Ever since VR has re-entered both living rooms and computer corners, HTC has been a major player. Now the company is beating the drum with Vive XR Elite which they hope will be able to compete with Meta Quest Pro.
The Vive XR Elite is a combined VR and AR headset featuring screens capable of displaying a resolution of 1920 x 1920 pixels per eye at a 90Hz refresh rate. To power the headset, the Vive XR Elite has been equipped with the Snapdragon XR2 chipset instead of the faster XR2+ variant found in Meta’s alternative. The system circuit is accompanied by 12GB of primary memory and 128GB of storage space.
Movement tracking is done with the help of four tracking cameras along with a 16-megapixel color camera, a depth sensor, and a 6-DoF “reverse tracking” gyroscope. For the user who wants to connect the device to their PC instead, this is done via connection via USB type-C or wirelessly via Wifi 6E.
The battery is said to last for about two hours and is located at the back of the bridge and acts as a counterweight to the rest of the headset. For the user who wishes, the battery can be removed and replaced with more eyeglass-like frames, but then the device must be powered via USB Type-C.
For AR, use the Vive XR Elite passthrough. In practice, this means that the cameras outside send images of their surroundings directly to the headset screens to interact with compatible software.
In addition to the two included hand controllers, users should also be able to control compatible software using the Vive XR Elite’s built-in hand tracking. HTC also states during its presentation that the company continues its major investment in its metaverse Viverse, which is also built into every Vive XR Elite.
HTC’s newcomer is expected to start shipping in February, and the price of USD 1,099 has become just over SEK 16,200 in Sweden.
