The official Steam VR headset, ‘
Steam Frame ,’ was released on September 15, 2026. Several overseas media outlets that had early access to the Steam Frame have already published review articles, so we’ve compiled their impressions on comfort during use and gameplay.
Steam Frame
https://store.steampowered.com/hardware/steamframe
Steam Frame: The Ars Technica review – Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/09/steam-frame-the-ars-technica-review/
The Steam Frame is made for irresponsible hardware nerds like me | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/tech/994267/steam-frame-review
Steam Frame Review | PC Gamer
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/vr-hardware/valve-steam-frame-review/
Steam Frame, Reviewed: Valve’s Ambitious VR Headset Feels Like an Experiment in Progress – CNET
https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/valve-steam-frame-vr-headset-review/
Steam Frame review: fantastic wireless VR gaming at a premium | Club386
https://www.club386.com/steam-frame-review/
The Steam Frame is a VR headset that supports two ways of playing: ‘rendering games on a PC and wirelessly streaming them to the Steam Frame’ and ‘rendering games on the Steam Frame itself and playing without a PC.’ It’s not just for VR games; it can also be used to ‘play non-VR games by placing a large display within a virtual or passthrough space.’ Furthermore, it uses Steam OS, which is based on Arch Linux, allowing you to run Linux applications like GIMP standalone. The features of the Steam Frame, as listed on the official website, are summarized in the article below.
Steam’s official VR headset, ‘Steam Frame,’ has been released. It supports both ‘wireless connection to a PC for gameplay’ and ‘gameplay using the headset itself,’ and can also play non-VR games – GIGAZINE
â—†Comfort when worn
The Steam Frame, including the head strap, weighs 440g, making it lighter than competing models such as the Meta Quest 3. A notable feature is the placement of the battery pack at the back of the head to distribute weight. Regarding the Steam Frame’s comfort, PC Gamer highly praised it, stating, ‘Even after wearing it for several hours, it leaves no marks on the face. The weight doesn’t concentrate on the cheekbones or around the eyes.’ Ars Technica also commented, ‘There’s no feeling of being pulled forward or slipping. While it’s not quite to the point of ‘forgetting you’re wearing it,’ the discomfort typical of VR goggles is significantly reduced.’
The Verge praised the Steam Frame’s fit, stating, ‘In terms of comfort, the Steam Frame is overwhelmingly better than any other product we’ve tried.’ They added, ‘Comfort is important to the situation. I own a Meta Quest 2, but it’s gathering dust because it feels heavy and uncomfortable in the front.’ The Verge also showed footage of the Steam Frame being worn while eating a sandwich and drinking juice.
While all media outlets have praised the fit, the situation changes for those who wear glasses. The Steam Frame comes with a spacer for use with glasses, but CNET states that ‘it’s very cramped when wearing glasses. You have to force the goggles in, and the glasses touch your face and fog up the lenses. The Quest series is a better fit for people who wear glasses.’
â—†Wireless streaming from PC
The Steam Frame comes with a 6GHz wireless adapter, enabling high-quality wireless streaming regardless of your Wi-Fi router’s performance. It also supports ‘foveated streaming,’ which tracks the player’s gaze and renders only the area they are looking at in high definition.
Club386 conducted an experiment where they ‘set up a PC on the second floor and wirelessly streamed to a Steam Frame on the first floor,’ and found that it allowed for far more stable streaming compared to the Meta Quest series’ Air Link. Regarding foveated streaming, they said that ‘if you look very carefully at the image, you can see the change in rendering detail,’ but during normal gameplay, they were able to play without noticing any changes in detail.
Please note that, as of the time of writing, Steam Frame only supports streaming from Windows and does not support streaming from Steam Machines running Steam OS.
â—†Gameplay using the Steam Frame itself
The Steam Frame is equipped with an Arm-based Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC and runs on the Linux-based Steam OS. While it’s an ‘Arm-based SoC and Linux-based OS’ environment, it utilizes technologies such as ‘FEX’ (which runs x86 applications on the Arm processor), ‘Proton’ (which runs Windows games on Linux), and ‘Lepton’ (which runs Android games on Linux) to enable standalone gameplay for both VR and non-VR games distributed on Steam. Many games are already listed on Steam’s ‘ Runs smoothly on Frame ‘ page, and Valve’s VR FPS ‘ Half-Life: Alyx ‘ also supports standalone play on the Steam Frame.
However, Steam Frame’s processing power is lower than Steam Deck’s, and many games reportedly don’t work well in standalone mode. Ars Technica reported that some games listed under ‘Runs smoothly with Frame’ couldn’t even be launched.
Steam Frame’s performance settings can be selected from the high-load ‘Performance’ and the low-load ‘Playtime.’ Ars Technica reports that ‘in Performance mode, the cooling fan spins noisily, and warm air blows out from the exhaust vents on the top of the unit towards the user’s forehead.’
â—†Can be used not only for games but also as a PC
Steam OS allows you to install Linux applications like Firefox and GIMP and
use it as a PC , and Steam Frame lets you place Linux applications within a 3D space. Furthermore, you can set up a virtual display within the 3D space and stream your Windows screen.
The Verge reports that it’s possible to ‘place three Windows screens in a 3D space while running three Linux applications.’ However, at the time of writing, the software was unstable, and the system sometimes crashed when adding screens.
Additionally, while Steam Frame supports pass-through, which displays the space outside the goggles, it only supports monochrome pass-through in its standard configuration. To support full-color pass-through, you will need to purchase a separate camera.
â—†Comparison with MetaQuest 3
Most international media outlets are listing the Meta Quest 3 as a rival to the Steam Frame. The two have similar specifications, but the Meta Quest 3 has a significant price advantage.
The Steam Frame is priced in Japan at ¥199,980 for the 256GB model and ¥244,980 for the 1TB model.
In contrast, the 512GB model of the Meta Quest 3 costs 102,300 yen. Another major advantage is that it’s readily available for purchase on Amazon.co.jp and other retailers.
Ars Technica states, ‘The Steam Frame is lightweight and its wireless streaming stability is appealing. However, with a sufficiently stable Wi-Fi environment, wireless streaming is also possible with the Meta Quest 3. Aside from wearability and wireless connectivity, the VR experience of the Steam Frame and Meta Quest 3 is similar, and Meta has stabilized its OS through years of accumulated experience. For this reason, it is not worth paying tens of thousands of yen more for Steam OS.’
On the other hand, PC Gamer commented, ‘If I were to buy VR goggles with my own money, I would choose Steam Frame. Comfort is the most important thing for VR goggles, and in that respect, Steam Frame is perfect. I may be in the minority, but I would gladly pay a little extra for the comfort of Steam Frame.’
Reviewers praise Steam Frame, a VR device optimized for Steam
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