Three years after the original Vive Pro, HTC's Vive Pro 2 is here. With a class-leading price, the "Pro" branded headset is clearly positioned to one-up its contemporaries. Unfortunately the headset's performance doesn't quite justify the Pro price. Before we dive into the full review, here's a recap of the headset's specs: Vive Pro 2 SpecsResolution2,448 x 2,448 (6.0MP) per-eye, LCD (2x)Refresh Rate90Hz, 120HzLensesDual-element FresnelField-of-view120° horizontalOptical AdjustmentsIPD, eye-reliefIPD Adjustment Range57–72mmConnectorsUSB 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2, powerCable Length5m (breakout box)TrackingSteamVR Tracking 1.0 or 2.0 (external beacons)On-board cameras2x RGBInputVive wand controllers, rechargable batteryAudioOn-ear headphones, USB-C audio outputMicrophoneDual microphonePass-through viewYesHTC Vive Pro 2 Summary[caption id="attachment_102521" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption]As is tradition, our full review goes into significant depth, so we’ll start with a summary. HTC's Vive Pro 2 brings some serious specs that, on paper, make it look like the headset will deliver an unbeatable experience compared to its competitors. And that ought to be the goal to justify the steep asking price of $800 for the headset by itself or $1,400 full kit price. Here's a quick look at how this stacks up to the headset's two nearest competitors: Vive Pro 2Valve IndexReverb G2Headset Only$800$500–Full Kit$1,400$1,000$600With regards to fitting in with the competition and justifying its price, the key goal for Vive Pro 2 would be to offer customers the wide field of view of Valve Index with the clarity of Reverb G2—or at least one or the other. Unfortunately it doesn't quite get there, and also has a few other oversights that belie the "Pro" branding. While the resolution and field-of-view are good on paper, ultimately the headset doesn't achieve either of those goals—it doesn't have a field-of-view that's as large or larger than Index, nor does it have as great or greater clarity than Reverb G2.[caption id="attachment_102522" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption]Part of the issue seems to be that the lenses can't escape the historically tight sweet spot we find on HTC headsets. Even though the field-of-view is wider than the original Vive Pro, much of that added field-of-view gets blurry quickly. Rotate your eyes just a bit and text becomes difficult to read. Combined with the usual god-rays plus additional outer glare from the new dual-element lenses, and the headset's tight sweet spot makes the view feel oddly cramped at times. This is furthered by a surprisingly small vertical field-of-view which makes feel like the top and bottom of the view has been cropped down.Personal Measurements – 64mm IPD (minimum-comfortable eye-relief, no glasses, measured with TestHMD 1.2) Vive Pro 2Vive ProValve IndexReverb G2Horizontal FOV102°94°106°82°Vertical FOV78°102°106°78°Theoretical Maximum (based on software rendering, courtesy HMD Geometry Database) Vive Pro 2Vive ProValve IndexReverb G2Horizontal FOV117°107°108°99°Vertical FOV97°108°109°91°The displays otherwise are fairly good, even if the lenses seem to limit their sharpness somewhat. The headset has no visible screen-door effect, and other artifacts like mura, chromatic aberration, and ghosting are very minimal. Even if Vive Pro 2 doesn't beat out Index and Reverb G2 in key areas like field-of-view and clarity, it could still be a great headset worthy of the "Pro" name (and price). Unfortunately it falls short of that in other areas too. For one, the pass-through cameras on Vive Pro 2 are very low quality, as is the microphone. While the headphones themselves are quite good in audio quality, the off-ear approach is increasingly the more convenient and preferred way to do audio on a VR headset. While you could opt to remove the headset's on-ear speakers in favor of your own audio solution, the bulky strap would make it hard to work with anything but earbuds.[caption id="attachment_102524" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption]With SteamVR Tracking built in, you can expect the same gold standard tracking accuracy, latency, and coverage that you'd find with other headsets with SteamVR Tracking, though you'll have to put up with external beacons mounted somewhere in your room. Thankfully SteamVR Tracking also opens the door to some options, such as choosing if you want to use the old school Vive wand controllers or opting for something else like the Valve Index controllers. You can also use the headset with tracking pucks which are used to track other accessories or for adding more tracking points to yourself for full body tracking.[caption id="attachment_102534" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Vive Pro (left), Vive Pro 2 (right) | Photo by Road to VR[/caption]From an ergonomic standpoint, Vive Pro 2 is exactly the same as the original Vive Pro, which means it's a fairly comfortable headset with a pretty good set of ergonomic adjustments. Notably, the headset has a physical IPD adjustment which ranges from 57–72mm and an eye-relief adjustment, both of which allow the headset to adapt to a wider range of users. Two things I also would have preferred but aren't included: springs in the headstrap which make it easier to put on and take off without adjusting the tightness each time, and a wider range of rotation for the display housing.HTC Vive Pro 2 In-depth Review[caption id="attachment_102529" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption]Let's first talk about the bread and butter of any VR headset: the visuals. With a whopping 2,448 x 2,448 per-eye resolution and a purported 120° horizontal field-of-view, Vive Pro 2 would seem to be perfectly positioned to bring the best of Valve Index and Reverb G2 into one headset. Unfortunately the reality is a little more blurry.ClarityAlthough the paper specs would suggest that Vive Pro 2 and Reverb G2 could have quite similar resolving power, a quick side-by-side with the headsets reveals Reverb G2 to have an obviously sharper image, even before running any objective tests. To some extent, this would be expected given that Reverb G2 packs its pixels a bit more densely into its smaller field-of-view; even so, while Vive Pro 2 is clearly sharper than Index or the original Vive Pro, it still seems less sharp than it ought to next to Reverb G2. This is very likely a result of the optics, which is one of the biggest changes on Vive Pro 2 compared to the original Vive Pro. While both headsets use Fresnel lenses, Vive Pro 2 adopts the Valve Index approach of moving to a dual-element lens, apparently in an effort to expand the field-of-view. Users of Valve Index will know that the dual-element approach risks introducing additional glare around the outer edges of the lenses (on top of the usual Fresnel god-rays), and we see the same thing happening on Vive Pro 2, more or less to the same extent as Index. This additional glare, combined with the classically weak edge-to-edge clarity of HTC lenses, creates a sweet spot that at times feels oppressively small. Rotate your eyes just a little bit and the world is blurry until you move your head to recenter your eyes. This small sweet spot unfortunately detracts from Vive Pro 2's improved field-of-view. While it is indeed wider than the original Vive Pro by a good margin, the edges become blurry which can give a sense of tunnel vision even when in your periphery.Field-of-ViewSpeaking of field-of-view, Vive Pro 2's theoretical 120° horizontal seems to be just that: theoretical. At least for my personal measurements, I found the Vive Pro 2 to have a notably smaller field of view than Valve Index:Personal Measurements – 64mm IPD (minimum-comfortable eye-relief, no glasses, measured with TestHMD 1.2) Vive Pro 2Vive ProValve IndexReverb G2Horizontal FOV102°94°106°82°Vertical FOV78°102°106°78°Theoretical Maximum (based on software rendering, courtesy HMD Geometry Database) Vive Pro 2Vive ProValve IndexReverb G2Horizontal FOV117°107°108°99°Vertical FOV97°108°109°91°Vive Pro 2 might indeed have a 120° horizontal field-of-view, but only if you could get your eyes close enough to the lenses. Although the headset has an eye-relief adjustment, it doesn't seem to have the range of motion necessary to maximize the field-of-view, at least for my head. The eye-relief adjustment on Valve Index, on the other hand, makes it easier to squeeze the most out of the headset's displays.[caption id="attachment_102522" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption]You'll notice a surprisingly small vertical field-of-view on Vive Pro 2. From the shape of the lenses alone you might expect this to be the case; rather than being circular, the top and bottom of the lens are flat. When looking through the headset, it looks like your vertical view has been cropped down, which furthers that feeling of tunnel-vision that ultimately works against the headset's field-of-view.DisplaysThe Vive Pro 2 displays themselves seem quite good, even if their resolution is hampered by the optics. The headset uses an LCD display per-eye, which run up to 120Hz. Unfortunately the switch to LCD on Vive Pro 2 means losing out on the rich colors and deep contrast from the Vive Pro's OLED display, but in return you're getting much higher resolution, better pixel fill, and less ghosting. Like Reverb G2, Vive Pro 2 essentially has no screen-door effect (the visibility of unlit spaces between pixels). The display density is simply too great to make out individual pixels. In general use, the displays have almost no visible artifacts. I had to search carefully to find some minor ghosting against certain colors. Mura (the consistency of brightness and color from one pixel to the next) is similarly hard to spot and will probably go entirely unnoticed during normal use. Looking carefully against flat colors I could spot some faint splotchy mura, but it's impact on the overall clarity is very minimal. When it comes to visual performance, Vive Pro 2 is good, but it doesn't feel "Pro", given that it's bested by Index in field-of-view and sweet spot, and by Reverb G2 in clarity, both of which are less expensive headsets.Continue on Page 2: Pass-through, Microphone, and Audio »Pass-through, Microphone, and AudioUnfortunately a few other features also come up short on "Pro" status. For one, the pass-through cameras are what we in the biz like to call 'hot garbage'. While pretty much all PC VR headsets are behind-the-times on pass-through compared to what Oculus has done, Vive Pro 2 must have stuck with the same cameras on the original Vive Pro because they are truly far from anything you'd call "Pro." Not only is the image a noisy, low resolution mess, but it also takes a few seconds to initialize on the first use of each session. Like other PC VR headsets, most people will probably forget that passthrough exists on Vive Pro 2.[caption id="attachment_102524" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption]Next up in the decidedly not "Pro" department is the Vive Pro 2 microphone. The quality sounds akin to someone talking through their phone over Zoom, and is clearly behind its contemporaries in quality. In addition to the low quality, the placement of the microphone directly in front of your mouth makes for lots of 'popping' on plosive sounds like 'P' words and 'T' words. Vive Pro 2 microphone sample: [audio mp3="https://www.roadtovr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Vive-Pro-2-mic.mp3"][/audio] Valve Index microphone sample: [audio mp3="https://www.roadtovr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Valve-Index-mic.mp3"][/audio] Reverb G2 microphone sample: [audio mp3="https://www.roadtovr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Reverb-G2-mic.mp3"][/audio] And now onto the headphones. This one might be fairly classified as a nitpick, but it definitely stood out to me while using the headset. Vive Pro 2's headphones actually sound very good—I have no complaints about the quality, but I do prefer the off-ear style that's been popularized by Index, rather than the on-ear approach of Vive Pro 2.[caption id="attachment_102523" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption]On Vive Pro 2, if you don't remember to flip both headphones outward every time you put on the headset, they end up feeling quite in the way as they push over your ears. Beyond that, there's something a bit more immersive about hearing the audio from your virtual reality experience without feeling anything touching your ears. Ultimately some people may prefer on-ear headphones because they block out more external noise. If you're determined to find a better audio solution for Vive Pro 2, you can technically remove the headphones in favor of your own, but the bulky headstrap is going to make it difficult to use anything but earbuds.Tracking & Controllers[caption id="attachment_102516" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption]Vive Pro 2 uses the same SteamVR Tracking tech as the original Vive, Vive Pro, Valve Index, and others. While that means you'll need to deal with external beacons (which can be set up on tripods, wall-mounted, or stuck up high on a shelf), SteamVR Tracking is the gold standard in terms of accuracy, latency, and coverage. Thus, tracking on Vive Pro 2 feels as great as you'd expect from other headsets with SteamVR Tracking. A headset with SteamVR Tracking also means you're in the SteamVR Tracking ecosystem, which means you can mix and match other devices with SteamVR Tracking in the same playspace. For instance, while HTC will happily sell you its classic Vive wand controllers, you could easily choose to pair the headset with Valve Index controllers instead. Hell, you can even use one wand and one Index controller.[caption id="attachment_102520" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Vive wands (outside), Valve Index controllers (middle) | Photo by Road to VR[/caption] In fact that's exactly what I did, and if you're planning to game with Vive Pro 2, that's what I'd recommend you do as well. As solidly built as the Vive wands are, they're the exact same design as the original Vive wands introduced in 2016. If you're unfamiliar, the primary inputs on the Vive wand controllers are a single large trackpad, a trigger, and a grip button. Over the years, however, pretty much every other VR controller has converged toward thumbsticks & face buttons, a trigger, and an easy to depress grab trigger—HTC itself has moved to that now-standard input set on the controllers of its other headset like Vive Cosmos and Vive Focus 3.[caption id="attachment_102517" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption]Along with being getting your choice of controllers, Vive Pro 2's use of SteamVR Tracking also opens up the door to using tracking pucks which aren't widely support but can enable some cool enthusiast capabilities like tracking objects or even full body tracking.Fit & Ergonomics[caption id="attachment_102525" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption]Outside of its display system, Vive Pro 2 is nearly identical in design as the original Vive Pro, and the ergonomics are no different. I find the headset reasonably comfortable and there's a good set of ergonomic adjustments. Vive Pro 2 has both a physical IPD adjustment which ranges from 57–72mm and an eye-relief adjustment which lets you move the lenses closer or further from your face. Both help the headset adapt to a wider range of users, including those with glasses. Because of the tight sweet spot, the IPD adjustment is really important to getting a decent looking image through Vive Pro 2, so make sure you have an accurate measurement of your personal IPD. But, like the headset's controllers, Vive Pro 2 is missing a few modern ergonomic touches that are becoming more common in other headsets. While the headset has a ratcheting dial on the back to tighten the straps to taste, it lacks spring-loaded arms which make a headset easier to put on and take off without adjusting the dial every time. That means that most of the time that you go to put on the headset you'll need to remember to loosen the dial (and don't forget to flip out those headphones while you're at it).[caption id="attachment_102530" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Vive Pro 2's display housing rotates easily 'backwards' (pictured), but not nearly as far in the other direction. | Photo by Road to VR[/caption]Further, while the display housing can rotate backward (like lifting flip-up sunglasses) with plenty of range, it can barely rotate forward (beyond being parallel with the ground) before stopping. This makes the headset a little bit less flexible than it would otherwise be to adapting to different head shapes and different means of fitting the headset.[caption id="attachment_102526" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The rear headpad | Photo by Road to VR[/caption]Otherwise the fit of Vive Pro 2 feels fairly comfortable. My only other minor gripe with the fit is that the rear strap that cradles your head doesn't have as much surface contact as other headsets, and this seems to make the headset a little bit more prone to wobbling during fast head movements.Continue on Page 3: Software Experience »Software ExperienceVive Pro 2 works with SteamVR, but unlike HTC's earlier headsets, it requires some additional companion software from HTC called the Vive Console which will be installed when you run through the setup process. This little app manages a few of the headset's functions—most importantly the display resolution and framerate: It isn't clear exactly how the resolution options interact with SteamVR's own Render Resolution setting, but in my testing the best practice seems to be to first max out the Vive Console resolution (if you can), and only then if your games continue to perform well should you consider raising the SteamVR Render Resolution setting above 100%. Interactions between the Vive Console and SteamVR can be a little awkward at times—SteamVR will sometimes crash when you're trying to make changes that require restarting the Vive Console, and the Vive Console doesn't seem to offer any automatic audio switching between the headset and back (normally this is handled by SteamVR, but Vive Pro 2 doesn't seem to abide by those settings). Fortunately, HTC's own Viveport app store is entirely optional to use, even if it installs itself automatically during the setup process. HTC has also built a handy little Viveport dashboard which allows you to view your Viveport apps right inside the SteamVR dashboard. While Steam is probably going to be the go-to store for most users, it's worth giving the Viveport Infinity free trial a spin, which grants you access to a large catalog of VR games on a subscription basis. You won't find nearly the same range of titles there as you would in Steam, but there's some quality picks for sure.Disclosure: HTC provided Road to VR with a Vive Pro 2 headset.