Valve opens Steam Frame reservations at $1,059, bundles native Half-Life: Alyx

The Steam Frame uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, 16GB of memory, and 256GB or 1TB of UFS storage, with a microSD card slot. Its two LCD pancake lenses offer 2,160 by 2,160 pixels per eye and a 72Hz to 144Hz refresh rate, according to Engadget. Eye-tracking cameras enable foveated rendering. The headset has monochrome passthrough cameras by default, but a $149 Arcturus Vision Camera can add color passthrough and spatial video capture. Valve includes a 6GHz Wi-Fi 6e dongle for short-range PC streaming. Reviewers measured the headset at about a pound: Engadget says 440 grams, while The Verge says just over 1 pound, or 469 grams, with the optional top strap.

Valve says the Frame can play games in several ways. It can stream any flat or VR game from a Steam desktop or laptop; emulate less demanding Windows games on its Arm-based chip; run games originally designed for Meta's Android-based headsets through a layer called Lepton; and play native Linux-on-Arm titles. The Verge's reviewer, Sean Hollister, spent three weeks using it as a wearable spatial computer with six virtual screens, including three streamed from his desktop PC and three running on the headset. He called it the most comfortable headset he has worn but said it still feels like early access hardware.

Every Steam Frame includes Half-Life: Alyx. Valve ported the 2020 PC VR game to ARM64 so it can run natively on the headset's Snapdragon chip, including fan mods and extra levels. Valve spokesperson Kaci Aitchison told The Verge that foveated rendering and eye tracking were a "silver bullet" that made the port possible, and that 16GB of memory was critical to avoid changing assets or degrading gameplay. The company said the work took "a year of extra software work within the Vulkan drivers and SteamVR" but will benefit other games on the platform. Valve has not said it is developing a new VR game for the Frame.

The price has drawn scrutiny. Valve developer Jeremy Selan told the BBC that the company "set out to come out with a device that would have been far more affordable," but global RAM and storage markets affected the final cost. "We fought hard to get it even to this price," he said. Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais told Tom's Hardware there was "not really any sort of the kind of distortion compared to just the price of the parts in there," and told IGN that the product was too far in development to rethink using less RAM. Ars Technica's review referred to the device as a $1,049 Steam Frame; Valve's announced pricing and other outlets cite $1,059.

Accessories at launch include a $59 ergonomic kit with a top head strap, light blocker, and controller hand straps; a $49 replacement kit with a face gasket, head cushion, and light blocker; and a $29 USB-C power supply. Zenni Optical will eventually offer prescription lenses. Valve designers Joy Lyons and Jeremy Selan told The Verge they plan an "enthusiast kit" with a magnetic second battery, off-ear floating speakers, and additional eye spacers, but no date or price was announced.

Early reviews are mixed. The Verge's Hollister said the Frame is fun and ambitious but unstable: he saw games crash so hard the headset needed rebooting, virtual objects and audio disappear, and the device lose power more than once. He cited one to two hours of battery life, audible fan noise, and not enough performance for many standalone games. Engadget's review called it solid standalone VR that is "too little, too late," saying it cannot be recommended at $1,059 when the Meta Quest 3S and Quest 3 cost $350 and $600. Ars Technica described the Frame as simultaneously overengineered and underbaked, and surprising after Valve's earlier retreat from VR. Engadget also reported that Valve has grown standalone verified titles to 130 and improved multi-link streaming, input focus, depth projection, and visual sharpness since the review period began.