Late last week, HTC made a major tease of a forthcoming new Vive headset with improved resolution. Apparently leaked information ahead of any official announcements suggests we’ll see a ‘Vive Pro’ announced by HTC at CES this week with an enhanced 2,880 × 1,600 resolution and the addition of an optional Vive Wireless Adapter.
Update (1/9/18): Catch our in-depth hands-on with the new HTC Vive Pro here.
Update (1/8/18): The leak turned out to be right on the money. HTC officially announced the Vive Pro today at CES 2018. See our first look at the Vive Pro here.
Information reported, and subsequently pulled down, earlier today by VR publication VRNerds suggests that HTC is set to debut a ‘Vive Pro’, a refresh of their VR headset featuring an improved resolution of 2,880 × 1,600 (compared to the 2,180 × 1,200 of the original). That’s 76% more pixels. As we suspected, this is likely the same OLED display being used in the Samsung Odyssey headset.
VRNerds further reported that the Vive Pro would include on-board speakers, though it isn’t clear from the leaked information if that would mean on-ear headphones, like with the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap, or hidden projection speakers similar to those on the Vive Focus headset. The latter would potentially eliminate the need for the Deluxe Audio Strap in some cases, making the headset lighter without sacrificing on-board audio.
The report suggests that the original Vive headset will continue to be offered alongside the Vive Pro. Pricing and availability for the Pro aren’t mentioned.
The VRNerds report also talks of a “Vive Wireless Adapter,” which is described as an official Vive accessory based on Intel’s WiGig connection. That wouldn’t come until Q3, 2018, the report suggests.
There’s no confirmation at this time that the leak is genuine, but the information appears perfectly plausible, and follows logically from prior announcements and teases, like HTC’s collaboration with Intel for a WiGig wireless adapter.
HTC’s CES tease late last week listed a date of January 8th (today), so we expect to see official announcements at some point which will verify the authenticity (or lack thereof) of the leak. Stay tuned!