Asus and Lenovo's handhelds get price hike as Valve pauses some Steam Deck sales

The Verge

4 hours ago

The first third-party SteamOS handheld, the Lenovo Legion Go S, was supposed to cost $499. The Asus ROG Ally X became the best Windows gaming handheld at a $799 sticker price. But ahead of the Nintendo Switch 2's launch on June 5th and Microsoft's Xbox Ally announcement on June 8th, Asus and Lenovo's handhelds suddenly cost $100 more than originally promised in the US.
And, separately, Valve has temporarily stopped selling the $649 1TB model of its Steam Deck OLED in the US and Canada, citing unspecified supply chain constraints:
Steam Deck OLED 1TB models are temporarily out-of-stock in the US and Canada as we adapt to recent supply chain constraints. We anticipate being back in stock by end of summer, and currently expect prices will remain the same. We'll update here as soon as we have more clarity on what the timeline ultimately looks like.
Mind you, the $549 512GB Steam Deck OLED is the model I'd recommend anyhow. But combined with the fact that the Intel-powered MSI Claw AI 8 Plus also got a $100 price hike shortly after launch, it feels like Windows makers are no longer meaningfully competing with the the Steam Deck or Switch 2, and I'm beginning to wonder if Microsoft will be able to do so when the Xbox Ally launches later this year.
It's not clear if Trump's trade war with China is responsible for any of these specific price changes, though it seems likely in the case of the Asus ROG Ally X. The $800 handheld now starts at $900 at Best Buy in the US, but still costs the equivalent of $800 at Best Buy Canada, and hasn't gone up in price in Mexico either.
Asus would not tell us why the price has gone up, or even confirm the price increase to The Verge, after repeated emails.
Lenovo, meanwhile, raised its prices on the entry-level Legion Go S with SteamOS twice before it put the handheld on sale May 25th. It told us about the first $50 price increase in March, and quietly raised the price another $50 before launch.
As a result, the $599 Legion Go S now costs $50 more than its closest competitor, the $549 Steam Deck OLED, which makes Lenovo's handheld a more difficult pick than it otherwise could have been. While the SteamOS version is much improved over the Windows one, it's not a clear winner over the Steam Deck in performance, battery life, screen quality, or comfort in my tests.
I plan to have a full review of the SteamOS version of the Legion Go S soon, now that I've tested both the Z2 Go and Z1 Extreme configs. I still would not recommend buying the Windows Z2 Go version, which has been discounted down to the same $599. In case you're wondering, MSI still has not sent The Verge an MSI Claw 8 AI Plus for review, after I warned readers not to buy its disappointing predecessor, and the company no longer answers my emails.
If these prices all seem too high for you, there is one deal I keep seeing anecdotally: apparently, some retailers are offering YMMV closeout deals as low as $349 on the original Lenovo Legion Go with detachable controllers. I found it bulky and uncomfortable to hold, and a sequel is on the way, but it's more interesting at that price, and its Z1 Extreme chip makes it more powerful than any Z2 Go handheld.