HTC Vive successor won’t rival Oculus Quest 2 when it launches later in 2021
HTC is developing a new standalone headset, but it’s not an Oculus Quest killer
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A top HTC official said the company plans on producing a new wireless, standalone VR headset in 2021 that is “probably better than what’s out there from any vendor today”.
That’s the word from Alvin Wang Graylin, President of Vive in China, who was interviewed onYouTubeon a channel calledTeliportMe.
“I think we’ve said in the past that we will release a new AIO [all-in-one] this year,” Graylin said. “It’s our next-generation standalone. We will have one this year [and] it is going to be a great product.”
Graylin then goes on to say that he can’t provide many details about the new headset outside of some basic info, but says that it will be better than anything the company has available today.
So what’s the bad news? Unfortunately, Graylin also said he doesn’t see it lining up against theOculus Quest 2, Facebook’s premium wireless headset that came out in 2020 and the current leader in the standalone VR space. Long story short, we could be looking at a successor to the HTC Vive Focus (pictured above) or something a bit further away from theOculusQuest in terms of price and performance.
UPDATE:When TechRadar reached out to HTC for a comment on today’s story, a representative told us “As a market leader, HTC VIVE will continue to build a holistic VR ecosystem of new products, services and solutions that meets both consumers' and business' needs and drive adoption of immersive technologies. We will be excitedly sharing some details about our next big moves soon. Stay tuned!”
Should you buy a Quest or wait for an HTC headset?
If you’ve been on the fence about buying a new VR headset this year, the news of yet another headset on the horizon probably won’t make your decision any easier.
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Sonyannounced earlier this month that it plans on producing aPSVR 2headset down the road and there’s even been talk of the long-rumoredApple VR headsetmaking an appearance later this year, too.
Despite all of the potential headsets coming down the road, few of them seem to line up exactly with what the Oculus Quest 2 offers – which, namely, is a standalone VR headset with a good resolution and the potential to hit a120Hz refresh rate in the future. That’s on top of a solid catalogue of games, and the ability to run it from your PC with a link cable.
Whatever materializes out of Sony,Appleand HTC’s camp might be great for their specific use cases, but so far it doesn’t appear that anyone is making a real competitor for the Quest 2 this year.
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Nick Pino is Managing Editor, TV and AV for TechRadar’s sister site, Tom’s Guide. Previously, he was the Senior Editor of Home Entertainment at TechRadar, covering TVs, headphones, speakers, video games, VR and streaming devices. He’s also written for GamesRadar+, Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and other outlets over the last decade, and he has a degree in computer science he’s not using if anyone wants it.
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