HTC goes toe-to-toe with Meta Quest Pro, unveils Vive XR Elite Extended Reality headset at CES 2023

Last year, Meta made a big leap in terms of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) capabilities with the release of the Meta Quest Pro. Now at CES 2023, it's HTC's turn to show off its new flagship consumer headset - the Vive XR Elite.

With a starting price of $1099 (Rs 90,400), the XR Elite is a little bit cheaper than the Meta Quest Pro but it delivers a lot of the same features and a seemingly great mix of experience AR, VR, and Mixed Reality (MR).

One nice thing about the Vive XR Elite is that it has a passthrough camera, so even though you might be playing an immersive game you will still be able to see your surroundings for a full Mixed Reality experience. You're not just silently staring into just VR or AR, you get both.

On the inside, you get new displays with 2K resolution per eye with a 90 Hertz refresh rate so once again very similar to The Quest Pro. Weighing in at around 650 grams, it should be very light and significantly more comfortable to use than the quest Pro.

In the audio department, the Vive XR Elite comes equipped with dual microphones for echo cancellation and embedded speakers for a seamless audio experience.

HTC has tried to distribute the weight better because you have the Optics in front and then you have a battery pack around the back. There's a simple knob in the back for tightening the headband and then if you look down the bottom there's a simple slide for adjusting it further. 

However, for people who wear glasses, this might not be the best choice because there's little room between your eyes and the lenses. Since you can't wear glasses, you'll have adjustable magnification on the inside. The problem with that is it only extends to certain levels of prescriptions. So, if your prescription is more on the extreme end this might not work at all.

With the improved performance, you can play games on the Vive XR Elite completely standalone, all in the headset. No tethering to a device is required, no PC connection is required, and no messy wires.

The controllers are very similar to Vive controllers of the past but because there's hand tracking you get that a little bit more immersion and there's a little bit less of a learning curve depending on the app.

Now it’s time for developers to create new apps and software to really take advantage of this new hardware. The availability of apps and games can really make or break a platform.

With the release of the Vive XR Elite, HTC finally has something that it can really go toe-to-toe against with the Meta Quest Pro. That said there are a few things missing. Unlike the Meta Quest Pro, it doesn't have the same level of eye tracking and especially facial tracking. HTC says there will be add-ons coming out later this year that will expand those capabilities.

The hardware is definitely pretty impressive but with a price tag of over $1099 (Rs 90,400), it might just be the bleeding-hard early adopters who will be buying it for now.