As a die-hard handheld gaming enthusiast, I'm over the moon about Valve’s latest Steam Deck update. SteamOS 3.7.8 officially hit the Stable channel on May 22, 2025, and it’s huge. This isn’t just another routine patch – it’s a milestone that not only supercharges the Deck with new features, but also boldly expands SteamOS support to devices beyond the Steam Deck itself. Valve code-named this release “Go Country,” and it truly feels like they’re telling us to go forth and explore new frontiers in handheld gaming.
In other words, you can now boot a Lenovo Legion Go S, hit the Steam button, and land in Game Mode without ever seeing a Windows desktop. And if you own an Asus ROG Ally or any AMD-powered handheld with an NVMe SSD, Valve’s brand-new recovery image lets you install SteamOS yourself — no community hacks required. That single move changes the handheld landscape overnight.
SteamOS 3.7.8 is absolutely packed with improvements – both under the hood and in daily use features. Here are the biggest highlights of what’s new in SteamOS 3.7.8:
Those are the major bullet points, but the full patch notes list dozens of tweaks and fixes. Valve updated the Deck’s Arch Linux base OS to a newer snapshot, included the KDE Filelight utility for disk space visualization, improved how fast and reliably the system switches between Game Mode and Desktop Mode, and much more.
In practice, 3.7.8 feels like a significant quality-of-life upgrade. The Deck’s desktop UI is snappier, the system is more stable when docking/undocking, and we have new capabilities that genuinely enhance how we use the device day-to-day. It’s honestly impressive how Valve keeps refining the SteamOS experience – this feels like the most polished Steam Deck has ever been.
One of the most exciting things about SteamOS 3.7.8 is that it marks the first time Valve is officially supporting hardware beyond the Steam Deck. This update is a clear signal that SteamOS is not just for the Deck anymore – it’s evolving into a multi-device ecosystem and I find this development incredibly encouraging.
Valve added official support for the Lenovo Legion Go S handheld in SteamOS 3.7.8. In fact, the Legion Go S is the first non-Steam Deck handheld to ship with SteamOS pre-installed – a huge milestone. Lenovo partnered with Valve to create a SteamOS edition of their Legion Go S (8-inch handheld), making it the world’s first officially licensed SteamOS device aside from the Deck.
The Legion Go S (SteamOS version) was slated to release on May 25, 2025, and effectively it’s a Legion handheld out-of-the-box running Valve’s OS. This partnership shows Valve is serious about bringing SteamOS to other manufacturers’ hardware. Lenovo even touted the Legion Go S as “the world’s first officially licensed handheld powered by SteamOS”– how cool is that?
From a user perspective, this means the Legion Go S will just work with SteamOS features and get updates like the Deck does. Valve even fixed a few Legion-specific bugs in 3.7.8 (for example, an issue that prevented some apps from installing on the Legion Go S has been resolved). They also added a “SteamOS Compatible” library filter on the Legion device, so you can easily see which games are Deck/SteamOS Verified on it.
But Valve didn’t stop at Lenovo’s device. SteamOS 3.7.8 is also the first release to offer an official recovery image and installation instructions for other AMD handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally series. This is huge news for anyone with a Windows-based handheld who’s been itching to try SteamOS.
Until now, if you wanted SteamOS on, say, a ROG Ally, you had to hack it by repurposing the Steam Deck’s recovery image or use an unofficial distro like Bazzite. Bazzite is a community-made installer that brought SteamOS to other devices – something many of us experimented with. With 3.7.8, Valve is essentially saying: here’s an official way to put SteamOS on your device.
Valve’s SteamOS recovery image has been updated to support third-party AMD handhelds and comes with a guide on how to install it on devices like the Ally or the original Legion Go. I checked out the instructions Valve provided, and while they caution that this is still early support, it’s straightforward enough for enthusiasts. The only hard requirements are that the target device must have an AMD processor and an NVMe SSD for SteamOS to work.
If you meet those, you can flash the SteamOS image and boot your handheld into the same SteamUI interface the Deck uses. Valve explicitly warns that “support for all devices that are not officially ‘Powered by SteamOS’ is not final,” meaning this is still experimental.
But the very fact that Valve is enabling it officially is exciting. They even updated the SteamOS FAQ to invite other manufacturers to reach out: “We’re currently working with select partners on officially licensed Powered by SteamOS devices. Please reach out to us at [email protected] for more information about licensing SteamOS for your device,” one FAQ answer reads. In other words, Valve is actively expanding the “Powered by SteamOS” program, with Lenovo as the first partner and hopefully more to come.
For someone like me who loves the Deck but also dabbles with other handhelds, this multi-device push is fantastic news. I did try installing SteamOS (via Bazzite) on a friend’s ROG Ally previously, and while it worked decently, it’s a pain to set up and not 100% stable.
Now, Valve is essentially taking that concept mainstream. In the SteamDeck community, we’ve already seen early adopters load 3.7.8 on their ROG Allies and report good results. Valve is making it easier than ever to turn a Windows handheld into “a Steam Deck” of sorts. And because SteamOS is optimized for handheld gaming, this could be a game-changer for devices that otherwise run Windows 11 (which, as we know, isn’t very handheld-friendly).
One big question on everyone’s mind: if you install SteamOS 3.7 on a device like the ROG Ally, how does it perform compared to Windows? The answer – shockingly – is that SteamOS can outperform Windows on the same hardware in many cases, while also improving battery life. As a Deck user I always felt SteamOS was better optimized for handheld gaming, but now we have data points to prove it.
Tech testers at Tom’s Guide and Digitec have actually benchmarked the ROG Ally running SteamOS (via Bazzite) vs. running Windows 11, and the results made my jaw drop. Jason England of Tom’s Guide turned his ROG Ally X into a “Steam Deck” by installing SteamOS, and he reported a “night and day difference in performance and battery life.” In fact, he measured roughly a 15% higher frame rate and about 22% longer battery run-time under SteamOS compared to Windows on that device. That’s enormous!
For example, in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p (15W TDP limit), SteamOS hit ~42 FPS versus ~36 FPS on Windows, and it ran for about 3 hours 5 minutes on battery versus 2 hours 31 minutes on Windows. Similar gains were seen in other games: Tetris Effect was ~15 FPS higher on SteamOS (with over 30 minutes more battery life), and Forza Horizon 5 also ran faster and a bit longer on SteamOS.
These tests confirm what many of us suspected – Windows 11 is hampering handheld hardware with its overhead, whereas SteamOS (Arch Linux + Steam Deck software optimizations) can really stretch the legs of devices like the Ally.
Digitec’s Philipp Rüegg saw the same trend when he put SteamOS (Bazzite) on a ROG Ally X. He noted that all the games he tested ran better on SteamOS than on Windows – despite the Ally’s more powerful hardware, Windows was holding it back. With SteamOS, the Ally’s superior specs could shine.
He went as far as saying “compatible games run almost consistently faster on Bazzite [SteamOS]” than on Windows, with virtually no downsides. Even the notoriously finicky sleep mode worked reliably with SteamOS (you can suspend and resume games like on the Deck), whereas on Windows the Ally’s standby was “a roll of the dice.” The overall verdict from that experiment: SteamOS made the Ally better in almost every respect, offering a smoother, more console-like experience.
In his recent video, Dave2D laid out some eye-opening numbers comparing the Lenovo Legion Go S running SteamOS versus its Windows 11 twin — and wow, the difference is bigger than I expected.
In games like Cyberpunk 2077, the SteamOS version hit 59 FPS compared to just 46 FPS on Windows. Doom Eternal was even more dramatic, with 75 FPS on SteamOS and 66 FPS on Windows. Even in Helldivers 2 and The Witcher 3, SteamOS consistently came out ahead by several frames. Only Spider-Man 2 was basically tied, with SteamOS landing at 63 FPS and Windows at 64 FPS, a negligible difference.
What’s striking here is that SteamOS isn’t just holding its own; in most cases, it’s beating Windows on the same hardware. That’s a big deal when you remember the Legion Go S originally launched with Windows and got lukewarm feedback on performance.
But here’s where things get even spicier: battery life. Dave2D’s testing showed that in light indie games like Dead Cells, the Legion Go S running SteamOS delivered a whopping 6+ hours of battery life, while the Windows version barely scraped together 2.75 hours. That’s not just a little better, that’s more than double.
Even in heavy-hitting games like Cyberpunk, the two OSes performed similarly in terms of battery, but the fact that SteamOS can squeeze out so much more endurance in less demanding games really underlines how inefficient Windows is on handhelds. For gamers who love roguelikes, indies, or anything less graphically intense, SteamOS is clearly the better option for battery longevity, and honestly, that’s a game-changer when you’re on the go.
These findings are exciting because they validate Valve’s approach to a console-style OS for handheld PCs. Now we see a high-end Windows handheld getting better frame rates and extra play time just by switching to SteamOS. Of course, Windows still has the advantage of flexibility (you can run any launcher, any app). But as Tom’s Guide put it, are those extra launchers worth “a 15% drop in FPS and 22% less battery life”?
For many of us, the answer is no – we’d rather have the performance and endurance. And with Valve now making SteamOS installs officially accessible, I suspect a lot more folks will give it a try on their Ayaneos, Onexplayers, and other devices. The community momentum is building for a future where Windows might not be the default OS for handheld gaming PCs at all.
To be clear, Windows on handhelds isn’t going to vanish overnight. There will always be those who prefer the familiarity of Windows or need it for specific tasks. But what’s happening now is that for the first time, there’s a viable, arguably better alternative for pure gaming use.
And it’s not a fringe, hobbyist OS – it’s backed by Valve, one of gaming’s heavy hitters. That legitimacy is pivotal. It reassures gamers that SteamOS isn’t some fleeting experiment; it’s a platform with Steam’s entire ecosystem (and Valve’s resources) behind it.
Valve offering SteamOS freely to device makers also suggests they care more about growing the user base than about short-term profit from software, likely because more SteamOS users ultimately means more people buying games on Steam. It’s a classic Valve long game, and it seems to be working.
Perhaps the most significant thing about SteamOS 3.7.8 is what it represents. This update marks the birth of the “Powered by SteamOS” program in a tangible way. Valve’s partnership with Lenovo to launch the Legion Go S SteamOS edition is the first step of a broader strategy.
In an updated FAQ, Valve essentially put out a welcome mat for other hardware vendors to join the SteamOS family. The message is: we’re open for business – if you’re making a gaming handheld (or even a mini PC/console), let’s talk about running SteamOS on it.
It’s a stark contrast to a couple years ago when SteamOS was Deck-exclusive and Steam Machines were a distant memory. Now in 2025, we’re seeing a renaissance of that vision: a whole ecosystem of devices running SteamOS so gamers get a unified, console-like experience across different hardware brands.
The Lenovo partnership shows the potential. If a big PC maker like Lenovo is on board, who might be next? Perhaps ASUS will consider an official SteamOS flavor of the ROG Ally (they’d be almost foolish not to, if the community gravitates to Valve’s OS). Other companies like GPD, OneXPlayer, or AYANEO might collaborate with Valve as well, rather than solely pushing Windows.
Valve even expanded the Steam Deck Verified program to cover “any device running SteamOS that’s not a Steam Deck,” essentially treating all SteamOS devices as first-class citizens for game compatibility labels. This ecosystem play could benefit everyone: Valve grows its platform, hardware makers get a tailor-made OS for free, and gamers get a more consistent experience (and likely better performance/battery life) than dealing with Windows. It’s a win-win-win scenario – one that, as a gamer, I find incredibly exciting.
Of course, Valve remains Valve – they move at their own pace, and SteamOS will evolve gradually. But SteamOS 3.7.8 feels like a statement: the Steam Deck is not a dead-end one-off gadget, it’s the start of something bigger. Valve has been steadily improving the OS for Deck users, and now they are laying the groundwork to bring those benefits to a wider audience of devices.
As someone who loves the idea of portable PC gaming without the clunkiness of Windows, I’m thrilled. The Deck will always hold a special place as the pioneer, but I’m also a fan of the broader handheld scene, and seeing Valve actively help that scene with official support and licensing is beyond encouraging.
In summary, SteamOS 3.7.8 isn’t just a simple update – it’s a turning point. We got a better Steam Deck experience (Plasma 6, new kernel, better power management, etc.), we got new features we’ve wanted (hello, Bluetooth mic and battery saver!), and we witnessed SteamOS take its first steps onto other hardware in an official capacity.
The performance and battery gains on devices like the Ally prove that Valve’s way is, in many respects, the better way for handhelds. And the community’s positive reception, minus a few bumps like Waydroid, shows that Valve is on the right track, listening to feedback and iterating.
As I play with my Deck and see it holding its own in 2025, I can’t help but feel enthusiastic about the future of SteamOS. Whether you’re a Steam Deck owner or just a handheld gaming fan, SteamOS 3.7.8 gives plenty of reasons to smile.
Valve is putting more power in our hands (literally) and ensuring that whether it’s on a Deck, a Legion, an Ally, or something yet to come, we can enjoy our PC games portably with the console-like smoothness we crave. Full steam ahead, indeed – the best is yet to come.
