3 minute read

Valve now sells two portable gaming devices: the Steam Deck, a handheld PC, and the Steam Frame, a standalone VR headset. Both run SteamOS and use your Steam library, but they answer different questions. The Deck asks whether you want PC games in your hands. The Frame asks whether you want to wear them.

Specs at a glance

  Steam Frame Steam Deck OLED
Chip Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 6nm AMD APU, Zen 2 CPU, RDNA 2 GPU
RAM 16GB LPDDR5X 16GB LPDDR5
Storage 256GB or 1TB UFS, microSD 512GB or 1TB NVMe, microSD
Display 2160 x 2160 LCD per eye, 72 to 144Hz 7.4-inch HDR OLED, 1280 x 800, up to 90Hz
OS SteamOS 3 SteamOS 3
Wireless Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Battery 21.6Wh 50Whr
Weight 440g with headstrap About 640g
Launch September 14, 2026 (reservations) November 16, 2023

Frame figures come from Valve’s Steam Frame page, except weight, which comes from UploadVR’s coverage of Valve’s announcement. Deck figures come from Valve’s Steam Deck tech specs. The Deck OLED’s November 16, 2023 release date is confirmed by Yahoo Tech and ETCentric.

Price

Steam Frame: $1,059 for 256GB and $1,299 for 1TB, per Valve. The kit includes the Steam Frame Controllers, a wireless adapter and Half-Life: Alyx. It does not include a power supply, and Valve says any 45W or higher USB-C charger works, including a Steam Deck charger. The Frame is sold through a reservation queue, so availability depends on when your purchase email arrives.

Steam Deck OLED: $789 for 512GB and $949 for 1TB. Tom’s Hardware reported the increase in May 2026, up from the launch prices of $549 and $649. Valve’s OLED page lists a carrying case with the Deck.

Performance

The Frame’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 drives two 2160 x 2160 panels at up to 144Hz, which Valve lists as an experimental setting. Valve’s developer documentation says it runs Windows games through Proton, x86 games through FEX and Android games through Lepton. For PC VR, the headset streams from a PC. Valve’s support guide, as reported by Mixed, says adapter streaming has full support on Windows only for now.

The Deck’s AMD chip runs PC games on the device itself at 1280 x 800. It is a handheld and not a VR device, so VR content is out of scope for it.

Portability

The Frame is worn. Its total weight is 440g with the headstrap, according to UploadVR, which puts the core module alone at 185g. Its 21.6Wh battery is smaller than the Deck’s 50Whr one. The sources checked do not give a Frame runtime, so battery capacity is the only comparison made here.

The Deck is held. It weighs about 640g, and Valve rates its 50Whr battery at 3 to 12 hours of gameplay depending on the game.

Ecosystem

Both devices use Steam. Valve rates games for the Frame on a Great on Frame page, the way Deck Verified works for the handheld. Half-Life: Alyx comes with the Frame, and UploadVR reports a native ARM build that runs on the headset without a PC. The Deck runs Windows games through Proton.

Which one fits

Choose the Steam Frame if you want VR with your Steam library and have a Windows PC for streaming demanding SteamVR games, and you accept the $1,059 starting price and the reservation queue.

Choose the Steam Deck OLED if you want your Steam library in handheld form and do not need VR. It starts at $789.

The two devices target different uses, so the comparison is mostly a question of which use you want.

Specs and prices checked October 15, 2026. The Frame’s weight and software details were re-checked on October 21, 2026 against UploadVR and Valve’s developer documentation.

Sources:

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