HTC announces the VIVE Focus 3 and VIVE Pro 2 at VIVECON today
Today HTC hosted a virtual conference known as VIVECON and two new headsets were announced .While both were more business centric, one should appeal to the gamers side as well.
Let’s talk first on HTC’s latest stand alone headset. The VIVE Focus 3 is the successor to their VIVE Focus Plus and offers up some nice improvements. The HMD features two LCD screens at 2448x2448 pixels giving you a total resolution of 4896x2448. These screens are capable of running at 90Hz, which is a nice improvement over the 60Hz in the previous generation.
Something that I think should be in all headsets, the Focus 3 has a nice wide range to adjust the IPD so various face shapes should be easily accommodated. It can go from 52mm all the way up to 72mm and various stages in between.
Probably my happiest improvement is the 120 degree FOV that is available with the Focus 3. In comparison to the Valve Index, it’s not quite as much, but anything over the 110 is a welcome change. Compared to another stand alone, the Oculus Quest 2 which is around 90 degrees, this is a lot better.
Another nice improvement is that the Focus 3 features magnetic gaskets in both the front and rear making swapping these things out a breeze. I really like this feature on the Valve Index and I’m happy to see it on the Focus 3.
Speaking of the rear gasket, it covers the swappable battery that powers the Focus 3 as well as provide a nice counterweight to it, making the Focus 3 not as front heavy and hopefully more comfortable to wear.
The frame is made of magnesium allowing for a strong, light frame. HTC states the Focus 3 is 20% lighter than before.
The Focus 3 comes with newly designed controllers that feature a large tracking ring similar to the VIVE Cosmos controllers, but more sleek and without the pattern. Capacitive gestures also have been added to allow for some more controlling options. Battery wise, you can expect 15 hours of usage out of them, which seems pretty good although I’ve yet to replace the batteries in my Quest 2 controllers and I’ve had them for a few months. 15 hours though should get you way beyond a days’ gameplay and lets you charge overnight and be ready for the next day.
Dual noise cancelling mics will help ensure crispr quality voice communications for say in meetings and the dual drivers in each headphone area should offer some nice sound as well. There’s a privacy mode that you can enable to help reduce the amount of sound that can be broadcast around you in order to keep people from eavesdropping into your conversation.
As a stand alone headset, the Focus 3 features four cameras to do inside out tracking. HTC has had some issues with inside out tracking on the Cosmos but their Focus line has been good and I expect it to be solid here as well. And in the future, HTC will be releasing an update to use the cameras to do hand tracking, like the Oculus Quest 2. Let me say, that I use my Oculus Quest 2 sans controllers with just my hands a lot and it is very nice so I’m glad to see HTC will unlock that in a future release.
All this is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2. Qualcomm has been providing chipsets for stand alone HMDs and they do have some good power in a small package so the Focus 3 should have some nice oomph to it when running software.
The VIVE Focus 3 is set to be released one June 24th and will retail for $1300.
For me, VIVECON’s best announcement is the VIVE Pro 2, the followup to one of their better HMDs.
The VIVE Pro 2 looks pretty much the same as the Vive Pro minus the color scheme and that’s for a reason. A lot of consumers found the VIVE Pro to be a comfortable headset to use so HTC decided not to change it around too much for the next version. I’ve used the VIVE Pro at CES a few times and I did like how it fit on my head so I can see why HTC decided not to change it up, but I would’ve liked to see some improvements in fit and comfortability. It’s not that big of a deal to me, but it could be for some people looking for more improvements than just the internals.
But, the internals does have some great improvements.
First off, the resolution of the VIVE Pro 2 has increased from 1400x1600 per eye to 2448x2448 per eye or a total of 4896x2448 or roughly 5K. And the FOV has increased from 110 degrees to 120 degrees and features the same dual stacked-lens design as the Focus 3. The resolution surpasses the incredible HP Reverb 2 and offers better FOV over that HMD as well. More to see and better clarity.
It uses two low persistence LCD displays, which might disappoint those who enjoy the blacks of the OLEDs on the original VIVE Pro. I find LCD panels OK and I do get used to them on my other HMDs, but I do miss those blacks that I get with my Samsung Odyssey+ and my original VIVE. The two LCDs can run at 120Hz, so you’ll get plenty fast displays that are almost on par with the Valve Index.
Design wise, it is pretty much the same as the VIVE Pro with the same headstrap design. If you like the fit and comfort of the VIVE Pro, it looks like you’ll like here here on the VIVE Pro 2 as well.
HTC also spoke about working with NVIDIA and AMD on using Display Stream Compression that allows for lossless compression reducing the bandwidth needed between the source and display. If you don’t have a PC capable of DSC, that’s fine, you can still use the VIVE Pro 2.
If you currently have VR accessories like controllers and say the Wireless Adapter, the VIVE Pro 2 will work with those, no problem. That means you can, if you want, just invest in the headset without having to buy the complete kit which can save you some money. Which, for people like me, that’s a nice option to not have to buy everything to make this HMD work. Whether it’s base stations 1.0, 2.0, wand controllers, Index controllers, whatever, anything that you have that works in SteamVR using the base stations will work with the VIVE Pro 2. And as I mentioned earlier, you can go wireless using the already available Wireless Adapter from HTC.
Launched a few weeks ago, the VIVE Pro 2 will also work with its facial tracking system. For people who want to show off their expressions, the add-on can be used on the new VIVE Pro 2 as well.
$799 is what the HMD will cost on its own and you can pre-order it right now for a release on June 3rd, which is but a scant three weeks away.
So there you have the two new VR headsets from HMD today. I’m really excited to see how the HTC VIVE Pro 2 does and with that increased resolution and FOV, how well it does with flight sims and racing games. As much as people praise the Reverb 2, I am hopeful the VIVE Pro 2 does even better with the panels it houses. It won’t be too long before we can get our hands on one and hopefully, we’ll be able to nab one for review in the near future.
