But Valve didn't hand us a box complete with an Index, a "long-form VR experience" (like, you know, an in-development Valve game), and hours of time to put that hypothesis to the test.

Valve has a long and storied history with virtual reality, but the company didn’t actually release a VR system of its own until 2019. That’s when the Valve Index was born.

Valve The Valve Index jumps from 110 degrees to 130ish degrees and it is (heh) eye-opening. I didn’t notice the difference so much horizontally, but vertically it was like removing blinders.

Valve's Index VR headset is loaded with cutting-edge tech designed to appeal to virtual reality enthusiasts. By Hayden Dingman Apr 30, 2019 1:17 pm PDT Image: Valve ...

Experience Setup & Passthrough While headsets like the Rift S are moving toward a more user-friendly approach by adopting inside-out tracking, Index is still reliant on the same external tracking ...

The new Valve Index VR headset costs $499 on its own or $999 in the kit, but it won't include a VirtualLink USB-C cable in the box, that'll cost you $40 and come in the form of a USB dongle ...

The Valve Index, Valve’s latest virtual reality offering, is an uneasy mixture of all the good and bad aspects of modern VR. It can be a pain to set up; getting the whole thing calibrated ...

Valve’s Index headset was a market leader among PC VR headsets for years, but is it still worth buying in 2025 now that it’s nearly six years old? Read on for our no-nonsense recommendation ...

Front row: PlayStation VR, Oculus Quest, Valve Index, Oculus Rift S. Back row: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive Pro. (Only headsets from the front row made our recommended-in-2019 list.) Credit ...

What we do know is that the VR market has shifted dramatically since the Valve Index arrived. Back then, PC headsets were the name of the game, but they were a luxury item that cost at least $1,000.

It also includes a Mini DisplayPort adapter in the box. Valve’s Index VR headset also uses DisplayPort, and while it doesn’t include a Mini DisplayPort adapter, you can find them on Amazon for ...

Valve’s Index virtual reality headset is the first that can be plugged into VirtualLink, the USB-C port you’ll find on most Nvidia RTX 2070 and greater Nvidia RTX 20-series graphics cards. But ...