The XR Elite is a wonderful product that is horrifically painful to wear. There are a lot of good things about it but ultimately the pain was what made me get rid of it.
The optics are really, really good. Edge to edge it's super clear. Even when the HMD jiggles around and loses centering everything is still clear. You can truly look with your eyes. In complete blackness you notice the screen isn't as black as it could be. When a high contrast object shows up in the darkness it will tend to glow a little bit. It doesn't look like light shafts but instead multiple instances in a line losing definition. They have individual Diopters as well but I left them both at zero. There is IPD Adjustment using a very coarse slider instead of the usual dial on other HMDs. It's kind of difficult to get it dialed in to the exact sub millimeter but the lenses are very forgiving so precision wasn't needed. The IPD adjustment did jiggle itself loose once when moving a lot in VR. The screens are pretty good minus the blackest of blacks, though coming from a Vive Pro 2 there isn't much difference. Resolution is dense and not much more could be stuffed in without the battery suffering.
When used fully standalone the battery life is somewhere between bad to okay. For a quick XR adventure it's no problem which is what I think HTC is aiming for, not multi-hour adventures into the mist. I dunno if it was atypical but without the rear battery cradle the HMD would power on for about a second then shut off. With the battery cradle fully charged it lasted a little under 2 hours. When plugged into a computer it would charge but the drain would be larger than the supply. From full it would last around 3 hours when plugged into a PC.
The controller's battery life is a totally different story. They would drain passively over the week and every time I went to use them they would be zeroed out completely. They automatically wake up from the tiniest of movements and they'd randomly wake up in the middle of the night from a 2.0 earthquake or something. I eventually left them on the charger for days on end until they would be needed to circumvent their drain. When fully charged I think they are supposed to last 6 some hours.
Other than the controller's battery lives there isn't much to say about them. They feel comfortable in the hand and the buttons are in logical places. The thumb stick is kind of hard to push down but that's really about it for the main controls. They are kind of hard to differentiate left from right from feel alone if you don't have pass through mode enabled. They tracked well enough for the games I played but it got a little annoying when they got out of tracking space like above the head. They would track for about one second using only gyro and accelerometer when out of visual range then they'd go rotation only, no position. One second is enough if you're just tapping your back or putting a hat on but anything further and it's a mess.
The HMD's self tracking is pretty good and it never really bugged out. In complete darkness it would complain but even some ambient lights like monitors it worked well enough. Pass through mode must have some crazy noise reduction because I can still make out shapes in darkness. Upon startup it asks to create a playspace that you draw on the ground. Usually that's just a room minus some furniture. If for any reason you completely leave that playspace while wearing the HMD, like in passthrough mode, it will completely lose the original playspace and ask you to create a new playspace. If you agree to make a new playspace it'll kick you out of whatever content you were looking at to do the setup. To get around this you can probably just draw a playspace that includes every room you think you'll be in. I really wish it was less dependent on defined playspaces than it currently is. The XR Elite is basically bound to one area, despite being standalone and portable.
AR content is basically non existent on the XR Elite. It's primarily VR stuff with passthrough visuals in case you step out of bounds. There built in hand tracking which is cool but limited to only a gimmick because the entire UI is built like a VR interface. You don't reach out and touch any buttons or wave for gestures or anything like that. You vaguely point your wrist at a button then pinch your fingers to simulate a click. There is some content that uses the hand tracking a little better but not the home UI. There is an option to allow the hand tracking to pass through to SteamVR as a controller emulator. You can pinch your fingers to pull the trigger. You can also flip your right hand over and pinch to open the XR menu. That's about it.
The built in speakers are actually decent. The Quest 2 internal speakers aren't quite as good and the PiMax 8KX strap speakers were a joke. Your ears are fully unobstructed so you can still hear your environment which is useful when activating passthrough. You'll notice an extreme lack of sub and bass through the speakers. They are fine for music like jazz and is particularly suited for human voices. If the environment outside the XR Elite is noisy things get progressively worse but that's the nature of off-ear solutions. For discussion between 10 some people I kept the volume at about 90% most of the time.
The ergonomics SEEMED good at first but quickly devolved once positioned. The gasket around the face was really soft and pliant around the sides but at the top there is a plastic bridge that goes over the eyebrows. When using the battery cradle to crank down that plastic bridge gave me a headache after about an hour and I kept loosening the battery cradle until it just fell off. 100% of the tension is placed right on that forehead bridge. Since there is no top strap to keep the XR Elite elevated it only relies on squeezing around the head to stay up. The battery cradle side was comfortable but the effects at the front are unforgivable.
There is also the alternate "Glasses Mode' which takes the battery cradle completely off and turns it into what looks like super techy glasses. The temples grab on ULTRA hard and the sides of my head were immediately aware of something trying to reduce the width of my skull. I wear medium-large motorcycle helmets and anyone with a wider head would be worse off. That being said, it was more comfortable than having my forehead be in pain though anything is more comfortable than being stabbed. There is a TINY amount of cushion in the temple ends that have about 1mm of squish. Problematically, it places all that squeeze on what feels like less than one square inch per side so you really feel it. Surprisingly even though there is no back strap to keep the XR Elite held on it manages to stay on my face, fully planted, through a bunch of action games I played.
You might ask, how did I power the XR Elite without the battery cradle? You can use any power bank that outputs 12v like QC3.0/4.0 or variable voltage stuff. Generally, if it can charge a laptop it can definitely power the XR Elite. I put the power bank in my pocket and ran a 3 foot cable up to the cable holding pinch at the right temple and into the power slot. My power banks are decently large, two being 50wh and another at 100wh, and last way longer than the included battery cradle. You can also push the power banks through the battery cradle and get all the extra charge associated. With a quick charging power bank it'll push the battery cradle to 100%. As soon as the power bank dies it'll go back to using the battery cradle's charge and in this time you can plug in another one or ride the remaining energy to the end.
Additional note, the battery Cradle can be used for USB tethering. I thought it was just a charge port but it pushed data through just fine. I plugged it into a USB 3.2g2 port but I'm not sure how fast the batter cradle's port is, might be 3.2g1 or it might even be 2.0. The cabled port on the side of the XR Elite obviously has full USB capabilities but without a power source it won't do much. There is also an additional USB-C port to the right of the right eye and to the left of the temple that's hidden. I didn't manage to try that port out but I believe it's a host port.
Tethering is great on the XR Elite. Just install the app on both a PC and the XR Elite, make sure Wi-Fi is working OR the USB is tethered, and in the XR just click Streaming App. That kind of convenience made me really, really like the XR Elite. There was a few times when the Wi-Fi streaming would get a bit overcompressed possibly from environmental issues. Upping the SteamVR resolution had ZERO effect on visual quality since it must pass through the Streaming Hub compression in the end. Upping the resolution just made more pixels have to fit through the same bitrate through Wi-Fi which had negative effects scaling up. There seemed like some of the gradients would lose a bit of smoothness, especially in light greys to slightly darker greys, while using the Streaming Hub. The convenience factor was just too good though.
Ultimately, the Wi-Fi on the XR Elite stopped working. That combined with the extremely painful mounting systems brought me to the final crossroad. I returned it.
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From the manufacturer
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Get 5 titles with purchase of VIVE XR Elite.
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Les Mills BODYCOMBAT: high-energy workout
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Figmin XR is a fun multi-purpose application for creating, collecting & playing in augmented reality. Decorate your room, create physics games, experiences, storytelling, art—anything is possible!
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Glimpse: a heart-wrenching immersive animation
Glimpse is a short interactive animation drawing on the power of cinema and the uniqueness of VR storytelling to unravel the story of a breakup. Avoidable or unavoidable, that's up to you to decide.
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Precise mixed reality
Vivid and vibrant. Full-color passthrough.
VIVE XR Elite features a brilliant, full-color passthrough camera and depth sensor that enable you to interact with virtual objects in your real-world space. Blend physical and virtual worlds. Explore new possibilities in MR.[2]
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Lightweight XR
Convertible form. Hot-swappable battery cradle.
Sleek and compact with a detachable battery cradle for enhanced portability and balanced comfort.[3] Get up to 2 hours of continuous power with the hot-swappable and replaceable VIVE XR Elite Battery Cradle for all-day power.[4] (Glasses mode requires an alternate power source with 30W power delivery or above.)
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Fine-tuned graphics
Natural and clear. Adjustable IPD and diopter dials.
Find your comfort zone with individually adjustable diopter dials for nearsightedness and stepless IPD adjustments to fine-tune your viewing experience. Experience natural and clear graphics with 3840 × 1920 px combined resolution, 110° field of view, and 90 Hz refresh rate in a remarkably compact form factor.
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Hands on input
Versatile options. Hand tracking and controllers.
Enable intuitive interactions with 6DoF controllers or skeletal-level hand tracking (content dependent). Enjoy easy input and navigation in VR with controllers. Navigate, click, drag, scroll, and type with natural hand and finger movements with hand tracking.[5]
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Immersive audio
Balanced and clear. Seamless speakers.
Ergonomically designed powerful speakers deliver crisp audio as they seamlessly blend into the headset.
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Instant access
Your VIVERSE portal.
Enter VIVERSE as soon as you put on the headset. Socialize, manage digital assets, showcase art, learn, work, create, play, and more.
Unlock the power of PC VR
Access more content with VIVE Streaming.
Enjoy your favorite PC-VR content with VIVE Streaming Cable or Wi-Fi 6/6E.[6] Go beyond all-in-one VR with VIVE Streaming. (Check minimum PC and router requirements for PC-VR streaming.)
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VIVE Streaming Cable
Connect your VIVE XR Elite to a VR-ready computer* for PC-VR games and graphically demanding content. Expand your library with PC-VR content. (*Check minimum computer specs table for PC-VR streaming.)
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VIVE Battery Cradle for XR Series
Get a backup and never run out of power. Hot-swappable and replaceable, the VIVE Battery Cradle for XR Series provides up to 2 hours of continuous power and adjustable comfort.[4]
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VIVE Case for XR Series
A sleek protective case to carry VIVE XR Elite glasses everywhere you go. Simply detach the battery cradle from VIVE XR Elite and store the glasses. Battery cradle and controllers stored separately.
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Top reviews from other countries
Jacob
What a total let down
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 26, 2023
Jacob
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 26, 2023
I'm not exaggerating when i say this was the pre-order that kept me going the last few months excited every day for when it would be released. I have to say, what a total and complete let down.
To put it concisely, coming from a CV1 (a headset from 2016), this headset has several key failures that make it completely inadequate for PCVR, and some that make it a horrible headset over all. The built in audio is horrible for starters, compared to the valve index, CV1, or any in ear headphones, this cannot be fixed as the headset has no 3.5mm jack and the bands are very thick making wearing any over ear headphones extremely uncomfortable.
The controllers are probably comfortable for some people, but the weight distribution is really lopsided and they want to roll out of your hands, the triggers also have an extremely cheap feeling click so shooting games have a really uncomfortable tactile response. I also find the tracking rings very large and poorly placed making reloading in games difficult when trying not to smash the controllers together.
Tracking on the headset and controllers is both fine but there are pleanty of times I felt like tracking was being lost or lagging behind my real movements.
The image is crystal clear and this is definitely the strong point of the headset. However based on the type of games you play and the shape of your head, the vertical FOV makes playing certain types of games impossible. For me I was unable to see my chest without bending my neck down much more than im use to with any other headset. For people who dont usually play VR, lots of games store items/menus on your chest. This means that actions in games like Pavlov and Contractors I use to be able to complete by just peering down a bit now require a ton of head movement.
I think the comfort level overall is really going to depend on what kind of person you are, features like the IPD adjustment and the diopters are really nice and i hope more headsets can make use of them going forward, but the lack of a more traditional headstrap design (like found on the index, CV1, Rift S, HP reverb g2) seems really short sighted and basically entirely reliant on third party developers to make solutions for people who dont want a lot of clamping pressure on their face and back.
I cant even really give any opinions on the standalone capabilities for this headset because there isn't enough content on the vive store. Think about this if you arent intending on using this thing for PCVR. You are spending close to 2000$ with tax on a headset that has enough content to entertain you (if you like playing vr fishing games and meditating in front of a waterfall) for less than a hundred hours.
For PCVR, the current streaming software is obviously not as good as virtual desktop. I read this from reviews before purchase but i think i sorely underestimated how buggy and slow it was. It launches from steamvr alright conceptually, but there are plenty of times before i was able to get that to work the software would lock up my computer requiring me to hard reboot, or do random things like not let me close any programs once i exit out of the usb streaming.
To top it all off my unit came with a dead pixel.
To summarize, very poor audio, uncomfortable controllers, bad software (on launch), no games for standalone (on launch), bad vertical FOV, and an overall total disapointment as a PCVR headset.
Please do not experiment with this thinking you can return it, they will charge you for shipping.
HTC, I think this headset might kill your company but at least you used recycled packaging
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