HTC will announce a lightweight Meta Quest competitor at CES - The Verge

HTC plans to present a caller flagship AR / VR headset adjacent period that volition reestablish its beingness successful the user virtual world space. The institution isn’t readying to merchandise afloat details until CES connected January 5th. But HTC planetary caput of merchandise Shen Ye spoke exclusively with The Verge astir what it’s trying to execute with its caller design: a small, airy all-in-one headset that promises full-featured virtual and augmented reality.

“It’s astir taking each of these advances that we made successful not lone the plan aspects, but besides the exertion aspects, and gathering it into thing that’s meaningful and that’s appealing for consumers,” Ye says.

Based connected an representation shared with The Verge, the unnamed headset has a goggles-like look with front- and side-facing cameras. Buyers volition beryllium capable to usage the headset for gaming, entertainment, exercise, and “even immoderate of the much almighty usage cases,” including productivity and endeavor tools, says Ye. It volition get 2 hours of artillery life, beryllium afloat self-contained, and enactment controllers with six degrees of state arsenic good arsenic manus tracking.

One of the headset’s cardinal features volition beryllium outward-facing cameras that walk a colour video provender to users’ screens, allowing for mixed world experiences. This mixed world enactment inactive seems reasonably experimental — erstwhile I asked what buyers mightiness usage it for, Ye highlighted HTC’s ongoing relationships with developers and said the champion usage cases would astir apt look aft release. “We’re astatine this signifier wherever the tech is coagulated and we’ll commencement seeing immoderate truly chill experiences,” Ye promises.

The forthcoming headset is the 1 HTC antecedently teased with minimal details successful October. At the time, we speculated it would beryllium a successor to the Vive Flow, a consumer-oriented headset introduced past year. For now, however, HTC isn’t confirming this. It describes the instrumentality arsenic the exertion of lessons it learned from making the Flow and the Vive Focus 3, a higher-end headset for businesses. And its operation of virtual and augmented world puts HTC’s headset successful the institution of Meta’s precocious released Quest Pro and Apple’s yet unannounced AR / VR device.

Color passthrough was a selling constituent for the precocious released Meta Quest Pro, and HTC was cagey astir straight comparing the 2 — but Ye offered a mates of imaginable differences. For 1 thing, the caller HTC headset volition person a extent sensor, thing Meta considered but yet scrapped. That could let for much businesslike tracking and much blase mapping of users’ carnal environments. Ye says the headset could person a amended dynamic scope than different colour passthrough mixed world options connected the market; helium described speechmaking substance connected a laptop oregon telephone surface done HTC’s cameras, thing that’s seldom imaginable wrong Meta’s Quest Pro.

Beyond that, the caller headset sounds much full-featured than the Flow (which primitively shipped with a smartphone-based power scheme) but lighter and little bulky than the Vive Focus 3. “We’ve made our caller headset 1 of the lightest that’s connected the market,” Ye claims — though we inactive don’t cognize however airy that is. The representation HTC shared doesn’t amusement the headset’s strap setup, but Ye’s notation of exercising successful the headset suggests it volition beryllium much unchangeable than the Flow, which had a inclination to gaffe disconnected of my face. “We spent truthful overmuch clip doing ergonomics,” says Ye. “The Flow was the archetypal clip we did that glasses signifier factor. And we learned a lot, actually, from it. I tin accidental that erstwhile we spot things that tin beryllium improved, we volition ever amended it.”

We don’t cognize if HTC’s instrumentality volition person oculus tracking, different diagnostic the latest Meta (and, based connected rumors, Apple) headsets thin connected heavily. But erstwhile asked, Ye noted that the Vive Focus 3 got oculus tracking arsenic an optional modular upgrade, thing HTC often offers for its headset. He besides cryptically responded that HTC was moving connected blase privateness protections that would forestall anyone from accessing information locally oregon remotely from the caller headset’s cameras, including an encrypted section partition that stores the data. “That volition someway descent into that question you asked eventually,” helium says.

HTC hopes its privateness promises volition assistance differentiate its headset from Meta’s alternatives. While we don’t cognize however overmuch the headset volition cost, Ye heavy implies it volition look costly compared to the $399 Meta Quest 2. “We’re successful an epoch erstwhile user VR headsets person been massively subsidized by companies that are trying to vacuum up and instrumentality idiosyncratic information to supply to advertisers,” helium says. “We don’t judge the mode that we privation to attack it is to compromise connected privacy.” The Vive Flow launched astatine $499 and the Focus 3 astatine $1,300, and we wouldn’t beryllium amazed if the caller headset falls determination betwixt those points.

The Quest 2 has benefits too a debased price, though. Meta has funded oregon acquired a slew of bully VR experiences, portion HTC has historically lagged successful that department, though it’s offered immoderate unsocial options similar its Viveport subscription gaming service. The caller headset volition connection standalone VR experiences done Viveport, and it tin link to a PC wirelessly oregon via a cablegram to play desktop VR games. Ye says the extremity is to person a “broad range” of experiences erstwhile radical prime up the headset.

Last twelvemonth HTC declared itself temporarily retired of the user VR game, astatine slightest partially due to the fact that it didn’t privation to vie with Meta’s heavy subsidized headsets. So what’s changed since past speech from Meta raising its prices? For 1 thing, HTC has launched 2 standalone-ish headsets successful speedy succession and built its capabilities successful the process. “We’ve ever had benignant of a imaginativeness of what we deliberation is simply a bully acquisition for consumers,” Ye says. “We cognize however to physique the champion tech and present we besides cognize however to physique super-small signifier origin devices. It’s those learnings that let america to consciousness similar we’re present acceptable to marque thing that’s truly exciting.” But it astir apt doesn’t wounded that Apple and Meta are gearing up for a combat implicit the aboriginal of user VR — truthful if HTC wants to articulation the fray, its model of accidental mightiness beryllium closing.