We know that Valve has no intention of launching an official Steam Deck 2 until the time is right, with Valve designer Lawrence Yang claiming "We really do want to wait for a generational leap." It's difficult to say when exactly that will be, but we don't expect it to happen for some time.
But what if your prayers for a Steam Deck 2 could (sort of) be answered, anyway? Last week, Evan Blass revealed images of the upcoming Lenovo Legion S, and many noticed the presence of a Steam button, suggesting it could be the first third-party SteamOS-powered gaming handheld.
Now, Lenovo has practically confirmed this detail. In an email received by The Verge, Lenovo's event taking place at CES 2025 on January 7 is titled "Lenovo Legion x AMD: The Future of Gaming Handhelds," and the company will be joined by Pierre-Loup Griffais, a Valve coder who works on the Steam Deck.
While it isn't necessarily 100% confirmed, it's pretty much all but sealed the deal on rumors of a Lenovo Legion Go S. Meaning, you might be getting the second Steam Deck you've been waiting for, just not one from Valve.
Can the Lenovo Legion Go S really take the place of a Steam Deck 2?
While it might be a stretch to call the first third-party SteamOS-powered handheld a "Steam Deck 2," it's not unlikely that it will fulfill some of the needs that might make it the next best thing.
The next generation of AMD's handheld chips, the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, is likely not far away and could power the next generation of Lenovo Legion Go consoles.
In a Q&A session attended by Digital Trends, AMD claimed that it is targeting an early 2025 release for the Z2 Extreme. If it is unveiled at CES in January alongside Lenovo's next-generation handhelds, we expect at least one or more will receive the new chip.
Whether or not the Lenovo Legion Go S will have this chip is up in the air though, as there's also the upcoming Lenovo Legion Go 2, which appears to be the more premium model of Lenovo's next-generation gaming handhelds.
We can discern this based on the leaked images of the Lenovo Legion Go S appearing to be a handheld without detachable controllers, alongside the Legion Go 2 potentially featuring an upgraded model with an OLED display (according to the file name of images received by The Verge).
Thus, if the Lenovo Legion Go S is truly a more affordable alternative to the proper successor of the series, it could feature a less powerful CPU. However, if it does have an AMD Ryzen Z2, we predict it could be enough of a leap in power to justify current Steam Deck owners to invest.
Jason England of Tom's Guide turned the Asus ROG Ally X into a SteamOS machine and saw huge performance improvements when compared to the original Windows-powered Asus ROG Ally, and Steam Deck.
In England's tests, the Windows-powered Asus ROG Ally X yielded 36 fps on Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p on Medium graphics with Performance power mode. With the same presets, it had an average of 42 fps through SteamOS, which goes to show how much additional power can be sapped out of the machine through a lighter operating system.
The Asus ROG Ally X on SteamOS at the 720p Steam Deck preset yielded 48 fps, while the Steam Deck OLED itself was at 30 fps. This is what the Asus ROG Ally X was capable of with its AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip, which launched in 2023.
If we imagine the Lenovo Legion Go S has the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which will likely be far more powerful, you can imagine how much of a leap we're looking at in graphical power.
Essentially, the Lenovo Legion Go S could be a solid replacement for those wanting to see the next-generation Steam Deck. With the potential for a solid boost in power, we could be looking at the strongest upcoming gaming handheld if it truly is built with an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme at its core.
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