Steam Frame Review: Valve Shows Us VR Was Always Meant to Be a Toy

Valve wants to reset the clock on VR. The $1,060 Steam Frame is pure virtual reality gaming goodness in a costly frame . There’s no hint of the metaverse, no talk of “spatial computing,” and no pretending that strapping a pair of big plastic goggles to your forehead is anything but a fun distraction that only lasts for around two hours before the battery runs out.

From its original ideation, VR was better off as a toy. I write that not because I think headsets like the Steam Frame are unsophisticated (although the Meta Quest 3’s software suite is, in several ways, more advanced than much of what Valve offers), but because these types of headsets were meant for play. All but a very select few VR diehards can even imagine trying to get any work done with two screens beaming content two inches from your eyes.

Valve's wireless VR headset has terrible battery life, and yet it's still the best gaming VR headset available right now.

The Steam Frame plays games—although it’s also more interesting than that for people who want to fiddle with said games. This headset runs on SteamOS, the Linux-based operating system that also powers the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. It’s also a full working PC, and you’re able to access the full Linux desktop suite with a mere press of the “+” button on the main menu. Meta’s Horizon OS is a locked-down ecosystem that allows for little of the same flexibility outside the app developer space. The makers of Facebook also never brought us those third-party headsets it promised more than two years ago, so Valve remains one of the few still holding PC VR together.

Still, even though the Steam Frame is a gaming PC you can wear, it isn’t perfect for playing games natively. It uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, not one of the high-powered XR processors Qualcomm has been crowing about the last few months. It’s also limited to 16GB of RAM and a choice of either 256GB or 1TB of storage (the latter costs $1,300). Valve’s headset is capable of running many lower-end 2D games, some older AAA games, and even a few less-demanding VR titles, though you’ll need to wait longer before more games can truly support it.

In the end, the main reason you should buy the Steam Frame is because you already have a capable gaming PC and you’ve always wanted to play SteamVR games without any annoying wires getting in the way. If you’re already heavily invested in VR, the Steam Frame is the best streaming device you can find in today’s market. That being said, it may still not change how you think of virtual reality gaming.

The Steam Frame is light—exceptionally light—and you won’t understand just how much a difference that makes until you strap on competing headsets for any length of time. The headset, with its strap and connected battery, weighs in at 440g or 0.97 pounds, which is just under one pound. A Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S are both around 515g or 1.14 pounds. Needless to say, the sumo champion of headsets, the M5 Apple Vision Pro , clocks in at a ludicrous 1.65 pounds, most of that centered around your forehead and cheeks.

The Steam Frame gets away with it thanks to the positioning of the battery along the back of the head strap.