The Steam Frame headset and new controller look very impressive

In addition to the new Steam Machine home console/PC, Valve also released a huge update to the Steam Controller and a new VR headset called Steam Frame.

All new hardware will be released in 2026, and the company has not yet announced pricing.

Steam frame

The new headset allows you to play both 2D PC games and 3D VR games; however, as you might have guessed, you can't run them natively, and instead this device is made to stream games from your existing PC.

To achieve this, Valve created a new form of streaming technology called Foveated Streaming, which, like foveated rendering, uses eye tracking to ensure that everything you look at is sharp and the rest of the image is less sharp.

The headset also comes with a new USB dongle that plugs into your computer and provides a dedicated 6GHz connection between the headset and your computer to ensure there's nothing else connected on the same network that you need to stream games to the headset. The Steam Frame itself is also designed with this principle in mind. It has two antennas: one for streaming games from your computer and the other for connecting to Wi-Fi.

There are also new Steam VR controllers.

However, the headset still houses a PC with a Snapdragon 8-series processor and 8GB of RAM, so some games will be playable directly on the headset, but it's unclear how many or how well the ARM chip will run games on two 4K displays inches from your eyes.

Inside the headset there is an LCD screen with a resolution of 2160 x 2160 for each eye, supporting a refresh rate of 72-144 Hz. The headset also has built-in speakers so you can play without headphones. There are four cameras outside the frame that track the controller and hands, so you don't have to set up base stations like you did with previous Valve VR headsets. The company says these new cameras will work even in the dark.

You can check all characteristics on the Steam websitebut notably, it will have a MicroSD card slot, new Steam VR controllers, 45W USB-C fast charging, and more.

Steam controller

While we're still waiting on prices for all of Valve's new hardware, I'll be keeping a close eye on the Steam Controller.

This evolution of the company's old gamepad takes the large squares of the touchpad from the Steam Deck and allows it to fit seamlessly into a handheld controller. The new model has two joysticks like the PS5 controller, but still retains the Xbox A, B, X, Y button layout.

On top of that, the controller comes with a small charging adapter/base that both acts as a wireless transmitter for your controller and allows you to magnetically plug it in after you're done playing for charging. However, you can still use the controller via Bluetooth or a wired connection if you prefer.

Like the joysticks in the new Steam Frame controllers, the gamepad uses magnetic joysticks, which should improve the devices' long-term reliability by avoiding stick drift. The regular controller also has HD rumble and gyroscopic control to provide more advanced haptic feedback. What's nice about the gyro is that you have to grab the controller and press the two capacitive buttons on the bottom to activate it so you can play without having to constantly turn it on.

You can also map these two gyro control areas to another button if you don't want to use the tilt controls. Below are four more custom buttons that you can remap.

Valve says the new controller can connect to any device running Steam or Steam Link, which means virtually any computer and phone, and even some smart TV boxes like the Nvidia Shield or Apple TV. The specs page states that Bluetooth 4.2 is the minimum compatibility requirement, but Bluetooth 5 is recommended.

Source: Steam