HTC Vive Pro 2
HTC’s latest high-end VR headset is far from affordable, but the Vive Pro 2’s virtualreality experience is unlike any other
SCORE ★★★★ PRICE Headset only, £599 (£719 inc VAT) from vive.com
The barrier for entry into the world of cutting-edge VR is still painfully high. While the standalone Oculus Quest 2 ( see issue
314, p54) brought virtual reality into console-like territory at £299, if you crave the best that VR gaming has to offer then you’ll need to invest much more money (and time) to get things up and running.
Just like the original HTC Vive
Pro ( see issue 287, p48), the Vive Pro 2 is the most expensive way to access VR at the moment – and that’s before you take into consideration the beefy gaming PC you’ll need to enjoy it to the fullest. Nevertheless, the Vive Pro 2 offers a premium VR experience like no other.
■ Temper, temper
Temper your expectations, though, since the Vive Pro 2 is more of a refinement to the 2018 headset than a radical change. Design-wise, it’s identical. You must still plug it into your PC via a confusing mess of wires, and it still uses a pair of base station sensors to track your movements. It also requires plenty of play space to get going.
The Vive Pro 2’s key improvements come from within. The headset’s LCD panel now has an increased resolution per eye of 2,448 x 2,448, with a wider 120° field of view and a refresh rate of 120Hz, up from 90Hz. Clearly, the Vive Pro 2 is geared more towards gamers with high-end rigs, using modern graphics cards capable of pushing VR to its limits.
Price is where things really start to get interesting. Unless you already own a Vive then you’ll also need to buy a pair of base stations and two controllers – either Vive’s own or any others from Oculus or Valve. According to HTC, a full bundle will soon be available for £1,299.
■ Same old design
The lack of design changes means you’re getting exactly the same comfort experience with the Vive Pro 2 as you did with the original. It still does an admirable job of evenly distributing weight across your head, and the adjustable headband can accommodate a wide range of sizes as well.
The Vive Pro 2 is well suited to glasses wearers and you can adjust the interpupillary distance (the space between both lenses) by between 57mm and 72mm to correctly focus the image. It’s easy to do: simply hold down a small button on the left side of the headset and pull the front either towards or away from your face until everything looks clear.
One thing I’m not pleased about is the return of the Vive Pro’s removable face cushion. This felt itchy during long VR sessions and – there’s no pleasant way of saying this – it’s a sweat sponge. It’s no good at blocking out light, either, since it doesn’t sit around your nose. The good news is that you can eliminate these problems if you attach a (far better) third-party face pad.
■ Inside the box
Aside from the headset, your £719 buys you a link box (which is used to connect the
Vive Pro 2 to your PC), a DisplayPort cable, a USB-A cable and a power adapter. If you buy the bundle, you also get a pair of Vive controllers, two SteamVR 2 base station sensors and all the relevant chargers and cables that come with them.
Unfortunately, the HTC Vive Pro 2’s setup process remains the stuff of virtual nightmares. After you have plugged in all the cables, switched on the three extra plugs, appropriately positioned your sensors, charged the controllers and pressed the button on the link box, you then need to launch SteamVR and pray that the software detects the headset and associated gubbins.
You also need to run HTC’s new Vive Console software alongside SteamVR during games and VR applications. This grants access to all sorts of extra settings, however, allowing you to manually adjust per-eye resolution, maximum refresh rate and apply motion compensation. This last setting is best used for PCs with weaker specs and adapts video resolution during gameplay to reach a 90fps target.
■ New eyes
As for the display, the Vive Pro 2’s low-persistence LCD panel provides a boosted total resolution of 4,896 x 2,448. That’s the highest of any VR headset yet.
As mentioned, the panels now refresh at 120Hz (up from 90Hz) and have a marginally wider 120° field of view. The latter doesn’t make a huge difference during gameplay, but the former is a serious game-changer if you’re lucky enough to own a gaming PC that can reliably push out frames. One thing to note, however, is that the wireless adapter (sold separately) restricts the Vive Pro 2’s refresh rate to 90Hz.
Quality-wise, the Vive Pro 2’s display looks astonishing, and it’s a significant improvement on all the other VR headsets I’ve tested previously. Colours are rich and vibrant, although since the Vive Pro 2’s lenses are more rectangular than the original lenses, the vertical field of view is reduced slightly.
■ Power behind the throne
The Vive Pro 2’s system requirements are understandably stringent. HTC recommends at least an Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500 CPU, 8GB of RAM and either an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 480 graphics card. You’ll also need a DisplayPort 1.2 output and a spare USB 3 port for the link box.
As a frame of reference, my testing rig consists of a Ryzen 7 1700 (which is close to the minimum), an Nvidia RTX 3070 FE graphics card and 16GB of DDR4 RAM.
This finally brings me to the good stuff. I tested the Vive Pro 2 with a variety of games, and (assuming you have the PC for the job) I can confidently say that virtual reality gaming really doesn’t get any better. The stunning post-apocalyptic environments of Half-Life: Alyx were rendered beautifully, with top-notch performance from beginning to end. If there was any slowdown during gameplay, I certainly didn’t notice it.
Wacky wobbly-weapon-waving colosseum battler Gorn also ran without any noticeable performance hiccups, as did time-stopping shooter Superhot VR. The Vive Pro 2’s headsets and controllers support both first and secondgeneration SteamVR base stations, and I tested both – and they successfully registered my head/ body movements and arm waggles.
It’s only a shame that HTC hasn’t updated the design or functionality of its now five-yearold input controllers, and they’re showing their age. The halo design at the top throws off the balance in the hand, and they are cumbersome compared to the Quest 2.
“The Vive Pro 2’s display looks astonishing, and it’s a significant improvement on all the other VR headsets I’ve tested previously”
■ Simply the best
Despite such criticisms, the Vive Pro’s sequel is once again the very best that VR has to offer. Provided that you have the hardware to support it, the Vive Pro 2 offers an exceptional VR experience, with an as-yet-unmatched maximum rendering resolution, as well as a good selection of added gaming-friendly benefits.
Where it falls down is the high cost and the lack of any meaningful design changes. This won’t be a VR gaming setup that attracts new people to the market. Instead, if you’re keen to take your first steps into the virtual world, the Oculus Quest 2 is our top choice. On the flip side, if you’re already a VR enthusiast and are looking for an excuse to upgrade, then there’s no better reason than this. NATHAN SPENDELOW
SPECIFICATIONS
Dual 2,448 x 2,448 120Hz IPS screens 120° field of view dual mics Bluetooth USB-C for peripherals G-sensor gyroscope proximity sensor IPD sensor SteamVR Tracking 2 requires Windows 10 257 x 300 x 110mm (WDH) 555g 1yr warranty