Who is the Steam Frame For? - DTNS Weekend

Jason Howell (0:08)

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Daily Tech News Show Weekend Edition brought to you by me, Jason Howell. Also, my dog, Bronson, is wandering around. You might see his tail if you're watching the video version. This is gratefully provided to you because you support this show. So thank you for doing that. Today, we're going to be talking about virtual reality, and specifically the release of the anticipated Steam Frame VR headset. This is not an inexpensive VR headset. It is right around $1,060, $1,059 if you want to be exact, but we'll go ahead and round it up just because it's a little friendlier. So it's not necessarily cheap like some of the more mainstream devices, like your MetaQuest and everything. That's like, I don't know, $700 less expensive somewhere in that region.

So what is it good at? Where does VR even stand in 2026? That's what we're going to talk about today. And joining me to do that is Scott Stein, CNET editor at large. Good to see you, Scott.

Scott Stein (1:15)

Hey, good to see you too, Jason. I'm on the road because I'm looking at Snap Specs stuff tonight. So more to come on that.

But that's in LA and then MediConnect coming up. So it's a big, there's a lot of glasses, headsets, stuff happening.

Jason Howell (1:31)

Tell me about it.

Probably like six months ago, I was like, you know what? I'm going to lean into glasses with my YouTube channel and some of the other coverage that I'm doing on the other shows. And it's like I put that energy out there. And now I've just got this mountain of glasses next to me. And I don't have enough time to get to them all because everybody's got different glasses, not just VR, which is what we're going to talk about predominantly here, but smart glasses. I mean, glasses are just a big deal in 2026, it seems. And not all positive. Some of it's negative too.

Scott Stein (2:06)

A lot of it has been going negative. And it's kind of like both asking for more players in the space to help define it out. And it's earlier than, most people haven't even really used the tech. So it's like early fears of the tech, as well as legitimate concerns about what's going on. And it's all flying around, and there's a million different types of devices too.

Jason Howell (2:28)

A million different types with cameras without, I mean, I've got the Halliday G2 are the ones that I'm working on right now. Do the frames fit your face? There's a whole other thing. Do they have cameras? No.

Audio, all the things. But what we're going to be talking about today, I mean, primarily anyways, I mean, we can get to those other things. I'm fascinated by it all. But is the frame and you, well, I think you even have it in your hot little hands over there. There is the Steam Frame.

Scott Stein (2:57)

This is the Steam Frame all kitted out. This is like with the accessories. This head strap is extra. This is a modular color camera that you can get for $149.

Jason Howell (3:09)

Oh, it just snaps right on or snaps right off. Yeah. Wow.

Scott Stein (3:14)

This is one of the two modular ports on the Steam Frame. There's a little slot in there. And this thing, Arc Taurus Vision, goes in there and gives it the color camera. So it's interesting. Plus, this whole thing comes off. The whole, I'm not going to detach it now, but this part comes off from here. And there's a little plug-in thing that you could put in a different type of head strap and battery. And I'm sure there will be other, there's another option from Valve coming. But the whole thing is designed to be modular. It's one of the interesting things about this little, little headset curiosity that I've been reviewing.

Jason Howell (3:48)

Okay.

So first of all, everyone should go to CNET. You have a written review for the headset. You also have a video review. We were talking before we hit record on how, it's like when you do reviews at CNET nowadays, and I guess it was this way when I was working there too. It's like twice the work because you got to do the written thing, and then you got to go to a new team and do the video thing. So they keep you busy, but you gave it a seven out of 10 I guess we'll just kind of start right there. Could be better, could be worse. I guess, why don't we start there? What is at the end of the day, kind of the high level, what drives the seven out of 10, if you had to summarize?