Valve has just announced the Steam Frame, its new VR headset that can play games streamed directly from your PC using a dedicated streaming stick and run Windows games locally thanks to an Arm chip in the headset itself. At the same time, Valve is also moving on from its previous VR headset, the Valve Index, which it’s “no longer manufacturing,” designer Lawrence Yang tells The Verge.
The Index, a high-end headset that had to be tethered to your PC to work and used external “lighthouse” base stations for tracking, was released in 2019. In her review, my colleague Adi Robertson praised its visuals and its controllers, though dinged it for its $999 cost.
But corded headsets have also fallen out of favor since then. Meta has sold tens of millions of its standalone Quest VR headsets that can play games without a PC connection and track your position without extra base stations. Even more expensive headsets like the Apple Vision Pro and Samsung’s Galaxy XR have taken the standalone approach.
The Frame isn’t exactly a sequel to the Index. But it does improve upon the older headset with some of its specs; the Index’s LCD screens have 1440 x 1600 per-eye resolution, while the Frame offers 2160 x 2160 per eye, for example. If you like the Index’s “Knuckles” controllers and how you can strap them right onto your hand, you’ll be able to buy optional straps for the Frame’s controllers so you can do the same thing.
And Valve is extremely confident in the Frame’s 6GHz wireless streaming adapter as a replacement for a physical cord. In our brief demos at Valve HQ, the streaming worked extremely well.
This may be the end for Valve’s lighthouse base stations, which were actually first released in 2016 with the HTC Vive. If you’ve got lighthouse base stations set up in your home already, don’t expect to use them with the Frame anytime soon, if ever.
“With Steam Frame, we’re not working on lighthouse support for it,” Yang says. Instead of sweeping a room with lasers like the lighthouses, the Frame currently uses four monochrome cameras and IR illuminators to determine its position in 3D space, though it also has a modular accessory port that could support additional cameras.
The Stream Frame is set to launch in early 2026. Valve hasn’t yet shared a specific price for it, only telling us that it will be cheaper than the $999 Index.
