The topic The Legion Go 2 needs more than a Z2 Extreme to make me drop the Steam Deck is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
It’s safe to say that we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to handheld gaming today. From the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally to Lenovo’s Legion Go lineup, there’s no shortage of powerful handheld PCs vying for a place in your backpacks. For the ones looking for a no-compromise experience on the form-factor, though, AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme doesn’t have much of a competition right now.
But is raw throughput the be-all and end-all in the handheld space? And if it is, one might wonder as to why the Steam Deck with a three-year-old APU has managed to, and continues to top the charts in handheld sales globally. There’s a reason as to why the Deck remains the top choice for handheld gamers today despite there being more powerful rivals in the market, and much of it has to do with Valve’s head-start and established dominance in the segment. Here’s why a powerful chip shouldn’t be enough to sell you a handheld.
The Steam Deck was released in 2022, and the Steam Deck OLED rolled out in late 2023. By any standards of measure, it isn’t defeating the late Windows entrants to the market in the hardware race. However, most of its tacit advantages have very little to do with its obviously aging custom APU. Thanks to its first-mover advantage, the Steam Deck finds itself in an enviable position that Valve has established in the handheld industry over the last four years. Just like how consoles establish performance targets for developers, the Deck has set itself as the de-facto reference platform for all of handheld PC gaming.
Because of that, there is a strong commercial incentive for developers to prioritize Valve’s platform. With an estimated 6 million units sold worldwide at the start of 2025, the Deck represents an addressable market that no other handheld comes even close to matching. At this scale of market penetration, it very nearly becomes a reputational risk for developers to not have their titles seamlessly optimized for the Deck and SteamOS.
In gaming, raw throughput only matters if you’re constantly reminded that you don’t have enough of it. Anyone who has spent any time gaming on a Steam Deck knows that performance, especially the lack thereof, has rarely ever been a subject of discourse.
Now, there’s an entire ecosystem worth of optimization layers that make this possible on the Steam Deck, working behind-the-scenes. Through an exemplary integration of SteamOS, Proton, and the Deck Verified program, Valve has ensured the games work and deliver the desired experience from the moment the device comes out of the box. Regrettably, the same could never be said about Windows-based handhelds, despite the recent attempts to bandage the overhead issues that arose as a result of a desktop-class OS being asked to excel in a handheld-based form-factor.
This has a rather interesting psychological side effect on the user, in that, it makes the aging APU under the hood feel far more capable than the specifications would alone suggest. SteamOS made sure that the underlying operating system enhanced the gaming user experience, Proton ascertained the games ran exceptionally well, and Deck Verified compelled developers to optimize major releases for the platform. The result, as expected, was a well-rounded handheld that comprehensively covered all aspects for the one use-case the Deck was designed for, with no room to complain.
There’s another reason behind why the Steam Deck is the market’s favorite handheld, and even three years after its release, it continues to sell out in almost all marketplaces whenever it’s back in stock within hours. It’s the simple fact that Valve ensured that buyers never felt like they were paying a disproportionate amount of money for the experience they received.
The economics behind a purchase in a specific segment, for a specific product are far more relevant now than they used to be. Whereas a Legion Go 2 powered by the Ryzen Z2 Extreme fetches higher frame rates, the Steam Deck succeeds in providing a remarkably similar experience, for a convincingly lower price. If you’ve been following my commentary on handheld PCs, you’d already know that I argue that once a handheld’s price creeps past the $1,000 mark, it begins to compete with budget gaming laptops, and that’s where it becomes a tough sell.
Valve managed to sidestep that dilemma by making sure that consumers saw the Steam Deck as the most capable gaming device below the $600 (and after recent price hikes, $800) dollar mark. In doing so, the company made sure that the Deck occupied a price bracket with very little direct competition. For most buyers, the economic aspect alone makes the purchase decision before the benchmarks have a chance to factor in.
The Lenovo Legion Go 2 is exceptionally powerful, and the Z2 Extreme SoC will undoubtedly be many enthusiast’s favorite. The Steam Deck, however, demonstrated that performance alone doesn’t guarantee commercial success, especially given the fact that powerful hardware often arrives with exclusionary prices. The most valuable lesson that Valve perhaps taught the market though, was the fact that a highly performant chip isn’t a pre-requisite to an enjoyable gaming experience, and perhaps that’s what has made all the difference for the Steam Deck.
The all-new Steam Deck from Valve features some key upgrades, like an OLED display, HDR support, better battery life, faster downloads, and even a higher refresh rate. If you liked the Steam Deck, there’s even more to love with the Steam Deck OLED.