The Steam Deck starts at $400. That’s one of its most appealing aspects, even years after it launched. The new Lenovo Legion Go 2 starts at $1,050, and it goes up to $1,350 if you really want to max its specs. Perhaps that’s an unfair comparison, but it’s one that plenty of fans are making anyway… and Lenovo’s response to them isn’t helping.
In a recent interview at IFA 2025, PC Watch of Japan (via Windows Central) asked Lenovo executives about the high pricing. It starts at €1,000, “which is close to the price of a laptop,” according to a Google translation.
“The Legion Go 2 is expensive because of the high-performance processor, OLED display, detachable controllers, and ergonomic design that make it so powerful,” replied a representative. “Therefore, the Legion Go 2 targets enthusiast gamers who are willing to invest in their hobbies. They value customizing their own hardware and building their own setups, and they choose such hardware even if it is expensive.”
The representative offered up the Legion Go S as “a more affordable option.” That’s a handheld that starts at $600 for the SteamOS version and goes up to $830 for the most powerful hardware. “Affordable” is pulling a lot of weight here, in a form factor that’s still fairly limited even compared to a desktop PC at the same price.
Direct sales comparisons are hard to make, considering the paucity of data available. But it seems like the Steam Deck is still outselling its newer competition by a large factor, even given its three-year-old hardware. SteamOS—which is better than Windows 11 for gaming in almost every way—is certainly part of that success.
But I can’t help but notice that you can get a top-of-the-line Steam Deck OLED for just a little more than Lenovo’s “more affordable option.” It doesn’t help that in the US, consumers will be paying for the current administration’s import taxes on basically everything, too.
Lenovo seems to be betting that gamers love the handheld PC form factor so much that they’re willing to pay double or even triple for hardware that’s more powerful and flexible. I’m sure some are, but when I look at those price tags, I just see diminishing returns. A Legion Go 2 with an AMD Z2 Extreme processor and 64GB of shared memory can do more than a base model Steam Deck… But three times more? Nah.
Perhaps a revitalized Windows 11—with a refreshed interface that’s set to debut on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally—could shake up this equation. (Asus is still afraid to put a price on that device and we only have a month until its planned release.) But even if it does, it won’t be until sometime next year that the new UI comes to other devices like the Legion Go 2. Even if I were tempted to buy a handheld PC with a four-figure price tag, I’d want to wait until that option became available.