HTC has reduced the price of Vive XR Elite, its flagship standalone headset, cutting it from $1,100 to $900.

Update (August 12th, 2024): In addition to permanently cutting the price of Vive XR Elite in the US, HTC has announced the same deal is coming to the UK where the headset will drop to £900.

The original article, covering the initial price drop, continues below.

Released in February 2023, Vive XR Elite was initially positioned as a Quest Pro competitor, offering up a compact and lightweight standalone design and mixed reality capabilities.

Shortly after its release, Meta closed the price gap, dropping Quest Pro from $1,500 to $1,000, essentially removing one of Vive XR Elite’s headlining features.

Photo by Road to VR

Now, at $900, it appears HTC is hoping to move Vive XR Elite stock in the US, or what has been the XR segment’s most performant market for consumer devices.

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Additionally, the company is also holding two promotions for Vive XR Elite and Vive Ultimate Tracker bundles in the US, which end on August 31st. You’ll find both available on Vive.com.

  • VIVE XR Elite + Ultimate Tracker 3 trackers + 1 dongle for $1,398
  •  VIVE XR Elite + Ultimate Tracker 5 trackers + 1 dongle for $1,696

Meanwhile, HTC released a video late last month promising something “coming soon,” teasing what promises to be the next XR headset from the company.

While the company hasn’t revealed anything beyond that video, seen above, a supposed leak reported by tech analyst Brad Lynch suggests the headset may be more of an iterative design on Vive Focus 3—delivering what may be Vive Focus 4.

The reported leak maintains the next HTC headset will contain the same displays and optics as Vive Focus 3, however integrate the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 chipset used in Vive XR Elite, and also include built-in eye-tracking, USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode, and work with Vive Focus 3’s accessories—all of which is unconfirmed.

Provided that leak is true, the company may be in danger of undercutting Vive XR Elite’s functionality, becoming a veritable Quest Pro to Meta’s Quest 3, which has a majority of the former’s functionality at  nearly half the price.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.

  • Mazel tov, HTC!!
    The more, the merrier.
    []^ )

  • ViRGiN

    It's nice to give regular customers Noble titles like tech analyst. But that doesn't surprise me since Scott was a speaker at sponsored Somnium event, together with Weeb Brad and bunch of other front page shillfluencers. Everyone back patting each other.

    Best regards
    VR Curator, Virgin

  • Mike

    Improve black levels.
    Improve comfort.
    Do not sacrifice binocular overlap.

  • polysix

    POS. Not worth it at $100. Get PSVR2 + PC adapter. OLED is everything in VR.

    • ViRGiN

      No

      • Gabe Zuckerwell

        Don't be negative. If I kiss you in that special place we spoke about, will that make you feel better?

        • Tyler Nelson

          unzips pants. GIGGITY!!!

    • mirak

      lol, yeah I agree about OLED, but now I have OLED and the best wireless with the Vive Pro, I won't go back to wired.

  • Somerandomindividual

    Looking forward to HTC's new dissappointng reveal!

  • I sincerely hope that Brad is wrong… an XR2 Gen 1 headset in 2024 makes no sense. As Upload reminds us, Qualcomm announced that HTC should release an XR2+ Gen2 headset at a certain point, and to me makes sense that this Focus 4 is a refresh of the Focus 3 with this new powerful headset. Anyway, let's see…

  • The Quest Pro is still WAY more impressive then the Quest 3, because of it's eye and face tracking. Those aren't small features. It's bizarre that eye tracking is still rare in consumer-level HMD's. It's now possible to track the eyes with just LED's, photo detectors, and some clever software. That's like a few dollars of extra hardware. Come on already!

  • Tyler Nelson

    I'm personally waiting for better lenses and wider FOV… Nobody else still uses fresnel lenses which tend to have ringlike distortions in them. I'm also not gonna wait on HTC forever either. If they don't get their act together soon, I'll get another headset. My vive Pro is definitely dated…

    • Andrew Jakobs

      I agree about the Vive Pro 1 (withe wireless module) which still is my main headset for PCVR as I still don't have a wifi6(or by now 7) router so I would be able to use my Pico 4 wireless, which has MUCH sharper visuals and no OLED smearing. Still using a RTX2060super so that too doesn't hell for driving the Pico 4 for PCVR if I want to enjoy the full resolution.
      Big shame Nvidia pushed the release of the 50xx series, as with my next PC I think I'll just go a bit crazy in regard of the GPU, the 5090 if its about the same price as the current 4090 (which is still bonkers pricey).

      • mirak

        That's why I stay with the Vive Pro wireless, because it's the best wireless, the best oled you can get with wireless, and the resolution doesn't require an above 400€ GPU, therefore this reduce the problems of performance, frame drops, especially in the many games that are badly optimised.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Even though I like my Vive Pro, the awful lenses and the spotted blacks, as it sure isn't nicely one smooth black/OLED smearing isn't as nice as the Pico 4 much cleaner/sharper image, but more grayed blacks.
          with the 2060 I do notice a lot of performance problems, it certainly isn't silky smooth, but then again, mostly I'm not turning down a lot of the graphical options.

    • mirak

      Dated, but still the best wireless oled solution.

  • xyzs

    Maybe HTC have a chance if they do a good high-end hardware and leave the software part to Meta. But indeed, they disappointed so many times in a row that I wonder if they have staff that can take the proper decision anymore.

    It would be a quite simple recipe though:
    Do a Bigscreen Beyond like product (tiny + OLED), with IPD adjustment, 4 added cameras for inside out tracking and included inside-out controllers a la quest 3.
    Sell that for about 1k and it's a banger.

    But of course, that won't be that…

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Tiny is very difficult for a standalone headset. That's the reason why BB is still relying on lighthouse tracking.

      • mirak

        you are mixing stuff up
        it would be acceptable to have camera inside out tracking powered with a device cliped to the belt, it should increase to much the size and weight.
        It's not like the battery I have to use on the vive wireless is an issue.
        I like lighthouse tracking though, but without wireless that's a step back, also you need to scan your face and all, that's really cucmbersome, uneless you don't care about money.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          No no, YOU think it is acceptable to have something clipped to your belt, I don't. I even hate the battery for the Vive wirelessmodule to be clipped to my belt, which sometimes slips from it when you crouch, or the cable restricts an arm movement.
          I'd rather have a more heavier headset, but well balanced strap makes it feel comfortable for hours on end, at least for me.
          But hee, everybody has his/her own idea what is acceptable for VR, to me a slightly bulkier headset with no wires is more acceptable then a ultra light headset which relies on cables running down your neck.