HTC has recently unveiled their next generation headset to the world called the Vive Pro. This new headset features an upgraded display with 2880 x 1600 display along with 37% PPI increase and 78% pixel increase. While this is pretty impressive, the MSRP price that it comes along with is not.
If you are wanting this Vive Pro headset along with new controllers and lighthouses, get prepared to pay more than $1,100. Yes, this headset bundle will cost you in the 4 digit number which is quite unheard of in the industry. While most companies are looking to lower their prices on their headsets, HTC doesn’t see this as a goal of theirs.
Rather, the company is for some reason looking to go the other direction. And this isn’t a sentiment only shared by us but an outcry in the VR community has been heard. On places such as Facebook and Reddit, you can see how people are disgusted with the pricing of this headset.
A PC based VR setup is already costing users a lot of money, especially with the GPU prices these days. If people were trying to go for the HTC Vive Pro, well, get prepared to shell out a whole lot more and that’s not something the consumers want.
Alternatives
If you aren’t wanting to pay over a $1,100 for a HTC Vive Pro bundle, there are many great alternatives in the marketplace. One of them is the Samsung Odyssey Pro which features 2880 x 1600 resolution with an AMOLED display, similar to the Vive Pro specs. But this HMD will only run you $499 with occasional deals going on.
The Samsung Odyssey is part of the Windows Mixed Reality family which comes bundled with the motion sensored controllers and 6DoF. It has a refresh rate of 90Hz and a FOV of 110 degrees.
Other great choices can simply be the Oculus Rift ($400) and HTC Vive ($500) which currently offers premium VR experiences. There isn’t much wrong with these original PC based VR headsets that provide quality VR experiences. The Vive Pro bundle does not warrant a $500 – $600 increase in price.
Another alternative that we can look forward to is the Pimax 8K VR headset which will feature 2X 3840 x 2160 resolution with an FOV of 200 degrees and a whopping 16.6 million pixels. The headset is expected to run anywhere between $400 – $700 when it becomes available worldwide. The Pimax team is expected to ship their first 8K M1 units this month for their customers to try out and review.
While this headset is still a pre-production unit, the company is trying to offer a solution that beats out the Vive Pro at a far less expensive price point, which is hard to believe.
Consumers shouldn’t be expected to shell out over $1,000 for the Vive Pro bundle and should stay clear of that idea in 2018 where we’re trying to drive the VR community forward. The headset might just come off as deterrent for people wanting to jump into VR simply for its price.
Just pointing out that a $1000+ Vive Pro is about as much of a deterrent to VR, as a $1000+ Trek bike is to biking.. that is to say.. not at all. You can get plenty of enjoyment out of a cheaper bike (Samsung Odyessy/Original Vive), but some people will still buy the Trek (Vive Pro) even if it is only slightly better at a much higher cost.
I agree with Bschuler. You get what you pay for.
Here’s another comparison: Why wasn’t there outrage when the GTX 1080 Ti was released? The GTX 1070 gives you almost as good of a product at half the price…
Because Nvidia’s marketing was smarter. They comfortably tricked ignorant consumers into rebranding the X80 series cards as the Ti/Titan line, while pushing down the traditional generational performance gain of the x80 series to the x70.
Doubled the price, no improvement. Fancy name though.
Vive pro is trash. Everyone wanted integrated wireless, not this addon pocket wearing crap. Everyone wanted wider Field if view, not this scuba diving gear shit.
There IS a market for a, “pro”, device. But it’s not a glorified micro-upgrade this piece of junk is.
BTW: They may as well say the thing costs 1200 dollars, “near 2 grand canadian”, for the VAST MAJORITY of consumers who’ve never owned a Vive.
Vive: 500 dollars for it’s full kit.
Vive pro, 78% more resolution: 1200 dollars.
Scam. Scummy scumbaggary scammydoodle. Manipulating the desperate desires of VR enthusiasts to milk people heavily cus they know they’ll pay. They can’t help themselves.
Some of my detail oriented clients have made derogatory comments about the Vive and Oculus’s screen door effect. I know this might seem crazy but in 2005 a high quality VR goggle would set you back about 25k. I know this because I have one here under my desk. Sometimes you need quality, sometimes you need the cheapest solution.
The problem is not the price, we do not need more cheap and crappy headsets, we need better High End VR Headsets. If they are more expensive it’s ok.
But the Vive Pro should have 4K resolution and an HDMI Port which allows to connect a Blu Ray Player to it and watch 3D Blu Rays on it. If this would have been the case I would have paid this price.
What we really need is a standard for VR Headsets. I don’t want to buy a separate one for each eco system. It should be one device, at least one Headset Device, Controllers are maybe different, but should connect wireless to any VR Headsets.
This means I should be able to use it on Playstation 4, PC, connect it to Smartphones and play all Gear VR Games with it.
At the moment it is like you have to buy a separate TV for PC and Consoles.
Playstation really shouldn’t be included. It is in a bubble of its own and doing pretty well if I must say.
That’s true Aragon. That’s why I was really hoping to see more SteamVR headsets by now, like the one from LG. That way, all the headsets, controllers and base stations could work together.