8 ms·

Lenovo Officially Announces the Legion Go S Handheld with SteamOS

89 points by leidenfrost 2y ago

drewchew 2y ago
I wonder how long til we can run steamOS via emulation on an iPhone...
- extraduder_ire 2y ago
  If you have UTM on your phone, you can probably do that today. There's little point though, since the performance would suck.
  - segasaturn 2y ago
    UTM for iOS has been basically neutered on performance so I doubt it would even run. The authors even had to rebrand it as a "retro OS emulator" because it can't run anything newer than XP.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- freedomben 2y ago
  I've never owned an iphone (and have no intention of ever doing so) so I can't speak from direct experience, but I would heavily bet that a far easier path would be to use the Steam Link iOS app to connect remotely to your gaming rig (and to be clear, a Steam Deck works just fine as a gaming rig if you don't have a bigger PC you'd prefer to use). If you're on the same LAN, performance is good enough that you may not even notice it's not running locally.
  - bsimpson 2y ago
    Wireless VR and Stadia are both insanely impressive. Think about how much data you've gotta be moving (and how quickly) to have an 8k video stream feel smooth, or have a game computed in a data center feel local.
- rldjbpin 2y ago
  perhaps before i could in a sane way sync files from one using an open-source, self-hosted solution
Arnavion 2y ago
Submitted link is to the article's discussion thread. Article link is https://www.phoronix.com/news/Lenovo-Legion-Go-SteamOS https://www.phoronix.com/news/Lenovo-Legion-Go-SteamOS And original Lenovo press link is https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-legion-unleashes-next-gen-gaming-power-at-ces-2025/ https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-legi...
stavros 2y ago
Is SteamOS officially licenced? Does that mean I can expect stuff to work just as well as on the Deck? With the Deck, I don't care what OS games were built for, everything just works.
- galleywest200 2y ago
  Depends on the words used for the device. Valve updated their brand guidelines recently, this shows that there are certain devices that could be classified as fully verified by Valve to work: https://steamdeckhq.com/news/new-steam-brand-guidelines-hint-at-steamos-coming-to-other-devices/ https://steamdeckhq.com/news/new-steam-brand-guidelines-hint...
- umvi 2y ago
  Have you encountered extreme lag on your Deck? Most 2D games work great, but when I try to play Elden Ring or Stray or Jedi Fallen Order, it works well about 90% of the time, and the other 10% there is extreme lag that makes the game unplayable.
  - stavros 2y ago
    Hm, no, I have 80 hours on Elden Ring, all on the Deck, with no issues. I had it capped at 30 FPS, though.
    - freedomben 2y ago
      I've hit lag quite a few times with Hogwart's Legacy. Dropping the graphics quality down helps but even at the point it looks like shit it often still stutters, especially during complex combat situations (the point at which stuttering is least tolerable). I love the Steam Deck and they do a really, truly great job at tuning profiles of most games to run well, but the most demanding AAA games do sometimes hit a perf ceiling. If you're curious about the details and you haven't seen it before, you can enable metrics/stats in settins and see a screen overlay of your performance. As someone who frequently keeps htop open on my laptop while working, I appreciate this feature :-)
  - 2y ago
flaminHotSpeedo 2y ago
I'm curious to see how 3rd parties with SteamOS handhelds behave. Both in the context of the handhelds themselves (do they meet the steam deck's high bar for reliability and longevity) as well as how the companies handle things like open source contributions or vetting games. It takes more than just the OS to replicate the steam deck's success (even though SteamOS itself is very well executed)
- xienze 2y ago
  I have a ROG Ally running Bazzite. It's not Steam OS per se but close enough. The performance overlay works, TDP controls work (albeit it takes a little initial setup to install the plugins), fast suspend/resume works. Performance is really good. It was shocking to me how well Windows gaming on Linux works in general. Granted, I don't play online games that require anti-cheat software so that does skew things a bit.
  - InsideOutSanta 2y ago
    Bazzite is the first time I feel like PC gaming on a TV is as convenient as a console. And you can put it on a 150$ mini PC from AliExpress and play pretty much anything that isn't an AAA game from the last 3-5 years or a competitive online game with unsupported anticheat, including most emulators. It's truly an amazing achievement.
    - rcarmo 2y ago
      Yep. Been running it on a 7000 series Ryzen with an M780 and it can run pretty much everything, including emulators, at good enough speeds and framerates - not just locally, but streaming to an Android handheld as well.
- bsimpson 2y ago
  Games get vetted for Proton, which is a DirectX implementation for Linux. More powerful hardware might perform better, but whether or not a game can run correctly is a property of Proton, not of the Steam Deck specifically.
ndriscoll 2y ago
It's starting to occur to me that even without having any time or inclination for video games these days, one of these handheld Linux gaming computers seems to be what I actually want out of an Android phone, and I'm really starting to despise the whole phone ecosystem. Does one of these exist with passable front/rear cameras for video calling/spur of the moment shots? I never even use my phone as a phone. I certainly don't make calls while I'm out and about. The thing pointlessly enables spying on me when I don't even want it. But a pocket computer with wifi, enough storage for my entire music collection + wikipedia + maps, and ability to take phone-quality pictures? Running an actual Linux distribution so I don't run into stupid issues like how Android doesn't let you use NFS so they can push you into their cloud services? Awesome.
- ActionHank 2y ago
  Check out the GPD devices. They are astonishingly capable and compact.
- rtkwe 2y ago
  This one doesn't and neither does the Steam Deck. Generally these are packed to the gills with screen (no good space on the front for a camera) and cooling (taking the space that a back camera could use.
  - bsimpson 2y ago
    People who have only seen a Switch also might not realize how big the Deck and its cousins are.
    - rtkwe 2y ago
      For people wondering here's s side by side https://i.redd.it/ot0j04k7apb71.png https://i.redd.it/ot0j04k7apb71.png It's quite a bit larger (and more powerful too).
- ewzimm 2y ago
  This is the first third party steam deck, but you could just use any USB camera. None of these are really pocketable. You can hook up a raspberry pi or any similar SBC to a screen and peripherals and make a DIY Linux phone.
MoreMoore 2y ago
Why, just why won't any of the competitors make one of these handhelds with at least the same amount and types of input options as the Steam Deck. I'd love a higher performance handheld but none of them have two trackpads, gyro input and four back buttons, so I'm stuck with the Deck.
- rtkwe 2y ago
  It's an extra cost that doesn't add much to the device for north of 90% of their intended audience. I love my Steam Deck but barely use the trackpads except for the rare times I need the keyboard or I wind up in the desktop doing something.
  - bsimpson 2y ago
    The Go S appears to only have one rear button on each side. I've played half a dozen games on the original Go, and I don't think I've used more than one rear button. In Half Life, it's more comfortable to hold for crouch. In one of the Spider Man games, it expected a trackpad click, which was easier to perform with a rear button. Since games have been designed to be playable with only the face buttons, there's not always obvious utility for extras. Maybe as premium controllers become more popular, this will change. For now, I can definitely see the argument that 4 buttons are superfluous (except for standardization).
    - MoreMoore 2y ago
      Just because everything is bound to the face buttons doesn't make it the best solution. Developers make do with what they have. Extra buttons mean I don't have to move my finger off the trackpad or joystick every time I want to do a common action, particularly while aiming the mouse cursor.
    - rtkwe 2y ago
      I do enjoy the back buttons even on games that were originally XBox controller games, those are relatively cheap compared to the trackpads.
    - 2y ago
jeppester 2y ago
It's interesting how the Steam OS option is positioned as the cheap choice for the casual gamer. On the surface level it looks it bit like the half-assed Linux efforts for the Steam Machines and EEE PCs. This time the software - if it works as well as on the Steam Deck - is arguably more user friendly than Windows. So it would have been nice for linux to also be a "premium" option. On the other hand the Go S with Steam OS has a real chance to compare well against its more expensive Windows version.
- freedomben 2y ago
  I've thought about this too, and given that Valve is brilliant when it comes to pricing, I suspect that they have data showing that gamers are well aware of the "Windows Tax" and expect to not have to pay it for a Linux-based device. I want to be conservative advancing that theory as confirmation bias is a real risk (since that describes me perfectly) but I do see little bits of reinforcing evidence around.
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    The way Microsoft killed EEE PC movement was by removing the Windows Tax, the moment OEMs no longer needed to pay for Windows on EEE PC style devices, they were mostly gone in one year, and the new tablets segment killed the remaining survivors. Lets be real, with SteamOS having a Windows ecosytem, it is about saving Windows licenses mostly, and not really fostering a GNU/Linux gaming ecosystem.
- tombert 2y ago
  My main gaming PC is one of those cheapy "mini gaming pcs" you get on Amazon for like $350. I installed NixOS on there, and have it automatically boot into GameScope with the SteamOS interface. After I got everything set up (which wasn't hard), the amount of maintenance I've had to do on there is zero. SteamOS managed to make desktop Linux accessible to basically anyone; it was easy to build my own game console that I enjoy considerably more than my Xbox One that I never bother with. Valve has made desktop Linux a lot more viable than I ever thought would happen.
golergka 2y ago
I hope steam machines make a comeback. Steamdeck is the best gaming platform I've ever owned, and I'd easily pay up to $2k for a box that I can just put under my 4k TV and have all my 1000+ steam games there without ever having to see the windows logo.
- freedomben 2y ago
  I likewise hope they do, but that said once you get into the >$700 range a custom PC build starts to be a much better value. With projects like Bazzite being IMHO even better than Steam OS and having full support for desktops, I suspect a higher end box would have a lot of competition from DIY (which is still pretty popular in the gaming world). I'd love to see them dip a toe in with an ~$700 NUC-style steam machine with higher specs than the Deck but still very affordable for most people. If that sells well then increasingly look at more premium models, though it may be in their best interest to facilitate custom builds at that point. They could possibly even sell the parts or a kit or something!
  - bsimpson 2y ago
    Bazzite lifts the same boats as SteamOS. They want you to be able to play (and buy) games from Steam. I doubt they're fussed about whether you're using their official image or a homebrew enthusiast build.
  - golergka 2y ago
    I have built my first PC back in 1997. But now I'd pay money to get a ready made box with a compatible and fully tested OS already installed.
- leidenfrost 2y ago
  LTT made a video about installing SteamOS on a big machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdR-bxvQKN8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdR-bxvQKN8 You need a Radeon card though
  - gpderetta 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
rcarmo 2y ago
In between SteamOS licensing and Bazzite, I think this is finally the year of Linux on my lap. Too bad they couldn’t get a more up to date chipset in, but I suppose there will be a bunch of little tweaks to power management, compositing, etc.

89 points by leidenfrost 2y ago

drewchew 2y ago

I wonder how long til we can run steamOS via emulation on an iPhone...

extraduder_ire 2y ago
If you have UTM on your phone, you can probably do that today. There's little point though, since the performance would suck.
- segasaturn 2y ago
  UTM for iOS has been basically neutered on performance so I doubt it would even run. The authors even had to rebrand it as a "retro OS emulator" because it can't run anything newer than XP.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
freedomben 2y ago
I've never owned an iphone (and have no intention of ever doing so) so I can't speak from direct experience, but I would heavily bet that a far easier path would be to use the Steam Link iOS app to connect remotely to your gaming rig (and to be clear, a Steam Deck works just fine as a gaming rig if you don't have a bigger PC you'd prefer to use). If you're on the same LAN, performance is good enough that you may not even notice it's not running locally.
- bsimpson 2y ago
  Wireless VR and Stadia are both insanely impressive. Think about how much data you've gotta be moving (and how quickly) to have an 8k video stream feel smooth, or have a game computed in a data center feel local.
rldjbpin 2y ago
perhaps before i could in a sane way sync files from one using an open-source, self-hosted solution

Arnavion 2y ago

Submitted link is to the article's discussion thread. Article link is https://www.phoronix.com/news/Lenovo-Legion-Go-SteamOS https://www.phoronix.com/news/Lenovo-Legion-Go-SteamOS And original Lenovo press link is https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-legion-unleashes-next-gen-gaming-power-at-ces-2025/ https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-legi...

stavros 2y ago

Is SteamOS officially licenced? Does that mean I can expect stuff to work just as well as on the Deck? With the Deck, I don't care what OS games were built for, everything just works.

galleywest200 2y ago
Depends on the words used for the device. Valve updated their brand guidelines recently, this shows that there are certain devices that could be classified as fully verified by Valve to work: https://steamdeckhq.com/news/new-steam-brand-guidelines-hint-at-steamos-coming-to-other-devices/ https://steamdeckhq.com/news/new-steam-brand-guidelines-hint...
umvi 2y ago
Have you encountered extreme lag on your Deck? Most 2D games work great, but when I try to play Elden Ring or Stray or Jedi Fallen Order, it works well about 90% of the time, and the other 10% there is extreme lag that makes the game unplayable.
- stavros 2y ago
  Hm, no, I have 80 hours on Elden Ring, all on the Deck, with no issues. I had it capped at 30 FPS, though.
  - freedomben 2y ago
    I've hit lag quite a few times with Hogwart's Legacy. Dropping the graphics quality down helps but even at the point it looks like shit it often still stutters, especially during complex combat situations (the point at which stuttering is least tolerable). I love the Steam Deck and they do a really, truly great job at tuning profiles of most games to run well, but the most demanding AAA games do sometimes hit a perf ceiling. If you're curious about the details and you haven't seen it before, you can enable metrics/stats in settins and see a screen overlay of your performance. As someone who frequently keeps htop open on my laptop while working, I appreciate this feature :-)
- 2y ago

flaminHotSpeedo 2y ago

I'm curious to see how 3rd parties with SteamOS handhelds behave. Both in the context of the handhelds themselves (do they meet the steam deck's high bar for reliability and longevity) as well as how the companies handle things like open source contributions or vetting games. It takes more than just the OS to replicate the steam deck's success (even though SteamOS itself is very well executed)

xienze 2y ago
I have a ROG Ally running Bazzite. It's not Steam OS per se but close enough. The performance overlay works, TDP controls work (albeit it takes a little initial setup to install the plugins), fast suspend/resume works. Performance is really good. It was shocking to me how well Windows gaming on Linux works in general. Granted, I don't play online games that require anti-cheat software so that does skew things a bit.
- InsideOutSanta 2y ago
  Bazzite is the first time I feel like PC gaming on a TV is as convenient as a console. And you can put it on a 150$ mini PC from AliExpress and play pretty much anything that isn't an AAA game from the last 3-5 years or a competitive online game with unsupported anticheat, including most emulators. It's truly an amazing achievement.
  - rcarmo 2y ago
    Yep. Been running it on a 7000 series Ryzen with an M780 and it can run pretty much everything, including emulators, at good enough speeds and framerates - not just locally, but streaming to an Android handheld as well.
bsimpson 2y ago
Games get vetted for Proton, which is a DirectX implementation for Linux. More powerful hardware might perform better, but whether or not a game can run correctly is a property of Proton, not of the Steam Deck specifically.

ndriscoll 2y ago

It's starting to occur to me that even without having any time or inclination for video games these days, one of these handheld Linux gaming computers seems to be what I actually want out of an Android phone, and I'm really starting to despise the whole phone ecosystem. Does one of these exist with passable front/rear cameras for video calling/spur of the moment shots? I never even use my phone as a phone. I certainly don't make calls while I'm out and about. The thing pointlessly enables spying on me when I don't even want it. But a pocket computer with wifi, enough storage for my entire music collection + wikipedia + maps, and ability to take phone-quality pictures? Running an actual Linux distribution so I don't run into stupid issues like how Android doesn't let you use NFS so they can push you into their cloud services? Awesome.

ActionHank 2y ago
Check out the GPD devices. They are astonishingly capable and compact.
rtkwe 2y ago
This one doesn't and neither does the Steam Deck. Generally these are packed to the gills with screen (no good space on the front for a camera) and cooling (taking the space that a back camera could use.
- bsimpson 2y ago
  People who have only seen a Switch also might not realize how big the Deck and its cousins are.
  - rtkwe 2y ago
    For people wondering here's s side by side https://i.redd.it/ot0j04k7apb71.png https://i.redd.it/ot0j04k7apb71.png It's quite a bit larger (and more powerful too).
ewzimm 2y ago
This is the first third party steam deck, but you could just use any USB camera. None of these are really pocketable. You can hook up a raspberry pi or any similar SBC to a screen and peripherals and make a DIY Linux phone.

MoreMoore 2y ago

Why, just why won't any of the competitors make one of these handhelds with at least the same amount and types of input options as the Steam Deck. I'd love a higher performance handheld but none of them have two trackpads, gyro input and four back buttons, so I'm stuck with the Deck.

rtkwe 2y ago
It's an extra cost that doesn't add much to the device for north of 90% of their intended audience. I love my Steam Deck but barely use the trackpads except for the rare times I need the keyboard or I wind up in the desktop doing something.
- bsimpson 2y ago
  The Go S appears to only have one rear button on each side. I've played half a dozen games on the original Go, and I don't think I've used more than one rear button. In Half Life, it's more comfortable to hold for crouch. In one of the Spider Man games, it expected a trackpad click, which was easier to perform with a rear button. Since games have been designed to be playable with only the face buttons, there's not always obvious utility for extras. Maybe as premium controllers become more popular, this will change. For now, I can definitely see the argument that 4 buttons are superfluous (except for standardization).
  - MoreMoore 2y ago
    Just because everything is bound to the face buttons doesn't make it the best solution. Developers make do with what they have. Extra buttons mean I don't have to move my finger off the trackpad or joystick every time I want to do a common action, particularly while aiming the mouse cursor.
  - rtkwe 2y ago
    I do enjoy the back buttons even on games that were originally XBox controller games, those are relatively cheap compared to the trackpads.
  - 2y ago

jeppester 2y ago

It's interesting how the Steam OS option is positioned as the cheap choice for the casual gamer. On the surface level it looks it bit like the half-assed Linux efforts for the Steam Machines and EEE PCs. This time the software - if it works as well as on the Steam Deck - is arguably more user friendly than Windows. So it would have been nice for linux to also be a "premium" option. On the other hand the Go S with Steam OS has a real chance to compare well against its more expensive Windows version.

freedomben 2y ago
I've thought about this too, and given that Valve is brilliant when it comes to pricing, I suspect that they have data showing that gamers are well aware of the "Windows Tax" and expect to not have to pay it for a Linux-based device. I want to be conservative advancing that theory as confirmation bias is a real risk (since that describes me perfectly) but I do see little bits of reinforcing evidence around.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  The way Microsoft killed EEE PC movement was by removing the Windows Tax, the moment OEMs no longer needed to pay for Windows on EEE PC style devices, they were mostly gone in one year, and the new tablets segment killed the remaining survivors. Lets be real, with SteamOS having a Windows ecosytem, it is about saving Windows licenses mostly, and not really fostering a GNU/Linux gaming ecosystem.
tombert 2y ago
My main gaming PC is one of those cheapy "mini gaming pcs" you get on Amazon for like $350. I installed NixOS on there, and have it automatically boot into GameScope with the SteamOS interface. After I got everything set up (which wasn't hard), the amount of maintenance I've had to do on there is zero. SteamOS managed to make desktop Linux accessible to basically anyone; it was easy to build my own game console that I enjoy considerably more than my Xbox One that I never bother with. Valve has made desktop Linux a lot more viable than I ever thought would happen.

golergka 2y ago

I hope steam machines make a comeback. Steamdeck is the best gaming platform I've ever owned, and I'd easily pay up to $2k for a box that I can just put under my 4k TV and have all my 1000+ steam games there without ever having to see the windows logo.

freedomben 2y ago
I likewise hope they do, but that said once you get into the >$700 range a custom PC build starts to be a much better value. With projects like Bazzite being IMHO even better than Steam OS and having full support for desktops, I suspect a higher end box would have a lot of competition from DIY (which is still pretty popular in the gaming world). I'd love to see them dip a toe in with an ~$700 NUC-style steam machine with higher specs than the Deck but still very affordable for most people. If that sells well then increasingly look at more premium models, though it may be in their best interest to facilitate custom builds at that point. They could possibly even sell the parts or a kit or something!
- bsimpson 2y ago
  Bazzite lifts the same boats as SteamOS. They want you to be able to play (and buy) games from Steam. I doubt they're fussed about whether you're using their official image or a homebrew enthusiast build.
- golergka 2y ago
  I have built my first PC back in 1997. But now I'd pay money to get a ready made box with a compatible and fully tested OS already installed.
leidenfrost 2y ago
LTT made a video about installing SteamOS on a big machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdR-bxvQKN8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdR-bxvQKN8 You need a Radeon card though
- gpderetta 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

rcarmo 2y ago

In between SteamOS licensing and Bazzite, I think this is finally the year of Linux on my lap. Too bad they couldn’t get a more up to date chipset in, but I suppose there will be a bunch of little tweaks to power management, compositing, etc.