When it comes to handheld gaming PCs, there’s no secret that all of them, including the Steam Deck, have gotten immensely more expensive. That includes Lenovo’s Legion Go lineup, which has seen price hikes that put some versions of the Legion Go 2 upward of $2,000 USD. So, it’s interesting to see Lenovo suddenly taking a different path with an upcoming handheld, the Lenovo Legion C700.
Recently spotted on a number of websites, including Notebook Check and Android Authority, this new device will depart from Lenovo’s prior handhelds by being a cloud-based device instead. This would mean Lenovo is following a path that Logitech once explored with its Logitech G Cloud, a device that you rarely hear about anymore. According to the two sources, Lenovo has teased the device and even shown it off on the Chinese social media platform known as Weibo, where it appears to resemble the current Legion Go S.
However, what makes this device interesting is that it will be using Tencent’s cloud gaming service, Tencent START. I don’t know much about this service, but I have seen a few content creators commenting on it, but those feel more like advertisements instead of actual hands-on and and impressions.
No specific details have been revealed; however, it’s being reported that Lenovo will be showing off the device in August 2026. That said, handheld cloud streaming devices haven’t exactly taken off, especially since most people are more than happy to use their existing smartphones and pair them with a controller attachment.
Still, if Lenovo is serious about staying in the handheld gaming market, perhaps a cloud gaming device would be a much cheaper alternative to what it is offering now. It could also give Lenovo another way to compete without relying on increasingly expensive PC hardware.
And with this being the case, I wonder what the fate of the Lenovo Legion Go 2 SteamOS version is, which was mentioned during CES 2026. I happened to speak to Lenovo about the device, and the company told me it was slated to be released in June 2026. However, that was before the extreme price hikes affecting RAM and storage, and I now wonder if the device has been scrapped.
To be fair, it was just the same Legion Go 2, only with an official version of SteamOS instead of Windows 11 running on it. It would have been a cheaper variant, but given that the Legion Go 2 is now sitting around $2,000 and higher, I doubt making it slightly cheaper would entice anyone.
As for the Legion C700, I wonder if this is going to be specific to the Eastern market or if Lenovo has plans to bring it to other regions after it launches. For now, we’ll have to wait until August to find out exactly what Lenovo has planned.
