How Much Will the Steam Frame VR Headset Cost? What Valve Says About Price

It’s been a mates weeks since the uncover and our hands-on acquisition with the caller Valve hardware trio of the Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Frame. And portion we interviewed Valve’s engineers astir the instauration of each three, which are owed to motorboat sometime successful aboriginal 2026, the biggest question that they inactive don’t person a definitive reply for is price. We won't cognize for definite until we get person to release, but it's arguably the astir concerning facet for us, and anyone funny successful these devices. Hardware lives oregon dies based connected its price, truthful successful the meantime we're trying to springiness our champion educated conjecture arsenic to however overmuch the Steam Frame volition cost.

The Cost of Other VR Headsets

In our Steam Frame interrogation with Valve squad members, they didn’t springiness immoderate denotation of what they’re reasoning successful presumption of price. According to UploadVR, however, their conversations mentioned that it volition beryllium cheaper than the afloat Valve Index VR kit (headset, controllers, and basal stations), which launched astatine $999 and remains that much. That inactive doesn’t springiness america overmuch to enactment with, but with the authorities of VR contiguous compared to wherever it was successful 2019, I would fishy the Frame to beryllium much affordable than that adjacent with its interior hardware and much precocious tech.

When simply looking astatine a spec sheet, the Steam Frame astir stacks up to the Meta Quest 3, with comparable interior specs and the quality to tally bundle locally connected the headsets themselves. They commercialized blows present and determination spec-wise, with the Frame utilizing a 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU with 16 GB of RAM portion the Quest 3 has a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 CPU with 8GB of RAM. And for reference, a 512GB exemplary for the Meta Quest 3 goes for $499 astatine regular price. If we're trying to triangulate immoderate benignant of educated guess, that lands america anyplace betwixt $500 to $1000; and yes, I cognize that's a wide scope that could inactive marque oregon interruption the Steam Frame successful presumption of entreaty and success.

There is going to beryllium a 256GB exemplary and 1TB exemplary of the Steam Frame, and it's just to presume that the spread successful retention abstraction volition necessitate a astir $100 quality betwixt the two. When I'm reasoning astir what the Steam Frame does amended than different VR headsets, I see the 6GHz wireless PC tethering tech arsenic 1 of its cardinal advantages – this lets you play VR games moving disconnected of your PC without the messy cables attached to your caput oregon getting tangled up successful your room. It gives nary perceptible latency, which is thing nary different VR headset does.

The interior hardware – an ARM processor that tin tally Steam games natively – isn’t arsenic almighty arsenic a due gaming PC, but the information that it has ARM compatibility astatine each is authorities of the creation stuff. And whether oregon not you're moving the built-in hardware, you tin seamlessly play non-VR games successful a simulated theatre successful the headset's virtual space, which besides looks crisp from my experience. There's a batch of versatility that comes with the Steam Frame, on with the information that its controllers bash each the things you request successful VR portion besides being built with parity with accepted controllers. That’s each to accidental that the Steam Frame packs premium features and caller tech that whitethorn request a higher terms wrong that peculiar scope mentioned above.

How Valve Prices Its Hardware

As of now, the Steam Deck goes for $399 for the 256GB LCD model, $549 for the 512GB OLED model, and $649 for the 1TB OLED model. It’s benignant of an apples to oranges examination with different console handhelds fixed the openness of SteamOS/Proton and the closed quality of consoles, but they are notation points for wherever we should expect like-minded devices to onshore successful presumption of price. With the Nintendo Switch 2 astatine $449 and the aging specs of the Steam Deck, you could accidental that Valve’s hardware comparatively demands a somewhat higher terms tag (depending which exemplary you’re looking at, too). Pitting it against different PC gaming handhelds, it falls comparatively successful enactment arsenic a lower-end instrumentality compared to the Asus ROG Ally, ROG Xbox Ally X, and the Lenovo Legion Go 2, each of which are overmuch much powerful, but besides overmuch much expensive.

So, this tells maine we tin expect the Steam Frame to outgo much than its console counterparts. The PlayStation VR2 is simply a precise antithetic instrumentality arsenic it requires a PS5 console and is tethered to a closed ecosystem, truthful it’s not a cleanable comparison, but for notation the PSVR2 goes for $399 astatine regular terms (currently $299 connected sale). The Steam Frame volition surely deed marketplace astatine a overmuch higher terms than that.

With each these comparisons and the past of Valve’s hardware, wherever does that permission america for speculation? If you inquire me, I would conjecture $599 for the 256GB exemplary and $699 for the 1TB exemplary of the Steam Frame. However, I wouldn’t beryllium amazed to spot some of those predicted prices to beryllium $100 higher astatine motorboat fixed the premium quality of the Steam Frame and however Valve is operating successful a abstraction carved retired by enthusiasts who are looking for a much blase device.

If you're funny successful Valve's upcoming console-like PC, cheque retired our investigation connected however overmuch the Steam Machine is going to cost. And for our broad sum of each of Valve’s caller hardware, cheque retired our hands-on preview with the Steam Frame and Steam Machine, oregon our investigation connected Steam’s meteoric emergence arsenic a gaming ecosystem.