HTC Vive XR Elite: Another Mixed-Reality Headset Arriving Ahead of Apple - CNET

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VR has suddenly gotten much expensive. It seems similar the worst imaginable timing, but HTC's newest high-end headset announced astatine CES, the Vive XR Elite, follows a akin playbook to Meta's caller Quest Pro, and perchance Apple's awaited device arsenic well. It raises a question: Are we genuinely acceptable for the emergence of the $1,000-plus VR rigs? The standalone Vive XR Elite is sleek and looks a batch much compact than the Quest Pro, and is trying to trial the higher-end waters.

The $1,099 headset, disposable for preorder Thursday, is arriving by the extremity of February -- remarkably soon for a CES product. That means it'll beryllium disposable alongside Sony's PlayStation 5-connected PSVR 2. While little costly than the Quest Pro, the XR Elite's terms costs astir arsenic overmuch arsenic buying a PS5 and a PSVR 2 together. It's acold from an impulse purchase. But the hardware, which shrinks down the VR signifier to a brace of astir glasses-like goggles and includes mixed-reality capabilities that could let for AR apps, looks to lick however we'll beryllium utilizing the metaverse for much successful our lives than conscionable games, simulation and fitness.

No different institution has truly cracked this situation either. But this Vive headset looks, much than ever, similar it's a stepping chromatic to aboriginal AR glasses.

A brace of HTC Vive XR Elite glasses, seen from the top

"We spot wherever mixed world is going to make a full caller suite of usage cases. We cognize the virtual world usage cases are great. I deliberation the AR broadside is amazing, too," Dan O'Brien, HTC's wide manager of Vive, told maine successful a speech astatine CES successful Las Vegas. He acknowledged that HTC tried to marque an AR instrumentality successful 2015 but stopped due to the fact that of the complications. O'Brien sees 5G and unreality computing arsenic a cardinal adjacent step. "You request a 5G network, a truly robust 1 to marque AR spell to standard -- you request a unreality infrastructure to present to those types of wearables."

The XR Elite is chiefly a standalone VR headset, and it looks similar an awesome portion of tech: It has a acquainted Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 spot overmuch similar the Meta Quest 2, Quest Pro and Vive's existing business-focused Focus 3. But it adds a higher-resolution 110-degree tract of view, LCD displays with 2K solution per oculus that tin tally astatine 90Hz. There's besides a boosted 12GB of RAM on with 128GB of storage. It tin link to PCs to tally SteamVR oregon HTC's VivePort software, oregon link with Android phones. But its imaginable arsenic a span to AR experiences seems similar the astir awesome feature.

Those are conscionable specs, though. The XR Elite is simply a VR headset with a akin proposition to erstwhile models, but with expanded capabilities. Its compact size is the astir astonishing part: At 340 grams, it's little than fractional the value of the Quest Pro. The rear hot-swappable artillery gives astir 2 hours of life. It gets adjacent smaller by unclipping the backmost artillery strap and adding glasses arms that tin crook the headset into a modified brace of VR glasses, which could conscionable plug into an outer USB-C charger oregon artillery for power. It's tiny capable to acceptable successful a compact carrying lawsuit tube.

A VR headset fitting successful a tube-like carrying case

But that compact size comes with a twist: Instead of fitting connected apical of glasses, the XR Elite uses adjusting dials, oregon diopters, which tin alteration the lens medicine connected the alert without you needing to deterioration glasses astatine each -- for immoderate people, astatine least. The diopters lone accommodate up to a -6 prescription, but my ain imaginativeness is implicit -8 for nearsightedness. It's a situation HTC faced with its adjacent smaller Vive Flow phone-connected VR goggles, which besides went for the glasses-free approach.

The XR Elite has a dedicated extent sensor connected the front, on with colour passthrough cameras that tin yet amusement mixed reality-experiences, akin to the Quest Pro. The Quest Pro doesn't person the Elite's added extent sensor, but it accommodates for that with its onboard cameras.

Vive XR Elite VR headset seen from the front. A achromatic visor and a camera successful the middle.

The XR Elite could besides accommodate further. While the hardware doesn't person its ain eye-tracking tools onboard, eye- and face-tracking add-ons are coming aboriginal successful the year. The headset's controllers are the aforesaid modular ones that HTC has for the Vive Focus 3, which travel the aforesaid crippled controller-like playbook arsenic the Meta Quest 2 and others. But HTC already has its ain enactment of wearable VR assemblage trackers and wristbands, and much accessories could follow.

O'Brien acknowledges that the sticky, mass-market entreaty of VR and AR aren't present yet. "I deliberation developers volition beryllium utilizing unreality computing, being capable to really get their contented into the metaverse overmuch faster, and overmuch much efficiently," helium said. "If you deliberation astir the streaming business, these streamers, these TikTokkers, each these kids that make the truly compelling, amusive experiences that conscionable support drafting you backmost in? That's not successful the metaverse today, We request to make much opportunities for little blase immersive contented creators to get involved, and past make much [of an] economy."

O'Brien sees unreality computing, driven by oculus tracking's quality to compress graphics information via a exertion called foveated rendering, arsenic a mode of yet shrinking the processors connected aboriginal headsets, getting smaller and fitting connected much people.

A VR headset seen from the side, looking astatine the lenses. Dials with numbers situation each lens.

My interest is astir the constricted medicine options astatine the moment. "As we get to overmuch lighter glasses, radical volition astir apt beryllium bringing much of their prescriptions to it successful the future," says O'Brien. "For now, what we tin bash is conscionable effort to code the bulk of the marketplace arsenic champion we tin with these types of mounting changes, due to the fact that we person to get the headsets lighter. We've got to get them much comfortable. And if you're going to person these large oculus alleviation areas wrong of these headsets, they're going to enactment truly big."

O'Brien sees the included VR controllers arsenic perchance becoming optional 1 day, adjacent possibly being near retired of the container and bought separately, but not yet. Hand tracking isn't reliable enough. "Hand tracking has to marque monolithic advancements implicit the adjacent 2 to 3 years to truly go overmuch much of a earthy input tool." But O'Brien suggests it's a mode for aboriginal headsets to get much affordable. "If a idiosyncratic tin conscionable enactment connected glasses and interact with contented [with their hands], that's going to beryllium a overmuch little costly product."

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