Earlier this week, Ayaneo, a maker of a number of portable gaming PCs that ran on Windows, announced its latest product, the Ayaneo Next Lite. The company promoted this handheld gaming PC as one using Valve's SteamOS, the same operating system used in Valve's Steam Deck. Many people were excited about using SteamOS on another portable gaming device.
Except for one thing: That claim was not true.
The Verge reports that after Ayaneo posted the SteamOS claim on its blog site, the company's CEO Arthur Zhang posted word on its Discord channel that "it should be noted that we are using third-party SteamOS, not official SteamOS."
That was definitely not mentioned in the company's blog post. It was later edited, and it now shows the Next Lite device "comes pre-installed with the Pre-installed HoloISO for the first time." The creator of this OS claims on his GitHub page that his fork "attempts to bring the Steam Deck's SteamOS Holo redistribution into a generic, installable format, and provide a close-to-official SteamOS experience."
In other words, this product comes with an OS that anyone can download and use for free, at their own risk, and is not officially supported or endorsed by Valve. Obviously, we think that anyone who wants to order this new device should do so with a lot of skepticism.
If you are still interested, the product is scheduled to start shipping sometime in early February for $299. Ayaneo also now confirmed the Next Lite will be using the much older AMD Ryzen 7 4500U or 4800U processors, so keep that in mind as well.
Valve has yet to announce any concrete plans to offer its SteamOS to third-party hardware makers. However, in a November 2023 interview with PC Gamer, Valve's Lawrence Yang stated that the goal is "very high on our list, it's on our list, and we are working on it" and added the company wants that to happen "soon."
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