HTC Vive XR Elite Virtual Reality Headset + Controllers

Setup was ok, main usage was PC VR. The usb cable didn’t work despite working fine with quest 2. I had to use pc streaming. Not the best. The weight is light but there is noticeable pressure on the forehead. With the sunglass mode, it squeezes hard on the head. I found it to be an issue. It hard to recommend it at this price. AR is a feature no one, yet, asked for it and yet we are paying for it. The price is steep.

Late adopter to VR. If this is your first foray into VR, its a solid place to start. My other experience is HTC Vive Pro 2. So the inside out tracking coupled with AR capability is a freedom from base stations and wires. But you do get a downgrade in definition, which is understandable given how light the unit is. The FOV is much less than its Vive Pro 2 sibling. But if youre playing casual VR games like Beat Saber or just getting your feet wet in VR and utterly refuse to be involved with anything Mark Zuckerberg then HTC is the set for you.

Cons: Getting this to connect to your steam library is terrible. the Vive Streaming app just does not work. Making this unusable. The pass through isnt great. The 5 games it came with is a lie, cause 3 of them arent even out yet. The PC cable should be sold with this headset and what they charge for it is ludicrous. Pros: The headset is light and comfortable. The eye portion comfortable blocks all light for me.

I have been in vr since 2016 and owned most headsets. This is the worst experience Ive ever had with VR. Streaming has issues via USB or wireless (I have a dedicated wifi6e router and zero issues with Quest 2 or Vive focus 3 at ultra quality streaming). IPD constantly adjusts on its own. Unusable as a standalone or with PCVR in its current state. HTCs own forums and Reddit are filled with the same problems. Dont buy.

Maybe been able to use 2 or 3 times since it came in last week, it keeps resetting boundaries and non stop loading. Its almost like it cant handle head movements which is dumb since its a vr head set. YOu move your head and it starts the spinning vive symbol. Its starting to look like a waste of money

Not sure about the histrionics of the current reviews, this is not a push the boundaries headset but is is the most versatile out there at the moment and capable. There is much to refine but I am pleased with the XR Elite and encouraged that many issues I have read from others have been sorted as I had absolutely no issues with streaming PCVR wired, mirroring phone(Samsung S22+), Immersed worked flawlessly, store is adding titles So it is always important to preface what I was looking for here in a VR headset. I am not telling you the headset is better than any other, that is always going to come down to your desired usage. For me, I already have an Index and Reverb G2 and firmly entrenched in PCVR. No interest in console and after those headsets couldnt downgrade visual and sound quality to consider Q2. QP was too uncomfortable and awkward for me, better visuals than Q2 but l wasnt impressed for the money, I was looking for a headset that could fit the following: PCVR wired PCVR wireless Mobile Mirroring VR Standalone VR Compact for Travel/Flight Movie Watching VR workspace in a pinch that was Viable Viable Passthrough That said the XR Elite was the closest from my estimation that fit the bill for me. Since I was entrenched in PCVR the Facebook Meta library is a non factor for me and I have no doubt the library will fill for HTC. For some critical categories for me: Comfort: It is light and once dialed in more comfortable than either of my other headsets but it took some effort to dial it in. While not horrible for me, expect third party face gaskets will improve this. I do find the full headset with pack much more comfortable. The glasses arms are not long enough for me and, while tolerable, is not comfortable. Also, the arms should rotate a bit to allow you to adjust the fit to your face better, especially in glasses mode. Visual Clarity: As expected it is not as good as the Reverb G2 though not far off, but much better than index. For my eyes, noticeably better than the Q2, and on par with QP though to my eyes XR is touch more clear. The one thing I did notice is light bleed of white text on dark backgrounds, this has been mentioned by others and can be bad in some cases. FOV: Seems roughly the same as QP, better than Q2, and definitely less than the G2 and Index, but honestly given the ease of use, lightness, and connection and overall performance with comparable (G2) or better visuals (Index) I feel for casual/social gaming use it will likely be my daily driver despite less FOV. To get more clarity/resolution with large FOV it will require ridiculous hardware (like a $1.5-2k 4090) to run it so dont expect affordable rigs anytime soon. No scuba mask effect for me that others have suggested. Sound: It is better than I expected here. Coming from Index and G2 it is no where near that but definitely better to my ears than Q2 and QP. I did notice that at lower to mid volumes it sounds pretty decent but at higher volumes you start to notice an imbalance with bass lacking. I was able to use BT headphones (Nuratrue Pros) to watch movies with no sync issues, worked beautifully. I have not tried it with games yet though. If there were sync issues, I wonder if BT 5.3 would help, dont know enough here to speak to this...maybe someone out there has more insight. For those complaining about no headphone jack, there is a very simple solution, a USB C to 3.5mm Headphone and Charger Adapter ($14). This allows you to provide power (up to 60w) and plug in wired headphones in either glasses or with the battery cradle mode. So ignore the whining on that! Passthrough: This was a bit more disappointing, clearer than any other but still not workable. If you look at a screen with text that has white background from a distance looks just white until you move it very close to the headset. Additionally everything looks oddly flat...depth sensor is still not enabled so we will see how it is in future. Resolution is still not great but passthrough is better than any I have tried to date. Hand Tracking: Work in progress. It is workable with some gnashing of teeth along the way. Also mostly available for menus and mirroring, not for many games at moment. The menu mouthing worked great for me, the pinching to click/select often selected when I didnt pinch. Likely due to angle of camera to my hand so may take some learning on my part. So how did XR Elite fare in each of my uses above? PCVR Wired: Downloaded the vive streaming app to PC, plugged in and up came my steam home and away I went into my library. Demeo, Walkabout Minigolf, Alex and others all worked without issue or hitch. PCVR Wireless: I did not get to try this properly, leaving for a trip, but was able to actually connect and start to play Walkabout with my PC wireless and the headset wireless on heavily shared wifi 5 but did get choppy quickly. If I wired the PC to router expect this would have resolved this so very promising, sorry cant offer more here. Mobile Mirroring: For me this was easy to set up, download the manage, connected to same wifi, selected mirroring and it paired and just worked with my Samsung S22+. It was clear and responsive with no issues. In landscape it really crunches your view and portrait seems unusually tall and thin but overall workable and watching movies was great in a non-noisy environment. Standalone VR: Worked great, visuals were better than I expected, but did not do much more that immersed, Cosmic Flow, and some other free options as leaving for a trip so didnt have much time. Others will undoubtedly be able to provide further insight here. PCVR is my main use so not as vital for me. Travel/ Flight Movies: Used a MS Surface with streaming cable and worked just spectacularly. Cant tell you how good this experience was especially with BT headphones...dont bother with just headset speakers on a plane or other noisy environment as even at full volume you could barely hear the movie. Also, movies via phone mirroring was not smooth, to stuttery/lurchy, though sound with BT was good too. Virtual Workspaces: Used Immerse for this and it is workable for sure. Will not be as efficient as working with multiple screens in IRL yet to me but still investigating. Need to figure out if can do virtual screens in passthrough to use actual keyboard and mouse and simply have screens fixed in your space. The resolution is not quite as sharp as I would like but working on the road it is definitely a viable option and could work for hours if I can sort out using actual mouse and keyboard. Passthrough: Discussed above, helpful but hope it improves with enabling of the depth sensor. Resolution while better than any I have tried to date is still not great. If AR is your thing there are better options. There it is, hope it is helpful to some out there considering this headset. This headset is not breaking any new ground in terms of FOV and resolution. For me this is the only one that ticked all the boxes for me to play my PCVR library but also be useful for Travel and have standalone with phone mirroring (compatible phones only). HTC achieved a good balance with this headset and for someone new to VR who travels for work this will be the best option out there at the moment in my opinion. Hopefully they can improve on the glasses mode with longer arms and for future versions adjustable arms at the headset connection to allow for a better fit and placement of in built speaker to your ears. I am looking forward to seeing how the software improves seeing they are actively addressing many of issues people who had it early have reported.

the face cushion had no padding along the top, where it has hard plastic pressed up against your forehead. just from completing the setup i had a painful red spot

It’s been a week with the headset and so far I have not seen any problems with it. I only bought it for pc vr specifically and I can certainly say it’s better than my index in many ways. First off, giving this 4 stars because the controllers are awful. Now, I’m coming from index controllers so I already had high expectations for them but they are just unusable even with steam vr binding settings. I ended up storing them away and using my index controllers. They don’t seem to track very well, they feel cheap and way too big compared to their quest lookalikes. These are not the controllers to expect on a $1100 headset. The headset itself tracks very well. Even in a low light environment I was surprised by how well it tracked even with half the cameras covered. The headset doesn’t heat up or anything while in PCVR and the quality of the display is there. Not to mention how comfortable it is compared to an index. The unit is very well made. Would I recommend this headset? Only and exclusively if you have a good pc with good internet. I’m talking 3070 or newer gpu and i7 12th gen or newer. The vive streaming software is not well optimized and requests a lot of resources from your pc. Plus if you don’t have any other controllers and are planning to use the ones that come with the headset, this is def not for you unless you plan to spend more money for those. All in all, I’ve had a great time with the headset. So I would recommend it for those of you with good internet and a good pc.

I have to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised with this headset so far. It really is as small and light as you would expect, and I don’t get a headache wearing it like I do with other headsets. The hand tracking is fun, but I’ve found I like using the controllers more. Biggest thing for me though is the passthrough. I thought I didn’t care about AR, but it’s really neat being able to look around your room and make drawings, sculpt objects, whatever. Now I just gotta decide what other games to get for it.

Very poor experience. I waited more than 3 months after I pre-ordered this crap and I returned it right the way back to them. Very disappointed.