Picking the best Steam Deck alternative got harder in 2026, because the Deck itself stopped being the cheap option. Valve raised the 512 GB Steam Deck OLED from $549 to $789 in May, citing memory and storage costs, and the 1 TB model now costs $949. At those prices a Lenovo or ASUS handheld with a much faster chip lands in the same bracket. So the choice now comes down to which of them runs SteamOS or Bazzite properly instead of Windows.
We ranked five handhelds you can buy on Amazon today by how well Linux runs on them, then by price, screen and battery. Support status comes from Valve’s SteamOS release notes and the Bazzite handheld wiki rather than from forum anecdotes, and every spec comes from the maker’s own page or datasheet. If you want the desktop side of the same software, our Fedora vs Bazzite comparison covers how the Bazzite image is built. Prices and stock below were checked in October 2026.
Quick picks: the best Steam Deck alternatives
If you only read one section, read this one. Each pick wins for a different reason, and the order follows how many people it suits:
- Best overall, SteamOS preinstalled: Lenovo Legion Go S Powered by SteamOS. It is the only handheld besides the Deck that Valve officially supports, with an 8-inch 1200p screen. About $800 to $830 on Amazon, check the live price.
- Best performance on Bazzite: ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X. Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, 24 GB of RAM and an 80 Wh battery, and the one with a published Windows vs Bazzite frame-rate test. $999.99 from ASUS; the new Amazon listing we link is an import at about $1,150.
- Best budget pick: ASUS ROG Xbox Ally. The same shell and 120 Hz screen with a smaller Z2 A chip. About $600, cheaper than the 512 GB Deck OLED.
- Best screen: Lenovo Legion Go 2. An 8.8-inch 144 Hz OLED with detachable controllers. About $1,350 for the listing we link.
- Most power in a handheld: GPD Win 5. A Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with a 40-CU GPU and a removable battery pack. About $2,450, and only for people who know why they want it.
For most people we’d pick the Legion Go S. It costs about the same as a 512 GB Deck OLED, it ships with SteamOS and Valve pushes its updates, so nothing on it depends on a community project keeping up. The ROG Xbox Ally X is the better machine if you’re comfortable installing Bazzite yourself.
How we picked these handhelds
We did not have these handhelds on a bench, so there are no frame rates of our own in this guide. Instead we checked three things for every candidate, and we’d only shortlist a device that passed all three:
- Linux support in writing: what Valve’s SteamOS 3.8 release notes and the October 3.9 notes add for the device, and what the Bazzite handheld wiki lists as broken.
- Specs from the maker: the Valve, Lenovo, ASUS, MSI and GPD spec pages or datasheets, never a retailer’s copy of them.
- A live listing: an Amazon US listing for the exact configuration, new and in stock on the day we checked, with its price and seller.
The live-listing check removed more devices than the first two. Several handhelds that run Linux well are sold on Amazon only through resellers at several hundred dollars over the maker’s price, and some have no listing at all. Where we still link a marked-up listing, the pick section says so. Where the only frame-rate data is a third party’s, we name who measured it, because a single creator’s test is a hint and not a benchmark.
Steam Deck alternatives compared
The Steam Deck OLED is in the first row as the yardstick. The SteamOS column means support in Valve’s own release notes; the Bazzite column means Bazzite supports the device, with the wiki’s known issues where it has a page.
| Handheld | Chip | RAM / storage | Screen | Battery / weight | SteamOS | Bazzite | Price band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam Deck OLED | Valve APU, Zen 2 4c/8t, 8 RDNA 2 CUs | 16 GB / 512 GB or 1 TB | 7.4″ OLED 1280×800, 90 Hz | 50 Wh / about 640 g | Native | Yes | $789 or $949 from Valve |
| Legion Go S (SteamOS) | Ryzen Z2 Go, 4c/8t | 16 GB / 512 GB | 8″ IPS 1920×1200, 120 Hz VRR | 55.5 Wh / about 740 g | Ships with it, officially supported | Yes, minor issues | About $800 to $830 |
| ROG Xbox Ally X | Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, 8c/16t | 24 GB / 1 TB | 7″ IPS 1920×1080, 120 Hz | 80 Wh / 715 g | Controller, TDP and audio support | Yes, since Bazzite 43 | About $1,000 (ASUS) to $1,150 (Amazon) |
| ROG Xbox Ally | Ryzen Z2 A, 4c/8t | 16 GB / 512 GB | 7″ IPS 1920×1080, 120 Hz | 60 Wh / 670 g | Controller, TDP and audio support | Yes, since Bazzite 43 | About $600 |
| Legion Go 2 | Ryzen Z2 or Z2 Extreme | 16 or 32 GB / 1 TB | 8.8″ OLED 1920×1200, 144 Hz | 74 Wh / about 920 g | Controller and firmware support, brightness preliminary | Yes, no TDP in OGUI | About $1,350 |
| GPD Win 5 | Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 16c/32t, 40 CUs | 32 GB / 2 TB | 7″ 1920×1080, 120 Hz | 80 Wh pack / 590 g (940 g with pack) | Improved controller support | No wiki page yet | About $2,450 |
Two things stand out. Only the Deck and the Legion Go S ship with a supported operating system other than Windows. Everything else asks you to wipe Windows and install the SteamOS recovery image or Bazzite yourself.
Battery size also matters more than the chip on a handheld. The ROG Xbox Ally X carries 80 Wh against the Deck’s 50 Wh, and in a long session that gap is bigger than anything its faster GPU shows on screen.
Why the Steam Deck OLED stopped being the default
Valve’s own store listed the 512 GB OLED at $789, the 1 TB OLED at $949 and the 256 GB LCD at $399 when we checked. The May price rise was a straight cost pass-through, and it moved the Deck from the bottom of the market into the middle of it.
Valve’s handheld is still the most polished SteamOS device you can own, because Valve tunes the OS for exactly one chip. Its 1280×800 screen also makes that small chip look faster than it is. Buy it from Valve, though: Amazon only had it through resellers at about $855 for the 512 GB model and more than $1,000 for the 1 TB one, so we don’t link it here. If you can get a Deck OLED at Valve’s price, it is still a sensible buy. The alternatives below make sense when you want a bigger 1200p or OLED screen, more GPU headroom for recent games, or a bigger battery for the same money.
1. Lenovo Legion Go S Powered by SteamOS
The Legion Go S wins because it is the only Steam Deck alternative you can buy with SteamOS already on it. Valve’s SteamOS FAQ lists the Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame and Legion Go S as the only devices officially Powered by SteamOS, so the Go S is the only third-party handheld on that list. SteamOS updates arrive from Valve and the device-specific fixes in its release notes are written for it.
Lenovo’s spec page for the SteamOS model (part number 83L30030US) lists a Ryzen Z2 Go with four cores and eight threads, 16 GB of LPDDR5X-6400 and a 512 GB M.2 2242 SSD. The screen is an 8-inch 1920×1200 IPS panel at 120 Hz with VRR. The battery is 55.5 Wh, and there are two USB4 ports and a microSD slot. Its Z2 Go is a modest chip with RDNA 2 graphics, closer to the Deck than to the Z2 Extreme machines. Think of it as a Deck with a bigger, sharper screen and a larger battery, not a faster one.
Where this falls short:
- Price on Amazon: the SteamOS edition sells through resellers at about $800 to $830, well above its launch price. The cheapest Windows edition we saw with the same Z2 Go, 16 GB and 512 GB was a used, like-new unit at about $550, and you can put the SteamOS recovery image on it yourself.
- Native 1200p: the Z2 Go cannot drive recent games at 1920×1200, so expect to play at a lower render resolution with FSR.
- Bazzite gaps: the wiki lists adaptive brightness as broken across the Legion Go family, and the charge limit is only in desktop mode.
Pick the Legion Go S if you want the Steam Deck experience and a bigger screen without touching an installer. If you’re happy flashing a USB stick and buying used, the Windows edition is the cheaper route to the same hardware, provided you check its condition and live price first.
2. ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X
The ROG Xbox Ally X is where you go for performance on Linux. It pairs the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme (eight cores, 16 threads) with 24 GB of LPDDR5X, a 1 TB SSD and an 80 Wh battery, and it weighs 715 g by ASUS’s spec page. That’s the biggest internal battery in a 7-inch handheld on this list.
Of all these handhelds, it also has the most cited Windows vs Bazzite comparison. In October 2025 the YouTuber Cyber Dopamine ran Kingdom Come: Deliverance II on it at 17 W and got 47 fps on Windows 11 against 62 fps on Bazzite, about 32% more, as Notebookcheck reported. At 13 W the gap shrank to 35 against 37 fps, and Hogwarts Legacy at 13 W came out at 38 fps on Windows against 37 on Bazzite. Read that as “Linux holds its own on this chip and can win at mid TDP”, not as a fixed 32% uplift, because it’s one creator, two games and a test from an older Bazzite release.
Valve added controller, TDP control and speaker support for the ROG Xbox Ally series to SteamOS in June, so the recovery image is now a real option alongside Bazzite. Bazzite has supported the ROG Xbox Ally family since its 43 release. Its wiki page still covers only the older ROG Ally and Ally X, but those notes are the nearest guide, because the newer models share most of the hardware:
- TDP after a charger change in standby: it can stick at the old limit until you set it again.
- Speakers: audio is soft until you set the two audio devices the wiki names to the same level.
- Fingerprint reader: may not work at all.
- VRAM: the wiki recommends setting the UEFI VRAM allocation to 4 or 8 GB before you install.
None of those stops you playing, but skip the Ally X if you expect zero tinkering. ASUS sells it new for $999.99 on its own store. The new-condition Amazon listing we link is a Japan-market unit from a reseller at about $1,150, and an import may not carry ASUS’s US warranty. The $1,000 listings we saw on Amazon were used, like-new units, so check the condition and live price before you buy. A newer ROG Xbox Ally X20 with a 7.4-inch OLED and the same Z2 Extreme went on sale in Japan in October, but it was not in stock on Amazon when we checked, and Bazzite support for it was still in testing in October.
3. ASUS ROG Xbox Ally
The plain ROG Xbox Ally is the cheapest way into a 1080p 120 Hz handheld that Linux supports well. It costs $599.99 from ASUS and about $600 on Amazon, roughly $190 less than the 512 GB Deck OLED. It also gets the same SteamOS support as the Ally X, because Valve’s release notes cover the whole ROG Xbox Ally series.
You pay for that price with the chip. The Ryzen Z2 A has four cores and eight threads, and ASUS pairs it with 16 GB of LPDDR5-6400 and a 60 Wh battery. That puts it in the same class as the Deck and the Legion Go S, not the Ally X. Its 1080p panel matches the Ally X, so you’ll render below native resolution in demanding games.
We’d still buy it for a library of indie games, older AAA titles and emulation. Skip it if you want headroom for the next few years of releases. For about $400 more, the Ally X adds a far stronger GPU, 8 GB more RAM and 20 Wh more battery.
4. Lenovo Legion Go 2
The Legion Go 2 has the best screen on this list: an 8.8-inch OLED at 1920×1200 and up to 144 Hz with VRR, rated VESA True Black 1000. Lenovo’s page lists configurations up to the Ryzen Z2 Extreme with a 74 Wh battery, detachable controllers and a kickstand, and the 32 GB Z2 Extreme model is the one to want.
Linux support is moving fast here. Valve’s June SteamOS update added controller support, system and controller firmware updates and RGB settings for the Go 2, and the October update added preliminary brightness control and fixed a crash in Forza Horizon 6. On Bazzite it works, but OpenGamepadUI can’t set TDP on the Go 2 yet, and the wiki says you may need Decky or OGUI plugins for power controls.
Watch the configuration and the weight before you buy:
- The listing we link: Ryzen Z2 with 16 GB and 1 TB at about $1,350 from a third-party seller. Its Amazon title says WQXGA, but Lenovo lists the panel as 1920×1200. The Z2 Extreme 32 GB model was on Amazon only as a used, like-new unit near $2,000, which we would not pay.
- Weight: about 920 g by Lenovo’s sheet, roughly 280 g more than a Deck OLED, so it is a tabletop or kickstand device as much as a handheld.
- SteamOS edition: Lenovo announced a Legion Go 2 Powered by SteamOS at CES at $1,199, but we could not find it on Amazon US.
Pick the Go 2 if the screen is what you’ll stare at for hundreds of hours and you play at a desk or on the sofa as often as on the move. Skip it if you mostly play standing on a train, because the Ally X does more per gram.
5. GPD Win 5
The GPD Win 5 is one of the two most powerful handhelds on sale, next to the OneXFly Apex with the same chip, and it is the pick only if you need that power. GPD’s page lists a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with 16 cores, 32 threads and a 40-CU Radeon 8060S, configurable from 45 to 120 W, with 32 or 64 GB of LPDDR5X-8000 and a 7-inch 120 Hz screen.
GPD solved the power problem by moving the 80 Wh battery into an external pack, so the handheld weighs 590 g on its own and 940 g with the pack attached. GPD’s design is clever, and it also shows how much power this chip wants. A 40-CU GPU at full TDP drains any handheld battery fast. On Linux, SteamOS’s June update improved controller support for the Win 5, but the Bazzite wiki has no page for it yet, so you’d be early. It costs about $2,450 on Amazon for the 32 GB and 2 TB configuration, from a reseller and well above the roughly $1,650 that GPD’s launch pricing put on the AI Max+ 395 with 32 GB. Expect that reseller markup to move, so check the live price. Skip it unless you also want a portable machine for local AI models or a desktop replacement you can dock.
MSI Claw A8 and the handhelds we left out
A few well-known handhelds did not make the list, each for a specific reason:
- MSI Claw A8: MSI’s datasheet lists the same Ryzen Z2 Extreme as the Ally X, 24 GB of LPDDR5X, an 8-inch 1920×1200 screen at 48 to 120 Hz, an 80 Wh battery, Wi-Fi 7 and 765 g. It is a good machine, and SteamOS added controller support for it in June. It lost to the Ally X on price: about $1,270 on Amazon against $999.99 from ASUS for the same chip and battery.
- MSI Claw 8 AI+: it’s the Intel option with a Lunar Lake chip. SteamOS has controller support for it, Bazzite’s SteamOS comparison page lists the first-generation Claw 7 AI+ and 8 AI+ as working, but AMD handhelds get far more Linux tuning, so we’d only buy it for Windows.
- Steam Machine: Valve’s living-room PC sells by reservation at $1,049 and up, not on Amazon, and it is not a handheld.
- Original ROG Ally X (2024): Bazzite still supports it, but Amazon sold it mainly through resellers, and the newer ROG Xbox Ally X gets the Z2 Extreme and Valve’s SteamOS support for about the same money.
If you already own one of these, Linux is still worth trying on it. These are buying calls, not support verdicts, and Bazzite’s per-device pages are the place to check before you wipe Windows.
What to check before buying a Linux handheld
The spec sheet matters less than four things about how you’ll play. Check each before you spend $600 or more:
- Your multiplayer games and anti-cheat: Are We Anti-Cheat Yet tracked 1,167 games when we checked, and 636 were broken and 53 denied on Linux, including Fortnite, Valorant and Apex Legends. If those are your main games, keep Windows or buy a different device.
- SteamOS or Bazzite: SteamOS is Valve’s image and is officially supported only on the Deck and the Legion Go S. Bazzite is a Fedora-based image with Steam’s Gaming Mode on its deck images, more device fixes and an easier route to non-Steam launchers.
- Chip tier, not chip name: Z2 Go and Z2 A sit near the Deck, Z2 Extreme is a clear step up, and the AI Max+ 395 is a different class with a different price.
- Battery and weight together: 80 Wh at 715 g (Ally X) is a different handheld from 74 Wh at about 920 g (Legion Go 2), even though the batteries look similar.
For non-Steam games, Bazzite ships Lutris and the umu launcher in the image, and our guide to Lutris, Heroic and GE-Proton on Fedora covers the same tools on a desktop. Bazzite tracks Fedora closely: when we read the registry on October 27, the bazzite-deck stable image was a Fedora 44 build from the day before, and the Fedora 45 base was still on the testing tag. If you’d rather tune a full desktop distro on a handheld, our CachyOS install guide, the CachyOS kernel tuning notes and the Steam and Proton setup for Fedora are the other routes we’ve tested.
Which Steam Deck alternative to buy
Start from how you want Linux to arrive on the device, then from how you play:
- You want SteamOS with no installer: Legion Go S Powered by SteamOS, or a Deck OLED bought from Valve.
- You’ll install Bazzite and want the fastest 7-inch handheld: ROG Xbox Ally X.
- You want the lowest price with good Linux support: ROG Xbox Ally, or a used Windows Legion Go S plus the SteamOS recovery image.
- You mostly play on the sofa and want an OLED: Legion Go 2, ideally the Z2 Extreme configuration.
- You need desktop-class GPU power in your hands: GPD Win 5, and accept that you’re early on Linux.
Whatever you pick, check the multiplayer games you care about on Are We Anti-Cheat Yet before you buy, because that list decides more than any spec in this guide. And with Valve’s Deck now at $789, buying a Windows handheld to run Linux on it is no longer the workaround; for a lot of people it is the better deal.
