HTC’s $1100 Quest Professional Competitor Ships Quickly

HTC’s Quest Professional competitor is Vive XR Elite, delivery in February for $1100.

Vive XR Elite has a compact design achieved by means of the usage of pancake lenses which look to be the identical as Vive Circulate’s from late 2021. It’s powered by the identical Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 processor seen in most different standalone headsets.

Like Quest Professional it helps blended actuality by way of coloration passthrough. However HTC pitches Vive XR Elite’s passthrough as noticeably superior, with increased decision and dynamic vary. UploadVR went hands-on with Vive XR Elite at CES 2022 and got here away with the impression of a lot clearer blended actuality than Quest Professional. HTC claims it’s even adequate to learn your laptop computer or telephone display with out taking the headset off, however we’ll want extra time testing to evaluate whether or not that’s really usable. It additionally incorporates a depth sensor (dropped from Quest Professional within the months earlier than launch) to robotically mesh your room so digital objects can collide with actual objects.

Vive XR Elite comes with Quest 2 model tracked controllers, and likewise helps controller-free hand monitoring.

The twin LCD shows have a decision of 1920×1920 every, barely increased than Quest Professional, and a refresh charge of 90Hz. HTC is claiming an “as much as 110 diploma” area of view, however didn’t specify whether or not that is horizontal or diagonal. Circulate’s area of view was narrower than most headsets.

The lens separation is adjustable by way of a slider on the outside of the headset for IPDs between 54-73mm, however there’s no built-in eye monitoring so your IPD isn’t measured. The lenses even have diopter adjustment for individuals with impaired imaginative and prescient, so some glasses wearers gained’t have to put on them.

Vive XR Elite’s included battery is within the rear of the strap, however it may be indifferent so you should use some other USB energy supply, equivalent to a battery pack, airliner/practice seat, or wall adapter. This allows you to lean again in opposition to a seat or couch, one thing not attainable with headsets like Quest Professional or Pico 4.

A singular characteristic of Vive XR Elite’s OS in comparison with Quest or Pico is you possibly can stream the display of appropriate Android telephones into VR, so you possibly can view apps like Disney+ or play cell video games on a private cinema display.

From the built-in Viveport Retailer HTC lists a variety of Quest ports coming within the “launch window” together with Demeo, Unplugged, Inexperienced Hell VR, Les Mills Bodycombat, Figmin, Historical Dungeon, The Final Clockwinder, Ultrawings 2, Gravity Sketch, Warplanes WW1 Fighters, RuinsMagus, Immersed, Tokyo Chronos, TRIPP, Puzzling Locations, Disaster Brigade 2, and even Digital Desktop.

Vive XR Elite is HTC’s first totally standalone headset for customers. It guarantees superior blended actuality to Quest Professional in a extra compact design for $400 much less. However Quest Professional’s energy lies in its large library of video games. Will HTC have the ability to entice sufficient builders to make its platform a really viable various?

Preorders can be found now from the HTC Vive website for delivery in “late February”.