HTC is putting Meta on notice: there’s a new competitor on the virtual block. The Vive XR Elite provides a full VR experience that includes six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) motion tracking for both the headset and its included motion controllers – no wires necessary.
HTC intends the XR Elite to be an all-in-one experience, and the half-pound unit does boast impressive specs. Powered by the same Qualcomm XR2 processor as the Meta Quest 2, the XR Elite’s twin 90Hz LCDs achieve a 4K resolution by beaming nearly 2,000 pixels into each eyeball, while a 110-degree field of view completes user immersion. The Vive handles mixed reality applications using a full-color RGB passthrough camera, similar to the Quest Pro.
128 GB of RAM and 128 GB of onboard storage allow the unit to cache app and system data rather than relying on a computer to beam the information (or image) over in real-time, which reduces the potential for frustrating graphical gaffes.
Though the XR Elite doesn’t come with eye- and face-tracking accessories like Meta’s Quest Pro, interested users can purchase those trackers as separate accessories. The unit’s “Battery Cradle” is best suited for immersive games, but users can disconnect it and just wear the lenses for casual couch play or virtual meetups. Potential reality escapees can preorder the Vive XR for $1,099. Not bad, considering HTC pledges not to harvest its users’ data. What a concept!
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