Lenovo's Legion Go S is the first third-party SteamOS gaming handheld

Lenovo's Legion Go S is the first third-party handheld PC to come with SteamOS out of the box, heralding a new era in PC gaming—the one where Windows might become increasingly optional.

The Legion Go S boasts AMD's exclusive Z2 Go processor and Zen 3 architecture, offering ultra-responsive gameplay powered by four CPU cores and eight threads. Enjoy 1200p gaming fueled by AMD Radeon™ graphics. Built on AMD RDNA™ 2 architecture, it transforms your games' visuals and cutting-edge technologies like Radeon™ Super Resolution, FidelityFX™ Super Resolution, and AFMF.

"Bye Bye Windows," writes Kyle Orland at Ars Technica.

The lack of a Windows license seems to contribute to a lower starting cost for the "Powered by SteamOS" edition of the Legion Go S, which will start at $500 when it's made available in May. Lenovo says the Windows edition of the device—available starting this month—will start at $730, with "additional configurations" available in May starting as low as $600.

There's lots of work going into making the games run well on Linux and MacOS without the need for financially risky official ports. And as far as pocket portables go, there's the imminent Switch 2 and rumored XBox handheld to think about this year.