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Initally, HTC has removed the curtain hiding their competitor to Meta’s VR headsets. A new light and modular standalone VR headset called HTC Vive XR Elite. The XR Elite VR headset with mixed reality features costs €1,399 and ships on February 25, 2023.
After many leaks and rumors, HTC has broken its silence and announced its new standalone flagship VR headset. A new virtual reality HMD, combining the power and functionality of HTC Vive Focus 3 with the form factor and comfort of HTC Vive FLOW. The new HTC headset will compete against the Oculus Quest 2 in features and Meta Quest Pro with a lower price tag, being priced at €1,399, and is available for preorder now with shipping on 25 February 2023.
What sets the Vive XR Elite VR headset apart is its incredibly slim form factor of just 5 cm (2 inches) in front of your face with its modularity. The latter makes it so you can detach the battery and tether the headset to a PC, experiencing a much lighter and more comfortable virtual reality experience resembling the shape of glasses.
Competing with the Meta Quest Pro, the HTC XR Elite will follow what 2022 set for the future of VR: a small and light VR headset with a halo strap and mixed reality features. And with this moniker also comes built-in hand tracking, with eye and face tracking coming later as accessories.
Lastly, the visual and computing performance of the XR Elite will far exceed the Quest 2 with 1920 x 1920 pixels per eye in an immersive 110 degrees field of view and a smooth 90Hz refresh rate. The headset will run on the industry standard Snapdragon™ XR2 chip with 128GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. However, in PC VR mode, this turns mute as the wireless WiFi 6E connection will provide a minimal latency connection. We can’t wait to get our hands on this 2023 VR headset and test it thoroughly.
Here is the full spec sheet released by HTC:
Tracking | Inside-out, 6DoF from 4 optical tracking cameras and 1 depth sensor |
Hand tracking | Yes |
Eye tracking | Later with accessory |
Face tracking | Later with accessory |
Mixed reality | Yes, one RGB camera pass-through |
Resolution | 1920 x 1920 pixels per eye |
Pixels Per Degree | 17,45 PPD per eye |
Field of View | 110° |
IPD range | 54-73mm |
Refresh Rate | 90 Hz |
Lens | Pancake |
Chipset | Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 |
Storage | 128GB |
RAM | 12GB |
Wireless connectivity | WiFi 6 + 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 + BLE |
Weight | 625 grams (incl. battery) |
Controller | Yes |
Jakob Pii is the Head Writer at VR Expert and currently lives in the UK. He started his career in VR gaming in 2015 and has stayed in XR since, from exposure therapy in VR to 360-degree video documentaries. He is fascinated by how emerging technologies change how we live, play and work.
