Valve have just launched the Steam Frame wireless VR headset, finally completing the triumvirate of new hardware – along with the new Steam Machine and Steam Controller – that they unveiled all the way back in November 2025. The review embargo has also lifted, meaning I can tell you that it’s a smart and flexible piece of virtual reality kit. Definitely the most versatile of its kind, in terms of how it lets you play games.
Less triumphantly, the Frame has clearly sustained the impact of the same memory shortages and component cost explosions that jacked up the Machine’s pricing and limited its stock. Thus, despite initial plans to make the Frame cheaper than the ultra-premium Valve Index, the Steam Frame starts at £889 / $1,059 / €1,049 for the smaller 256GB model. That rises to £1,089 / $1,299 / €1,279 for the top 1TB version, with several accessory options potentially bumping out the outlay even further.
A long-cabled USB-C charger, for example, is £29 / $29 / €39, and if you want to replace the controllers’ basic string loops with Index-style hand straps, you’ll need to add the Ergonomic Accessories Kit for £59 / $59 / €69. There’s also a Accessory Replacement Kit, which includes spares for some of the already-bundled gaskets and cushions, for £49 / $49 / €59. I punched all of these numbers into my phone calculator and it made a noncommittal "Ehhhhrrrr" sound.
If, nonetheless, you’ve got a skull with the Frame’s name on it, you can more-or-less order one right now. Valve are redeploying the randomised reservation system from the Steam Machine launch, so anyone who signs up for one of the new headset models between now (September 14th) and 6pm BST / 10am PT on September 17th will, once that window closes, be randomly assigned a place in the reservation fulfilment order. Or, a place on the waitlist, if demand exceeds Valve’s starting stock. Anyone signing up thereafter will join the waitlist in the order they registered.
Should you? Not to undermine your reasons to click on my own review, but: I think the Frame is generally a harder sell than the similarly-expensive Steam Machine, as while the latter is still on the cheaper end of the PC pricing spectrum, you actually can get a standalone-capable wireless VR kit for a lot less than what Valve are asking. That said, the Frame keeps a lot more plates spinning than, say, a Meta Quest 3, from its ability to play low-demand 'flat' games from your existing Steam library to its clever eye tracking tech to the fact that it can run Half-Life: Alyx without needing a separate PC at all. Also, who’s to say that denying Mark Zuckerberg your personal data isn’t worth a few extra hundred quid?
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/valves-steam-frame-vr-headset-opens-for-orders-with-the-cheapest-model-priced-at-a-lenswatering-889-1059
