Lenovo just rang the Steam Deck's death knell – but it'll cost you

I'm a huge fan of gaming handhelds – both retro and PC, Android and Linux. Indeed, I own around 30 of them and keep buying new ones as they appear (my latest is the Ayaneo Pocket Air Mini). But there's one that I've recently played more than any other – more even than my PS5 Pro, Switch 2 or Xbox Series X.

Like many others, I took advantage of the Black Friday sales in November to buy the Lenovo Legion Go Z1 Extreme SteamOS edition with a huge discount. It needed it, having been priced out of most budgets previously. I've not looked back since (not even when I dropped it on day three and had to stick the L2 trigger back on with Gorilla Glue).

It is truly the best gaming handheld bar none, in my opinion, and I use it for Steam gaming, plus emulation of the more power intensive consoles – PS3, included.

Well, that's until the Legion Go 2 SteamOS model was unveiled at CES.

Like the Go S, the Go 2 is one of the only third-party machines to come with SteamOS from the box and it's a game changer. What's more, the Lenovo Legion Go 2 runs on the faster Z2 Extreme and provides additional cores for graphics. It also comes with up to 2TB of SSD storage and has a mighty 8.8-inch display – even larger than the Go S.

Oh, and it's OLED and has a bigger battery.

But what's the catch?

Basically, that's everything you could want as an upgrade to the Legion Go S – which is already a Steam Deck beater in my eyes – can be found on the SteamOS version of the Go 2. There's just one sticking point...

Lenovo is yet to announce its price, but the Windows 11 version that is already available starts at an eye-watering £1,099 in the UK for the Z2 Extreme model. And that's for the 1TB version.

If you want the flagship model with the 2TB drive, it's (look away now) £1,300.

Those are indications that the SteamOS variant will not be cheaper – it'll be a touch less, I expect, but not by much. We're looking way beyond the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X.

Still, maybe it'll be one to look our for NEXT Black Friday. I've already informed my bank manager.