Steam Frame starts from $1,059/€1,049

Valve just announced the price of the Steam Frame. It costs $1,059/€1,049 for the standard 256GB version and $1,299/€1,279 for the 1TB version. The two versions are identical, they just have different storage.

[Notice: the news is breaking, so forgive me if this article is written very quickly and is not super detailed!]

The specs are as follows:

• 4 nm Snapdragon® 8 Gen 3 – ARM64
• 16GB Unified LPDDR5X RAM
• 256GB/1TB UFS storage, microSD card slot
• Rechargeable 21.6 Wh Li-ion battery
• 2160 x 2160 LCD (per eye)
• 72-144Hz refresh rate (144Hz experimental)
• Inside-out camera based tracking
• Wi-Fi 7, 2×2 – wireless adapter included
• Bluetooth 5.4
• Dual speaker drivers per ear, dual microphone array
• SteamOS 3
• Steam Frame Controllers – full 6-DOF and gamepad controls

As was leaked, Half-Life: Alyx is included with the purchase. I wasn’t sure if it was the PCVR Alyx or a special standalone build, so I checked on Upload VR and found that it is “a native 64-bit ARM build of Half-Life: Alyx optimized to run standalone on the headset”. This is HUGE: Valve made an incredible thing porting such a great-looking game like Alyx to standalone.

This is the list of accessories that Valve makes available for the headset:

and these are the compatible accessories:

The most interesting add-on is the passthrough camera offered by Arcturus Vision, which adds high-quality color passthrough to the Steam Frame. It costs €157. It is not much considering the great performance it offers. If you are looking to play mixed reality games, I advise you to consider purchasing it.

This camera offers a great difference in experience, as the video below shows:

The games Cubism, Puzzling Places, and Table Space are already compatible with this module. If you want to know about this module, you can find all the info at its official page: https://arcturus.vision/

My personal consideration is that I was expecting a price more or less like this. More than $1,000 means that this headset will be dedicated to prosumers, hard gamers, fans of Valve, and VR enthusiasts. I’m pretty sure it will sell out in 10 seconds, but I’m also sure that with this high price it won’t have huge sales à la Quest 2. It will be a headset that will bring back some enthusiasm in the community, bring new ideas to the field, and will be a net positive for us all. But it won’t make us go outside the VR Winter.

If you want to have more detailed information about it, refer to the articles of journalists who had the pre-brief and so had a proper time to write the article:

• Road To VR: https://roadtovr.com/valve-steam-frame-price-release-pre-orders/ (and related links, like this one: https://roadtovr.com/everything-you-should-know-steam-frame/)
• Upload VR: https://www.uploadvr.com/steam-frame-price-revealed-reservations-opened-alyx-included/
  

Still, I’m very happy it finally launched! What’s your take on it? Let me know in the comments or on my social media channels!