In an otherwise repairable device, the cooling fan is hard to reach.
Although the Steam Frame is too expensive and late to the party to bring the masses into VR, it does a lot of things right. That includes its repairability. But iFixit’s teardown flagged one component that isn’t easy enough to reach: the cooling fan.
The problem? That fan is buried deep inside the headset. To get to it, you have to snake past the optical assemblies, making your way through a dense jungle of thermal hardware, cables and other components. While the fan and heat pipe are separate (a good thing), getting there in the first place is more of a problem.
That’s a lot of disassembly for a part that may need cleaning over time. After all, fans accumulate dust, and they eventually wear out. Burying one this deep makes the Steam Frame a harder repair than it otherwise might have been.
A blemish on an otherwise smooth repair path
Fortunately, repairs elsewhere are a much more encouraging story. The Steam Frame’s head strap detachesbattery pack without messing with the displays. In a win for hygiene, the sweat-absorbing parts are replaceable, including the nose bridge and face and headrest cushions
The lenses attach magnetically to the headset’s IPD rail, making display and eye tracking repairs relatively straightforward. (Removing them does still require some disassembly, including screws and cables.) Overall, it’s a fairly approachable repair by VR standards. No digging out the motherboard required.
There are a few other catches. The headset’s battery lacks release tabs. (iFixit removed it using isopropyl alcohol and some gentle prying.) In addition, the controllers’ thumbsticks are soldered to their boards, so replacing a broken one would be more involved than you might hope.
You’ll eventually be able to buy replacement parts from iFixit’s store. (Although iFixit is also Valve’s repair partner, it says the headset maker had no input on the teardown or editorial process.) However, the company says replacement batteries won’t be available when its Steam Frame parts store goes live. That seems like a pretty big omission, and it’s one that iFixit says it hopes to change. Replacement displays also won’t be available at launch. Of course, Valve does offer warranty repairs and replacements for covered devices, but that doesn’t negate the importance of DIY support.
Can’t fix that price
Overall, iFixit’s teardown reveals a surprisingly repairable VR headset. But whether you want to buy one is another matter. Starting at $1,059, the Steam Frame costs considerably more than the Meta Quest 3. And it does so without delivering an equivalently upgraded experience.
To be fair, it is a powerful and comfortable headset with many perks. It has standalone support for many Steam games, including the excellent Half-Life: Alyx. It also offers wireless PC streaming and microSD expansion. But on the whole, it feels like a headset that would have made more sense several years ago, when developers were investing more resources in VR software. The Steam Frame’s high price (thanks, RAMageddon!) combined with that late arrival makes it a tough sell, despite the solid repairability.
You can read more about the Steam Frame in Devindra Hardawar’s review.
