Valve · 2026 · VR — standalone
Valve Steam Frame
SteamOS in a headset, fully specified and completely unpriced.
{{name}} — specification and verdict
Valve announced Steam Frame in November 2025 and has published a full spec sheet for it: two 2160 x 2160 LCD panels behind multi-element pancake lenses, 72, 90 and 120 Hz with an experimental 144 Hz mode, and a field of view Valve describes as “conservatively” 110 degrees. The core module weighs 185 grams and the strap another 245, so 440 grams as worn. Inside is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with 16 GB of memory and either 256 GB or 1 TB of storage, expandable by microSD. Interpupillary distance runs 60 to 70 mm on a wheel on top, and the headset fits over glasses up to 140 mm wide. There is eye tracking, which is what makes Valve’s foveated streaming work, and four grayscale cameras — two of which give a monochrome see-through rather than colour passthrough. A wireless adapter for streaming from a PC, a Steam Machine or a Steam Deck is in the box. What Valve has not announced is the price and the date: the window is still “this summer”, and the numbers circulating online come from retailer databases and analysts, not from Valve, so they are not in this comparison.
The line that decides everything else for a training buyer is the operating system. Steam Frame runs SteamOS on an ARM chip, not Android — our courses are Android packages and cannot be installed on it, and that will still be true after launch. There is no device management programme, no fleet licensing and no distributor in Poland, because there is no product on sale yet. Treat it as a consumer and enthusiast headset with an unusually open hardware design: Valve publishes CAD and electrical specifications so third parties can build facial interfaces and straps, and the front expansion port can take colour cameras or depth sensors. That openness is genuinely interesting for a research lab. It is not a fleet.
What is known: the complete hardware specification, the platform, and a release window of summer 2026. What is not: the price, the exact date, and battery runtime — Valve states 21.6 Wh and 45 W charging and no hours. We deliberately quote no price here, including the widely repeated leak, because a figure Valve has not published is a rumour whatever it is dressed as. If you are choosing headsets for training and wondering whether to wait for this one, the honest answer is no: the reason is not the specs, it is that SteamOS will not run the courses. Wait for it if you want a PC-VR-first gaming headset with a standalone mode.
Full specification
Overview
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- Valve
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- VR — standalone
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- Standalone VR, also PC-powered
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2026
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- Announced for 2026-Q3
- Support endsThe date the manufacturer stops supporting it. Decisive for a fleet you are about to buy.
- Support ends: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
Company rollout
- Runs Skillsive appsOur own statement about whether Skillsive training applications run on it today.
- No
- Suitable for trainingOur judgement on whether it survives real deployment: comfort, hygiene, fleet management.
- No
- Kiosk mode / MDMVendor tooling to enrol devices, push an app and lock the headset to it. Practically required above ten devices.
- No
- Business tierAn official business tier, so devices belong to the company rather than to employees’ personal accounts.
- No
- Swappable facial interfaceRemovable, wipeable face padding. A consumable, and the difference between shared use and complaints.
- Yes
- CertificationsIndustrial certifications stated on the manufacturer's own page. Empty means unconfirmed, never "probably fine".
- Certifications: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
Platform and performance
- PerformanceHow much the headset can run — sharper scenes, more objects, smoother mixed reality. Higher is better.
- Performance: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- ProcessorThe processor and memory inside. This is what the performance grade above is derived from.
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
- MemoryRAM on the device. Together with the chipset it sets how complex a scene can be.
- 16 GB
- PlatformThe platform an application is built against — and what an MDM has to speak.
- SteamOS
- StorageOn-board space for downloaded courses. More matters for an offline library in several languages.
- 256 GB · 1024 GB
- BatteryRuntime as the manufacturer states it. A hot-swappable pack matters more than the figure.
- Battery: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- Hot-swap batteryWhether a charged battery can replace the empty one without ending the session. This is what decides if a headset can hold an all-day training station.
- No
Display and optics
- PanelThe screen type. micro-OLED gives deeper blacks and higher contrast; LCD is brighter and cheaper.
- LCD
- OpticsThe lenses in front of the panel. Pancake stays sharp closer to the edges than older Fresnel, which decides how much a trainee has to aim their head to read something.
- Pancake lenses
- Eyes coveredOne eye or both. Over a full shift this is a real difference in fatigue.
- Eyes covered: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
- 2160x2160
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- 72/90/120/144 Hz
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- 110° horizontal
- Pixel densityPixels per degree of view — the honest way to compare sharpness between a headset and a pair of glasses. Higher is sharper. Only shown where somebody published it; we never compute it ourselves.
- Pixel density: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- BrightnessIn a plant or outdoors, brightness decides legibility more than resolution does.
- Brightness: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
- 185 g
Tracking and input
- TrackingWhether content stays put in the room (6DoF), follows head rotation (3DoF) or is simply fixed.
- inside-out 6DoF
- Hand trackingWhether bare hands can operate the interface, without a controller or the phone.
- No
- Eye trackingThe headset knows where the trainee is looking. Enables sharper rendering where they look, and attention analytics.
- Yes
- Controllers includedWhether motion controllers come in the box, or are bought separately — or the device is hands-only.
- Yes
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- 6DoF
Fit and comfort
- IPD adjustmentMatching lens spacing to the eyes. Motorised is fastest when one headset passes between people.
- Manual
- IPD rangeHow far the lenses travel to match eye spacing. A narrow range excludes part of any group of adults, which matters when one headset is shared.
- 60–70 mm
- Works with glassesWhether people who wear glasses can use it — fits over them, or takes prescription lens inserts.
- Yes
- Colour passthroughShows the real room in colour through the cameras — the prerequisite for any mixed-reality exercise.
- No
Connectivity and audio
- ConnectivityHow it connects to a phone, a PC or a network.
- Connectivity: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- AudioBuilt-in sound. Matters most where somebody has to hear a remote expert while working.
- Audio: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- MicrophoneBuilt-in microphone — the other half of talking to a remote expert.
- Microphone: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
Price
- Price bandThe band it sits in, rather than a price that goes stale.
- Price band: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- Launch price: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- Price todayApproximate current net price in USD — a general figure, since these barely differ between regions once tax is stripped out. A snapshot from the date shown, not an offer.
- Price today: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
Rated from reviews
- Comfort (from reviews)How it wears over a full session. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers, not from our own testing.
- Comfort (from reviews): Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- Edge clarity (from reviews)Sharpness away from the centre of the lens. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers.
- Edge clarity (from reviews): Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- Tracking reliability (from reviews)How tracking holds up in poor light and fast movement. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers.
- Tracking reliability (from reviews): Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
- Hand tracking quality (from reviews)How usable controller-free hand tracking is in a training scenario. Scored from agreement between reviewers.
- Hand tracking quality (from reviews): Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03.
Compare this device
Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-03. Manufacturer's specification
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