At CES 2025 today, Lenovo announced the first third-party gaming handheld to run Valve's SteamOS, something that's pretty exciting considering that Windows 11 really isn't optimized for the form factor. However, the upcoming Legion Go 2, which was also shown off but in prototype form, is going to be Windows-only. The good news is, Valve is actually going to let you install SteamOS on it.

SteamOS everywhere

The company has a beta coming soon, I was told at the show. You'll essentially be able to install it on anything that you want.

Up until now, there have only been unofficial ways to install SteamOS, but Valve was pretty clear. It wants SteamOS running on everything. The representatives that I spoke to were very excited that Lenovo is shipping the first gaming handheld that's made by someone other than Valve, and there are more devices in the pipeline. And if an OEM chooses Windows instead, there's a solution.

But that's Valve's perspective. From the perspective of a consumer, Windows 11 simply isn't designed for the form factor. When you boot up something like a Legion Go or an Asus ROG Ally, it boots straight to the desktop, and then it'll load a custom launcher that's designed by the OEM. Unfortunately, that custom launcher can still tend to be a little buggy, because it's still running on top of Windows.

Microsoft is working on some optimizations for the form factor, but I don't think it's developing a full shell to put on 8-inch screens, and if it is, it's pretty far out. The solution should be simple enough for a company with the kinds of resources that Microsoft has. It has a version of Windows it uses for Xbox, so much of the UI is already designed. Obviously, UX development is more complicated than that, but again, virtually limitless resources.

There are some compromises that come with SteamOS, given that some games are only on Windows, or at least run better on Windows. But at least you'll have the choice.