HTC Vive XR Elite Virtual Reality Headset + Controllers

The only thing enjoyable about this was the unboxing. I cant get it to stream anything for longer than a few seconds without drops outs. Wired or wireless with a wifi6e made no difference. The only smooth operation I had with this was the initial setup. Then it told me to update my streaming drivers, but wouldnt allow me to do so. I have built every computer I have owned from parts. I have soldered together devices with 100s of components. I have coded software. I have created websites. I have linked analog and digital audio and video together at a professional level, but I couldnt after 8hrs of troubleshooting get this to work for more than 5 seconds in a game without a drop out. The worst part was when it randomly stopped being connected to my PC and insisted I connect to my Google Pixel. WHY?! what are you doing?! I was in game on STEAMVR?! 3 full charges and 8 hrs later, I am done. I am throwing in the towel. I cant waste another minute of my life with something so incredible unreliable as this piece of garbage.

Marketing so aggressively to such a niche market is only risky if you are unable to deliver, and this headset falls very short of expectations they themselves set. The hardware has promise, in so far as I could be OK with it IF the software experience wasnt so underwhelming. I certainly would like to veer away from Meta to support privacy centric efforts and willing to pay a premium for that. However the state of the UI / UX is so rough, that I do not have the patience to cheerlead for future updates will sort this out. Not for $1200 after tax. I was ready to scoop up accessories and lean into this headset, but I will happily continue on with PCVR via the Quest 2 headset for now. It really boggles the mind how they could even ship a product with software in such a state as if there were no market leaders present currently highlighting the short coming so plainly. Hopefully they can get sorted on future iterations. Im increasingly interested in Big Screens product despite the workarounds for feature parity as I am not skeptical about their marketing. Unfortunately my opinion of HTC is now negatively informed by their willingness to ship a product that over promises and under delivers.

Bought it for my kids 16th birthday. He got super frustrated with it. Im a Microsoft Systems Engineer and I cant even get the thing to do what its supposed to do. And our PC is a top Alienware costing over 6K. We have Unifi wireless - everything in our setup is commercial grade except for this device. It is less than fun - its frustrating. If that is what you are into - go for it. But it is total junk IMO. Wait for other options TBH. Its not worth it - ESPECIALLY at this price point. So disappointed.

PROS - Built in speakers. They are simple but they do the job. I dont care too much about audio quality, so I cant speak for those who do. For me its good. - Form factor. Being able to lie back is a game changer for me. I love how compact and lightweight the device is. The design is great and it looks super cool and futuristic on your face if thats important to you. I really dont see myself going back to bigger headsets. - Diopters. Diopters worked well. I just adjusted each eye to my prescription and thats it. So nice not needing my glasses, but if you have a prescription higher than -6 (or have astigmatism), youre out of luck. - Passthrough. This is my first time experiencing passthrough in VR and I found it very useful being able to see my surroundings just by double tapping a button on the controller. The passthrough is not in 3D, but I think theres definitely something going on to simulate depth. Its a bit wonky at times. CONS - Software. Its basic and broken. The pre-installed apps crash, the brightness setting is completely non-working, hand tracking is simply too frustrating to use, the home environment will not boot up if your room is too dark, (but they make you figure that one out for yourself), most of the pre-order bonus apps are not yet available, and almost everything else is coming soon. For the price, I expected high quality software, but this is basically alpha pre-consumer software. Users shouldnt have to find complicated workarounds just to get basic features functioning. Sorry, but software should just work without effort. As far as apps go, there are very few, but I do keep seeing new ones pop up. Still no YouTube VR, Bigscreen, or really any of the other basic ones youd expect. - Fan Noise. The fan is loud, especially in passthrough mode. It almost makes me not want to use passthrough mode. - IPD slider. I expected a clean feeling slider, but the slider is gummy and hard to move. Its not a precise slider. - Gasket. The front gasket falls off too easily, but only if youre moving around a lot. If youre a stationary user, this wont be an issue. - Comfort. Wearing the headset with the battery cradle is not very comfortable for me. Luckily, glasses mode feels much better. - FOV. I would not say FOV is bad, but I was expecting better for the price. You definitely notice a binocular-like vision but considering the form factor, its acceptable. I cant speak for PCVR, but I havent heard good things sadly. Despite its issues, I still think this is a good headset for my use case and with better software, it could easily be a great headset. VIVE, if youre reading this... Show me how magical software can be. Software makes hardware great. You have to wow people. Dont ship boring broken software. I am excited for future updates.

Vive has produced yet another high-quality product! Once again HTC Vive is making headsets for recreational consumers. I originally had the Vive OG, and the Vive Pro OG with the lens mod. I bought the quest 2 just for travel and mobility. After hearing everybody’s complaints with the XR Elite, I was concerned this headset would not be a vast improvement in quality of play… Especially with PC-based games. A good example is the quest 2 running kayak mirage… it is horrible… no detailing or definition in any of the landscape/scenery whether playing standalone, or PCVR with a cable! And I was concerned that without the video compression of the Vive pro that the XR Elite headset running off USB-C would not be good. I was completely surprised! Very pleasantly surprised!!! I’ve been using VR since the inception of consumer headsets, and this is a nice step up! The pancake lenses make all the difference and it is so much better than the quest 2!!! So much clearer, great definition in images. and the diopters are the icing on the cake! I wear contacts and as part of the set up process you have the option to adjust the diopters. I decided to adjust the diopters just for the experience and wow! So now one eye is set on 2 1/2 and everything looks pristinely clear!!! My vision is fine in all other scenarios, and now I’m glad to be able to see better in VR too. I’ve heard complaints of God rays, fix your diopters! Also, using the cable link, I was able to run Lone Echo flawlessly! I could never get the quest to run it, and when I did. It literally dropped more frames than it played and of course it just looked ugly. Even with a high-quality hardwired cable link. Lone Echo is also a program that doesn’t look great with the screen door effect… So I didn’t want to play it with my Vive Pro either. It looks glorious and runs so smoothly it’s insane with the XR Elite!!! Haven’t run half life Alex yet, but I’m sure it’s going to play as well as lone echo does, if not better! I have been thrilled to see that the headset runs all my old programs in steam, as well as revive! Sweet! Before getting the XR elite, I was using two headsets, my Vive Pro for at home on PCVR, and the quest 2 for mobility around the house, and when I travel using it as a standalone headset. The Vive XR elite is a step up in all directions! It is extremely comfortable, no mods needed like you have to do with the quest 2, (ouch!), and I can’t get over the clarity!!! I can use it anywhere in the house as stand alone, or run it with wireless streaming without sacrificing quality. Because it can run as a standalone, it makes it perfect for traveling… Especially with its low profile and lightweight! The XR Elite definitely meet my needs, and exceeds expectations. I did not have a headset that I could run wirelessly with higher quality PCVR. Absolutely love it! So exciting! Now, like all things in VR, the software is a little bit slow in coming. Patience wins here. Software will be coming, and I’m ready for it. I remember in 2016 trying to find software… There’s a plethora available now in comparison to that!!! Lol.

I have been waiting for this headset for several months and it is a big disappointment. The Bad: 1. The right lens has two dark specs that are either dead pixels or dirt inside the lens. 2. Vive streaming app is very buggy and does not work very well with Steam VR. 3. Controller support on steam vr games is a big challenge. Many of the games are unusable with the controllers and you need to do a lot of tweaking and hopefully get them to work. 4. Before I got the controllers paired I tried to log into my account with hand gestures and the keyboard. This was totally unusable with missing keystrokes and erratic pointer movement. I had to pair the controllers to get this accomplished. 5. Headset draws more power than the usb 3.0 port on my computer can supply and I slowly saw my battery drain while connected to the computer via usb. Need to try other ports before making a final determination. 6. Face mask is not very comfortable but could be tolerated. Need to look at other solutions. The Good: 1. Very light headset especially without the battery pack. 2. Foldable and very portable. All you need is a power source. 3. Works very well with usb c dongle providing power delivery with a wired ethernet connection. It detects the ethernet connection as a tethered usb port. 4. Picture quality is excellent depending on which app you are using. Summary: In conclusion I think that this product was released prior to being ready. The software issues could be resolved if you are willing to wait for fixes, but there is no excuse for the quality issues with the lenses. I like the ergonomics and portability of the product enough to keep it because I believe that the software issues could be resolved in time however I will be replacing my defective unit. Hopefully Amazon will have one to replace it with. Update - March 29, 2023 ----------------------------- Spent several hours with the headset mainly without the battery pack in glasses mode working with steam vr. Following are the results. 1. The Headset pinches on the sides of the head making my head sore right above the ears. This was after several hours of use and now after 12 hours of resting, my head is still sore to the touch. The nose bridge pinches my nose making it difficult to breath but got used to it. 2. I installed the Vive Streaming App beta version and it works better than the released version. 3. Controllers started working with most apps after I disabled the compatibility setting in the streaming app. For some reason the default setting after installation was with compatibility on. This was a major accomplishment since it made the product usable. 4. Most steam vr games I tried worked fine once I got the controller issue resolved in 3 above however I could not get Flight Simulator 2020 to work even though it works fine with the Quest 2 and Pico 4 on the same system. Got a lot of stuttering and the streamer kept on losing connection. 5. Streaming both wireless and usb tethering mode worked fine. I barely noticed any difference between the two. I have mixed feelings about this headset. I think the comfort and software issues could be overcome. I really like the size and portability and modularity as well as picture quality once you get your sweet spot.

In my opinion, XR Elite is not meant to be the best of any one thing, considering its compact form factor. Its meant to provide very decent specs while also maintaining the size and weight at a portable level, which I think is crucial for a standalone headset. The fact that the battery can be removed to transform the headset into a pair VR glasses is quite innovative. If you want something you can bring along for use cases outside your home but without sacrificing graphics quality, XR Elite is a suitable option. The UI experience has minor problems so far, but Im hopeful that software fixes are coming soon. Ive heard rumblings about more standalone content and games will be made available as well. Looking forward to putting this nice device’s passthrough mode to the test.

I really see no reason for this half-baked product to have been released. For starters the hand tracking while decent clearly needed polish as it kept bugging out on me. Especially if switching from controllers to hand tracking which would sometimes cause freezing or other issues that required a reboot to clear. The main hub was buggy when downloading larger apps as downloading from there would always hang on anything beyond a certain size before starting over from 0%. Fortunately going to the actual app platform hub made it work but then why let us use a way to download that is buggy and incomplete? Just incompetence apparently. Trying to take the headset off to let it download something while you do something else would also cause the download to fail. I even got told by customer care to put something in front of the sensor so the headset could stay on. The headset itself would constantly overheat and crash, another thing to start over on a app download. Then I find out it cant even support Linux which mainly meant the Steam Deck which to me is quite surprising given how closely Valve works with HTC. On top of that the controllers would barely hold charge and seemed to die without ever using them. First time using a stand alone and but have also tested a quest and I think we need progress before its really ready. To me it feels half-baked at best and a mess at worse which is what this was for me. For the hardware we need at least what solid state batteries promise for longevity and weight as well as processors dont dont require screaming fans or a better cooling solution. I dont know exactly what that will require in terms of newly developed tech but I think Ill stay away from stand alone VR till that stuff is realized at the very least.

Streaming from PC Sucks, the thing is constantly in a loading screen (let me tell you how exciting VR is watching a HTC logo for 20 mins...), The left lens is literally littered with green dead pixels like it got hit by a magnet or something. Im looking into a return.

The valve index had set a very high bar, years before the quest 2 ever cam to market. Based on the quality valve is known for and numerous early reviews, I was expecting an exceptional headset when I preordered this one. I already own a quest 1, quest 2 and pico 4, so Im very familiar with vr. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. The headset wasnt comfortable at all. I couldnt get a very good light seal around the face cushion. The cushion itself seemed very flimsy and had a tendency to fall off if I grabbed it the wrong way. The battery pack that attaches to the back, like the pico 4 , is a great way to balance everything. However, unlike the pico, the back doesnt pivot at all. This means you have to loosen the back every time, which is inconvenient. This might have been manageable, but the only way to keep the headset on when I moved around was to tighten it excessively so that my face bit into the face cushion and it stayed on the back of my head. (This gave me headaches after 15-20 minutes of using it.) Visually, its not very impressive either. While it does look better than my quest 2, it doesnt look better than the pico 4. Also, the field of view seemed smaller, sort of like I was looking through binoculars. I tried playing Pop One and found myself having to look around a lot more, because my peripheral vision was almost non existent. Lastly, the controllers seem like a step backward. The body of controllers are straight bulky sticks, without any effort made to help them conform to your hand and be comfortable. The controllers on the quest 2 and pico 4 both feel comfortable in my hands. The xr elites did not. Both the quest 2 and the pico 4 are better headsets than this at a lesser price.