SteamOS was always supposed to be bigger than Valve’s own Steam Deck, and 2025 is the year it finally expands. Not only will Lenovo ship the first third-party SteamOS handheld this May, Valve has now revealed it will let you install a working copy of SteamOS on other handhelds even sooner than that.

PC and handheld gamers will soon have the ability to install SteamOS, the very same operating on the Steam Deck, on any of their handhelds.

Lenovo has finally announced a new line of Legion Go handheld PCs, with one that will come installed with SteamOS out of the box. The new model is called the Legion Go S, and it's the world's first handheld PC from a third-party manufacturer using Valve's operating system.

Valve is making a notable shift with its portable gaming strategy as Lenovo debuted a new edition of its Legion Go gaming handheld that runs Valve’s custom operating system.

SteamOS is slowly becoming an alternative to Windows for handheld gaming devices. After launching the Steam Deck with SteamOS, its own operating system,

The Steam Deck has been the biggest PC gaming hardware story of the last few years. So it’s no surprise that the idea of running SteamOS (perhaps the most celebrated component of that machine) on other handhelds like the Legion Go S is also a big deal.

Valve will begin allowing third-party handhelds to license SteamOS starting with Lenovo's new Legion Go S. At CES 2025, Lenovo announced that it will ship a version of its upcoming Legion Go S handheld called the "Powered by SteamOS" that will run,

Several competitors have cropped up in the handheld PC gaming space in recent years, and Valve is looking to spread the love in 2025. SteamOS is coming to the Lenovo Legion Go S, marking the first third-party device to launch with support for the software.