By The Steam Frame launched just a month ago, and while it earned its spot as one of the best PCVR headsets available, one weak point kept coming up: its lenses weren’t quite up to the quality of the competition. Now, according to datamined source code, Valve might already be working on a mid-generation refresh with OLED optics.
Steam Frame (Credits: IGN)
The “Plano” Codename
SteamFrameHub, digging through the Steam Frame kernel source code, found references to a different Steam Frame variant with OLED optics, codenamed “Plano.” If real, the Plano headset would keep largely the same specs as the existing Steam Frame — just with OLED panels offering a per-eye resolution of 3,552×3,840, a big leap from the current 2,160×2,160 pancake lenses.
A higher-resolution OLED display would do wonders for the Steam Frame, especially for anyone using it for PCVR rather than standalone play. The leaked optic specs line up closely with the lenses in the Samsung Galaxy XR headset, which starts at around $1,799.
Don’t Hold Your Breath
Before you get excited, there’s a catch: price. Better lenses mean a much higher price tag, and the Galaxy XR launched before the ongoing RAM crisis kicked off — a Plano model matching those specs would likely cost even more now.
Timing is another question. Valve is still working through the reservation list and waitlist for the original Steam Frame, and both it and the Steam Machine remain completely sold out. An OLED refresh probably won’t arrive for quite a long time. And the bigger mystery remains: will it come before Valve finds the perfect chipset for a Steam Deck 2? With Valve, we’ll simply have to wait and see.
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Source: IGN — read the full story there.
