The Steam Deck's handheld crown could finally fall as a new SteamOS Lenovo Legion Go 2 may crush its specs

Rumors are swirling that Lenovo is set to unveil a new Lenovo Legion Go 2 SteamOS Edition gaming handheld that swaps Windows for the Steam Deck's SteamOS. This won't be the first Windows handheld to get official SteamOS support, but it will be the most powerful, and could shake-up the handheld market.

The Steam Deck has been our pick for the best gaming handheld for years now, not just because it's great value but because SteamOS sets it apart so strongly from Windows handheld alternatives. It's faster to load, gets better game performance out of its hardware, and is much easier to use. However, up until now, the only other handheld to officially get SteamOS support was another Lenovo device, the Lenovo Legion Go S, and while it is a bit more powerful than the Steam Deck, it's not a huge leap. The Legion Go 2, though, is a whole different ball game.

Looking at the specs, the Steam Deck LCD and Steam Deck OLED both use a custom AMD APU housing four CPU cores based on the company's old Zen 2 architecture and an eight-core GPU based on its RDNA 2 architecture. Both handhelds also feature a 1280 x 800, ~7-inch screen.

Meanwhile, the Lenovo Legion Go S uses a newer AMD Ryzen Z2 chip, still with four CPU cores, but based on the newer Zen 3+ architecture, and a GPU with 12 cores based on the RDNA 3 architecture. It also features an 8-inch LCD screen with a much higher 1920 x 1200 resolution, all while only costing around $600. It's actually already a very compelling unit.

When it comes to the Lenovo Legion Go 2 hardware expected to be used in this new device, though, almost all of those numbers take another big step up. It uses either the same chip as the Go S or the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU with eight CPU Zen 5 cores and a 16-core GPU based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture. This immensely powerful chip is then housed inside a handheld with a stunning 8.8-inch OLED screen, and it has detachable controllers, a larger battery, and is generally packed with features. However, with a price of well over $1,000 for the Z2 Extreme options, and with it using Windows, many buyers haven't been fully tempted.

Coming, then, to the newly rumored Lenovo Legion Go 2 SteamOS edition, tech news site Windows Latest reports that Lenovo will launch the new model at the CES trade show in early January next year. The show is expected to see a wide range of new announcements from AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and all the manufacturers making gear associated with them, so it certainly would be an appropriate place to unveil the new Lenovo handheld.

According to the site, the new Lenovo Legion Go 2 SteamOS will launch as a completely standalone product, using the same hardware as the existing Legion Go 2, but with SteamOS pre-installed. So, while Windows Legion Go 2 users might also be able to upgrade to SteamOS, buyers who just want the easy, console-like experience of the Steam Deck will be able to get just that with the new Lenovo handheld.

Along with delivering what would hopefully be a truly Steam Deck-like experience (other than the Legion Go 2 being a lot bigger and heavier than Valve's handheld), there's also hope that the use of SteamOS might mean a slightly reduced price compared to the Windows Legion Go 2. However, the difference, if any, is likely to be small, and I'd still expect this Legion Go 2 SteamOS version to be a ~$1,000 device. But what a device it could be, if this rumor ends up being true.