Yesterday, HTC Vive unveiled its new all-in-one Vive XR Elite headset during CES 2023. This headset combines Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality into one compact, lightweight, and highly versatile device. This new device is also perfect for activities beyond gaming, such as fitness, productivity, and more. The device is expected to begin shipping in late February.
The HTC Vive XR Elite includes a full-color RGB passthrough camera and hand-tracking. This enables a whole new dimension of MR scenarios. These scenarios range from playing games where the characters are running on your furniture to even having the ultimate workstation with multiple virtual screens while still being able to use your real-world keyboard and mouse.
The Vive XR Elite will also have 100 new pieces of MR and VR content arriving in the device’s launch window. Some of these titles include Demeo, Hubris, YUKI, Maestro: The Masterclass, Les Mills Body Combat, FigminXR, Unplugged: Air Guitar, Finger Gun, and more. Post-launch, even more content will arrive, such as Everslaught: Invasion, and later in the year, full MR games like Eggscape.
The device can also be easily plugged into a PC via USB-C to access HTC’s VIVEPORT and Steam content. The XR Elite also supports wireless PC Streaming over wi-fi with low latency. Additionally, the device allows for streaming from Android devices, all within a virtual cinema screen of 300 inches.
The HTC Vive XR Elite has four wide-FOV cameras, exceptional 6DoF spatial accuracy, a depth sensor, hand-tracking, and capacitive sensing for your finger movements on the controllers. Developers have many options to incorporate VR and MR content for accurate movement to enhance your overall experience.
The device also is pretty lightweight, as mentioned before. The full headset weighs just 625g, including the battery, which is placed at the back for balance and is curved for optimal comfort, and delivers up to two hours of full XR use. The battery is removable and hot-swappable, so you can keep going, whether changing to another power source or another battery.
The HTC Vive XR Elite is currently available to pre-order globally via Vive.com and participating retailers at a $1,099 USD MSRP. Pre-order shipments are estimated to begin in late February. The Vive HR Elite comes with the headset itself, 2x controllers, and the headset battery cradle. Additionally, certain regions will have a promotional offer of XR games/content bundles.
