PC gamers have almost too many options when it comes to titles to play, which is a great problem to have. With decades of games to choose from (and the first port of call for most indie titles, too), the options are endless. You also get the perks of (nearly always flawless) backward compatibility and console-beating graphical performance — if you've got the coin for it when you’re building your perfect kit or picking up a high-powered gaming laptop.
The whole idea of what a gaming PC is and where you can play it is shifting, too, with the rise of handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck. We've tried to be broad with our recommendations here on purpose; here are the best PC games you can play right now.
I can recall my experience strapping on a virtual reality headset for the first time. It promised me a new world experience, but the immersive presence was nothing more than stained eyes and a throbbing head. VR headsets have come a long way since then, and now the tech has advanced into a more comfortable and untethered domain. It has advanced beyond requiring cables and now connects to Steam wirelessly. Yes, this is made possible by the Steam Frame: a standalone VR headset that Valve Corporation has just announced silently on its website.
The new Steam Frame is designed to seamlessly connect with both PC and Steam games. You can also play games locally on the VR headset, thanks to an ARM chip onboard. After making its presence felt in the living room gaming scene, the American gaming giant, already recognized for its handheld Steam Deck, is now entering the immersive virtual reality gaming with the Steam Frame, which has been announced alongside the company’s gaming console, called the Steam Machine, and the Steam Controller featuring a cleaner design and a joystick.
While the cube-shaped Steam Machine gaming console is created to take on the market dominated by the PlayStation 5 and Xbox. To that accord, it is built compact, but it does not compromise power, which is assured by the custom AMD Zen 4 CPU, RDNA 3 GPU paired with Linux-based SteamOS. We have a detailed report on the gaming console here. Coming back to the Steam Frame, let’s try and understand what the VR headset entails.
The first standalone, wireless Steam VR headset comes with its own hand controller and is designed to handle your entire Steam game library. Whether it’s an immersive VR or no VR game, the standalone headset supports both. Unlike those initial headsets, Steam Frame is designed with comfort and ease of use in mind, and it is powered by an ARM processor for local emulation of PC games as well. For streaming games directly from the computer, Valve provides a 6GHz wireless dongle, which it claims provides low latency and high bandwidth to ensure a smooth game experience.
The headset draws its processing power from a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip onboard, which is paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM. It is available in two storage variants: 256GB or 1TB of UFS internal storage, which can be expanded using a microSD card. The Steam Frame features a rechargeable 21.6Whr battery with 45W fast charging support, and the device runs on SteamOS 3.
Starting off with the Steam Frame is as easy as lifting it up, strapping it around the head, and you’re right into the game. No setup, no wires required. The four high-res monochrome cameras are straight at tracking the headset and its controller, while the 2160 x 2160 LCD panels, one for each eye, with support for up to 144 Hz refresh rate make gameplay smooth and immersive. Thin and light custom pancake lenses provide up to 110 degrees FOV while infrared LEDs on the outside ensure the headset’s tracking right in all light conditions, even in a dark bedroom (letting you play quietly while your partner sleeps undisturbed).
The pricing structure of the Steam Frame VR headset remains unconfirmed at the time of writing, but rumors suggest a tentative $1,000 tag for it. What we know for certain is that the headset will ship in Spring 2026 with a detachable head strap featuring integrated dual-speakers, a battery that keeps it going for up to 40 hours, and its charging port. The 440g headset will support dual-band Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 for connectivity. One of the biggest selling points of the Steam Frame could be the Steam Frame developer kit program that Valve is offering developers to bring their Android apps to Steam as well.
Living room gaming has always meant choosing between the simplicity of consoles and the raw power of PCs. Consoles offer plug-and-play convenience with hardware that fits neatly under your TV, but you’re locked into their ecosystems and performance limits. Gaming PCs deliver the horsepower and flexibility, but they’re often noisy, bulky, and require enough desk space to house a small village. Valve’s original Steam Machine experiment tried bridging this gap back in 2015, but awkward controllers and limited adoption meant the idea fizzled out before it could catch on.
Now Valve is trying again, and this time the pieces actually fit together. The new Steam Machine and Steam Controller arrive in early 2026 as part of a broader hardware ecosystem that includes the Steam Deck and Steam Frame VR headset. These aren’t just updated versions of old ideas; they’re built on years of learning from the Steam Deck’s success, with designs that finally deliver on the promise of powerful, flexible PC gaming in a package your living room won’t reject.
The Steam Machine packs desktop-class gaming into a cube that’s roughly six inches on each side. The matte black enclosure features a magnetically swappable front faceplate and a customizable LED strip that displays system status, download progress, or whatever color gradient suits your mood. It’s a minimalist design that hides pretty impressive hardware, including a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU and RDNA3 GPU capable of 4K gaming at 60fps with FSR enabled. Valve claims it’s over six times more powerful than the Steam Deck, which should handle most AAA titles without breaking a sweat.
Inside, you get 16GB of DDR5 RAM plus 8GB of dedicated VRAM, with storage options of either 512GB or 2TB NVMe SSDs. Both models include microSD expansion if you need even more space. The internal power supply means no bulky external brick cluttering your entertainment center, and the whole thing runs whisper-quiet even under load. Valve designed the cooling system to handle demanding games without turning your living room into a wind tunnel, which is a thoughtful touch for something meant to sit in plain sight.
The I/O situation is refreshingly generous. You get DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 outputs for connecting to TVs or monitors, with support for resolutions up to 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 240Hz, depending on which port you use. There are five USB ports total, split between the front and back, plus Gigabit Ethernet and Wi-Fi 6E for connectivity. The Steam Machine also has a built-in wireless adapter that pairs directly with up to four Steam Controllers, letting you wake the system from your couch without fumbling for a keyboard.
Of course, the Steam Machine runs SteamOS, the same Linux-based operating system that powers the Steam Deck. The interface is designed for controllers rather than mice, with fast suspend and resume that works like a console. That said, it’s still a PC underneath, so you can install whatever apps or operating systems you want. Valve isn’t locking you into anything, which feels like a rare bit of freedom in hardware that’s otherwise pretty locked down these days.
Steam Controller
The new Steam Controller takes everything Valve learned from the Steam Deck’s controls and packages it into a standalone gamepad. The layout is familiar if you’ve used a Steam Deck, with two full-size magnetic thumbsticks, dual square trackpads, and all the standard buttons you’d expect. The thumbsticks use TMR technology for better durability and responsiveness, and they support capacitive touch for enabling motion controls. The trackpads are pressure-sensitive and include haptic feedback, making them viable for games that normally require a mouse.
What sets this controller apart are the extras. Four assignable grip buttons sit on the back, letting you map additional controls without taking your thumbs off the sticks or pads. There’s also a feature Valve calls Grip Sense, which uses capacitive sensors along the handles to enable gyro aiming when you hold the controller and disable it when you let go. It’s a small detail that makes aiming in shooters feel more natural without requiring you to toggle a button every time you want precision.
The controller connects via a dedicated wireless puck that doubles as a magnetic charging dock. The puck uses a 2.4GHz connection with about 8ms latency, which is noticeably faster than Bluetooth and feels snappy during gameplay. You can also connect via Bluetooth or USB-C if you prefer, and the 8.39Wh battery is rated for over 35 hours of play. One puck can handle up to four controllers, which makes local multiplayer setups pretty straightforward.
Customization runs deep thanks to Steam Input, which lets you remap every button, adjust sensitivity, and tweak haptics to your liking. Community configurations are available from day one, so you can load presets for thousands of games or build your own and share them. The controller also works across Valve’s entire ecosystem, from PCs and laptops to Steam Deck and the new Steam Machine, with infrared LEDs that let the Steam Frame VR headset track it for mixed-reality gameplay.
Valve’s hardware lineup is expanding into a proper ecosystem rather than just scattered experiments. The Steam Machine and Steam Controller arrive as the cornerstones of that vision, offering power and flexibility without forcing you to choose between the simplicity of consoles and the openness of PCs. Whether that’s enough to pull gamers off the couch and away from their PlayStations remains to be seen, but the pieces are finally in place.
The Nintendo Switch may have rebooted the whole handheld gaming craze, but it was the Steam Deck that brought that fever to PCs. It was a strange device from a company famed for its game distribution platform but notorious for its spectacular Steam Machine failure. The doubt was further increased by Valve’s decision to install its own Linux-based Steam OS on the handheld PC instead of a more gaming-ready Windows. That’s why it came as a bit of a surprise that the Steam Deck was a resounding success, enough for major manufacturers like Acer, Lenovo, and now MSI to follow suit. Although not a giant, AYANEO has been churning out handheld gaming PCs for quite a while now, and it now has its sights on challenging the one that started it all with what is the world’s second-ever Steam OS handheld gaming PC.
The Steam Deck was a rather odd and ambitious product. It was huge, especially compared to the lightweight and slim Nintendo Switch. It ran the Linux operating system, which meant some games from Steam’s own library might not even run on it. It partnered with AMD for a custom mobile chip that no one has heard of, let alone tested for gaming. And it launched with a $349 price tag, at least for the eMMC storage model, which sounded too good to be true. By all accounts, it would have been yet another failure like the Steam OS consoles Valve tried to turn into a business, and yet the Steam Deck will now forever be remembered as the one that started it all.
Although major PC makers like Acer and Lenovo weren’t quick to jump on the trend, other brands were already launching similar devices every year, sometimes even more than once a year. GPD, which started out with Android gaming handhelds, breached that market even before the Steam Deck came to be. AYANEO followed not long after and now has half a dozen models under its name with different designs and approaches to gaming. Of these, the AYANEO NEXT from 2022 was its flagship product, and it’s now following it up with a “Lite” version that is trying to beat Steam at its own game.
The company is playing coy with many of the device’s specs, revealing only its 7-inch 800p display and 47Wh battery which are exactly the same as the existing AYANEO NEXT. The design looks exactly similar as well, down to the color options. The only real difference is that it would be running that Linux-based Steam OS, which is actually quite a critical change. That means that software features will be worlds apart once you step outside the Steam interface for anything other than gaming. Given the popularity of the Steam Deck, you can at least be sure you’ll find solutions for most of the tasks and problems you might encounter, at least when it comes to software compatibility.
The AYANEO NEXT Lite and the Steam Deck, however, are also worlds apart because of the hardware. Valve has opted to keep its handheld PC quite modest and has yet to even talk about a Steam Deck 2. If its older Windows-toting sibling is to be considered, then the AYANEO NEXT Lite will house more recent, more powerful, more battery-hungry, and more expensive specs. That doesn’t bode well for the price, though AYANEO assures that it will be cost-effective, but that could still mean hundreds of dollars more than what the Steam Desk asks for.
The Nintendo Switch may have rebooted the whole handheld gaming craze, but it was the Steam Deck that brought that fever to PCs. It was a strange device from a company famed for its game distribution platform but notorious for its spectacular Steam Machine failure. The doubt was further increased by Valve’s decision to install its own Linux-based Steam OS on the handheld PC instead of a more gaming-ready Windows. That’s why it came as a bit of a surprise that the Steam Deck was a resounding success, enough for major manufacturers like Acer, Lenovo, and now MSI to follow suit. Although not a giant, AYANEO has been churning out handheld gaming PCs for quite a while now, and it now has its sights on challenging the one that started it all with what is the world’s second-ever Steam OS handheld gaming PC.
The Steam Deck was a rather odd and ambitious product. It was huge, especially compared to the lightweight and slim Nintendo Switch. It ran the Linux operating system, which meant some games from Steam’s own library might not even run on it. It partnered with AMD for a custom mobile chip that no one has heard of, let alone tested for gaming. And it launched with a $349 price tag, at least for the eMMC storage model, which sounded too good to be true. By all accounts, it would have been yet another failure like the Steam OS consoles Valve tried to turn into a business, and yet the Steam Deck will now forever be remembered as the one that started it all.
Although major PC makers like Acer and Lenovo weren’t quick to jump on the trend, other brands were already launching similar devices every year, sometimes even more than once a year. GPD, which started out with Android gaming handhelds, breached that market even before the Steam Deck came to be. AYANEO followed not long after and now has half a dozen models under its name with different designs and approaches to gaming. Of these, the AYANEO NEXT from 2022 was its flagship product, and it’s now following it up with a “Lite” version that is trying to beat Steam at its own game.
The company is playing coy with many of the device’s specs, revealing only its 7-inch 800p display and 47Wh battery which are exactly the same as the existing AYANEO NEXT. The design looks exactly similar as well, down to the color options. The only real difference is that it would be running that Linux-based Steam OS, which is actually quite a critical change. That means that software features will be worlds apart once you step outside the Steam interface for anything other than gaming. Given the popularity of the Steam Deck, you can at least be sure you’ll find solutions for most of the tasks and problems you might encounter, at least when it comes to software compatibility.
The AYANEO NEXT Lite and the Steam Deck, however, are also worlds apart because of the hardware. Valve has opted to keep its handheld PC quite modest and has yet to even talk about a Steam Deck 2. If its older Windows-toting sibling is to be considered, then the AYANEO NEXT Lite will house more recent, more powerful, more battery-hungry, and more expensive specs. That doesn’t bode well for the price, though AYANEO assures that it will be cost-effective, but that could still mean hundreds of dollars more than what the Steam Desk asks for.
