Valve Steam Frame review: Solid standalone VR that's too little, too late

I won't waste too much time on older games — the Steam Frame plays Beat Saber, Superhot and Moss (RIP), plus all of the VR classics, exceptionally well. Games load faster than the Quest 3, and jumping back into them after taking off the headset is almost instantaneous. (The Frame is weaker when it comes to audio, though. More on that later.) What the Meta Quest can't do is play a slew of newer Steam VR titles, standard 2D Steam games and wirelessly stream reliably from your gaming PC. Valve really is trying to make the Steam Frame a multi-functional Steam Machine for your face.

Let's start with the game that matters the most to me: that revamped standalone version of Half-Life Alyx running directly on the Steam Frame. I thought it would be impossible for Valve to capture the sense of detail and immersion from the desktop version of Alyx, and I was surprised to find the company got very close to replicating everything I loved about the original.

Sure, it's noticeably less sharp, there are tons of jagged edges and textures look muddier than I remembered. But the Steam Frame version of Alyx still delivered a sense of awe when a building-sized strider, an enormous robotic arthropod, casually walked in front of me. I recall striders being one of the most memorable aspects of Half Life 2. But seeing one right in front of you in VR, where the sense of scale is truly lifelike, is another thing entirely.

Despite looking far worse overall, the Steam Frame's version of Alyx still feels like a premium VR experience. You can still interact with objects in the world — like using markers to write on windows, or feeding a pet headcrab with a nearby jar of food — and the environments still reward snooping around. Combat still feels great, as well. Shooting enemies still feels satisfying with the new controllers, and I still get a kick out of reloading guns manually by reaching behind me.

If you have a gaming rig, I'd still recommend streaming Half Life Alyx directly to the Steam Frame. The leap in visual quality makes the entire experience far more rewarding. But I can't deny that for people who've never had the gear to experience Alyx, the Steam Frame's standalone version could finally let them do so. (It sure would help if the Frame was significantly cheaper, though.)

As much as I'd like to see a micro-OLED display in the Steam Frame, its LCD pancake lenses are still very capable. They're close to the resolution of the Quest 3's pancake LCDs, and they're just as robust when it comes to displaying bold colors and fast-paced action. I had no trouble reading fine text inside of Half-Life Alyx, or within SteamOS itself (which literally just looks like Steam on PCs). Unfortunately, they can't touch the inky dark black levels and life-like contrast you get from micro-OLED screens.

I have more complaints lined up for the Frame's built-in speakers. They lack low-end almost entirely, which takes a lot of the fun out of playing Beat Saber and Pistol Whip. The speakers can still deliver a wide soundscape in Half-Life Alyx, but the lack of low-end oomph just makes them sound mediocre. They're a huge step down from the Valve Index's excellent near-field speakers, which sat right outside of your ears. I'm hoping Valve has some sort of premium audio options in the works to address the issue. The Steam Frame also lacks a headphone jack, so if you want to plug in better headphones, you have to use a USB-C adapter to connect to the back of the headset.

The sub-par sound definitely made playing through Hades 2 on the Steam Frame feel a lot less epic than on my gaming PC, but the headset made up for that by letting me scale the game's window as big as I'd like. I'm used to playing games on a 120-inch projector screen, but the Steam Frame can go well beyond that. If you want to feel like you're playing Hades 2 in the very front row of a movie theater, go with the gaming gods.

I also enjoyed playing a few hours of Control and Onimusha: Way of the Sword streamed from my gaming PC. Those titles are far too demanding for the Frame's mobile hardware, but thankfully Valve's bundled wireless dongle delivered a stable stream from my rig. You give up sharpness from playing those games on a typical PC monitor for the Frame's massive virtual scale, though I could see that being a solid compromise for anyone stuck in a small apartment or dorm room. Not everyone has the desk-space for a 39-inch ultrawide monitor, after all.

As for battery life, the Steam Frame lasts between two hours for video streaming and light gaming, or just under 90 minutes for intensive experiences like Half-Life Alyx. Thankfully, it's easy to use while having a charging USB-C charging cable plugged into the rear battery pack, though that does defeat the purpose of having a standalone headset.