Having launched though the same system of reservations and waitlists as the Steam Machine, the Steam Frame is still navigating that inscrutable void betixt “on sale” and “actually out.” Nevertheless, it’s had its first software update, SteamOS 0.3.0, which brings – among other technical tidbits – a microphone bug fix, smoother controller tracking, and “substantially faster” charging to the VR headset. Yeah, nice one Valve. Would have been useful to have that last one when reviewing the thing on a deadline but whatever.
Bitterness aside, battery longevity is not one of the Frame’s strong suits – play Half-Life: Alyx in the headset’s signature standalone mode and it’ll conk out from full after an hour. Faster recharging, even just when the Frame is off or sleeping, should go a ways towards easing that pain point. Conversely, I can’t say I’ve encountered the “garbled audio” microphone bug myself, though am now curious as to how it sounded – I like to think it resembled the deep, underwater warbling of the Board in Control, though that might just be recency bias.
Here’s the full patch notes:
General
- Substantially faster charging while unit is off / sleeping
- Improved controller tracking while haptics are active
- Improved system stability and reliability under high load
- Fixed “garbled audio” microphone bug
UX
- Fixed per-app Motion Smoothing -> “Force Always-On” setting (was getting ignored)
- Improved motion smoothing behavior in Alyx
- Added VR Settings control for “Game dimming when dashboard is visible”
- VR Settings -> Play Area no longer auto-shows bounds
Developer
- Change Playable performance criteria to allow any resolution (was: 1440p)
- Vulkan layer fixes for increased game compatibility
- Multiple improvements to overall system / OS performance
- Multiple improvements to graphics performance (Mesa)
Valve have told us, numerous times, that they plan to continue updating and expanding the featuresets of their 2026 hardware output, much like how the Steam Deck got a bunch of added tools and tricks after it launched in 2022. And, in fact, continues to receive them today, at least by virtue of sharing an operating system with the newer Steam Machine. The Frame also runs SteamOS, and a few of its own game compatibility aids besides, though as a VR headset will naturally require a more specialised approach to future enhancements.