HTC recently had the Vive Con event showing off the latest VR developments and hardware. The event focused entirely on business offerings for 2021, furthering their reputation as a business-first VR (Virtual Reality) manufacturer. As one of the first companies into the VR space with a collaboration with Steam on laser base station tracked VR, HTC continues on its backward compatibility promise with their latest headsets.These new headsets can be a simple drop-in replacement for companies already established with previous HTC hardware or any laser tracked accessories
The first new headset announced at the event was HTC’s VIVE Pro 2 featuring an enhanced field of view (FOV) of 120 degrees, higher refresh rate displays of 120 Hz, and an increased display resolution of 2.5k per eye. These upgrades to the headset should help increase user comfort as well as immersion in content. Existing customers should be able to plug these into existing PCs with the help of HTC’s cooperation with GPU vendors Nvidia and AMD enabling Display Stream Compression.
Also announced was HTC’s standalone headset offering, the VIVE Focus 3. This headset is similar to other headsets such as the Oculus Quest 2 with its ability to run VR content without a PC. It is based off Android, letting it integrate with existing device management software to ensure only authorised software is allowed to run on devices. It also features the same display improvements as the VIVE Pro 2 except it runs at 90 Hz.
Both headsets go on sale in June, the VIVE Pro 2 going for $799 and the VIVE Focus 3 selling for $1,300.
