- Valve has officially launched its new Steam Frame VR headset
- The new Quest 3 rival can do both wireless PC VR and standalone gaming
- There’s currently no word on pricing or a release date
It’s finally here – after more than four years of Valve Deckard rumors, Valve’s standalone PC VR headset has landed in the exciting form of the new Steam Frame.
In a surprise announcement (or perhaps not that out-of-the-blue, if you’ve been following the recent rumors), Valve has revealed all the official details about the Steam Frame and how it compares to the best VR headsets.
In short, the Steam Frame is built to compete with the Meta Quest 3 and to offer full PC VR gaming via a wireless adapter. But what else have we learned? Here are the seven main things you need to know about the Steam Frame…
1. It’s built for both PC VR and standalone gaming
In theory, the Steam Frame could offer the best of both worlds for VR fans. For meatier PC VR games such as Half-Life Alyx, there’s a Wi-Fi 6E (6Ghz) wireless adapter included for a stable, low-latency connection to your PC.
While that already means no annoying wires, you can also go completely PC-free with the Steam Frame. That’s because it can also run less intensive games locally, a bit like a wearable Steam Deck – or indeed, a Meta Quest 3.
2. The specs are fantastic
On paper, the Steam Frame is an impressively powerful mid-range headset. You get 16GB RAM (twice as much as the Meta Quest 3) and a mysterious 4nm Snapdragon ARM processor.
Valve hasn’t said exactly which processor that is, but there’s good reason to believe it’s a step above the XR2 Gen 2 that you’ll find in the Quest 3. Storage-wise, there are also 256GB and 1TB options, plus a microSD slot for expansion.
The latter is something you won’t find on the Quest 3. So while 256GB is the same amount of storage as the top-spec Meta Quest 3S, and only half of what you get on the Quest 3, the Steam Frame offers more storage flexibility.
3. There’s no OLED version
Based on leaks that Valve was developing two Steam Frames, and the existence of a Steam Deck OLED, many assumed one model would pack an OLED display. This proved not to be the case.
Valve is making two Steam Frames, but the difference is simply storage capacity (256GB Vs 1TB, with an SD card slot for expansion); there is unfortunately no OLED version for now.
Instead, the Steam Frame opts for LCD with a 2,160 x 2,160 pixel-per-eye resolution, which is comparable to the 2,064 x 2,208 per eye for Meta’s Quest 3.
4. Where’s the color passthrough?
Valve’s specs sheet for the Steam Frame says it boasts a pair of monochrome cameras for passthrough, which means black and white – so, no full-color passthrough.
This means the Frame will be a proper virtual reality headset, rather than a mixed reality device like what Meta, Apple, and Samsung produce.
On one hand, this is a frustrating downgrade – mixed reality has its uses, after all. However, at the same time most MR games of note offer effective VR modes too, so it might not feel like the drowngrade it seems on paper.
What’s more, Valve has also teased a “user accessible expansion port”, which leaves open the door to the possibility of an optional module that adds full-color passthrough at an added cost. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.
5. Eye-tracking enabled
As with other premium VR headsets, the Steam Frame is set to boast eye-tracking for one important reason: foveated rendering.
Basically the VR headset can save on compute power by only rendering in full quality the part of the screen you’re actively looking at. This allows a game to boast more impressive graphics by simply using the same CPU and GPU more efficiently, no additional power required.
Now, not a lot of games have implemented this in the past, but Steam’s catalogue is so expansive I’m hopeful we’ll see a lot more games take advantage of this feature going forward.
6. No price confirmed
Valve has yet to confirm a price, but based on the specs it won’t be cheap, and leaks suggest it’ll cost $1,200 (around £915 / AU$1,830).
This feels right. It has some upgrades over the Quest 3 (namely eye-tracking), and lacks some of the high-end features of pricier models (like the Galaxy XR‘s OLED display), so falling between the budget and premium price points makes sense.
Obviously leaks should be taken with a pinch of salt, and various factors could affect the final price, but I’d be shocked if it costs considerably more than the leak suggests. That would be a full-on own goal for Valve, but stranger tech decisions have been made.
7. No new software for now…
The Valve Index launched alongside a new Half-Life game, but so far there’s been no word of exclusive games coming to Steam’s platform to celebrate the launch of the Frame and Steam Machine.
In what feels like an internet conversation ripped from the noughties, there has been plenty of online speculation and leaks suggesting new games would be coming to the Steam Frame ahead of its launch. Specifically, Half-Life 3.
Where real rumors begin and trolling ends is impossible to decipher when Half-Life 3‘s name is uttered, but new software doesn’t seem utterly out of the question. Perhaps Valve is simply waiting until 2026 when it’s closer to the launch for its new tech to finally unleash these new titles on the public.
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mark.wilson@futurenet.com (Mark Wilson)
