Valve promises earlier-than-expected availability of SteamOS beta for several gaming handhelds

Lenovo has announced its new Legion Go S, which also happens to be the very first third-party gaming handheld to ship with SteamOS. However, it seems that it's not only Lenovo's new offering that will get official OS support from Valve. The company has just confirmed the earlier-than-expected availability of the beta program for other handhelds.

To be specific, Valve has announced that before Lenovo ships its SteamOS-powered Legion Go S, the SteamOS beta will be available for other gaming handhelds. Valve didn't specifically mention which devices the beta program will be for but mentioned that it will be available for users who want to test it out on their devices. So, it's highly likely that the operating system will be compatible with most Windows handhelds (Z1 Extreme ROG Ally curr. $499.99 on Best Buy).

Another thing to note here is that Valve didn't explicitly reveal the availability timeline. However, the Windows version of the Legion Go S will launch later in January 2025, and the SteamOS-powered version will be available in May 2025. So, the targeted release timeline for the SteamOS beta could be sometime in February 2025.

It's worth noting that both the Windows and SteamOS versions of the Legion Go S have the same hardware. However, the former is likely launching earlier because Lenovo and Valve need some time to polish SteamOS for the gaming handheld, and the beta rollout will probably play a role in refining the operating system for third-party devices.