Hands-on: Vive XR Elite is Lightweight & Compact, But Shares Quest Pro’s Woes - Road to VR

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At CES 2023 HTC revealed its caller Vive XR Elite headset which is positioned arsenic a Quest Pro competitor. In presumption of features and hardware, the headset is mostly a refinement of formfactor implicit thing else; and portion it’s undoubtedly compact and lightweight, it whitethorn beryllium hampered by an unclear worth proposition and immoderate ergonomic details that went overlooked.

For a elaborate look astatine Vive XR Elite’s specs and features, check retired our announcement article

Everyone’s caput shape, chemoreceptor size, and oculus positions are different. That said, the archetypal clip I enactment connected Vive XR Elite it was wide to maine that determination wasn’t astir capable country for my nose… thing that I person nary contented with connected astir each different large headset connected the marketplace (even HTC’s different VR headsets).

It’s not that it’s intolerable to get the unit disconnected your nose—the optional top-strap (which HTC smartly included) makes this casual enough—but the occupation is that if I rise the headset up to get value disconnected of my nose, my eyes are nary longer successful the saccharine spot of the lens, making the presumption done the headset sub-par. More padding astir the chemoreceptor would person a akin contented of moving the lenses retired of the saccharine spot.

While I didn’t get to usage the headset for an extended play of time, I person a beardown suspicion that the chemoreceptor happening is going to beryllium a literal and figurative symptom constituent connected this headset. And arsenic idiosyncratic who doesn’t person a peculiarly ample nose, I can’t ideate I’m going to beryllium the lone idiosyncratic with this issue.

The chemoreceptor happening isn’t the lone ergonomic oversight that was instantly apparent. There’s besides the information that the rear pad, which is designed to cupful the backmost of your head, doesn’t cushion your caput capable to forestall interaction betwixt your skull and the artillery connected the back. That means that arsenic you tighten the headset you tin consciousness a big, flat, integrative aboveground pushing against your head. That’s compared to thing similar the Quest 2 Elite Strap (which the rear of Vive XR Elite appears to emulate), wherever I tin lone consciousness the pads hugging the backmost of my head, but ne'er the artillery down them.

Beyond these worrying ergonomic subtleties, the headset’s fundamentals consciousness coagulated crossed the board, making the Vive XR Elite the company’s astir refined standalone to date. But from a diagnostic and show standpoint, the headset feels much similar Quest 2 than Quest Pro, which puts it successful an awkward spot with its $1,100 pricetag.

Visually, Vive XR Elite’s pancake lenses are beauteous bully connected the clarity front, with bully edge-to-edge clarity, though falling abbreviated of the fantabulous lenses connected Quest Pro. The usage of non-Fresnel lenses means a simplification successful glare and deity rays compared to Quest 2, though the resolution and visibility of the surface doorway is astir the aforesaid betwixt the 2 headsets (1,920 × 1,920 vs. 1,920 × 1,832). And portion the peripheral tract of presumption feels a small tight, the added dioptre power (for changing the absorption of each lens) volition beryllium welcomed by those with glasses, and adjacent those without volition beryllium served good by the continuous IPD accommodation (which includes an on-screen measurement readout and calibration pop-up).

Inside-out head-tracking feels beauteous bully and is surely ‘good enough’, though the instantaneous rotational latency doesn’t consciousness arsenic choky arsenic Meta’s bar-setting inside-out solution. Importantly, the tracking feels amended than Vive Flow, which successful my acquisition has excessively overmuch latency for semipermanent comfort. Controller-tracking connected Vive XR Elite besides feels solid, and with cameras connected each broadside pointed astir wholly to your near and right, sum ought to beryllium bully (potentially surpassing Vive Focus 3).

As the sanction implies, the HTC is pushing the XR Elite arsenic a headset that does passthrough AR successful summation to VR. The headset’s colour pass-through presumption isn’t stellar. Similar to Meta’s headsets, the XR Elite attempts to rebuild the extent of the existent satellite virtually to supply geometric correction and extent cues, but adjacent with a depth-sensor on-board (which Quest Pro lacks), my acquisition with the headset’s passthrough AR showed a batch of warping owed to incorrect depth-mapping.

Without being capable to bash a nonstop side-by-side comparison, my content was that XR Elite wasn’t rather arsenic crisp arsenic Quest Pro erstwhile it comes to passthrough AR. Granted, the passthrough AR connected some headsets headsets is definitely successful the aforesaid approximate ‘class’ (not crisp capable to work substance from your smartphone and rather mediocre dynamic scope astatine that).

Just similar with Quest Pro, the prime and exertion of passthrough AR feels wholly undercooked, with the fistful of AR apps I tried connected the headset not sufficiently answering the question ‘why AR?’. But present that different headset connected the marketplace is embracing and enhancing this capability, possibly the answers to that question volition travel a spot sooner.

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Considering its show and features, Vive XR Elite seems to stock the aforesaid halfway occupation arsenic Quest Pro—and that’s the worth proposition. Even if we disregard immoderate imaginable ergonomic mishaps… astatine champion Vive XR Elite is akin to a somewhat much compact mentation of Quest 2. And adjacent if we disregard that Quest 2 has a overmuch much extended contented library… it’s hard to spot how, for astir people, Vive XR Elite tin warrant an $1,100 terms tag compared to Quest 2 astatine $400.

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