TechCrunch spent a while with the $1,119 Vive XR Elite transportable headset that had Meta’s Quest Professional firmly in its sights. The brand new Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient, which was introduced on Wednesday, is a good bit bigger and $1,000 cheaper than that system.
The brand new headset appears to swim in related waters as Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional, Microsoft’s Hololens, and the Magic Leap 2. It’s a combined actuality headset, which means it provides VR and passthrough-style AR experiences. It’s additionally combined use, aiming at each players and enterprise companies.
Very similar to Magic Leap, HTC understands that enterprise is the place the cash is — particularly now that Meta’s loss-leading Quest headsets have come to dominate the informal market. That mentioned, together with its enterprise bonafides, the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient has sufficient firepower beneath the hood to enchantment to PC players tethered through the DisplayPort.
“Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient provides you the very best of each worlds, with excellent standalone capabilities, and DisplayPort mode assist for visually lossless PCVR experiences,” says World Head of Product Shen Ye. “Now, PC players can carry the identical high-end headsets utilized in VR arcades into their properties. We’re taking all the pieces to the subsequent degree with built-in eye-tracking, stereo shade passthrough cameras for depth-correct combined actuality, and even an infra-red sensor for enhanced hand monitoring in low-light circumstances.”
The headset takes a kitchen sink strategy to the class. Together with DisplayPort assist, it options built-in eye monitoring, twin 16-megapixel digicam for full shade passthrough, depth sensing, and a mixed 5k decision. The show has a 120-degree subject of view and might assist as much as a 120Hz refresh fee.
The cooling system has been upgraded — a should for the aforementioned lossless PCVR classes. There’s additionally an onboard backup battery that retains it alive when swapping out the principle battery.
Preorders open Wednesday. The system ought to begin transport in mid-October.
