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Valve Steam Machine, SteamOS Desktop, Steam Frame VR and Steam Controller

About what I was expecting. Nice, but it is more premium priced. But I have to assume originally they intended on a $600 or so price tag. I would like to upgrade my $200 Quest 2 but will wait for prices to come down. Might be a while at this rate though.
I paid $300 for a used quest 3 and I'm happy with it for now... I use it stand alone though, also for now... It was worth upgrading from the two to three for the resolution, the pancake lenses and the better external cameras, it's super easy to navigate reality while you're still wearing the headset.
 
With the Frame one hour battery life for on-headset rendering seems pretty restrictive, from the extensive Tested review about this. Two hours tops only if streaming from PC.

Like, if the whole goal of the device was no wires but it heavily sacrifices battery life, only for wires to augment it (USB chargers continuously plugged in with cables dangling) then may as well go wired. I suppose the benefit at that point is just low latency wireless streaming, if you can supplement the battery with some on-hip extra battery or something.
 
I'm 50/50 on this. I have a quest 3 (And a few Vives), and do VR a lot, and rarely ever Standalone , so it could make sense, I just don't think it's much different than a Q3. I do love the PCIE expansion port basically, and doing some spatial capture with the available Camera attachment makes a ton of sense for some of the things I do.

Honestly it's biggest seller to me is probably that it's a headset running SteamOS basically, which is big, but not sure enough to purchase.
 
With the Frame one hour battery life for on-headset rendering seems pretty restrictive, from the extensive Tested review about this. Two hours tops only if streaming from PC.

Like, if the whole goal of the device was no wires but it heavily sacrifices battery life, only for wires to augment it (USB chargers continuously plugged in with cables dangling) then may as well go wired. I suppose the benefit at that point is just low latency wireless streaming, if you can supplement the battery with some on-hip extra battery or something.

Connecting a power bank and putting it in your pocket is way better than being tethered to a PC.

I'm sure there will be third party headstraps like what the Quest has with better battery solutions. A popular one for the Bobo that has a hot swappable batttery pack on the back. It comes with 2 battteries and you just charge one while you use the other.
 
I wish I was more excited about this but those displays man... It's 2026, why haven't we advanced from a 3 year old Quest? And talk about a depressing passthrough. Every time you put the thing on you're greeted by a blue tinted nausea inducing hellscape. But it's cool that it's more privacy focused and less likely to scan your genitals to train AI on how to identify a micropenis.
 
With the Frame one hour battery life for on-headset rendering seems pretty restrictive, from the extensive Tested review about this. Two hours tops only if streaming from PC.

Like, if the whole goal of the device was no wires but it heavily sacrifices battery life, only for wires to augment it (USB chargers continuously plugged in with cables dangling) then may as well go wired. I suppose the benefit at that point is just low latency wireless streaming, if you can supplement the battery with some on-hip extra battery or something.
And the USB port it has is USB2, making wired mode a non-starter as well. Quest 3 when wired with the Meta app you can do 1Gb bandwidth and get pristine visuals and very low latency (far lower than Wifi even 6ghz). Ok niche use-case, I get it. Wireless VR is amazing of course, but if I'm playing some driving or flying sim I don't need wireless so for me it's still important.

I think the biggest mistep Valve made though is putting 16gb of RAM and a 256Gb (or more) SSD in this thing. This inflates the price so damn much (even before the AI boom) but there is very little you can actually play standalone - Alyx has a standalone ARM version they just pushed out but it runs and looks like crap, at 36fps reprojected to 72. If that money had been used to give us new and better lenses (OLED something...), the conversation would be different, and we might be able to call it a premium wireless PC-VR headset.

Like, by trying to make an headset for "everything and everyone" (standalone VR & PC VR), they end up making an expensive kit (easily twice the price of a Quest, probably more especially for those who bought a Quest around release) appealing to nobody, except the Valve diehard fans.
 
I'm OG vive and have refused the meta "deal with the devil." I'm all in on this. Price is teh suk, but VR is the only thing that gives me near the dopamine hit that late 90s GPU releases did for me. That was back when computing was "magical" to me (Apple's subsequent claims notwithstanding).
 
I'm OG vive and have refused the meta "deal with the devil." I'm all in on this. Price is teh suk, but VR is the only thing that gives me near the dopamine hit that late 90s GPU releases did for me. That was back when computing was "magical" to me (Apple's subsequent claims notwithstanding).
what do u do/play in VR? are u going to do the same stuff just better with the frame?
 
I'm considering picking one up, but am heavily disappointed by the complete lack of PC wired support dedicated towards PCVR SIM gaming, which is my primary VR use case. Definitely do not need the larger internal SSD for that. REALLY wish they would have offered a "SIM Heavy" only variant with dedicated PC wired support /internal 128gb SSD for $899.
 
I'm considering picking one up, but am heavily disappointed by the complete lack of PC wired support dedicated towards PCVR SIM gaming, which is my primary VR use case. Definitely do not need the larger internal SSD for that. REALLY wish they would have offered a "SIM Heavy" only variant with dedicated PC wired support /internal 128gb SSD for $899.
Doesn't sound like the right headset for you at all to be honest.

Look at the Pimax stuff or Bigscreen Beyond maybe? They support proper wired VR, have OLED and better resolution, and the BSB is particularly impressive on the comfort front.

(I'm assuming you want to avoid Meta, which I can respect - otherwise I would say get the Q3 for half the price and don't waste your money).
 
Doesn't sound like the right headset for you at all to be honest.

Look at the Pimax stuff or Bigscreen Beyond maybe? They support proper wired VR, have OLED and better resolution, and the BSB is particularly impressive on the comfort front.

(I'm assuming you want to avoid Meta, which I can respect - otherwise I would say get the Q3 for half the price and don't waste your money).
Ya, already have a Varjo Aero and to be honest, the Frame would be a side grade at best - perhaps offering just a little better FoV and being a good bit lighter/more comfortable to wear... While l did put my name in the hat for a chance to purchase, I'll probably talk myself out of throwing a solid $1k away for just the slight comfort upgrade.
 
With the Frame one hour battery life for on-headset rendering seems pretty restrictive, from the extensive Tested review about this. Two hours tops only if streaming from PC.

Like, if the whole goal of the device was no wires but it heavily sacrifices battery life, only for wires to augment it (USB chargers continuously plugged in with cables dangling) then may as well go wired. I suppose the benefit at that point is just low latency wireless streaming, if you can supplement the battery with some on-hip extra battery or something.
I wonder how much battery life will improve with post-launch tweaking. I seem to recall some of the early Steam Deck (maybe also OLED, not sure) discussions about the battery life being questionable, but post-launch and after a few updates there was a meaningful update to optimize power usage that got more out of the battery life. It won't magically add hours upon hours, but it could make a reasonable change.

Connecting a power bank and putting it in your pocket is way better than being tethered to a PC.

I'm sure there will be third party headstraps like what the Quest has with better battery solutions. A popular one for the Bobo that has a hot swappable batttery pack on the back. It comes with 2 battteries and you just charge one while you use the other.
Definitely. It seems they already have an onboard battery strap design rather than having to need to buy it like the Quest 3's official offering.. I wonder what Valve is planning for partnership items - the fact they already certified the Arcturus means its likely that others will become "verified" soon. P

---

Got my reservation queue email today for the 1TB. It would be nice to know roughly where on the list you are though. I saw someone on another site mention they were actually "wait listed" instead of "reservation queue" , but not sure if there's an actual difference or not. I can hope they did some sort of weighting during/after the randomization for things like Steam account age and games, ownership of other Steam Hardware especially an Index, VR games in the library and/or played time etc. It won't fix everything, but it may help give those interested parties a better shot as opposed to the scalping and bot/sale accounts prepped after Valve started the queue system's current incarnation with the Steam Controller.


Its worth mentioning that the Arcturus add-on module thoughtfully had a free refund cancellation option if it appears you're not likely to get a Frame for a long time, but I think the cut off date so far is...the 20th? Without knowing how far down the line you are, its hard to know if its worth keeping your reservation or waiting to pick one up later. Then again, the potential for the module selling out and/or future runs being more expensive are possible so perhaps holding onto it is wise, if affordable.

Edit: I forgot that apparently "reservation queue" is the far preferable option in that there is a Frame reserved for you out of the current batch! The question is how big the batch is and how long it takes for them to move through the queue, but still - good news! Really curious how long it takes anyone with a Reservation Queue list to be given the opportunity to order. Either they'll be moving through the list pretty quickly in the next few days or its a very large group of reservations that may take longer.

Edit2: Got my Arcturus Vision message claiming my camera is "ready to ship" (order number in the 2700s) . It gives me the option to cancel with no penalty and full refund or verify it for shipment. If I do nothing by the 20th, they'll default to shipping it since I already have a reservation.
 
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Playing on the dark caught my eye

https://x.com/HardwareSteam/status/2100061421971071116

My Quest 3 can't do that

Quest 2 can work semi decently, but I think the reflection of the monitor keeps it on. I did notice when playing night missions in the dark I would get disconnects in Ace Combat 7. But wiping the sensor things clear can allow me to get through the mission in question. I assume when the screen is dim the Quest 2 does not have enough ambient light. Probably works the same with the Q3. I assume you are sitting further away from the screen or in a room without one.
 
I would think any phone charging battery could be used to hook up to the frame to extend battery life. Back pocket, pouch,
Strap.
 
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