HTC has opened North American pre-orders for its Vive Pro 2 Full Kit, offering VR enthusiasts a bundle that includes everything they need to get started.
The Vive Pro 2 Full Kit includes the namesake headset, two SteamVR Base Stations 2.0, and two Vive controllers. The bundle costs $1,399 in the US and $1,849 in Canada.
The first Full Kit shipments are slated to go out by mid-October. HTC also says its retail partners will carry the bundle, extending its reach for holiday shoppers.
HTC hasn’t yet launched UK pre-orders, and it’s still listed as “coming soon” on the firm’s UK website. The Vive Full Kit will cost £1,299 when it launches in the UK.
Controller conundrum
The Vive controllers that ship with the Full Kit bundle use the same design as the controllers that shipped with the first Vive more than five years ago. But the Vive Pro 2 headset does work with the outstanding Valve Index controllers, which offer precise hand and finger tracking.
If you’d rather pair Valve’s modern controllers with HTC’s headset, you can buy the Vive Pro 2 headset alone for $799, two base stations for $199 each, and a pair of Index controllers for $279. That comes out to $1,476, only slightly more than the Full Kit bundle with dated controls.
Of course, you’ll also need a gaming PC powerful enough to handle modern VR titles like Half Life: Alyx.
Vive Pro 2 details
The Vive Pro 2 has the best display of any consumer-priced headset. Its screen has 4,896 x 2,448 resolution, which comes out to 2,448 x 2,448 per eye. It also includes built-in headphones for high-resolution audio, making for an immersive all-around experience.
The original HTC Vive launched in 2016 to much fanfare. It was the first consumer virtual reality headset with room-scale tracking and controllers that “give you hands” inside virtual worlds. However, Facebook’s Oculus soon caught up with room-scale tracking of its own and Touch controls that offered more refined hand tracking.
HTC has also shifted its focus to enterprise VR, as it has been treading water financially for the better part of a decade. It’s hard to imagine how the Taiwanese firm could compete with the outstanding dollar value of the Oculus Quest 2, thanks to Facebook’s massive war chest.
In TechRadar’s review, we found the Vive Pro 2 to have an “incredible screen” and “excellent audio.” But we also penalized it for its aging wand controllers and heat issues stemming from that mesmerizing display.
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