The XR Week Peek (2026.09.21): Steam Frame launched for $1,059, Snap shows use cases for SPECS, and more!

September 21, 2026September 21, 2026

It’s been a HUGE week for XR! The Steam Frame has been officially launched, and also the Snap Specs have been fully unveiled. And we are not stopping here, because this coming week we’re going to have Meta Connect! I think none of these announcements are going to radically change our space, but all of them together will be useful to show that AR/VR are still alive and are making steps forward.

By the way, I’ll be at Connect, so hopefully I can meet many of you there!

Top news of the week

Steam Frame has been launched!

Finally, after a long wait, the Steam Frame has been launched. The device comes in two SKUs, one with 256GB of storage, costing $1,059/€1,049; and the other with 1TB, costing $1,299/€1,279. The specifications of the device 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

The headset comes with a free copy of Half-Life: Alyx, which has been ported to standalone ARM by Valve. Hands-on reviews say that it is a clear downgrade from the PC version, but it is still cool.

Valve is also offering three official accessories:

A power supply, because it is not included in the box
An ergonomic kit adding a top strap and the controllers’ hand straps
A replacement kit containing new face gaskets and head cushions

Valve told PC Gamer that it is also working on an additional strap that offers hot-swappable batteries and the great over-the-ears speakers that were so great on the Valve Index.

There are also 3rd parties accessories available:

The color passthrough add-on by Arcturus Vision, costing $149/€157
Zenni Prescription Lenses

People interested in the Frame have already joined the waitlist, and then Valve randomly extracted the “winners” that are going to receive the headset. The other people are still on the waitlist.

I’ve read countless reviews about this headset, and I’m going to leave you a few of them below (my favorite one has been PC Gamer’s, because it is incredibly detailed). The reviewers disagree on a few things here and there, but on average, this is what they say:

Display quality is good, but more or less it is like the Quest
Comfort is decent, and becomes definitely good with the ergonomic kit
Tracking of headset and controllers is smooth
PC VR streaming definitely works well. It is not that superior to the best Virtual Desktop streaming, though. But surely it is more convenient
Controllers’ comfort and usability are a bit of a mixed bag
Battery is definitely too limiting in standalone mode (some people reported a duration just superior to 1 hour), but it is definitely better in PC VR mode
Openness of the system is great
Audio is ok, but not great
It works out of the box; the user experience is definitely good

There is one thing on which reviewers have definitely reached consensus: the device is good, but it is more or less as good as a Quest 3, but it comes 3 years after the Quest 3 and at double its price. It is very confusing. Remember that Quest 3 can do PC VR and standalone gaming, too, so it is definitely comparable. Of course, Valve offers a much more open system and less data harvesting than Quest, and this is a plus. But releasing such a device for this price in 2026 is a bit underwhelming, and many people complained about this, with some people even not buying the device, claiming they are not interested anymore.

I was expecting a bit more, too. Valve has always offered incredible headsets, so I was expecting not a miracle, but for sure something definitely better than a Quest 3. I would be curious to know the story of this device, because to me it looks like something that Valve should have launched 2 years ago. It is interesting to read on PC Gamer that 3–4 years ago, Valve was looking more into creating a sort of Pimax-like bulky PC VR headset and then decided to go the standalone route. I wonder if this has been causing delays (I could make a joke about the fact that, trying to make a Pimax-like headset, they had a Pimax-like delay, but I won’t say it). And for sure, I would be very curious to try Valve’s bulky prototypes for next-gen PCVR…

(Thanks to Rob Cole for some of the links)

Other relevant news

Snap unveiled new details about SPECS

Snap unveiled the SPECS glasses at AWE, but it left the audience a bit disappointed because no one was able to try the device. Also, the price of around $2,200 was considered a bit too much by many, because everyone wondered what could have been the use cases that justify this price. So Snap has organized a new launch event in the past week to try to fix these issues: it showed the device on stage, it announced a lot of content, and then let many people go hands-on with it.

Summarizing, these have been the announcements:

Snap unveiled a new case for the glasses that can not only charge them, but also provide network connectivity. Thanks to this, SPECS can have their own network connectivity and not rely on the phone
SPECS are going enterprise. Snap realized that $2,200 may be too expensive for consumers, so it is also trying the enterprise route and already partnered with companies like Salesforce, AWS, NVIDIA, HoloLight. I think this is a very smart decision: we’ve already seen with Magic Leap that expensive AR glasses hardly thrive in the consumer space
Snap is going to open an experience center in LA so people can try the glasses before buying them
AI is the most important technology now, so Snap had to make an announcement in this sense. Snap announced “Specs Intelligence”, which basically is an AI assistant that follows you in every moment of your life and gives you reminders and suggestions.
Snap also showed a lot of new content. Some of them were technically impressive, like some AR apps that let you train in sports like basketball and soccer using a real ball. Then there will be an experience about Harry Potter, which sounds pretty fun. There will also be media consumption experiences like YouTube and Spotify. Shopify will instead let you try things in AR at home before buying them. All these lenses (this is how Snap calls its apps) looked cool, but I don’t know if they really justify $2,200
Snap also showed some classical use cases for AR: navigation, live translation, big screens for productivity, phone calls, photo shooting, etc…

The launch event was definitely nice, but I expected a bit more. What I saw was cool, but I still don’t feel like I would spend $2,200 to have it. I don’t find it compelling enough yet. Some apps looked more like eye candy for the launch to me: the NBA basketball training app looks fun and also technically incredible… but I would never play basketball with such expensive glasses on. That’s why I think Snap made a very wise decision in going the enterprise route.

I’ve also watched a lot of hands-on videos of these glasses. The general consensus is that they work pretty well. They kinda deliver on their promise of standalone AR glasses. They’re not perfect, though: some people complained that the holograms were a bit too transparent; others found the thick legs of the frames were bending a bit the ears; others mentioned some lag (even if Snap people told me that lag could have been caused by how Google Docs works). But in general, they were working as expected. Of course, we need to wait for more detailed reviews to come, but in general it seems a good AR device for a hefty price.

More info (All the announcements from the SPECS launch event)
More info (SPECS hands-on — Cas & Chary)
More info (SPECS hands-on — Brian Tong)
More info (SPECS hands-on — Scott Stein)
More info (SPECS hands-on — Nathie)

Meta may be working on camera-free glasses

According to a report on The Information, Meta is working on camera-free glasses codenamed Luna (yes, like the leaker of Meta news… oh, the irony…). Removing the camera would let Meta provide an alternative to its users in an era where camera-equipped glasses are being seen as “pervert glasses” because some people (I mean, idiots) use them to stalk women.

Personally, I don’t think it’s a great idea, for the following reasons:

Smartglasses without a camera have definitely fewer features than glasses with a camera, so they are less interesting
Meta’s endgame is AR glasses, which need cameras, so these camera-free glasses would just be a temporary sidestep, not a possible road to follow
Microphones still represent a privacy problem: they can record all the conversations with the people around you. So privacy is not only about having a camera or not.

So to me it seems just a temporary detour waiting for the dust to settle. I’m not a big fan of it. I would have preferred it if Meta had found a system to make the camera less intrusive, like, for instance, not using an RGB camera, but another type of camera that was not good for taking videos, that would still be good for AI analysis of what the users have in front of them.

More info (Meta working on camera-less glasses — X post by Jyoti Mann)
More info (Meta working on camera-less glasses — Report by The Information)
More info (Meta working on camera-less glasses — CNET)

Meta may show Phoenix and Codec Avatars at Connect

Speculations about Meta Connect have started. According to some leaks, we may have:

The unveiling of some new smartglasses, like the Luna glasses I told you about
The official launch of Meta Phoenix, its upcoming lightweight VR glasses for media consumption
An on-stage demo of a “phone call” on XR glasses involving hyper-realistic full-body Codec Avatars.

This all sounds very interesting. I hope to go hands-on with all these technologies when I’m at Connect!

More info (Meta could showcase Phoenix and Codec Avatars — Road To VR)
More info (Meta could showcase Phoenix and Codec Avatars — Upload VR)
More info (Meta could showcase Phoenix and Codec Avatars — Luna)
More info (Predictions about Meta Connect)

News worth a mention

Apple releases VisionOS 27

Apple has released the new runtime for Apple Vision Pro, VisionOS 27. It basically brings to Apple’s mixed reality headset all the features that were announced at WWDC this June. Some notable updates are improvements to Reality Composer Pro and RealityKit that give creators better tools to create experiences for the AVP. Siri AI also lands on the headset. And thanks to enhanced object tracking and support for IR LED Tracked Accessories, the Apple Vision Pro becomes a much more versatile tool that can also interact with objects around it. These and many other updates bring a lot of new, interesting features to Apple’s headsets. If only there could also be a new headset solving the current problems of the hardware…

More info (VisionOS 27 released)
More info (All the features of VisionOS 27)

Some news about content

Primal Rumble, a slapstick comedy card battler coming soon to Quest, launched a limited beta
A demo of Dream Hackers VR, a game that got very positive preview reviews, is now available on Steam
Flow Chaser is a new spatial rhythm game for Apple Vision Pro that launched alongside the recently released visionOS 27 for $15

More info (VR Slapstick Combat)
More info (Dream Hackers VR)
More info (Flow Chaser)

Some reviews about content

Bomb The Hill is a game about racing with skateboards that is not only about speed, but also about the nostalgia of the old, good times of skateboarding
Transformers: Beyond Reality Redux is an arcade shooter that does not deliver on its promises
Kacey Musgraves’ concert on Quest is a definitely enjoyable experience, especially if you love her type of music
I Am Your Beast VR is gleefully entertaining with a specific action thriller vibe that everything in terms of visuals, music, level design, and interactions plays into. But it doesn’t feel like a native VR game
Sol Protocol is a co-op action roguelike with solid foundations on top of which a lot has still to be built

More info (Bomb The Hill)
More info (Transformers: Beyond Reality Redux)
More info (Kacey Musgraves’ concert)
More info (I Am Your Beast VR)
More info (Sol Protocol)

Other news

An interesting project to let you play Android-based VR games on Windows. This could let people play Quest games on PC

Learn more

Upload VR listed the best ways to view Gaussian Splats on Quest

Learn more

Unseen Reality’s URXR lightweight headset secured $1.2M on Kickstarter

Learn more

News from partners (and friends)

The VR Games Showcase games bundle is back!

“VR Games Showcase: The New Essentials” bundle of VR games is back. You can secure a bunch of amazing VR games like Into The Radius 2, Unloop, and Underdogs for as little as $26. The offering ends in 2 days, so if you want to secure some great VR games, the time is now!
Learn more

Some XR fun

Meta reacts to the launch of the Steam Frame
Funny link

VR mods, VR mods everywhere
Funny link

The current status of gaming
(Thanks Rob for the link!)
Funny link

It is surprisingly true
Funny link

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(Header image by Valve)

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