Handheld gaming PCs have made PC gaming more relevant than ever before. One of the greatest advantages of gaming on a PC as opposed to a console is the nearly inexhaustible library of games. Unlike consoles, which eventually lose backwards compatibility at some point in their life, even the oldest of PC games can be revisited. At this point, there are literally tens of thousands of PC games for you to choose from. The tradeoff, in the past, was mobility; either you had to settle for an immovable desktop computer, or lug around a gaming-worthy laptop. Not so anymore.
With the advent of gaming PC handhelds, your entire library of PC games is at your fingertips. Now you can play Clair Obscur, Hades, Silksong, or Baldur's Gate on a device that's not much bigger than a Switch console. Some of these handhelds are pretty expensive, and the highest end models can cost upwards of $1,000. Fortunately, a couple of SteamOS models happen to have major discounts for Black Friday, including one of our favorites. SteamOS is more intuitive to use on a handheld than Windows and anyone who wants an easy, bug-free plug and play experience that "just works" should stick with this over a Windows-based handheld.
Lenovo Legion Go S Z1 Extreme SteamOS Edition
Best Buy's Black Friday Sale has officially kicked off with some great deals on gaming hardware. Possibly the very best deal I've found so far is on the Lenovo Legion Go S Z1 Extreme SteamOS handheld gaming PC, which has dropped to just $649.99 after a $250 instant discount. This is the more powerful model with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip and it is easily one of the best Steam-based gaming handhelds currently available. It's essentially a souped up Steam Deck. Check out Jackie's Legion Go S review, in which she concludes that it is one of the "best handheld gaming PCs on the market, and a legitimate Steam Deck alternative."
Lenovo Legion Go S Z2 Go SteamOS Edition
Also on sale is the Legion Go S Z2 Go Edition, which is currently $449.99 after a $200 discount. Despite the fact that the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go is a 2nd gen chip, it's less powerful than the Z1 Extreme, but more powerful than the Steam Deck's APU. Since this version also runs SteamOS, you'll get generally better performance out of it, especially if you knock the resolution down to 1280x800. There are other advantages over the Steam Deck, such as a bigger 8" display with smoother 120Hz refresh rate, storage capacity that matches the most expensive Steam Deck models, and a faster charging rate.
Steam Deck 256GB LCD Edition
For Black Friday, Steam has discounted its base model with a 7" 1280x800 LCD display and 256GB of storage to $319.99, a 20% discount from its $400 list price. If you're pinching pennies, you won't find a less expensive gaming handheld PC. Every Steam Deck is equipped with the same processor, so the base model will still run games just as smoothly as the highest end $650 system. You can also upgrade the storage yourself with some technical know-how.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
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