Which Is Best for Your Handheld?

It’s been a week since I wiped Windows 11 from my Lenovo Legion Go handheld and replaced it with the first official version of SteamOS for handhelds other than the Steam Deck.

I’ve been “working” by playing as much on my handheld as I could for the intervening time, and now that I’ve given SteamOS a good honest go, I have some thoughts about how this experience is better (or worse) than simply sticking with Windows 11 on your handheld.

SteamOS Is Just Smoother

My first observation is purely subjective, but then it’s the subjective experience that matters more than the hard numbers when it comes to playing video games.

The thing I noticed most of all is that games immediately felt smoother under SteamOS compared to Windows 11. One reason for this is that SteamOS offers pre-cached shader downloads, so games don’t have shader compilation stutter. However, even games that had precompiled shaders under Windows felt smoother and had a lack of microstuttering.

One of the biggest surprises was Marvel’s Midnight Suns, which I had to stop playing on my handheld under Windows because it was so choppy, despite the frame rate reading as above 30fps. Now, the game feels and looks great to play, and the only thing I changed was the operating system.

What Is Shader Compilation and Why Does It Make PC Games Stutter?

The shady business of PC game stutter.

The User Experience Is Far Better Than Windows

Apart from performance and battery life, the other major advantage of SteamOS is just how much better it is from a user experience perspective. For one thing, I can now suspend my handheld in the middle of a game with no issue. Just like a Nintendo Switch or a PlayStation Vita.

This is something Windows really needs to sort out, because it’s one major reason I hated playing anything on that operating system on a handheld. I need to have the option of putting my handheld away at a moment’s notice, or else what’s the point?

Secondly, the actual interface is brilliant. SteamOS has an optional desktop mode, but you never ever have to see it if you don’t want to. The interface is touch and controller-friendly, it’s the first and only thing you see at boot, and it’s just as good, if not better, than any console’s interface.

Perhaps most importantly, I can just start playing when I wake up my handheld now. There are no updates, no popups, no endless notifications or other Windows nonsense that I have to deal with when I just want to play a few minutes of Forza Horizon.

Windows Is Compatible With Many More Games

I have just over 1000 games in my Steam library, and SteamOS is only compatible with about 550 of them. On top of that, all the PC games I own from other stores, such as GOG or Epic Games Store, require a bit of legwork to get going on SteamOS using tools like Heroic Games Launcher.

While the compatibility will grow over time, right now if you use Windows you have peace of mind that all Windows games are available to you. What’s more, I was mainly enjoying PC Game Pass on my handheld rather than my desktop PC gaming setup, but, of course, that’s not available under SteamOS.

I don’t play multiplayer games either, so it doesn’t bother me that they tend not to work on SteamOS due to anti-cheat software, but if you’re mainly looking to play online games then SteamOS won’t be the right option.

PC Game Pass Still Isn’t Ready for Primetime

It’s why I have to keep passing on their games.

Battery Life Is Better Under SteamOS

As various people have now observed, battery life gets a nice positive kick in the pants when switching from Windows to SteamOS on the same system. Part of the reason why is that Windows has more irrelevant stuff going on in the background that’s been stripped out of SteamOS, but there’s more to it in my opinion,

I have to note that SteamOS doesn’t yet have TDP control for the original Legion Go that I’m using yet, though you do get it on the new Legion Go S model which ships with SteamOS. This means I’m just using the Legion Go’s crude TDP presets (I know you can use a third-party plugin, but I haven’t had the time to try yet) and haven’t seen the dramatic jump some folks like Dave2D have.

I’m sure with better tuning I could get even more battery life, but the actual reason I’m getting longer battery life is because game smoothness and performance has improved at the lower TDP settings. Under Windows I practically had to run at the maximum TDP to brute force some of the games into a playable state. Now, I can use the more frugal “balanced” mode which gives me two or more hours of battery power, and still enjoy a decent gaming experience.

SteamOS Gave My Legion GO the Battery Life It’s Always Deserved

Finally I’m free of Windows’ hunger for power.

SteamOS Is Free and Open-Source

Perhaps it’s obvious, but SteamOS costs you nothing as the user. That’s unlike Windows which adds quite a bit of cost to your handheld. However, I already owned a Windows handheld, so what does it matter? Well, for one thing, it was free to change from Windows to SteamOS, but SteamOS also doesn’t bombard me with advertising other than on the Store page where I expect it.

Windows has known issues with the collection of telemetry, with unwanted features such as Recall, and the constant nagging to sign up for services such as Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and, of course, using Microsoft Edge.

Unless some skeletons are uncovered in this open-source distro of Linux, I think it’s fair to say that SteamOS isn’t as invested in harvesting your data. Besides, while the SteamOS client isn’t open-source, SteamOS itself is open source just like the Linux distro its based on. That already brings a level of transparency to SteamOS that Windows can’t match

My Windows Computer Just Doesn’t Feel Like Mine Anymore

What am I even paying for?

Should You Switch to SteamOS?

If you own a handheld PC that can officially run SteamOS, I can absolutely recommend that most people give it a try. If you don’t mind wiping your handheld, then installing SteamOS takes less than five minutes, and you’ll be up and running in no time. You can always just restore your handheld’s factory Windows image if you don’t like it, and as long as your save games are backed up in the cloud or on a disk you own, then at worst you’re just going to burn some time downloading your games again.

Dimensions: 0.89×5.02×11.77in (22.6 x 127.55 x 299mm)
Playing Time: 1-5hrs

It is possible to dual-boot SteamOS and Windows, though many people will have to upgrade their SSDs for this. I only have a 512GB SSD in my Legion Go, so dual-booting isn’t practical, but honestly I don’t want to do it. I have other Windows gaming systems, so if I really want to play a game that doesn’t work on SteamOS, I’ll resign myself to playing it on my gaming laptop.

While there’s more work to be done, by and large SteamOS is ready to go and if you have the opportunity, my opinion is that you should absolutely try it unless a specific game you want to play doesn’t work on SteamOS…yet.

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