Valve's Steam Frame VR headset starts at $1,059
Steam Frame starts at $1059
Valve has opened sign-ups for the Steam Frame, a wireless, streaming-first VR headset priced at $1,059 for the 256GB kit and $1,299 for 1TB. It packs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, 16GB RAM, 2160x2160 LCD per eye, Wi-Fi 7, and dual radios for dedicated streaming. Foveated Streaming and Multi-Link Streaming boost quality and stability. Half-Life: Alyx is included, but there's no power supply in the box.
Wireless, comfortable, lightweight VR for your Steam library
- sporp
Half-Life Alyx is the greatest gaming experience I have ever had the pleasure to witness. I now occasionally VR golf. It's a steep price for a niche with not a lot of games.
- apatheticonion
I know everyone is singing the praises of the Steam Frame's wireless capabilities but honestly, I just want my wired VR experience back.
I had a Rift 2, Reverb G2, then Quest 2 and eventually Quest 3. Despite the Quest 3 having a resolution similar to the G2, it looked more like the Rift 2 than the awe inspiring G2. Wireless gaming never looked as sharp and streaming over USB was also a very poor experience, with input latency and artifacting.
Wireless headsets also _suck_ for simulators and productivity - where a battery only adds weights and a wire is not noticable.
Personally, I would love to see a wired headset that resembles the bigscreen beyond but with inside out tracking and a universal face gasket. For wireless experiences, I'd love to be able to plug my phone in, put it in my back pocket and use it that way.
That sort of "head mounted display"-first approach would make it practical to use the device for productivity / screen replacement while gaming would be dependant on your phone or computer.
- accrual
GamersNexus released a video comparing the Frame VR vs Meta Quest 3 today, worth a watch for the Frame review alone:
- bentt
Hacker News should be all over this device. They won't lock it down like the Meta stuff. Go ahead and install BeOS on it.
- valgaze
I've been astounded by how many older games are suddenly getting surprisingly good VR ports/mods (I suspect AI-assisted tooling is playing a role in some of this) There's a youtuber Beardo Benjo who has been documenting a bunch of them where some are tethered to a PC while others have been ported to run natively on the Quest.
A few of the more interesting ones, newest to oldest:
Left 4 Dead VR [9/14/2026]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-blXLU_oy8
DOOM [9/11/2026]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkxVI2KEKrk
Call of Duty Zombies VR [9/2/2026]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9VjFpInLiU
Dead Island 2 VR [8/28/2026]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=notfg5bjUdM
The Simpsons: Hit & Run VR [8/26/2026]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQJZKjkRzyI
GTA: Vice City VR [8/18/2026]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH5k5Un8_HE
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time VR [8/6/2026]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzhbhrotI1Q
Cyberpunk 2077 VR [8/4/2026]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXho2LdD1qo
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild VR [5/17/2026]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Mpqk2X3ww
Pokémon VR [9/1/2026]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlEl1IVU8PA
Ready or Not UEVR Mod [9/8/2025]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnGfQBQJP8Y
- rwz
I've never been interested in VR headsets and am not very educated about it.
Can someone explain why you'd want to actually run things on it instead of having a much lighter screens-and-headphones-only unit that plugs it into a more powerful machine that renders things for it? What's the benefit of having to strap all this extra hot hardware and batteries to your face.
Is it just about it being wireless? Surely there are wireless protocols that can stream high-bandwidth videostreams from your PC to VR goggles.
Not trying to be snarky or facetious, but genuinely curious.
- kikkia
If use for solely VR Gaming, and you don't care a ton about the privacy aspect, it is a hard sell against a new or used Q3. However, for myself personally I love the idea of it as a device I can tinker with and have full control over. I would love to also replace my laptop with it while traveling. Especially with a small wireless keyboard it has a good chance to replace my laptop for tinkering/gaming on the go.
With the price increases it is likely not a good value for an average person, but for myself and some other tinkerers I think it is very acceptable.
- vallerie
I do hope Valve's work on ARM64 for this, alongside improvements to performance in Honeykrisp, make for a dramatically better experience with Linux on Apple Silicon Macs.
They're very lovely devices with big GPUs, and I would love to (one day when ram prices go back to normal!) repurpose my M3 Max as a under TV Steam Machine when I upgrade.
- at1as
The Meta model (of cheaper hardware, highly subsidized) is probably not long for this world, with the recent increase in component costs.
Lower volume with consumers fully covering the device cost will probably become the norm, which doesn't bode particularly well for this industry (at least in the short term)
- BoppreH
For these devices, I always enjoy Adam Savage's Tested videos. Here's the one they posted today for the Steam frame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9JyWAVj94E
It's full of technical details and down-to-earth analysis, and includes interviews with the Valve engineers.