HTC Vive XR Elite Virtual Reality Headset + Controllers

Pros: The Vive XR Elite has a great form factor. Its lightweight, balances well while youre wearing it. I like the feel of the controllers. Video passthrough is pretty good. Its good enough to walk around the room, pick up things, and you can read text on your monitor if you get close enough. Controller tracking and hand tracking is pretty good. I know some have mentioned that the audio is not that great. I think its fine for what I use this for. I havent tried other VR headsets to compare though. Cons: I wear reading glasses, and read that the Vive XR Elite has adjustable lenses, so you could dial in your prescription. I was surprised to see that the clearest setting for me was dialing it to zero. The focus wasnt that great, but dialing any higher made it worse. I have an astigmatism, so maybe thats the issue. So if you have an astigmatism, this headset isnt for you? Hopefully there are some options in the future that will fix this. The stand-alone game options are pretty limited. Looking for more in the future... Connecting to the PC went smoothly, but the wifi connection is terrible. I have a 6G wifi router and the connection settings says its got an excellent connection, yet the VIVE Streaming Hub constantly says its dropping frames. *** Update *** I noticed my headset was flipping back and forth between my 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. I have disabled my 2.4 GHz network in my router and that has greatly improved the WiFi experience. Plus HTC has updated the software for the headset which also seems to have greatly improved things. WiFi is working very well now. FYI, I have a modern MSI gaming laptop with 32 Gigs of ram and an NVidia 3090ti. I play SuperHot, which is fun yet has very simplistic graphics. This game works for me about 20% of the time. Forget playing something like HalfLife: Alex. *** Update *** As I mentioned before since HTCs update and turning off the 2.4 GHz network things are much improved, including HalfLife: Alex. This game works great now even in WiFi. I tried using the headset with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. First with WiFi. It came through low resolution and was jerky. Then I played it wired in through the USB-C cable. It looked much better but alternated every second between normal frame rate and lagging, which made things like landing more difficult than it should have been. *** Update *** The HTC update seems to have greatly improved wired performance as well. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is amazing in VR. There are still cons though: Text in the cockpit is still fuzzy because I have an astigmatism and am unable to perfectly focus the headset. I tried Immersed, which is a vr desktop. The resolution and focusing issues Ive had make this unusable. This is my first VR headset, and I went by pre-release reviews of this headset, which can be risky, but I _thought_ HTC, with all their experience producing VR headsets, would come through on this one. I was very wrong. *** Update *** I am glad to say that HTCs software update fixes for both WiFi and wired and adjustments I made to my WiFi router have greatly improved performance. I have changed my rating from 1 star to 4.

I was originally between this headset and the Quest Pro, but decided I wanted the less bulky option. No regrets, honestly. After spending a few weeks with my Elite I don’t think I can go back to big/heavy headsets. It’s liberating just going in and playing without having to worry about the HMD weighing me down. I also like the option of connecting my phone’s battery pack instead of the cradle. I don’t have a PC to run the Steam games available, but now I might just get one. For those on the fence about this, remember that it’s always going to be a tradeoff of some kind no matter what headset you get. If comfort matters to you, I think XR Elite is a solid choice.

I wanted to like it, after about two hours I just couldnt get it to stay focused. It just doesnt feel right for someone with a wider head. I have the same problem with eyeglasses most are not wide enough for me. I returned it, but will have to wait 30 days plus up to 7 days for the banks to process the return. This is not the normal Amazon return efund policy.

Really enjoying the XR Elite. Great combination of form and performance. This VR headset is light and comfortable and as close to a pair of glasses as I’ve experienced. I’ve been wanting a high end headset with the convenience of being a standalone device, and this fits the bill. Resolution is clear, colors are vibrant, and refresh rate is very good. I’ve found the interface to be pretty intuitive so it’s relatively easy to use. Came with some interesting software and works with their own store and Steam. Looking forward for more mixed reality apps to take advantage of the color passthrough.

I have to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised with this headset so far. It really is as small and light as you would expect, and I don’t get a headache wearing it like I do with other headsets. The hand tracking is fun, but I’ve found I like using the controllers more. Biggest thing for me though is the passthrough. I thought I didn’t care about AR, but it’s really neat being able to look around your room and make drawings, sculpt objects, whatever. Now I just gotta decide what other games to get for it.

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.

I purchased my XR Elite via the HTC Vive store, but Im so disappointed in it that I felt a warning on Amazon was warranted. Its impressive when you first pull it out of the box, but any possibility of a good review had vanished after using the headset for less than 10 minutes. Im a Vive fanboy... I own the original Vive and the Vive Elite Cosmos and LOVE them both, but I can only assume those engineers came nowhere near the XR Elite. For reference, my SteamVR streaming rig is a relatively high-end 3080TI with a WiFi 6E router... I have no issues running the most demanding VR games at high detail on my Cosmos Elite. Good -The diopter adjustment is great -HMD is impressively small and light weight Bad -AIO software might as well be nonexistent for whats offered -PC streaming is mostly a stuttering low-rez mess and when it does work and very few SteamVR games provide bindings for the XR controllers -Uncomfortable in every configuration... glasses mode pinches your skull to literally headache inducing levels and battery mode squashes your face when you wear it tight enough not to wiggle -Terrible internal reflected light bloom in the pancake lens assemblies... bright graphics wash out the entire display -Field of view is one of the worst Ive experienced with no ability to move the lens closer to your eyes -Controllers feel like a cheap Dollar Store knockoffs -Face gasket is made of a fabric material and is already dirty and deforming in addition to constantly coming detached from the headset at the slightest bump -A ridiculous piece of cheap elastic is included as a securing head strap HTC should be embarrassed by the XR Elite and ashamed of themselves for the price point. My shame is in not retuning it immediately... now I can only hope that active improvements to the software and 3rd party accessories can save it from a dusty death at the bottom of a drawer.

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.

The software is simply awful. Its certainly possible the hardware is solid, but you never do get a chance to find out. On every startup, its a mystery if the boundary will reset (nearly every time), the hand tracking will work (maybe 50% of the time), or the battery will have charged. Startup times of the headset take from 15 seconds (great!) to 2-3 minutes (and often the little startup circle spins endlessly never starting up!). This might be a fun experiment for some- but avoid the HTC Vive XR Elite like the *plague* of you are looking for even a remotely reliable family VR headset.

Cons: 1. If your network isnt being broadcasted, theres no way to add to the hidden network from the Vive Manager app. So you have to join whatever broadcasting/visible network that you see then sign up the headset then go into the virtual dashboard to Connectivity to add the hidden network 2. Small sweet spot 3. Fan in headset is noticeable 4. Glare from the lenses and halo effect (or light bleeding) around the edges 5. IPD says 72 but only goes to 69.55 6. Grainy passthrough 7. First impressions of the hand tracking isnt that good. It works but you most definitely need the controllers nearby 8. Despite following the steps of this video, I have difficulties getting the headset to see the PC connection. After almost a hour of working on this, I gave up. I will try again tomorrow but Im more than likely returning the headset when I had high hopes for this as a glasses wearer and original HTC Vive owner. Pros: 1. Form factor: lightweight, compact, balanced 2. Good audio: crisp 3. No glasses needed