HTC's next VR headset is a little less Meta Quest and a little more Apple Vision Pro in its bid to be the everything device

HTC has just announced its brand new VR headset, the Vive Focus Vision, and instead of directly going after the Meta Quest's crown (and price point), it seems to be setting itself up as an «everything headset» closer to what Apple did earlier this year… except good. 

Initially, I felt a little sceptical of the price, and the decision to go for a last-gen Snapdragon chip, but it starts to make a bit more sense when looking at what it is trying to do. Though technically capable as a standalone gaming headset, this seems more complementary to the experience, offering lossless visuals for your PC and productivity functions for your downtime. 

Announced today, the Vive Focus Vision is an XR (or extended reality) headset that comes with a whopping 5K resolution, eye tracking and automatic IPD adjustment, as well as a hot-swappable battery for longer sessions of use. 

However, it will also cost you a rather hefty $1,000 to get one for yourself, almost $400 more than the most expensive configuration of the Meta Quest 3, the best VR headset right now. We tested out the Vive Pro 2 back when that launched in 2022 and, while that offers the same resolution and FOV, it's too prohibitively expensive to fully recommend. As a cheaper headset with better functions, the Vive Focus Vision could offer something different to the market, even if it's hard to see it beating Meta at its own game.  

The headset has 4 GB of RAM more than the Quest 3 and comes with less storage from the start but it has support for Micro SD, which will help it run spatial videos and games. It also comes with the ability to hot-swap batteries, which means it has a small internal battery to keep the headset turned on, when you swap out batteries. 

Noticeably, the HTC headset uses a worse chip than the one you can find in the Meta Quest 3 and Pico 4 Ultra. Given the price, this confused me. Why not go for the better chip, especially when that's what your competition is using? I asked a representative of HTC