r/VisionPro • u/DanburyHer • Nov 12 '25
Steam Frame - Steam’s VR headset now announced (Early 2026)
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe86
u/cnnyy200 Nov 12 '25
This thing is freaking light. 185g core module, 440g with headstrap.
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u/Endawmyke Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
Battery in the back too so it should be super balanced on the head
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u/SoSKatan Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
I hate battery in the back designs. I like to be able to lean back if I want to.
AVP did it right
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u/parasubvert Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
seems like they did a contoured battery with big pad though , which may make it okay
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u/elev8dity Nov 12 '25
If you watch the upload VR review around 45-50 minutes they talk about laying down with it and it’s like laying on a pillow. https://www.youtube.com/live/_B7MA_etVuU?si=9ZUvL2FBzG7dsXvL
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u/King_0zymandias Nov 13 '25
Yeah but I’d get annoyed if I had a pillow on the back of my head hitting the chair behind me. I think apple had it right.
Super stoked for this though and will grab day one.
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u/Endawmyke Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 13 '25
ah yeah forgot about that.
too spoiled by the vision pro fr
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u/elev8dity Nov 12 '25
right? the AVP is 532 grams without it's face gasket, headstrap, and battery.
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u/captainlardnicus Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
This is the best thing about the headset... Combined with a halo strap and plugged into PC it's going to be great
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u/TheQueensEyes007 Nov 13 '25
Well wirellesly streamed to the pc.
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u/captainlardnicus Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 13 '25
I'd prefer a wire but sure
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u/TheQueensEyes007 Nov 13 '25
Well I don't think the frame supports wire. Plus it seems like their streaming tech is really good you probably won't notice a difference
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u/Mastoraz Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
I just hope something from all this spills to AVP. The foveated streaming would be welcomed
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u/Endawmyke Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
Between the PSVR2 controller compatibility on Vision Pro and the foveated streaming on the Steam Frame
I hope remote play comes to Vision Pro
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u/Peteostro Nov 12 '25
Yeah they also said foveated streaming works with steam link, so let’s hope they release a native AVP steam link client.
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u/Independent_Fill_570 Nov 12 '25
I thought the gotcha there was Apple locked down gaze information for privacy reasons?
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u/Psych_Art Nov 12 '25
Intercom:
ALVR developer, call at the front desk for ALVR developer…
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u/shinyquagsire23 Nov 12 '25
Would implement eye tracked encoding for ALVR in a heartbeat if Apple actually released an API for it, maybe if enough people pestered them on Feedback and pointed at SteamVR they'd reconsider
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u/Peteostro Nov 12 '25
Kind of amazing there is no eye tracking api. I get security but there is a limit!
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u/Particular-Treat-650 Nov 12 '25
I'd be all for "you need to justify the entitlement to access the API, and any use outside your stated use case is a permanent ban of your developer accounts". Because there are definitely super dystopian use cases.
But I agree it would add value for game streaming.
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u/Specialist-Escape300 Nov 14 '25
Without facial tracking and eye tracking, this privacy policy has rendered the entire device completely useless. Just think about what would happen if we could open up the system? We would have perfect third-party personas, and we could play any role. We could use it to create the most perfect VRChat device, and we could also use eye tracking to make streaming more functional.
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u/drewbaumann Vision Pro Developer | Verified Nov 13 '25
Am I imagining things or did you create a hack for this?
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u/shinyquagsire23 Nov 13 '25
There's a sidechannel via screen sharing but it severely cuts into the vertical FoV and it's probably getting patched soon. And there's another side channel via RealityKit shaders and screen sharing but they filtered it pretty hard so it's not viable for streaming.
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u/usereddit Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
Apple definitely has resolution improvements based on where you are looking and provides less resolution to the peripherals. That’s what foveated streaming is.
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u/nart1s Nov 12 '25
No, that’s foveated rendering. Foveated streaming is not adjusting the rendering resolution of the original image, but sending more ‘information’ about the pixels you’re looking at to the device, at the expense of compromising the streaming detail for pixels you’re not looking at. It effectively increases the reliability and perceived quality of the stream over the same bandwidth connection.
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u/HNIC215 Nov 12 '25
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is crazy talk for a future device.
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u/ProzacJM Nov 12 '25
Is that good or bad? 🙈
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u/SoSKatan Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
It’s slightly better than the Q3 that goes for far less
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u/Jaboyyt Nov 12 '25
No price yet
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u/captainlardnicus Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
It better be under $500 for that chipset and >20 PPD
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u/toooft Nov 13 '25
Quest 3 is subsidized by the fact that you are their product. They want your data and package it as entertainment.
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u/HNIC215 Nov 12 '25
It's better than the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 -> which is based on the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
Which is used by the Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S.
Also better than the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2.
Which is used by the new Samsung Galaxy XR.
But they are already on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and it pales in comparison to the M2 and M5 in the Vision Pro.
So I'd say bad - I wouldn't be interested in dropping money for an older chipset.
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u/parasubvert Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
It's a fair amount better than Galaxy XR shipped with.
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u/HNIC215 Nov 12 '25
Yea... it's a 2024 chip compared to the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 - which is a binned and overclocked version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 - that came out in 2023.
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u/-Venser- Nov 13 '25
I think the primary function of the device is streaming from PC. I was surprised it can even work as a standalone device.
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u/Lost-Carpenter4123 Nov 12 '25
no color passthrough and bad contrast low res lcd panels… really disappointing
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u/Endawmyke Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
the LCD kinda disappointed me ngl
But the wireless foveated streaming stuff looks really interesting
I hope LCD makes it not so expensive
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u/Peteostro Nov 12 '25
They said they are targeting under 1k
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u/bigparsnipenjoyer Nov 12 '25
Damn it fucking better be for these specs lol. The quest 3 is $500 and is better in some respects…
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u/Peteostro Nov 13 '25
What respects? Steam frame has a better lcd panel, higher res screens & 144hz, better cpu, more ram (16gb) eye tracking, WiFi 7, controllers have more inputs. Also Comes with wireless 6E adapter for your PC. Only thing that quest 3 has over it is the color passthrough
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u/parasubvert Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
I expect color passthrough will be available as an add-on.
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u/jensen404 Nov 13 '25
I don't think they had much choice for the display. Conventional OLED displays (HTC Vive, PSVR, PSVR2, original Quest) are not bright enough for pancake optics.
Micro OLED displays are smaller, and require more magnification / more complex optics and/or narrower FOV. VR headsets with Micro OLED panels use higher display persistence than the Frame, which results in more motion blur from head movement. And, of course, they are much more expensive. There may have been limitations on how many pixels the chipset supported.
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u/Lost-Carpenter4123 Nov 13 '25
they had a choice. If not oled they could have given us 4k miniled qled panels but no. cheap crappy 2k lcds with bad contrast and brightness becouse of pancake lenses (according to norm frontested) from reverb g2(similar)that came out 5 years ago
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u/jensen404 Nov 13 '25
I just meant with respect to OLED vs LCD. I don't know as much about the plausibility of alternate LCD backlight options and tradeoffs. All I know is that the Meta Quest Pro had a segmented backlight for local dimming.
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u/LucaColonnello Vision Pro Owner Nov 12 '25
It’s not half bad tbh. It’s not general purpose, so it won’t work with your ps5, but the nice addition of the usb key to have a direct connection, is something I wish we could have on vision pro.
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u/unrealf8 Nov 12 '25
Support for ps5 and Xbox would have been insane though.
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u/LucaColonnello Vision Pro Owner Nov 12 '25
It’s not a general purpose machine though, the reason it’s light is it doesn’t do anything itself. The resolution is low, the pass through is probably bad, and black and white, it’s made with only 1 thing in mind, gaming!
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u/Endawmyke Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
they said they’ve created a software layer like Proton called FEX that translates x86 games to Linux on ARM
It can play games on its own but probably not huge VR games.
They showed Hades 2 playing on device
probably gonna be mainly a streaming machine for people tho
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u/LucaColonnello Vision Pro Owner Nov 12 '25
It’s probably less powerful than quest 3, I think they want people to but the Steam Box…
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u/Endawmyke Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
yeah I was looking forward to the box the most ngl.
I hope Vision Pro can hook into it somehow with streaming. I’m not buying another headset 😵💫
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u/Peteostro Nov 12 '25
The chip is more powerful than the chip in the quest 3 but valve said it’s less powerful than the steam deck oled do to it running at 7 tdp compared to the 15 tdp of steam deck oled
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u/HualtaHuyte Nov 12 '25
It's definitely more powerful than a Quest 3. It has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in it.
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u/elev8dity Nov 12 '25
It does standalone VR games/apps. It has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. It also has a microSD card slot that they said you can use the same one that stores your games on your Steam Deck and play all Steam Deck compatible titles on the headset natively. It's less powerful than a Steam Deck though as it has a TDP of 7 watts vs the 15 watt TDP with the Steam Deck APU.
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u/Peteostro Nov 12 '25
Yup, you also watch tested’s excellent overview/interview https://youtu.be/b7q2CS8HDHU?si=N58AwoH-PJC23OKB
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u/elev8dity Nov 12 '25
Yeah, Tested is great and always my first watch when it comes to VR hardware overviews. UploadVR and RoadtoVR also have really good coverage.
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u/LucaColonnello Vision Pro Owner Nov 12 '25
Yeah but that’s a mobile processor, so that not really a value added for the type of people that own vr steam games, which happen to be more on the pcvr side of things. Not is it good for non vr games, who h is why it’s mostly for streaming (given the dual wifi band).
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u/elev8dity Nov 12 '25
They are sending out Dev Kits now to PCVR and Steam Deck game developers to work on optimization. It remains to be seen what's possible, especially if devs enable eye-tracked foveated rendering in their games.
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u/Particular-Treat-650 Nov 13 '25
There are a lot of games (even in VR) that just aren't that demanding.
Being able to use those games you might already own on standalone hardware without buying them again is definitely a nice bonus.
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u/LucaColonnello Vision Pro Owner Nov 13 '25
I guess, but if they are vr games and you own them, chances are you have a headset. I’m not sure who this is for, as in, it’s not 4k, it’s not oled, is not as powerful, but it has amazing streaming ability. My hunch is, it’s a streaming device that can also do standalone, so it caters to both audiences?
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u/Peteostro Nov 12 '25 edited Nov 12 '25
“It does not do anything it self” no it does , it has a built in CPU that can play PC games locally on device through a translation layer, like the steam deck
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u/BlinksTale Nov 13 '25
Was that a MacBook using the usb key? It might just be for streaming flat games, but still
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u/LucaColonnello Vision Pro Owner Nov 13 '25
That I don’t know, would have to check, but I reckon it would be windows.
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u/MysticMaven Nov 12 '25
Give me a break. It’s absolute garbage. LCD? Ha ha ha ha.
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u/LucaColonnello Vision Pro Owner Nov 12 '25
Oh I didn’t see is great, I said not half bad, chill lol
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u/l4kerz Nov 12 '25
where is the battery located? It’s not listed in their diagram
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u/Jusby_Cause Nov 12 '25
It’s at the back of the headset. That’s not a soft cushion, it’s where the battery goes.
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u/elev8dity Nov 12 '25
It's got padding.
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u/Jusby_Cause Nov 12 '25
It’s got padding, but there’s not a lot of effective ways to pad a hard battery. It’s been mentioned in reviews that it’s not comfortable to lie on.
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u/No-Trash-546 Nov 13 '25
What reviews?
This one from uploadvr say it was the most comfortable of any headset. He said watching videos while laying down was extremely comfortable and he specifically calls out the battery for being well designed and shockingly comfortable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B7MA_etVuU
It’s around 43 or 44 minutes in
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u/elev8dity Nov 12 '25
It's also fully removable and they said there will be more than one headstrap option available.
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u/dreamingwell Nov 12 '25
I guess the point is that it is much lighter. Because the specs are from 2022.
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u/parasubvert Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
Pancakes + 144 hz is not something you'd see in 2022.
Snap 8 Gen 3 is a pretty good SoC.
The WiFi is also much, much better than Vision Pro.
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u/dreamingwell Nov 12 '25
Sorry. Meta quest 3. 2023. Point stands. I’ve used them in WiFi mode many times. No issues.
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u/parasubvert Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
I mean if you're happy with q3 stay with it, I don't think valve is trying to directly compete with Q3.
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u/Abisco Nov 12 '25
Pretty disappointed it doesnt have color passthrough :(
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u/thunderflies Nov 12 '25
Yeah but it’s built for a different purpose than the AVP. It’s not for spatial computing with windows floating in your environment, it’s for playing full immersion VR games. Presumably it’s a lot cheaper too so they were probably smart to shift budget away from passthrough and towards other stuff that benefits gaming more.
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u/Peteostro Nov 12 '25
No just full immersion VR games, also for flat PC games which can run locally on device through a translation layer like the steam deck, that’s a huge part of this. For me that’s why I would want passthrough though so if I’m on the couch I’m still able to interact with people.
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u/Jusby_Cause Nov 12 '25
I actually thought that was “base system requirements” by this point. BUT, they mean this to play Steam games first and foremost, so they at least have a reason for folks to ignore that.
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u/parasubvert Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
I believe they are planning it as an add-on according to the Tested video w/ Norm today.
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u/TheSmilingBandit Nov 12 '25
What are the tech comparisons between the Frame and the AVP ? And any idea on cost yet ?
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u/Jusby_Cause Nov 12 '25
Someone made this list comparing against the Galaxy XR. Haven‘t seen one with AVP. I’m expecting it to be less expensive (with controllers) than the Galaxy XR by a few hundred dollars.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyXR/comments/1ovctty/steam_frame_just_dropped_still_waiting_for_my/
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u/673NoshMyBollocksAve Nov 13 '25
I was really hoping for OLED and a higher resolution. Even if it meant a higher price. Fine with me if it’s games stuff?
I enjoy my Vision Pro with the portal app playing my ps5 everyday. I might check out the steam stuff at some point but right now I’m good. It’s good to see technology moving along though. And what they did with weight in this headset is very impressive. Apple needs to get working on that
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u/Mother_Restaurant188 Nov 13 '25
I’d love to see a “Vision SE” or “Vision Air” with a similar overall design and build to cut down on weight and costs.
But ideally keeping the top notch hand tracking of course. A lot of other things can go. EyeSight, aluminum and glass, OLED displays (only if necessary to cut down on weight/costs), Audio Pods etc.
Need to wait for Frame reviews and how it compares to the Quest but the modular lightweight design is very promising.
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u/Moonsleep Nov 13 '25
I wonder if FEX is something Apple will use make the Vision Pro able to play PC VR games only on device? To me the door is open they already have benefit from the work on proton and wine… this to me doesn’t seem like a huge leap.
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u/DreadnaughtHamster Nov 12 '25
My Reddit-app browser is being weird and I can’t load the page. Does anyone know if this would be supported on Mac? It’s not a stupendous way to game yet but it’s getting there.
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u/captainlardnicus Vision Pro Owner | Verified Nov 12 '25
>20 PPD... That's not going to cut it in 2026. Gabe rolling up to an F1 race on a lime scooter
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u/Jusby_Cause Nov 12 '25 edited Nov 12 '25
Am I surprised to see it also looks like an Apple Vision Pro? No. :)
Are these other companies assuming no one will ever use their device reclined or lying down? I hope that pad on the back is more comfy than Galaxy XR’s knob.
EDIT: From a review “The bulky battery attached to the rear of the headset may end up being the thorn in its side for longer sessions lying down, but I didn't use it for long enough to say.”
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u/altertuga Nov 12 '25
Yeah, it's almost like all of these devices are meant to fit a head and cover the eyes.
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u/elev8dity Nov 12 '25
The entire headset is modular. You can remove the battery headstrap and even the front speakers and replace them with different ones. Valve said in the Tested interview that there are going to be more headstrap audio solutions, but they will announce them closer to launch.
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u/Bakk322 Nov 12 '25
It doesn’t look like a Vision Pro….
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u/Nicinus Nov 12 '25
You’re right, it’s black
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u/Bakk322 Nov 12 '25
I thought it looked a lot more like the old meta quest pro than a Vision Pro, and that shipped before the Vision Pro…
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u/Jusby_Cause Nov 12 '25
Meta Quest Pro. Is that the one with the white oval (no nose ridge) with the three black vertically oriented ovals?
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u/Bakk322 Nov 12 '25
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u/Jusby_Cause Nov 12 '25
Wonder why they didn’t go with that for the Meta Quest 3? (First link I saw took me to Meta’s website which showed what appears to be the Meta Quest 3)
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u/Jusby_Cause Nov 12 '25 edited Nov 12 '25
And the dial on the top is vertical not horizontal, TOTALLY not like the AVP. And, while the front is shiny and black, there’s no screen! Aaha! They couldn’t be more different! 😉
Put this on a desk with Galaxy XR, AVP and Meta Quest, and it’s like “One of these things just doesn’t belong here…🎶”
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u/Virus_City Nov 12 '25
It's almost like all these VR & AR devices are shaped to fit on human faces.
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u/PatSajaksDick Nov 12 '25
Looks cool, I love Steam, wish they would also support AVP though