If you want a premium VR headset, HTC is preparing two new products, the Vive Pro 2 and the Vive Focus 3, which will cost newcomers over $1,000.
The upcoming headsets promise to elevate the virtual reality experience for hardcore consumers and business users. The Vive Pro 2 is designed to connect to a PC and features a 2,448-by-2,448-pixel resolution per eye, marking a major upgrade from the 1,440-by-1,600 resolution available in 2018's Vive Pro.
In addition, the Vive Pro 2 features a 120Hz refresh rate and a 120-degree field of view, an improvement from 90Hz and 110-degree field of view found in the previous model. (Full specs can be found on the company’s website.)
According to HTC, the enhancements can minimize motion blur in VR games, and virtually eliminate the "screen door effect," where you can see the mesh-like pixels across the display panels.
The Vive Pro 2 officially goes on sale June 3 for $799 for the VR headset only. However, HTC is currently offering pre-orders for the product at a $50 discount.
All previously released Vive SteamVR accessories will work with the new headset. But if you want the full kit for a Vive Pro 2, which includes the external sensors and controllers, you’ll have to pay $1,399. The full kit goes on sale in August.
The other product, the Vive Focus 3, is designed for business users who’ve adopted VR applications. The headset also features a 2,448-by-2,448-pixel resolution per eye and a 120-degree field of view, but the refresh rate remains at 90Hz.
Unlike the Vive Pro 2, the Focus 3 is a standalone VR headset, which operates using built-in trackers and an onboard CPU. HTC has updated the product to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 platform over the older Qualcomm Snapdragon 835.
"Vive Focus 3 delivers superior comfort, with a new strap design, balanced weight distribution, and an intelligently designed curved battery pack which is swappable," the company added. "Vive Focus 3’s battery pack can be changed in seconds, allowing you to keep going on a non-stop day."
HTC has redesigned the controllers, which can last up to 15 hours on a single charge. The company also plans on delivering hand-tracking support in the future, enabling you to ditch the controllers. Instead, the sensors on the headset itself can read your hand movements and translate them into VR.
The Vive Focus 3 is scheduled to go sale on June 24 for $1,300. The high prices for both headsets probably won’t appeal to mainstream users. For a more affordable VR headset, consider Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2, which starts at $299. It functions as a standalone headset, but the device can also connect to a PC to run more powerful VR applications.