Valve Steam Frame VR Gaming Headset Announced With Eye-Tracking Cameras: Availability, Specifications

Steam Frame virtual reality gaming headset was unveiled by Valve on Wednesday as part of its latest hardware lineup. The company presently sells the Steam Deck, a handheld gaming console, as its only hardware product. However, soon the tech firm will also start offering a new gaming console, dubbed the Steam Machine, and the Steam Controller, along with the new Steam Frame. While the exact launch date has yet to be announced, the company has announced that its new hardware lineup will be available next year.

Steam Frame Launch Timeline, Specifications, Design

The maker of the online games marketplace, Valve, unveiled its new hardware products, including the Steam Frame VR gaming headset, via its website. The tech firm has also announced that the wearable will go on sale in early 2026. The headset will be offered in at least two storage configurations, the base option featuring 256GB of storage and the top-of-the-line variant offering 1TB of storage. However, Valve has revealed the technical specifications, onboard sensors, features, and other details about the Steam Frame.

Powering the new Steam Frame will be Qualcomm's 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1TB of UFS internal storage, which can be expanded via a microSD card. It will run on SteamOS 3. The Steam Frame will pack a rechargeable 21.6Whr battery with 45W fast charging support via a USB 2.0 Type-C port on the back of the headband.

It will ship with a detachable headstrap, which will feature an integrated dual-speaker setup and the battery. The Steam Frame will feature two LCD screens with a 2,160x2,160 pixel resolution for each eye and a refresh rate of up to 144Hz. It will get “custom pancake lenses” with integrated glass and non-glass optical elements, offering up to a 110-degree field-of-view.

The Steam Frame will feature four outward-facing monochrome cameras for controller and headset tracking. Additionally, it will be equipped with two eye-tracking cameras on the inside. It will also support monochrome passthrough mode, which will allow the wearers to view their surroundings with superimposed VR elements.

In terms of design, the Steam Frame will get an interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment scroll on top, the volume controllers on the left, and an AUX button and power button on the right side of the headset.

For connectivity, the Steam Frame will support dual-band Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. It will also be equipped with a dual-microphone array. It would measure 175x95x110mm in dimensions, and weigh about 440g including the headstrap. The Steam Frame will also come with two controllers, one for each hand, which will support six-DOF tracking. The controllers will also pack one replaceable battery each, offering up to 40 hours of battery life. They will also come with the ABXY button layout.