HTC Vive XR Elite vs. Meta Quest Pro: mixed-reality showdown - Digital Trends

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As much high-end VR headsets are arriving, HTC’s caller Vive XR Elite is looking to situation Meta’s Quest Pro arsenic 1 of the best standalone VR headsets.

HTC’s New Vive XR Elite Headset: My First Impressions Trying It Out #shorts

Let’s excavation into the details of these 2 all-in-one solutions that tin besides beryllium connected to computers for PCVR gaming.

Display solution and clarity

The lenses of the Vive XR Elite connected a achromatic table.

One of the astir important details successful a VR headset’s plan is the show quality. An immersive acquisition relies connected vivid colors and crisp details, delivered astatine a accelerated capable complaint to minimize VR question sickness.

HTC’s Vive XR Elite uses bladed pancake lenses similar the Meta Quest Pro. This expands the saccharine spot to supply overmuch greater borderline clarity compared to the emblematic Fresnel lenses of older VR headsets. The Vive XR Elite besides boasts a somewhat higher resolution, 1920 x 1920 pixels per eye, portion the Quest Pro is astatine 1800 x 1920. That’s lone a 6% quality and whitethorn not beryllium noticeable. Similarly, the Vive XR Elite has a somewhat wider tract of presumption — 110 degrees versus the Quest Pro’s 106 degrees. Both headsets besides person a 90Hz refresh rate.

The Quest Pro’s mini-LED backlighting provides 500 dimming zones to summation the dynamic range, portion the Vive XR Elite uses modular backlighting. The downside to mini-LED backlights is the inevitable blooming successful high-contrast scenes with good detail. In astir cases, a greater dynamic scope is preferable.

From a broadside view, you tin spot however glasses tin beryllium worn on with a Quest Pro.

HTC did springiness the Vive XR Elite a unsocial display diagnostic that you mightiness similar if you are nearsighted. There are diopter adjustments successful beforehand of each lens for each eye. With a twist of the dials, up to 6 diopters of correction are possible. That volition marque glasses unnecessary for galore users who mightiness different privation to support them successful the headset.

Wearing glasses mightiness beryllium hard with the Vive XR Elite if you’re extracurricular that scope for either eye, however, since the acceptable is choky capable that determination isn’t country for glasses with the headset. The Quest Pro is simply a larger headset with plentifulness of country for glasses.

Standalone use

Alan Truly tries to powerfulness a Quest Pro with an past artillery pack.

HTC and Meta each person ample app libraries. There’s small doubt, however, that Meta’s Quest app store has more apical games and apps than HTC’s Viveport. The Vive XR Elite fills that spread with the PCVR option, whereas that’s conscionable a bonus for Quest Pro owners.

HTC is utilizing the venerable Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor that has served arsenic a standalone solution for astir each VR headset of enactment since 2020. Meta added a small much powerfulness to the Quest Pro with an upgraded Snapdragon XR2+, which Meta claims has 50% greater show than the XR2 successful the Quest 2.

Given the important throttling of the Quest 2, it’s unclear whether the Quest Pro volition beryllium noticeably faster than the Vive XR Elite.

The HTC Vive XR Elite connected a achromatic table.

The HTC Vive XR Elite has inside-out tracking for the headset that’s akin to that of Meta’s Quest Pro. That means there’s nary request for tracking basal stations. Meta takes the lead, however, with its precocious Touch Pro Controllers that besides self-track.

HTC uses controllers that person tracking rings that the headset identifies. That works good successful astir cases, but fails erstwhile your hands are retired of presumption oregon erstwhile 1 controller is blocked the other.

PCVR use

Both the Vive XR Elite and Quest Pro person the quality to link to a desktop machine oregon laptop to grip much challenging tasks than the built-in low-power processors tin handle. HTC and Meta each enactment USB-C and Wi-Fi 6E for accelerated connections to a computer.

Since HTC has been making Vive headsets for PCVR for galore years, it should beryllium comparatively casual to link to a Windows PC to play SteamVR games oregon gully from HTC’s PC games successful VivePort. Meta’s Quest Pro tin link to a Windows PC, and it’s 1 of the fewer VR headsets that’s besides compatible with a Mac. Meta makes a distant desktop app that tin beryllium utilized to show 3 virtual Mac displays successful its productivity app, Horizon Workrooms.

With a bully display, bully connectivity, and a PC with a accelerated GPU, VR gaming volition look large connected the Vive XR Elite and the Quest Pro. It’s hard to spell incorrect with either VR headset here.

Eye- and face-tracking

The Quest Pro has large hand-tracking capabilities.

This is simply a diagnostic that mightiness marque each of the quality depending connected however you mean to usage your VR headset. For online get-togethers, bringing your virtual aforesaid to beingness by animating your avatar with your earthy oculus and facial movements is simply a game-changing experience.

Meta includes eye- and face-tracking successful its Meta Quest Pro, but HTC volition merchantability this arsenic a abstracted module for the Vive XR Elite successful the future. For astir VR gaming, browsing, viewing content, and moving solo successful VR, determination is small worth successful this diagnostic astatine the moment. In the future, eye-tracking mightiness beryllium utilized arsenic a accelerated mode to prime windows, buttons, and nonstop movement.

Mixed-reality

Our archetypal impressions were that the HTC Vive XR Elite has terrible distortion successful the mixed-reality view, specifically astir the hands. This whitethorn beryllium fixed by last launch, but it was contiguous successful the aboriginal demos during CES 2023.

The Quest Pro besides combines aggregate camera views to make its mixed-reality passthrough, but the mistake successful the country betwixt the eyes is minimal.

On the different hand, the passthrough solution of the Vive XR Elite is greater, solving a communal ailment among Quest Pro users. Meta hasn’t shared the solution of its MR passthrough camera, but HTC’s 16MP seems to beryllium better, astatine slightest successful the agleam airy of its CES booth.

Meta lets you representation retired your environment, and HTC has a built-in extent sensor to automatically stitchery this data. In some cases, you’ll beryllium alerted to carnal obstacles, truthful determination isn’t a request to spot them via the passthrough camera erstwhile you’re successful VR. While mixed world volition turn successful value implicit the adjacent fewer years, the request for this capableness successful a VR headset is presently limited.

The astir compelling mixed-reality experiences volition travel with AR glasses planned for 2023, 2024, and beyond. However, it is bully to beryllium capable to spot erstwhile friends, family, and co-workers attack you. Also, determination are a fewer absorbing VR games and apps that marque bully usage of mixed reality, specified arsenic Demeo, which puts a virtual committee crippled connected your existent table.

Which should you buy?

Alan Truly is penning utilizing a Quest Pro with a paiered keyboard and mouse.

The HTC Vive XR Elite is rather akin to Meta’s Quest Pro successful galore ways. While it costs $400 less, the Vive XR Elite lacks many of the Quest Pro’s precocious tracking features, and HTC’s enactment of standalone apps isn’t arsenic extended arsenic Meta’s.

The HTC Vive XR Elite is expected to get wrong the adjacent 2 months. After a little play of usage astatine CES, we recovered it to beryllium an absorbing VR headset that challenges the Meta Quest Pro successful immoderate ways. It’s lighter astatine conscionable 625 grams (compared to the 772-gram Quest Pro), and it has hot-swappable batteries to easiness immoderate artillery beingness concerns. The Vive XR Elite’s glasses mode is an absorbing mode to trim headset value erstwhile utilized for productivity, bringing the value of the headset down to conscionable 273 grams. That is, by far, the XR Elite’s astir unsocial feature.

Before making a definitive recommendation, we’ll request much clip with HTC’s latest VR headset. For now, the HTC Vive XR Elite looks similar a invited alternate to the Quest Pro that is competitively priced.