HTC announced today that its new Vive Cosmos headset will be priced at $700 with a release date of October 3rd. Pre-orders for the headset are open starting today.
HTC is finally spilling the beans on Cosmos. The company has done plenty of teasing in the past few months, so right up front let’s take a look at the specs:
- Headband: Halo style with flip-up visor
- Displays: Dual 3.4″ LCD diagonal, IPD adjustment
- Resolution: 1,440 × 1,700 pixels per eye (2,880 × 1,700 pixels combined)
- Refresh rate: 90 Hz
- Field of view: 110 degrees
- Audio: Built-in stereo headphones
- Required PC connectivity: USB 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2
- Peripheral ports: USB-C 3.0, proprietary connection to mods
- Tracking: Inside-out (6 cameras), optional add-on for SteamVR Tracking
- Weight: 651 grams (1.43 pounds)
- Vive Wireless Adapter support: Yes, sold separately with attach kit. (Available PCIe slot required)
Positioned as the follow-up to the original Vive, the company is hoping the headset can please two camps: early-adopter enthusiasts who bought into the SteamVR ecosystem and new customers looking for a more user-friendly experience.
While Cosmos uses inside-out tracking out of the box, the headset supports swappable faceplate ‘Mods’ which can offer additional functionality. The default faceplate adds two extra tracking cameras to the headset (for a total of six), but HTC has also announced an optional faceplate which will support SteamVR Tracking, making Cosmos compatible with the same Lighthouse base stations used for the original Vive (this will require separate controllers that also support SteamVR Tracking).
The company calls this the Vive Cosmos External Tracking Mod, and says it will be priced under $200, though it won’t be available until Q1 2020. HTC says that future faceplates will offer further expanded functionality. More details on the SteamVR Tracking Mod here.
New users, or those who want to ditch the SteamVR Tracking base stations, will get a complete inside-out tracked experience right out of the box, which includes two motion controllers that are also tracked by the headset.
While Vive Cosmos supports Steam and SteamVR content, HTC is shifting the user experience toward their own Viveport platform. While Viveport is still based on SteamVR/OpenVR, the company is taking over some of the Steam user-experience with a new in-VR dashboard called the ‘Lens’ which will let users browse through their library, search for new content, and toggle some settings. The company has also created a new ‘home’ space called Origin which will act as the default starting space when you jump into VR. The Lens will seamlessly show content from both SteamVR and the Viveport store, HTC says, and our understanding is that users will be able to ditch Lens and Origin for the pure SteamVR experience if they choose.
Vive Cosmos is available for pre-order starting today and will launch on October 3rd. Priced at $700, HTC is offering 12 months of the company’s Viveport Infinity VR content subscription service as a pre-order bonus, though all Cosmos headsets will include 6 months of access in the box. HTC says pre-orders will also be available from Amazon, Best Buy, B&H Photo, GameStop, Newegg, and Walmart.
HTC has previously teased that Vive Cosmos could plug into other devices like a smartphone, but the company isn’t making any announcements on that front; at launch it is poised purely as a PC VR headset.