able to load SteamOS on basically any handheld that allows OS installation.
SteamOS Is Expanding Beyond the Steam Deck
During CES this year, Lenovo announced the Lenovo Legion Go S, a new and improved version of their previous model, though this time, instead of being powered by Windows, it will be running SteamOS. The news came as a rather big surprise for many, though a very welcomed one, as the OS has been praised for its ease of use and working out of the box without hitches. But with this news, Lenovo has become the first-ever third-party handheld to officially support the SteamOS. Well, it seems like it won’t just end here, as Valve revealed in a blog post shortly after the Legion Go S announcement that they plan on releasing SteamOS to the public so that they can install it on any of their other handhelds.
“With Lenovo’s announcement at CES 2025 of the Lenovo Legion Go S, we are pleased to share that their “Powered by SteamOS” model is the first handheld officially licensed to ship with Valve’s SteamOS. We built this operating system to provide a seamless user experience optimized for gaming, while retaining access to the power and flexibility of a PC. SteamOS is the same operating system we run on Steam Deck, and the team is making updates to ensure it fully supports the Lenovo Legion Go S and provides the same seamless experience customers expect.
In addition, the same work that we are doing to support the Lenovo Legion Go S will improve compatibility with other handhelds. Ahead of Legion Go S shipping, we will be shipping a beta of SteamOS which should improve the experience on other handhelds, and users can download and test this themselves. And of course we’ll continue adding support and improving the experience with future releases.”
They note this will be the same operating system that the Steam Deck runs. It is Linux-based and supports desktop mode for installing non-Steam games.
This announcement comes right after Microsoft announced that they would be exploring the option to allow third-parties to build Xbox-branded devices such as handhelds that would run on Xbox OS. We’re unsure how much of a shake up this will be for Microsoft, considering that many PC players prefer the Steam store over Windows. Still, more option are always great to have, and we cannot wait to see how both companies transform the handheld market with their readidly available OS.
Stay connected to MP1st and the latest news by following us on Bluesky, X, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Google News.
