TechCrunch spent some time with the $1,119 Vive XR Elite portable headset that had Meta’s Quest Pro firmly in its sights. The new Vive Focus Vision, which was announced on Wednesday, is a fair bit larger and $1,000 less expensive than that system.
The new headset looks to swim in similar waters as Apple’s Vision Pro, Microsoft’s Hololens, and the Magic Leap 2. It’s a mixed reality headset, meaning it offers VR and passthrough-style AR experiences. It’s also mixed use, aiming at both gamers and enterprise firms.
Much like Magic Leap, HTC understands that enterprise is where the money is — especially now that Meta’s loss-leading Quest headsets have come to dominate the casual market. That said, along with its enterprise bonafides, the Vive Focus Vision has enough firepower under the hood to appeal to PC gamers tethered via the DisplayPort.
“Vive Focus Vision gives you the best of both worlds, with outstanding standalone capabilities, and DisplayPort mode support for visually lossless PCVR experiences,” says Global Head of Product Shen Ye. “Now, PC gamers can bring the same high-end headsets used in VR arcades into their homes. We’re taking everything to the next level with built-in eye-tracking, stereo color passthrough cameras for depth-correct mixed reality, and even an infra-red sensor for enhanced hand tracking in low-light conditions.”
The headset takes a kitchen sink approach to the category. Along with DisplayPort support, it features built-in eye tracking, dual 16-megapixel camera for full color passthrough, depth sensing, and a combined 5k resolution. The display has a 120-degree field of view and can support up to a 120Hz refresh rate.
The cooling system has been upgraded — a must for the aforementioned lossless PCVR sessions. There’s also an onboard backup battery that keeps it alive when swapping out the main battery.
Preorders open Wednesday. The system should start shipping in mid-October.
