2026 is popping into a beautiful dire 12 months for PC gaming handhelds, because of the continuing impact of the present RAMaggedon. The most recent sufferer is the Lenovo Legion Move S, with each variations of the Steam Deck rival getting a worth building up in the previous few days. The extra tough Z1 Excessive model was once at first $829.99 on Highest Purchase and is now an eye-watering $1,579.99, whilst the less expensive Z2 Move style has jumped from its $599.99 release worth to $989.99. For those who have been ready to select up both of those Legion Move S handhelds, you may have waited too lengthy.
This building is especially disappointing for the reason that I have spent the previous few months recommending the Lenovo Legion Move S with SteamOS to any person searching for a brand new PC gaming software, and it is temporarily turn out to be a staple of our information to the absolute best hand-held consoles. Now, it is considerably trickier to counsel, as whilst it is nonetheless an impressive pick out that advantages from providing SteamOS device as an alternative of Home windows 11, I will’t say in just right sense of right and wrong that I feel both of the to be had variations is price their new worth issues.
Those new worth hikes are in no way the primary in their type. Previous this month, we additionally noticed the cost of the Lenovo Legion Move 2, the logo’s present flagship hand-held, jump to $1,999.99. Now we are left questioning whether or not the Legion Move 2 with SteamOS, which Lenovo published at CES 2026 forward of a release in June this 12 months, will also hit the marketplace. In spite of everything, it is arduous to believe that there is a lot call for for a hand-held that prices about up to 4 Nintendo Transfer 2 devices or 5 Steam Deck LCD devices mixed.
On the time of writing, Asus, Lenovo’s primary competitor in the hand-held area outdoor of Valve, hasn’t greater the cost of any of its merchandise. Its newest units, the ROG Xbox Best friend and ROG Xbox Best friend X, nonetheless price the similar as they did on release in October 2025 – $599.99 and $999.99, respectively. We additionally have not noticed a worth hike from Valve, regardless that the corporate has admitted that one of the crucial inventory problems surrounding the Steam Deck OLED are because of the emerging price and complex availability of elements.
Sadly, there does not appear to be any signal of the problems surrounding RAM disappearing anytime quickly, so hand-held gaming may well be a dearer pastime for some time but. I have additionally were given some considerations round long run units, maximum significantly the much-rumored Steam Deck 2, going through delays because of reminiscence shortages, however for now, we’re going to have to attend and notice what occurs.
