Steam Deck Price Increase: What It Means For Legion Go 2 + Every Handheld

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]So, the Steam Deck, the handheld that's built its entire reputation on being the affordable one, the sensible one, the people's PC handheld, just got a big price rise that nobody saw coming, kind of. That 1 TB OLED model is up by 300 bucks. Overnight, there wasn't any warning about this. There was no press release. Valve just quietly changed the number on the store page and hoped that no one would make a fuss. Here's the thing, my friends, if you own a Legion Go 2 or you've been watching this channel for the last couple of months, then you're not surprised by any of this. And quite simply, because we've already lived through it. And so, today, I want to talk about what's actually going on, because it's bigger than just this price rise on the Steam Deck. It's bigger than Valve and it's not going away.

[00:00:56]Right, so if you're new here, welcome.

[00:00:58]I'm Kai. This is Kai's Life, and a big chunk of what I do on this channel is dig into handheld gaming performance and the whole handheld PC space, with a lot of focus on the Legion Go 2. And the reason today's news matters to me and should matter to you if you're shopping for any handheld right now, is that the Steam Deck price rise is not an isolated event. It's just the latest domino. So, the Legion Go 2 went through this weeks ago. We know it. I covered it loads on the channel. And once you understand why it's happening, you'll understand why waiting it out probably isn't the clever move that you might think it is. All right, so let's get into it. I'm going to cover three things. What exactly Valve has done, the real reason behind it, and then where that leaves every major handheld on the market right now, including all the Legion Go 2 variants, so you can actually make a smart buying decision. So, on the 27th of May, Valve raised the price of both Steam Deck OLED models, and these aren't small bumps. In the US, the 512 gig OLED model went from 549 bucks to 789. That's a $240 jump.

[00:02:03]The 1-TB model went from 649 to 949, which is a $300 increase. It's roughly a 43% to 46% rise, depending on the model.

[00:02:13]Here in the UK, the 512-gig model is now 649 pounds, up from 479. And the 1-TB is 779, up from 569. All right, so let's just let that sink in for a second. So, a baseline Steam Deck used to be a 349-pound machine when the LCD model even existed. That LCD model doesn't even exist anymore. It's completely discontinued. It got delisted back in December of last year. So, the cheapest brand new Steam Deck that you can buy today is 649 pounds. Now, depending on where your head's at in the handheld market and the prices in the handheld market, that's not a budget handheld anymore. It moves into serious purchase territory. Again, if you've been following the Legion Go 2 price rises, then you might just scoff at all of these numbers that we're talking about.

[00:02:59]And listen, there's something to be taken from the way that Valve announced it as well. There wasn't a big blog post. There wasn't an apology. There wasn't a roadmap. They updated the store and basically just let people find out for themselves. The only statement that Valve gave was, and I'm paraphrasing here, "The Steam Deck itself hasn't changed. These new prices reflect the current state of component costs and global logistical challenges across the industry." And it's that last line, "across the industry," that's the important bit that we're going to hold onto, because that is the whole story right there. And guys, here is the kicker, and it's the thing that tells you everything about where we are. Valve raised the price, and it sold out anyway. As I'm recording this, the newly priced OLED is showing out of stock in the US market. And they put the price up by hundreds of bucks, and people bought it faster than Valve could restock it.

[00:03:49]So, if you haven't got one, and part of you is thinking, "Ah, don't worry.

[00:03:52]They're going to panic and drop it back down when nobody buys it." No, guys, the demand is still there for these things at the higher price. And that is exactly why I don't think this comes back down anytime soon. We're not going to see the price dropping for any of these handhelds anytime soon. And we'll come back to that at the end. Now, one bit of good news before we move on, the certified refurbished Steam Decks have not gone up. So, you can still get a refurbished OLED from Valve starting around 389 pounds here in the UK. We'll come back to why that matters later because right now, it might genuinely be the smartest buy on the entire market.

[00:04:30]So, why is this happening, why now, and [music] why all at once? We already know that the press has given it a name. That name is RAMageddon cuz that sounds really cool. And honestly, it does kind of earn the drama. So, here's what's going on under the bonnet then. The two components that have gone absolutely vertical in price DRAM, that's your system memory, and NAND D flash, which is the storage in the SSD. Now, in the second quarter of 2026, DRAM contract prices jumped something like 58 to 63% in a single quarter. Flash jumped 70 to 75% in one quarter. Now, that's the reason that analysts are calling it the worst memory price spike in 15 years. And I'm giving no one any prizes for guessing what the cause is. Obviously, it's AI, specifically AI data centers. A few years ago, data centers consumed roughly a quarter of the world's memory chip production. And today, that figure is estimated at around 70% guys. The AI buildout is hoovering up global memory supply still. And gaming hardware, which runs on the exact same memory and [music] the exact same storage chips, is left fighting for the scraps at whatever price is left. So, when Valve says component costs across the industry, what they're really saying, without saying it, is that the AI boom has made the parts inside your handheld dramatically more expensive, and we just can't absorb that anymore. And this is the part that I really want you to take away from this video, because we kind of learned this with Lenovo and the Legion Go 2. This isn't a Valve problem. The Steam Deck didn't get worse. The chips inside it got more expensive, which means that every handheld is exposed to exactly the same pressure, and some of them got hit before the Steam Deck ever did. So, I've just referenced it, but that brings me back to the device that I spend most of my time on. So, if you've been here a while, you know that the Lenovo Legion Go 2 is kind of my home turf, and I'm telling you what's happening to the Steam Deck today is the Legion Go 2 story from about 6 weeks ago, almost beat for beat. So, look, when the Legion Go 2 launched back in September 2025, the pricing was already kind of steep. We had the base model with the Ryzen Z2, 16 gigs of RAM, 1 TB, and that came in at around $1,100. Now, the Z2 Extreme version with 32 gigs of RAM was 1349, and the top-end Z2 Extreme, 32 gigs and a 2 TB hard drive, was about 1479, and people didn't like it. Now, Lenovo called it an enthusiast device, and they stood by that price.

[00:07:04]And then, Ramageddon hit, and Lenovo didn't launch the prices, they just absolutely detonated them. So, as I've covered it here, we have the Z2 Extreme 32 gig that went from 1349 bucks up to 2,000 bucks, nearly a 50% rise. The base Z2 model went from 1,100 to 1,500, which is about 36%, and the top 2 TB variant, that was the insane one that went from around $1,500 to 2,850.

[00:07:33]That's a $1,369 jump on a single SKU, after which Lenovo basically pulled it from their own store and listed it as coming soon because of that price, who the hell is buying it?

[00:07:45]But here in the UK right now, this is where it gets genuinely interesting and a little bit confusing because there's a split happening and it's worth understanding before you spend a penny.

[00:07:55]So, I've checked all of this myself this morning on Lenovo's own UK website, the Legion Go 2 the Z2 Extreme 32 gigs 1 terabyte the same model that I have is sitting at 1800 pounds. So, that's still leaning into the fact that all of the cost went up.

[00:08:13]1,800.

[00:08:15]So, that's Lenovo just holding firm and staying strong at the Ramageddon price.

[00:08:20]But, and this is the bit that matters, the high street retailers have got stock back in and they haven't followed Lenovo up to that number. So, as I say, I verified this this morning, these are all in stock as I record this, the exact same machine Z2 Extreme 32 gigs 1 terabyte SSD 1,299 pounds at Very. It's the same again at Argos 1,299.99.

[00:08:45]And listen, at Very there's a 10% code on top of that, computing 10, which knocks it down to around 1,170. I hate using the phrase no-brainer when we're talking about this sum of money and these numbers, but kind of a no-brainer. So guys, let's just think about that. The official price on the Lenovo website and the street price on an identical handheld are 500 pounds apart right now today.

[00:09:11]But if you walked onto Lenovo's site, I know you can't walk onto a site, but stay with me and saw 1,800 quid and assumed that that was the price, you'd be overpaying by the cost of a second handheld. And guys, this is exactly why in a market this volatile you do not buy the first price you see. Shop it around.

[00:09:30]The retailers are quietly absorbing this in a way that manufacturers aren't. But look, the headline point in this section is that the Legion Go took this hit harder and earlier than the Steam Deck just did. So, when I saw the Valve news drop, my honest first reaction wasn't shock. It was yeah, of course. Guys, we've seen this film already and we're nowhere near the ending. So, let's zoom out and look at the actual state of play right now because the pecking order has genuinely shifted. So, let's start with the Steam Deck OLED. It's 649 for the 512 gig. It's 779 for the 1 TB.

[00:10:03]That's Valve's price and it's the price everywhere because Valve sells it direct. The Legion Go 2, and here you have to say it twice because of the split that we just talked about. So, officially from Lenovo, the Z1 2 Extreme 32 gig is 1,800 pounds, but on the high street in places like Very and Argos, the same machine is 1,299 or under 1,200 with the code on Very.

[00:10:26]So, depending on where you look, the price of a Legion Go 2 swings by about 500 quid. The 2 TB model is basically off the menu entirely. Now, the ROG Ally, which is the base model with the Z1 2 not the Extreme, 16 gigs, 512 gig storage is 499 pounds at Very and the ROG Ally X, the powerful one with the Z1 2 Extreme chip and a 1 TB drive is 849.

[00:10:50]Now, that's the price at both the ASUS UK store and at Currys right now. Now, it's worth noting that it's already crept up from its 799 launch price. So, even the Ally hasn't escaped this entirely, but hats off to ASUS and I guess to Microsoft because they've been able to absorb some of the cost in the cost rises. It represents a very good deal. And of course, the Nintendo Switch 2 for reference sits under 400 pounds, but Nintendo has its own price increases coming. Now, here's what's interesting.

[00:11:17]So, even Tom's Hardware, great website, they reviewed the Legion Go 2 at full whack and the Ally X at $1,000 came right out and said that after this Steam Deck rise, those handhelds don't seem quite as outrageous anymore and they're right. And that's because the Steam Deck just gave up the one thing that made it special, and that's being the affordable option. A 1 TB Steam Deck is now twice the price of a Nintendo Switch 2. If you were to ask me where the value actually is right now, then I've got two answers.

[00:11:48]One, and this might surprise people, but the vanilla original ROG Ally Xbox at £500 is now arguably the most sensible new Windows handheld that you can buy. And the Ally X at £499 still comes in below a 1 TB Steam Deck once you weigh up what you're getting, while being a genuinely more capable machine. Now, remember that ASUS haven't done anything clever here.

[00:12:10]Everyone else just got more expensive around them. I will add here though that the OLED screen does add a tangible upgrade on that Xbox Ally X, but the Xbox Ally X is just a better machine hardware-wise. Two, and that's the refurbished Steam Deck because Valve haven't touched the refurb pricing. A certified refurb OLED from around £400 is now pound for pound one of the best entry points into PC handheld gaming that exists. So, if your budget's tight and you mainly want a Steam machine, then that's the one that I'd point you at today. Okay, so here's where I land on all of this. The instinct when prices jump like this is to wait. It's to hold off, let it settle, and normally I'd agree with you guys. But remember what we saw right at the start. They raised the price, and it sold out anyway. And that's the whole answer, really. So, when you can hike a product by hundreds of pounds and you still can't keep it in stock, you have absolutely no reason to bring the price back down. And everything that I've been seeing and all the research that I'm doing constantly on the component side backs that up.

[00:13:15]Analysts [music] expect memory and storage to get more expensive before they stabilize, not less. So, listen, I know it's not what you want to hear, but waiting for the price to come back down might be waiting for something that simply isn't coming. However, that doesn't mean panic buy, guys. It just means that if you actually need a handheld, buy the right one for your budget right now. And right now, that's either the ROG Xbox Ally, the original one under 500 pounds, the Ally X, which represents seriously good value for the hardware and specs that you're getting, or a refurbished Steam Deck, rather than waiting for a dip that the AI industry has no interest in giving you. It kind of goes without saying as well that if you already own a Legion Go 2 or Steam Deck or any of these, honestly, just hold on to it. The thing in your hands is worth more today than it was when you bought it. I know it's an obvious thing to say, but it's true. It's a genuinely strange thing to be able to say about a piece of gaming tech, and it tells you everything about the strange moment that we're in right now. All right, that's the situation as it stands right now.

[00:14:17]I'm going to keep tracking this because I promise you, it's going to keep moving. And as ever, if this was useful, you know what to do. Let me know in the comments what you paid for your handheld, because I think a lot of us are about to feel quite smug about it.

[00:14:29]Guys, cheers for watching. I've been Kai. This is Kai Life. I'll see you on the next video, and until then, take care of yourselves.