Steam Frame price revealed, waiting open until 17th September

Screenshot 2026-09-14 182044.png

After an accidental leaking of their review video from Linus Tech Tips last week, we somewhat knew that news on Steam's latest VR venture was imminent. Today the product page has been updated, with a few new details revealed for the first time. The headset is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and runs an ARM64 version of SteamOS. Through this you'll be able to natively run some of your Steam games directly on the headset itself. It should be noted however that the Steam Frame is listed as a "streaming-first" device, introducing some genuinely interesting tech to make wireless VR streaming feasible. There will be "Steam Frame Verified" markers coming to the storefront to give you an idea of what will run well when untethered though.

But let's get to the important part: the price. The Steam Frame is available in two flavours, with the cheaper model featuring 256GB of UFS storage, and its more expensive counterpart bumping that up to 1TB. Both models do feature a Micro SD card slot for expansion however. You can find the pricing below:
  • 256GB Kit - £889 / $1059
  • 1TB Kit - £1089 / $1299
Both variants do come with Half-Life: Alyx included, though there's no indication that the game will run natively on the platform.

Those interested in picking one up for themselves can now sign up for the wait list, much in the same manner as the Steam Machine. This list will remain open until 6pm on the 17th of September here in the UK, with all submissions then randomised. Within a day of the list closing, you can expect an email saying how long you're likely to be waiting for your unit.

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Here's what bugs me. Early on before we knew this was a standalone headset (when we kept calling it "deckard" or "index 2") I was hoping they'd not release just a standalone unit, because if they hoped to do it with any quality it would drive the price up.

I understand the need to compete with Meta's biggest market they have entirely to themselves. But if the primary focus is on streaming anyway and Valve isn't confident about going all-in with standalone, why bother? People buy mobile headsets because they don't have money for good computer hardware, if you drive the price up then you miss the whole point.

I have many good things to say, but this most fundamental decision was misguided. I hope Valve is considering releasing a slower version of the headset with only the hardware required to stream wirelessly. At least they nailed the entry-enthusiast market that they're familiar with.
 

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