Steam Frame (Valve Index 2)
- Thread starter ShiWarrior
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Jun 2004
- Posts
- 7,671
maybe we should turn it in to a poll would be easer
In what way is the Steam frame "Premium"? (someone said earlier Valve said this). Its panels are rock bottom, low res, very basic LCD. It's ancient tech in the scheme of things for 2026, and there's no getting around this.
If any other company was releasing this headset in 2026 with tags of 'premium' and these specs for a price that's likely way above mainstream accceptance (whatever that menas) they'd be laughed out of town. Valve fanboyism really needs to be reigned in here.
If any other company was releasing this headset in 2026 with tags of 'premium' and these specs for a price that's likely way above mainstream accceptance (whatever that menas) they'd be laughed out of town. Valve fanboyism really needs to be reigned in here.
Last edited:
So why are people guessing £800-£1000?
I think like some have mentioned - some of the bigger tech channels stated Valve stated they are hoping to release the frame at 'under the cost' of the index (which was about £999.)
That's pretty obvious marketing speak for "you'll be lucky if it's under a grand".....
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Jun 2004
- Posts
- 7,671
build cost with say 20%
Last edited:
If it had the same OLED panels as the BB2/ upcoming Pimax Dream Air SE, and was about a grand (roughly same price as Dream Air SE) I'd be all over it. The wireless streaming, dedicated dongle and foveating streaming tech does appeal to me I can't lie - I might actually try VR standing up some day.
I reckon the 'Steam Frame 2/OLED' will be these specs, and might come out sooner than you think if (lots of idiots?) buy the first one
I reckon the 'Steam Frame 2/OLED' will be these specs, and might come out sooner than you think if (lots of idiots?) buy the first one
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Jun 2004
- Posts
- 7,671
let us know your first impressionsI reckon the Steam Frame 2 OLED will be these specs, and might come out sooner than you think if (lots of idiots?) buy the first one
Sorry just noticed this post!!
You are not locked into an ecosystem on the Quest headsets either. You can play all the games that they Steam Frame can and all the Games that are on the Meta Store too.
You can do all this on the Quest 3. Although the out box experience on the Steam Frame should be better, in regards to comfort levels. But everything you listed here can be done on the Quest 3. Not only that, you have full colour passthrough on the Quest 3, so can play mixed reality games too.
Yeah, sorry, but I don't see this or maybe I don't understand what you are trying to say. Valve have already their software platform in place. And any headset can use it. There won't be games made exclusively for the Steam Frame. It will be just like the Deck. Valve will give each PC game a rating as to how well it will run on the Steam Frame. You can already run any game from other storefronts apart from the Meta's Quest store. So maybe you can expand on this point?
The price is yet to be determined, but I will be very surprised if it's less than £800.
What? You said they would release such a headset in 5-10 years at £400 when equivalent hardware drops to that price point.
I just made the point that Equivalent hardware is already out at that price point, just not from Valve. The Quest 3 and Pico 4 aren't far behind the Frame in actual hardware specs.
And people are guessing £800 to a £1000 because Valve have hinted strongly that they are struggling to get it under $1000 but they are trying to.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Jun 2004
- Posts
- 7,671
still at the wim of meta, they tried hard to get rid of VD and then released Link to compete, followed by steamllink
What i am saying is, if equivalent hardware can be had for £400, why are people suggesting it is silly to expect £400 for this? Just because of some marketing guy at valve?
What makes this so special to charge double that?
My main reason for wanting something non-meta is my experience with the awful updates that Meta have pushed out to their store and the headsets.
It's not uncommon to hear of bricked Quest Pro controllers after an update (where Meta will take no responsibility for the update failure and point you at refurbed controllers for £130 each), and they've broken the WIFI streaming and headset performance in several updates. Also the store was pushing Horizon content over paid apps, and developers have complained that they can't get store visibility, so sales have tanked. Meta have lost their gaming focus it seems, pushing more to AR devices where they can own the next computing platform, like Google and Apple do with phones.
Frame is a gaming focused headset, and seeing how Valve have handled Steamdeck updates, I think the update and store experience will be much better.
Plus now there's a mainstream eye-tracked headset we will see games using that for foveated rendering and eye-tracked UI too, which will benefit all eye-tracked headsets.
I just wish it had better panels. Really do hope they do a QLED one. (Micro OLED would require a completely different optical stack, as the panels are so small).
It's not uncommon to hear of bricked Quest Pro controllers after an update (where Meta will take no responsibility for the update failure and point you at refurbed controllers for £130 each), and they've broken the WIFI streaming and headset performance in several updates. Also the store was pushing Horizon content over paid apps, and developers have complained that they can't get store visibility, so sales have tanked. Meta have lost their gaming focus it seems, pushing more to AR devices where they can own the next computing platform, like Google and Apple do with phones.
Frame is a gaming focused headset, and seeing how Valve have handled Steamdeck updates, I think the update and store experience will be much better.
Plus now there's a mainstream eye-tracked headset we will see games using that for foveated rendering and eye-tracked UI too, which will benefit all eye-tracked headsets.
I just wish it had better panels. Really do hope they do a QLED one. (Micro OLED would require a completely different optical stack, as the panels are so small).
Associate
- Joined
- 4 Jul 2009
- Posts
- 1,140
- Location
- United Kingdom
Yeah I guess a lot of that is moot if you can just load up the steam store and install any game you own on the headset. Like I said, I'm not really up to date with what you can do with the meta quest, but it is android correct? Is it already possible to use a translation layer with side loaded content?Sorry just noticed this post!!
You are not locked into an ecosystem on the Quest headsets either. You can play all the games that they Steam Frame can and all the Games that are on the Meta Store too.
You can do all this on the Quest 3. Although the out box experience on the Steam Frame should be better, in regards to comfort levels. But everything you listed here can be done on the Quest 3. Not only that, you have full colour passthrough on the Quest 3, so can play mixed reality games too.
Yeah, sorry, but I don't see this or maybe I don't understand what you are trying to say. Valve have already their software platform in place. And any headset can use it. There won't be games made exclusively for the Steam Frame. It will be just like the Deck. Valve will give each PC game a rating as to how well it will run on the Steam Frame. You can already run any game from other storefronts apart from the Meta's Quest store. So maybe you can expand on this point?
It's possible I'm caught up in the hype, but I'm still eagerly awaiting this. I still don't trust Facebook and would much rather avoid them entirely if possible!
Valve will allow developers to distribute games in Android APK format, so they won't just be using translation layers. This opens the Frame up to Quest ports, so they could do Crossbuy like Meta do, where you buy a standalone version and get a steam version and vice-versa, and unlike Meta the save file could transfer across versions.
It also means you can install or sideload APKs to the headset that don't use Google Play Services, so you could get a whole bunch of 2D android apps on the Frame, without having to faff about with a developer account as you have to do with Quest headsets.
It also means you can install or sideload APKs to the headset that don't use Google Play Services, so you could get a whole bunch of 2D android apps on the Frame, without having to faff about with a developer account as you have to do with Quest headsets.
Associate
- Joined
- 4 Jul 2009
- Posts
- 1,140
- Location
- United Kingdom
I hadn't considered that, but that's a great point and something I love about Steam. Good for quest owners too as long as Facebook don't decide to block it entirely.
I can't find any information suggesting that the quest can currently run x86 side loaded applications, so this anything on quest talk is about dedicated PC VR streaming to the headset rather than standalone?
Associate
- Joined
- 2 Feb 2009
- Posts
- 1,555
Yes but when you have a more powerful PC than a headset why would you want to try and run it in potato mode?