After a six-year hiatus from virtual reality hardware, Valve is making a bold comeback with the upcoming Steam Frame headset, set to debut in early 2026. The company’s earlier VR efforts, including the Valve Index and the popular Half-Life Alyx, positioned Valve as a key player — until competition from Meta and others advanced rapidly.

The Steam Frame aims to offer versatile gaming, supporting both VR and traditional Steam titles either locally via SteamOS or wirelessly streamed from a nearby PC. Equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and 16 GB of RAM, the headset boasts a high-resolution display—2160 by 2160 pixels per eye—and a wide field-of-view of up to 110 degrees, with refresh rates reaching 144 Hz. These specs are comparable to the Meta Quest 3, which uses a slightly older Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip.

Designed for flexibility, the Steam Frame comes in models with 256 GB and 1 TB of internal storage, both expandable via microSD. While pricing remains undisclosed, industry experts see this as Valve’s strategic move back into the competitive VR market, promising a device that balances performance, portability, and affordability.

David Nield

Dave is a freelance tech journalist with over 20 years covering gadgets, apps, and the web. From Stockport, England, he covers news, features, and reviews for TechRadar, focusing on phones, tablets, and wearables. He ensures top weekend breaking news and has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci, and others. He edited PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook for years. Read me on x.com or linkedin.