HTC Vive XR Elite Review: The Shape of Headsets to Come
A pair of VR glasses, almost: The XR Elite shows how hardware will likely evolve.
Out of a small, black drawstring bag, I take out a pair of unusual black mirrorshade glasses. I show them to my son. I tell him they're VR. A Quest 2 player, he looks surprised.
The HTC Vive XR Elite feels like some sort of impossible future step towards the next generation of VR and AR. These bug-eyed, glossy goggles seem to be a way to make smaller, self-contained mixed reality happen. But that tiny portable dream has quite a few complications.
It's not just the foldable goggles, you see. There's a battery pack strap, too. And the VR controllers. And, optionally, an adapter so that these small goggles actually fit over your glasses, if you wear glasses. The XR Elite is a kit, and it's pretty similar to the Meta Quest Pro. But, if you want to strip it down to a smaller size, and run from a separate battery pack or a laptop, you can do that.
HTC's aggressive next step in VR hardware feels more like glasses than Meta's Quest Pro, for sure. It's a sign of the evolutionary steps that are going to come for all VR/AR hardware.
I tested the Vive XR Elite over the course of a week, using the device with a number of apps and games in standalone mode, both in VR and in mixed reality modes using the passthrough cameras. I used the controllers, but also the onboard hand tracking. The XR Elite also works as a connected PC VR headset, but for the purposes of my time with the device I focused more on what it can do on its own. I wore it over my own glasses, and didn't put in contact lenses and use the prescription-adjusting lenses included. I used HTC's own adapter to fit the hardware over my glasses, to see how that would feel.
The Vive XR Elite, much like the Quest Pro, is a VR headset in a different form. And while it can do "mixed reality" -- which is, effectively, a blend of video captured from the real world with its cameras, on top of which gets overlaid VR objects and experiences -- there aren't many apps yet that do very much with its mixed-reality features.
But this $1,099 VR headset, available ahead of Apple's expected mixed-reality device and Meta's Quest 3, also feels like a stepping stone to some future-form product that isn't entirely here. Yet.
Design: Deconstructed VR
Next to the Meta Quest Pro, the deconstructed design of the Vive XR Elite looks shockingly small. That's mostly because a lot of the components are optionally removable here (the head strap battery pack can be left behind, and you could plug the XR Elite directly into a laptop for power or use your own battery pack). But also, the design of the eyewear is indeed smaller. The mirror-glossy front panel isn't as wide as the Quest Pro, and the lenses are more compact.
That also means that the XR Elite either can feel a bit too tight on the face without glasses, or end up exposing even more outside ambient peripheral vision when worn with them. HTC calls this a "mixed reality mode" benefit, and like the Quest Pro, the sensation is like wearing literal VR glasses, where you're peering at a different world through your lenses while still seeing bits of everything else around you in the periphery. That may sound distracting, but over time my eyes got used to it.
2023-04-22 00:31:30
