The Steam Frame is a new virtual reality headset from Valve, and it appears to solve one of the biggest problems plaguing many other VR headsets.

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.

While it more or less matches the Quest 3 in resolution, optics, and horizontal field of view, it has a better chip, more RAM, and stronger Wi-Fi support. On the flip side, the Quest 3's colour pass-through is a touch above Valve's mono one. On paper, it's what you'd expect from a standalone VR headset going into 2026.

Valve’s streaming-focused VR headset has some cool tricks but a few tradeoffs.

Valve is discontinuing production of its PC VR headset Index and simultaneously confirms that no in-house VR games are in development – not even a new Alyx.

The company also teased the Steam Frame, a follow-up to the Valve Index VR headset, along with an updated Steam Controller.