HTC’s virtual reality division, Vive, has announced a brand-new headset destined for business, complete with a dedicated web app for managing the fleet.
The new Vive XR Elite Business Edition promises to be around half the price of the Apple Vision Pro, retailing at $1,299, and while it may not have the flashy appeal of its rival, initial specifications suggest it could still be a worthy contender, particularly for businesses looking to buy multiple headsets.
At the same time, the company announced Business+, which is intended to make device and user management, monitoring, and customization more fluid across multiple headsets.
HTC Vive XR Elite headset for businesses
Vive sees its new business headset as an enabler for training and visualization, as well as a tool to facilitate collaboration. For this reason, HTC has designed the XR Elite to manage extended use by incorporating a swappable 24Wh battery into the design and active cooling to regulate the lens area for comfort and performance.
The pair of 1920x1920 displays offer a near 4K resolution across a 110-degree field of view. A 90Hz refresh rate promises to keep up with some of the most complex visualizations, too.
Much like other headsets already on the market - and helping it to remain cheaper than Apple’s Vision Pro - HTC decided to use physical controllers for the headset, which it calls the six degrees of freedom (6DoF) controllers. That said, it does feature some limited hand-tracking technology for performing things like navigation, clicking, dragging, scrolling, and even typing.
In terms of sensing equipment, the XR Elite Business Edition comprises four tracking cameras, a 16MB RGB camera, a depth sensor, a G-sensor, a gyroscope, and a proximity sensor. It also features Bluetooth 5.2 (BLE) and Wi-Fi 6E, and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor with 12GB memory and 128GB storage.
Customers of the headset will get a two-year commercial-use warranty as well as the battery and controller accessories. As part of the deal, they can also expect free access to Vive Business+.
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