In February, HTC unveiled its full 6DOF version of the company’s standalone VR headset targeted at enterprise users, Vive Focus Plus. Now, the company has officially announced pricing and availability for the headset and controller bundle.
Vive Focus Plus is slated to launch worldwide on April 15th on HTC’s Vive website for $800, which will be available in 25 markets with 19 supported languages. The company announced the news at the Vive Ecosystem Conference (VEC 2019) in Shenzhen, China this week.
Vive Focus Plus is touted for its inclusion of ultrasonic 6DOF controllers—something that was notably missing from the original Vive Focus, which first saw launch in China as a consumer device in January 2018, and then later in the rest of world as an enterprise-focused headset the following November.
As with its predecessor, Vive Focus Plus is launching in China as a consumer device too, and will be priced at ¥5,699 yuan (~$850) which includes local value-added tax.
In addition to the new 6DOF controllers, which puts it at input parity with the upcoming $400 Oculus Quest, Vive Focus Plus also boasts better comfort and better visuals over the old design thanks to a slightly updated headstrap and improved Fresnel lenses.
We went hands-on with Vive Focus Plus, and true to the company’s word the newly refreshed optics are remarkably clearer than those on the previous Vive Focus. We didn’t get a long enough stint with Vive Focus Plus to determine how much a step above it is over its predecessor in terms of comfort, although it did feel notably more comfortable than the previous generation.
Although marketed as enterprise device outside of China, HTC is boasting “nearly 250 Vive Wave applications at launch that run natively on the Vive Focus Plus.” How many of those have been built specifically for 6DOF controllers, we’re not sure at this time; all Vive Focus games are said to work on Vive Focus Plus.
The company additionally announced a ‘multi-mode’ capability which allows Vive Focus Plus to connect wirelessly with PCs to steam PCVR content via Rift Cat’s VRidge software, the ability to stream content from game consoles to a virtual screen, live 360 camera streaming, as well as upcoming Cloud VR services.
As for those promised Cloud VR services: the company’s recently announced 5G Hub is said to allow Vive Focus Plus users to stream cloud-rendered PC VR content, although it’s uncertain when this service will be live considering 5G is still in closed testing across very few cities worldwide.
Vive Focus Plus Specs
- Display: 3K AMOLED (2,880 × 1,600)
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
- Audio: Built-in Speaker
- Head Tracking: Optical inside-Out
- Frame Rate: 75Hz
- Field of View: 110-degrees
- Battery: 4000 mAh
- Controller: ultrasonic 6DOF
- Data Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- Memory (RAM/ROM): 4/32 GB
- Connector: USB Type-C
- Power & Battery: Build-in rechargeable battery (up to 3 hours of active use time), QC3.0 fast charging