It looks like the first third-party Steam OS handheld is about to hit the market, at least if this new Lenovo Legion Go S leak is accurate. Images purportedly showing pictures of this so-far unannounced handheld gaming PC seem to show a dedicated Steam button, suggesting that it will launch with SteamOS on board.
Third-party SteamOS has the potential to completely change the Steam Deck games. If Lenovo is the first third-party manufacturer to launch a SteamOS handheld, it will be hoping this choice will help it to dominate against some of its Windows-based rivals.
This particular leak originates from X (formerly Twitter) after being initially spotted by The Verge. Evan Blass, a tech journalist and a notorious mobile hardware leaker, shared the images of the Lenovo Legion Go S in a now-hidden post on X that's been shared on The Verge.
Looking a lot like an earlier SteamOS third-party was coming to multiple handhelds, using the "Powered by SteamOS" label to market them.
If this is true, it's a smart move by Lenovo to work with Valve and gain access to SteamOS. Earlier Lenovo Legion Go S reports suggest that this new budget option will launch with an AMD Radeon 680M GPU, which is based on the same RDNA 2 architecture as the Steam Deck GPU, but with more stream processors, theoretically making it a good hardware match for existing compatibility. Launching the Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS would also remove the need for a Windows license, lowering the potential cost.
While we wait for more details about this rumored new handheld, you can check out our original Legion Go 2 guide for the latest information on the Legion Go S' rumored bigger and more powerful sibling.