Steam Frame OLED reportedly in development with nearly three times the pixels per eye
Valve only recently launched the Steam Frame, its long-awaited standalone VR headset, months after initially showing it off earlier this year. However, the company may already be working on a successor with substantially better displays. According to Steam Frame Hub, references to an upgraded model have been discovered in publicly available Linux kernel source code.
The device, codenamed Plano, reportedly features Micro-OLED displays with a native resolution of 3,552 × 3,840 pixels per eye. For context, the existing Steam Frame uses two LCD panels with a resolution of 2,160 × 2,160 pixels each. The purported upgrade would offer nearly three times as many pixels per eye, alongside the superior contrast and black levels typically associated with OLED technology.
Interestingly, the reported display specifications are identical to those of the Samsung Galaxy XR, which also features 3,552 × 3,840 Micro-OLED panels operating at up to 90 Hz. Steam Frame Hub speculates that Valve could be sourcing the panels from Sony or Samsung, although there is no concrete evidence identifying a supplier
Interestingly, the reported display specifications are identical to those of the Samsung Galaxy XR, which also features 3,552 × 3,840 Micro-OLED panels operating at up to 90 Hz. Steam Frame Hub speculates that Valve could be sourcing the panels from Sony or Samsung, although there is no concrete evidence identifying a supplier.
However, the higher-resolution displays introduce some technical challenges. Plano reportedly retains the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor found in the existing Steam Frame. Due to the Adreno 750's display bandwidth limitations, the device currently defaults to a resolution of 1,776 × 1,920 pixels per eye, significantly below the panels’ native resolution. Valve has also experimented with a higher-quality mode running at 2,368 × 2,560 pixels.
To compensate, the company is reportedly developing a technique called foveated scaling. Unlike conventional foveated rendering, which allocates more rendering resources to the area a user is looking at, the new approach uses hardware within the display controller to scale individual portions of an image. This could allow the headset to deliver greater perceived sharpness around the user’s focal point without rendering the entire image at native resolution, thus saving on precious GPU compute.
Refresh rates are another potential limitation. The OLED panels reportedly support 90 Hz, with Valve experimenting with 120 Hz operation. By comparison, the existing Steam Frame supports refresh rates of up to 144 Hz, although its highest setting remains experimental. It is unclear whether Valve will overcome these limitations before the alleged OLED model enters production.
Of course, there is no guarantee that Plano will ever become a commercial product. Steam Frame Hub describes the code as incomplete and suggests that the headset is unlikely to arrive before late 2027, although even that is merely an estimate.
Pricing also remains a mystery. The current Steam Frame is already priced on the higher end at $1,059 for the 256 GB model, with its 1 TB counterpart costing $1,299. A move to higher-resolution Micro-OLED displays could make an upgraded version even more expensive.
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