Valve boosts Steam Frame charging from 8W to over 40W in testing

Valve has released SteamOS 0.3.0 for Steam Frame, and one of the main changes addresses a complaint that appeared repeatedly in early reviews: charging speed. The official changelog says the headset now supports “substantially faster charging” while powered off or sleeping.

Slow charging was difficult to ignore because Steam Frame also has relatively short battery life when running games locally. Ars Technica measured around 1.5 hours in Performance mode, while other testing reported charging times approaching three hours. Slow charging was also frequently discussed by early users, with some describing it as one of the headset’s biggest drawbacks.

Charging can now reach 42W

The improvement appears to go beyond Valve’s short changelog description. The Verge tested SteamOS 0.3.0 and reports that a depleted Steam Frame previously started charging at around 8W and peaked at 27W. After the update, the same headset reportedly starts at around 19 to 21W and can reach up to 42W while a game is running. So even though the changelog doesn’t say it, the speed was also improved when it was being used.

In other words, the updated charging behavior provides enough power to start using a depleted Steam Frame immediately while it remains connected to the charger. Valve officially recommends a 45W or higher USB-C charger, although the power supply is sold separately. We covered the headset’s $1,059 launch price and charging requirements earlier this week.

SteamOS 0.3.0 brings more fixes

Charging is only one part of SteamOS 0.3.0. Valve has also improved controller tracking while haptics are active, system stability under high load and fixed the garbled microphone audio bug. Motion smoothing behavior in Half-Life: Alyx has been adjusted as well, while a per-game setting that forces motion smoothing to remain enabled should now work correctly.

The developer-side changes include Vulkan layer fixes for broader game compatibility and several Mesa graphics performance improvements. Valve has also changed its Steam Frame Playable criteria so games can qualify at any resolution instead of requiring 1440p. SteamOS 0.3.0 is available now for Steam Frame users.

SteamOS 0.3.0 (for Steam Frame) has just been released for all users with the following changes:

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)