HTC Vive XR Elite Virtual Reality Headset + Controllers

Vive has produced yet another high-quality product! Once again HTC Vive is making headsets for recreational consumers. I originally had the Vive OG, and the Vive Pro OG with the lens mod. I bought the quest 2 just for travel and mobility. After hearing everybody’s complaints with the XR Elite, I was concerned this headset would not be a vast improvement in quality of play… Especially with PC-based games. A good example is the quest 2 running kayak mirage… it is horrible… no detailing or definition in any of the landscape/scenery whether playing standalone, or PCVR with a cable! And I was concerned that without the video compression of the Vive pro that the XR Elite headset running off USB-C would not be good. I was completely surprised! Very pleasantly surprised!!! I’ve been using VR since the inception of consumer headsets, and this is a nice step up! The pancake lenses make all the difference and it is so much better than the quest 2!!! So much clearer, great definition in images. and the diopters are the icing on the cake! I wear contacts and as part of the set up process you have the option to adjust the diopters. I decided to adjust the diopters just for the experience and wow! So now one eye is set on 2 1/2 and everything looks pristinely clear!!! My vision is fine in all other scenarios, and now I’m glad to be able to see better in VR too. I’ve heard complaints of God rays, fix your diopters! Also, using the cable link, I was able to run Lone Echo flawlessly! I could never get the quest to run it, and when I did. It literally dropped more frames than it played and of course it just looked ugly. Even with a high-quality hardwired cable link. Lone Echo is also a program that doesn’t look great with the screen door effect… So I didn’t want to play it with my Vive Pro either. It looks glorious and runs so smoothly it’s insane with the XR Elite!!! Haven’t run half life Alex yet, but I’m sure it’s going to play as well as lone echo does, if not better! I have been thrilled to see that the headset runs all my old programs in steam, as well as revive! Sweet! Before getting the XR elite, I was using two headsets, my Vive Pro for at home on PCVR, and the quest 2 for mobility around the house, and when I travel using it as a standalone headset. The Vive XR elite is a step up in all directions! It is extremely comfortable, no mods needed like you have to do with the quest 2, (ouch!), and I can’t get over the clarity!!! I can use it anywhere in the house as stand alone, or run it with wireless streaming without sacrificing quality. Because it can run as a standalone, it makes it perfect for traveling… Especially with its low profile and lightweight! The XR Elite definitely meet my needs, and exceeds expectations. I did not have a headset that I could run wirelessly with higher quality PCVR. Absolutely love it! So exciting! Now, like all things in VR, the software is a little bit slow in coming. Patience wins here. Software will be coming, and I’m ready for it. I remember in 2016 trying to find software… There’s a plethora available now in comparison to that!!! Lol.

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

The only pro is that its lightweight. The controller are cheap plastic, the tracking is awesome, the screen is fun and hard to see even on its brightest setting, no exclusive games, no virtual desktop, laggy despite my wifi 6e, did I already mention the controllers that feel like they will fall apart at any second and also have terrible battery life? This takes three place of the pico 4 as the worst headset on the market (with psvr2 taking 3rd. I HATE meta, but the meta pro has great lenses and the sweet spot is enormous, this thing feels like taking a step back in time to a colorized virtual boy with better graphics but just as useless. Already requested a return. This is an embarrassment to HTC. If you buy, have no expectations..... And youll still be disappointed. These lenses are awful.

So for this being a brand new product and everything. I would really highly recommend people getting this one versus the quest and all that personally. there isnt a lot of games On here yet but the games are really nice. I think the biggest problem a lot of people are having is that. You need to connect the app to your headset. Once you connect the app to your headset get it updated get everything going through there its Really Good its not bad at all. Its really clear you can change how everything looks itll dial into your view center. Everythings really beautiful I personally havent found anything bad with it yet. The hand tracking is a little different and a little buggy but I dont like using my hands all the time so im still experimenting with it. I love the way the headset sits on my head how it feels. I think its really nice and I think its worth the money and some of the games that you buy for it right now really nice. I would at least try it knowing that you have to add the app to it to make sure it runs good.

I have been waiting for this headset for several months and it is a big disappointment. The Bad: 1. The right lens has two dark specs that are either dead pixels or dirt inside the lens. 2. Vive streaming app is very buggy and does not work very well with Steam VR. 3. Controller support on steam vr games is a big challenge. Many of the games are unusable with the controllers and you need to do a lot of tweaking and hopefully get them to work. 4. Before I got the controllers paired I tried to log into my account with hand gestures and the keyboard. This was totally unusable with missing keystrokes and erratic pointer movement. I had to pair the controllers to get this accomplished. 5. Headset draws more power than the usb 3.0 port on my computer can supply and I slowly saw my battery drain while connected to the computer via usb. Need to try other ports before making a final determination. 6. Face mask is not very comfortable but could be tolerated. Need to look at other solutions. The Good: 1. Very light headset especially without the battery pack. 2. Foldable and very portable. All you need is a power source. 3. Works very well with usb c dongle providing power delivery with a wired ethernet connection. It detects the ethernet connection as a tethered usb port. 4. Picture quality is excellent depending on which app you are using. Summary: In conclusion I think that this product was released prior to being ready. The software issues could be resolved if you are willing to wait for fixes, but there is no excuse for the quality issues with the lenses. I like the ergonomics and portability of the product enough to keep it because I believe that the software issues could be resolved in time however I will be replacing my defective unit. Hopefully Amazon will have one to replace it with. Update - March 29, 2023 ----------------------------- Spent several hours with the headset mainly without the battery pack in glasses mode working with steam vr. Following are the results. 1. The Headset pinches on the sides of the head making my head sore right above the ears. This was after several hours of use and now after 12 hours of resting, my head is still sore to the touch. The nose bridge pinches my nose making it difficult to breath but got used to it. 2. I installed the Vive Streaming App beta version and it works better than the released version. 3. Controllers started working with most apps after I disabled the compatibility setting in the streaming app. For some reason the default setting after installation was with compatibility on. This was a major accomplishment since it made the product usable. 4. Most steam vr games I tried worked fine once I got the controller issue resolved in 3 above however I could not get Flight Simulator 2020 to work even though it works fine with the Quest 2 and Pico 4 on the same system. Got a lot of stuttering and the streamer kept on losing connection. 5. Streaming both wireless and usb tethering mode worked fine. I barely noticed any difference between the two. I have mixed feelings about this headset. I think the comfort and software issues could be overcome. I really like the size and portability and modularity as well as picture quality once you get your sweet spot.

Im not sure this device deserves all this hate. A good buddy of mine is a quest fan, so Ive played with both the quest 2 and pro a bunch. My experience with the xr elite is without a doubt superior. For such a compact headset, the hardware specs are quite impressive: the displays are sharp, its light and comfortable, resolution in passthrough mode is so much better than quest pros, etc. Im confident that upcoming software updates will solve some of the little things people are bitching about (even iphones were glitchy when launched initially and required updates). Its a superior piece of hardware, and HTC is already rolling out software fixes.

Where do I start.... I really wanted to like this headset and I defended many of HTCs poor choices in designing this thing... But after using it, or trying to, I cant defend this POS. 1) They marketed this as the most comfortable headset on the market and it is NOT. Its actually pretty UNCOMFORTABLE. The eye guard is made out of a stiff material with ZERO padding and a rough fabric over it. It quickly irritates your face and digs into your skin and leaves marks and hurts to wear or move around in for any length of time. 2) The headset doesnt have access to the normal typical app library, instead it has a very unique and limited app library of about 20 apps. The web browser didnt even work at launch and they didnt even notice or bother to fix it until I put them on blast on Facebook. And its still buggy as hell. 3) You dont even have access to basic apps like YouTube, Netflix, Chrome, etc. 4) the only way to play any decent apps is by linking to a powerful pc, and the HTC link software is very buggy. 90% of the games/apps wont load properly or register the controllers. And keep in mind these are all apps that work perfectly fine with my HTC Vive, Rift S, and Quest 2 Headsets. 5) The battery drains stupid fast. You have maybe an hour of use in game, 90 minutes maybe if you are using light apps. 6) They bragged about how good their eye adjustments were, but no matter what I try I cant get a good clear visual, always some blur. By contracts my HTC Vive and Quest 2 both give me a crystal clear non-blurry image. 7) The hand tracking is hot garbage, it STRUGGLES to track hands and gets their position wrong just enough to make trying to use your hands uncomfortable and cumbersome. 8) The controller tracking is also pretty bad, it frequently loses track of them even in a brightly lit room and it tracks them too low...the pointer line feels like its coming out of 10 inches below where the tip is. Makes clicking on things awkward and clunky. This thing is a steaming pile of disappointment and feels like they rushed out an unfinished product, I am going to send it back and get a Meta Quest Pro, at least I know that one will work.

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.

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.

The goods: 1. I love the futuristic form factor, it’s not as awkward as VR devices were. 2. I was amazed by how small it is, XR Elite is pretty legit 3. Wifi 6E is enabled 4. Stable and low-latency wireless streaming (tethered streaming as good as always) 5. I am excited for the MR gasket, please make it affordable The concerns: 1. The Android interface need to be polished more … 2. The passthrough mode in a low-light environment can be improved