SteamOS: Someone Installed It on a rival device; the Results Are Excellent! [VIDEO]

General news News 03/25/2025

0 85 Views

HANDHELD NEWS – Someone tried SteamOS 3.8 on a competing handheld PC and got surprisingly good results.

Valve released a preview version of SteamOS 3.7 for the Steam Deck in mid-March, starting the road to support for other handheld PCs. It was noted by Gabe Newell’s company that their Linux-based operating system will be available on other devices, but the first such version will be 3.8. But this has not yet been made public by Valve!

However, a YouTuber managed to get his hands on SteamOS 3.8 and successfully installed it on the Asus ROG Ally. This can be seen in the video embedded below. Currently, the only handheld PC that supports this version of SteamOS is the Lenovo Legion Go S, but that was developed by the Chinese company in collaboration with Valve, so it’s a different kettle of fish than the Asus device.

The Asus ROG Ally comes with Windows 11 by default with a lot of bloatware (a lot of unnecessary software that clutters up the device), but many users have been waiting for Valve to release SteamOS, which is coming soon. The unofficial installation works on the Asus machine, but there are some limitations. It seems to work perfectly, but the ROG Ally is reportedly stuck in 15W mode. This machine is capable of more, as it has a TDP range of 10-30W. The lower power consumption may limit its performance.

The 15W TDP is the maximum power of the Steam Deck, but the comparison is at least fair in this scenario. Benchmarking in games has shown that the ROG Ally beats the Steam Deck in several games. The performance difference is not that big, but overall the gameplay seems smoother on the Asus machine. Of course, there were instances where the custom 4-core/8-thread CPU showed its dominance over the more powerful Z1 Extreme, but with the latter being held back due to underperformance, this was to be expected in some cases.

When SteamOS 3.8 is officially released, the performance limit will also be lifted, allowing the Asus ROG Ally and other handheld PCs to make better use of the hardware, resulting in even better performance.

Source: WCCFTech

Spread the love

Angyal Anikó

Anikó, our news editor and communication manager, is more interested in the business side of the gaming industry. She worked at banks, and she has a vast knowledge of business life. Still, she likes puzzle and story-oriented games, like Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, which is her favourite title. She also played The Sims 3, but after accidentally killing a whole sim family, swore not to play it again. (For our office address, email and phone number check out our IMPRESSUM)