this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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No idea about handhelds as I'm an exclusive PC gamer - what OS do these devices come with if not SteamOS? Aren't other OSes far inferior?
They come with windows
For what it's worth I have a ROG Ally X with both Windows 11 Pro and Bazzite both installed. It came with Windows 11 Home but I upgraded windows to get more access to things like Group Policy Editor specifically so I could turn off pretty much everything MS put on it that I didn't want. Local Account. No telemetry. No ads. No tacking. No copilot or AI. The only handheld that comes with Steam OS right now is the steam deck and the Legion Go S. All the others come with Windows.
For the purposes of using steam, windows isn't inferior exactly but I don't like it as much. Touchscreen support for Windows 11 (os-wise) is pretty poor in comparison to previous Windows distros like 10. You can limit but not completely prevent other processes from running in the background in windows. But once you launch steam big picture mode it's basically the same. There's very few functional differences (hardware things mostly that are handled by other apps like RGB lighting or fan curve and TPM and battery charge limits).
How windows performs is ultimately dependent on the hardware and that's a lot of the reason that I can't speak for how windows would perform on a lower specced device. I doubt windows on a steam deck would perform the same as steam os on a steam deck.
That's the point of the article. You can ditch windows on the Ally and install Steam OS and skip all the Microsoft trash altogether.
I'm not switching over from Bazzite. For my device the Bazzite support is still better at the moment from what I have read. But I am glad that Steam OS is coming to other handheld devices.
ROG Ally comes with windows and it's very usable, I don't have any of the usual windows chicanery
How reliable is sleep? Does it actually go to sleep? Is the battery drain in sleep acceptable? Does it come out of sleep without issue? Is it fast to go to sleep and resume from sleep?
My experience with the steam deck has been absolutely stellar regarding sleep, to the point is has been a game changer. So fast to pick up for a quick game and put back to sleep even if playing just for a minute. It's reliable and the battery drain is acceptable maybe (roughly 10% per 24h but didn't measure it explicitly).
This is my question too, the biggest benefit to SteamOS was the pause/resume capability. When dual booting windows on the Steamdeck was that windows didn't sleep well.
Curious if it's better on other devices.
Suspending games is a hit or miss, depends on the game but I would say 70% don't work right
What issues do you encounter when you say they "don't work right"?
Oh I didn't know there was still something like a "Windows mobile" around. Interesting!
There isn’t. It’s regular desktop windows shoehorned into a handheld screen.
That doesn't sell it to me, the opposite actually
Hence the desire for SteamOS.
Or Bazzite. Apart from the xboxness, the hardware isn't half bad in many of these devices. Windows just makes them completely unusable. Which means there's quite a few on the used market.
It works but consunes more battery abd if you have leave the fancy asus or lenovo shop you run into problems
I guess visiting the Asus and Lenovo shops is all gamers ever wanted!
Tis a true progamer move