Gaming handheld: Valve and Lenovo bring SteamOS to the Legion Go S

Gaming Handheld: Valve and Lenovo bring SteamOS to the Legion Go S 18 comments

Image: Valve

Lenovo’s Legion Go S gaming handheld, expected at CES in January, will most likely also hit the market in a version with SteamOS. Besides AMD, Lenovo also announced Valve and its SteamOS and Steam Deck co-designer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, for the presentation in Las Vegas. The signs are clear.

Three new Lenovo Legion Go are expected at CES from January 7, which differ in size, operating concept and processor. The Legion Go S currently appears as a cheaper model without removable controllers, which, according to previous rumors, is based on the AMD Ryzen Z2G with 8 CPU cores based on Zen 3+ and an RDNA 2 GPU with 12, which is also expected at the show, the CPUs must be fixed.

Summary :

Legion Go S with SteamOS

Photos of the black version of the Legion Go S posted last weekend by Evan Blass on

Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS and Steam button (Image: Evan Blass (X)) Image 1 of 2

Valve sets specifications for ‘Powered by SteamOS’

In addition, Valve had already revised the brand guidelines (PDF) at the beginning of December, which stipulate how the company’s logos should be used by other companies on devices, packaging or online.

New logos and brand guidelines for the “Powered by SteamOS” label have been added. According to the official description, this is a device that runs SteamOS and boots directly into SteamOS as soon as it is turned on. The SteamOS image is either provided by Valve or developed in close collaboration.

The Powered by SteamOS logo indicates that a hardware device will run SteamOS and boot into SteamOS when the device is powered on. Partners/manufacturers will ship hardware with a Steam image in the form provided and/or developed in close collaboration with Valve. No physical changes should be made to the logo and it should not be combined with other brand elements.
Valve Brand Guidelines

Logo and branding guidelines for Powered by SteamOS (Image: Valve)

The description is clear in that it excludes devices that are only compatible with SteamOS but do not run on it from the factory. The Legion Go S with the Steam button, on the other hand, should come straight from the factory with SteamOS.

Valve is a special guest at Lenovo

Another indication of this is now provided by a CES event announced by Lenovo under the title “Lenovo Legion x AMD: The Future of Gaming Handhelds”, for which The Verge cites an invitation. Pierre-Loup Griffais, co-designer of SteamOS and Steam Deck, is also announced as a “special guest” at the event scheduled for the first day of the show.

Join us for a cocktail party hosted by Lenovo Legion and gaming executives AMD, with special guests Valve and other gaming industry giants. We’ll share our thoughts on what’s next in handhelds gaming and showcase our latest Lenovo Legion Go innovations advanced by AMD. Come learn how Lenovo Legion and AMD Ryzen are making gaming more immersive for everyone and stay to experience the future of portable gaming!
Lenovo’s invitation to CES

Windows model should also come

That Lenovo will have a two-pronged approach to the Legion Go S, one black with SteamOS and one white with Windows, is also indicated by the participation of Jason Ronald on the event panel, who is currently vice president of Microsoft for Xbox. Gaming devices and ecosystem. However, the Xbox team is not expected to announce its own handheld at the Lenovo event. Instead, we can assume that the current marketing campaign focuses on the fact that every device can be an Xbox.

AMD plans Ryzen Z2 for the show

AMD, in turn, has the right processors in the starting blocks. The AMD Ryzen Z2 series for gaming handhelds is said to include the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, Ryzen Z2, and Ryzen Z2G. The Ryzen Z2G is intended to be a cheaper model with 8 CPU cores based on Zen 3+ and an RDNA 2 GPU with 12 CUs. The Ryzen Z2, on the other hand, would rely on eight newer Zen 4 cores and RDNA 3 with 12 CU (Hawk Point). This means that the chip would be identical to the current Ryzen Z1 Extreme. With the Ryzen Z2 Extreme aka Strix Point, a more powerful APU with 3× Zen 5 and 5× Zen 5c as well as a larger GPU based on RDNA 3.5 with 16 CUs are also planned for the upper class of handhelds.