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Let me put my surprised face on when I say Lenovo just announced a Legion Go 2 with SteamOS at CES 2026. It's been a pretty poorly kept secret, but a version of the best gaming handheld contender with SteamOS baked in is now official. That'll bring joy to anyone who is a fan of Valve's controller-friendly platform, but the bad news is that the 8.8-inch powerhouse will cost you $1,200.
Yep, that's three times the price of the recently discontinued Steam Deck LCD, and it's nowhere near the price of a Steam Deck OLED. Hardly surprising given that its real rival is the ROG Xbox Ally X, as it's packing the same AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chipset, accompanied by 32GB LPDDR5X RAM, up to 2TB storage, and a big old 74WHr battery.
The Legion Go 2 is also rocking the same 8.8-inch 1920 x 1200 OLED display as the Windows 11 version, so it's certainly packing in terms of visuals. The natural difference with this model is that you'll have all the perks of SteamOS at your thumb tips, like its slick console interface, integrated Vavle storefront, and slick access to settings.
I've come to terms with the fact that 2026 will be a painful year for handheld gaming PC pricing. We're in a situation where even full-size desktop rigs are shooting up in price thanks to RAM hikes and various other economic factors, so the idea of paying $1,200 for a portable system with top-end specs isn't a shocker. I do think we need to start thinking about what we actually need from on-the-go devices, though, and whether we should be investing in devices at this price range.
Enthusiasts will have already made up their minds, and boosting fps at 1080p will be a priority. There's no judgment there from me, and if pricing had stuck to the same trend as the OG Asus ROG Ally back in 2023, that would be an affordable aspiration. Reality is that if you want to spend under $600 on a handheld, you'll be looking at raw performance in the same ballpark as a Steam Deck in something like the Lenovo Legion Go S or the white Xbox Ally, as all the first-gen options are swiftly heading into retirement.
What could sway players towards devices like the Legion Go 2 with SteamOS is the eventual price of the Steam Machine. Valve still hasn't shown its MSRP hand yet, but if it costs nearly the same as Lenovo's handheld, some of you might want to trade the cube's 4K 60fps performance for a 1080p experience you can take with you. On the flip side, if it ends up coming in a chunk under $1,000, the new portable powerhouse and its rivals could look a little too pricey.
The ultimate takeaway here is that unless you have the bank to drop $1,200 on what will probably be a secondary gaming device, you'll want to wait for a Legion Go 2 discount. That doesn't mean it won't rank among the top handhelds around, and I'll be looking to take it for a spin ASAP. However, keeping up with the tech Jones's is going to be more expensive than ever in 2026, so applying some wallet wisdom is vital.
The new Legion Go 2 SteamOS will land in June, so watch this space.
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