HTC has taken the wraps off of a new standalone XR headset called the HTC Vive XR Elite Virtual Reality System that compares favorably to the Meta Quest Pro.
According to information provided by HTC, the Vive XR Elite will offer a 3840 x 1920 combined resolution, up to 110° field of view and a 90Hz refresh rate. There are four on-board tracking cameras for controller tracking and a depth sensor.
Update: The HTC Vive XR Elite is one of our picks for the Best of CES 2023 Awards. Find out what other products took top honors at this year's show.
The headset supports both standing and seated orientations, and room-scale up to 10m × 10m with a minimum 1.5m x 1.5m
In terms of battery life, you're looking at a two-hour battery life — a fair bit shorter than the Meta Quest 2 — but HTC says that the batteries are hot-swappable.
One unique feature is that the headset has an adjustable IPD sliders and a dial to change the focus of the lenses to accommodate those of us that wear glasses.
The bad news? The price. Despite looking like a premium XR device, at $1,099 it's substantially more expensive than standalone VR devices like the $399 Meta Quest 2. That said, it is cheaper than its main rival, the $1,499 Meta Quest Pro.
To make it more comfortable, HTC says that the headset is incredible lightweight (around 625 grams) and there's a counterweight to make sure that it sits evenly and comfortable on the head.
In terms of storage and memory, the Vive XR Elite comes with 128GB of on-board storage and 12GB of memory. That should give it enough space to store a number of your games and enough processing power to play most games seamlessly.
Pre-orders are available on Amazon today with delivery in another few months.
