Steam Frame Specs Face Off Against Vision Pro And Quest 3

The headset wars just got sexy.

It’s the Steam Frame from Valve, taking to the ring against Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s Quest 3 with a spec sheet squarely aimed at gamers and PC enthusiasts. One pushes cloudless, local power; another PC-grade streaming; the third mass-market mixed reality. Here’s how the hardware compares in the important ways.

Display resolution, refresh rates, and optics compared

Resolution drives clarity. Apple Vision Pro is the highest raw pixel winner at 3,660 × 3,200 per eye, making it equivalent to a square 11.7MP per eye—or roughly a total of about 23MP with two micro‑OLEDs. Steam Frame has 2,160 × 2,160 per eye (about 4.7MP per eye), and Meta Quest 3 delivers 2,064 × 2,208 per eye (~4.6MP each). In the real world, Apple’s denser panel results in sharper text and finer UI elements, which is advantageous for productivity and high‑fidelity video.

And, as far as you’re concerned: a variable refresh rate allows for peace of mind. Vision Pro offers 90/96/100/120 Hz modes, Quest 3 can show 72/90/120 Hz, and Steam Frame is also expandable from 72 to 120 Hz. You can cut perceived blur in fast games with higher refresh, but that also taxes thermals and battery. Field of view seems comparable: Quest 3 claims 110° horizontal and 96° vertical; Steam Frame aims for up to 110°; Vision Pro hangs around ~100°.

Therein lies the line in the sand for color passthrough in mixed reality. Apple and Meta offer full‑color passthrough for spatial apps and MR games, whereas Valve’s Steam Frame monochrome cameras say VR‑first. Valve states that there is a user‑accessible front expansion port, implying possible future add‑ons to expand its capabilities.

Chips, memory, and storage across Vision Pro, Quest 3, Steam Frame

Beneath the hood, Vision Pro squares up to the M5 chip with 16GB of unified memory, so the “spatial computer” pitch remains for heavy multitasking and high‑bitrate video. The Meta Quest 3 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 along with 8GB of RAM; Qualcomm promises big GPU gains over the previous XR2, which will help render richer scenes at faster frame rates. The engine room of the Steam Frame is a 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with 16GB LPDDR5X, which is a mobile flagship SoC that’s overpowered for UI and decoding but good enough for native VR—where the trick comes in, though, is Valve’s streaming‑first design.

Storage reveals who is anticipating local apps. Vision Pro is now offered in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB tiers. Quest 3 ships in SKUs up to 512GB for native games. Steam Frame has 256GB or 1TB UFS with a microSD slot, but if you’re streaming your PC library, local storage urgency eases up. Still, fast UFS and lots of RAM make for good texture streaming and video decoding during high‑refresh sessions.

Battery capacity, real-world runtimes, and thermals

Battery capacity is also a good estimate for the length of a session. The Steam Frame has a 21.6Wh pack, with the Quest 3 listed at 19.44Wh; Apple quotes up to 2.5 hours of “general use” or up to three hours of video through its external battery pack. Real‑world playtime will differ depending on refresh rate and passthrough usage. Apple’s tethered battery helps take weight off the face, which creates a better sense of balance; all‑in‑one headsets can’t do that while still eliminating cables.

Eye tracking, hand input, and mixed reality capabilities

Eye tracking comes standard on Vision Pro and Steam Frame, while it is not available on Quest 3. Eye tracking provides the potential for foveated rendering and UI interactions without requiring a hand‑held controller and is uniquely enabled as a building block for accessibility solutions and future social presence features. The input varies: Vision Pro is initially eye‑hand‑voice‑centric; Quest 3 launches with Touch controllers and strong hand tracking; Valve teases broad compatibility with Steam hardware, including controllers, which suggests it’ll be relatively easy to get PC‑style inputs working.

With color passthrough available on Apple and Meta, room‑aware apps and mixed reality gameplay can be developed by MR creators. Steam Frame’s monochrome passthrough means it remains focused on delivering fully immersive VR—great for sim racers and flight fans who want depth and speed, less ideal in AR‑heavy use cases.

Game libraries, streaming, and performance differences

Here’s where Valve plays a trump card. Steam Frame is set to stream all of your Steam library, not just native VR games but also standard PC releases in a virtual theatre. That’s a big head start for the day‑one content catalog. PC VR streaming is already possible over robust Wi‑Fi 6E/7 connections, as seen with Air Link and Steam Link; a native, headset‑tailored pipeline should further reduce friction.

Meta’s store is the most mature in consumer VR gaming, fueled by years of developer investment and Qualcomm’s XR‑focused optimizations. XR2 Gen 2 brings significant GPU uplift, which devs are leveraging to push higher graphics fidelity at 90–120 Hz. Apple Vision Pro, though impressively capable, remains tilted heavily toward productivity, cinema, and spatial apps—its gaming library is fairly slim (even if Apple Arcade ports and game streaming clients can plug some of those holes).

Price, value, and positioning for these three headsets

Vision Pro is $3,499 with high‑quality components and an enterprise‑friendly feature set. Quest 3 is $499.99 — still the best deal for standalone mixed reality. Valve has not yet announced a price for the Steam Frame, though it has guided to “under $1,000,” positioning it as a high‑end VR device that’s still wildly cheaper than Apple and targeted at the PC gamers who already own a decent rig.

Early verdict: which headset fits your use case best

For pure gaming, the mix of eye tracking, high refresh targets, and direct access to your Steam library makes the most sense on paper for Steam Frame — at least if you have a beefy PC and strong home network.

Quest 3 continues to be a mixed reality all‑rounder at an unbeatable price and with an extensive native catalog. Vision Pro remains ahead in terms of display fidelity and the glossiness of spatial computing. Different headsets, different bets — choose by the ecosystem you expect to inhabit.