The Lenovo Legion Go handheld gaming PC has been around for about a year at this point, and it's proven to be a relatively popular handheld gaming PC due to a high-quality display, speedy hardware, and a versatile design that includes a pair of detachable controllers.

Now it looks like Lenovo is planning to expand its handheld lineup with a cheaper model called the Lenovo Legion Go S. Previous leaks had indicated that it'll have a less powerful processor and integrated controllers that cannot be removed. Now we may know what the S stands for: SteamOS.

Evan Blass has leaked a few promotional pictures of the upcoming handheld, which will apparently be available in white or black. And if you look closely at the black version, you can see a Steam logo next to the top button on the left side.

SteamOS is a Linux-based operating system that's designed for gaming. It includes Valve's Proton software that allows you to run many Windows games on Linux and recent versions of the operating system include a user interface that's designed to be navigated on handheld devices with small screens and game controllers.

So far the only handheld to ship with SteamOS is Valve's Steam Deck, but Valve has been saying for years that it plans to make the operating system available for third-party devices, and this month the company updated its branding guidelines to include a "Power by SteamOS" logo for third-party devices, suggesting that we could see SteamOS handhelds from other companies soon.

Many handheld gaming enthusiasts attribute much of the Steam Deck's success to SteamOS, which is an operating system that's built specifically for handhelds, offering a better user experience than Windows on handhelds. So while it would be tempting to think that companies like Lenovo would be attracted to the platform because a Linux-based operating system might help keep costs lower than Windows, it could also lead to a better mobile experience.

That said, there doesn't appear to be a Steam button on the white version of the Legion Go S, so it's also possible that Lenovo could be hedging its bets by preparing SteamOS and Windows versions of the upcoming handheld.

The Legion Go S is expected to feature an AMD Ryzen Z2G processor based on "Rembrandt" architecture and featuring Zen 3+ CPU cores and 12-core RDNA 2 graphics. While that would be a step up over the AMD "Aerith" and "Sepiroth" (Zen 2 + RDNA 2) chips used in the Steam Deck, it would be a step down from the first-gen Legion Go's Ryzen Z1 (Zen 4 + RDNA 3) processor.

AMD hasn't officially launched that processor yet though, so take those features with a grain of salt.