HTC Vive XR Elite Virtual Reality Headset + Controllers

Ive owned the original Vive, Index, and Quest 2 and this headset has been the most disappointing.. Unboxing it and setting it up was alright, when I went to log in with my email it told me to use steam to log in which I assume it wanted me to plug into a PC which I cant so I eventually made a new account with a new email so I can download things which worked but now I cant use the built in browser since it says it needs to update and I cant open it anymore, also for a few hours on the first day I was stuck on a loading screen but could hear the menu in the background and resetting it a few times didnt help, I had to unplug and replug it in like 5 times to eventually be able to use it again. Software aside the fan on this thing is loud, like its pretty noticeable id say double maybe triple the Quest 2s fan noise. The passthrough is the only decent thing on this headset but its not perfect but so far the best ive seen on a headset, At this price point theres better options out there

A few things I thought I was going to really enjoy about the XR elite were the tether-less streaming and adjustable diopters, as well as the potential to hack in steamVR tracking by rigging a base station tracker to the HMD somewhere. My suspicions were correct; even though I have never used an inside-out HMD, the tracking was abominable and would cut out often, regardless of lighting condition. This left me with the white/grey screen, and having to completely redo my playspace. Unfortunately, ALVR and similar projects were not ready day one. PCVR streaming also causes a noticeable performance impact, even on a 5800X and RTX4090. Pairing took hours of frustration and shoving my face as close as I could to the screen, because the pairing QR code would never scan! Sure this can be fixed with updates but my neck was sore and it was a 4 hour process before I even got into streaming. USB streaming is also temperamental. Also, hand tracking for this product does not exist. Its unusable, and the FOV of it is also ridiculous. It feels like 20 degrees of scope and you have to stretch your hand out in front of you as far as it will go. As for comfort, the face gasket, marketed to be this soft, plush fabric, has a hard and painful plastic inner frame, that is extremely UNcomfortable (painful actually) on your forehead depending on the shape of your face. It also continued to push my eyes out of the sweet spot. If I adjusted the headset to line up my eyes with the device correctly, the gasket would detach from the bottom and leave a 10-15MM gap - what?! The head strap was sorely needed to make it bearable for the 30 minutes I could stand to experience it. This needs to go back to the drawing board, and the newest media coverage of this device shows new experimental facial interfaces already. These are crutches that will not do much to fix the full scope of the broken UX of this product. What I would like to see out of this product, as with the flop of the cosmos, is a completely re-engineered facial and head strap interface. A clone of the orignal HTC vive facial interface and DAS was the best design I have experienced so far from HTC and was hands down the most comfortable VR experience. A copy-paste would be totally fine. Additionally, make it base station tracked. And make binocular overlap better than or equal to the original vive. FOV is also terrible but would get a pass as a first gen of a new form factor if everything else was fixed. Will any of this happen? No. Would I trust HTC and buy it if this came true? No. The XR Elite is what it is. What HTC is trying to do is just not going to work in its current state, trying to do too much and experiment too much. If it worked as advertised, and was actually wearable without discomfort, this would make huge waves. Congratulations on trying HTC, other projects will surely piggyback on the development of this device.

Dude...dont buy this unless you are strictly using it for PCVR. Half the apps dont work. The controllers bug out. The lens are glary . There is practically zero games. No refund policy for games. Oh yeah you heard me right. No refund (meta lets you refund anything as long as you havent played it over 2 hours) and the fan is crazy loud. This thing feels very underdeveloped. We got scammed man

tried 8 hours to get vive elite xr to work, including 2 hours with vive chatbots. no go. returned item.

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.

Late adopter to VR. If this is your first foray into VR, its a solid place to start. My other experience is HTC Vive Pro 2. So the inside out tracking coupled with AR capability is a freedom from base stations and wires. But you do get a downgrade in definition, which is understandable given how light the unit is. The FOV is much less than its Vive Pro 2 sibling. But if youre playing casual VR games like Beat Saber or just getting your feet wet in VR and utterly refuse to be involved with anything Mark Zuckerberg then HTC is the set for you.

I was excited to upgrade from my Index to this, but Im going back to my Index - Im better off buying the Wireless add-on and keeping my Index. This thing is very uncomfortable, the IPD is a pain to dial in, and I cant get the IPD to the best sweet spot (Im sure thats on me). The controllers are basic and the Index controllers blow these away. WiFi playing - Also pretty bad, Alyx couldnt be played and Im on a 6e network for both the PC and XR - the only two devices on the network and it still cant be played wirelessly. Overall, this is overpriced for what you get - the FOV is small, white/bright lights are annoying, they shine way too much. Just a bummer, I had such high hopes for this....

The quality of the headset is good. The full-color passthrough is really neat especially compared to my old Samsung Odyssey WMR. I also like that the controllers pair to the headset and not to my PC. My biggest complaint is that they have clearing been pushing the 5 free titles as part of the pre-order since it was listed back in January. However, only ONE of those five titles are actually available on the headset. The other 4 are apparently coming soon with no clear release date. The Viveport store is pathetic at best. SteamVR worked with a USB cable most of the time, but it would occasionally flake out. Using Wi-Fi 6 from my router in the same room was low resolution a laggy at best. Sometimes it work for a good couple minutes and other times not at all. Overall, this thing is not worth the $1100 asking price in my opinion.

I have been in vr since 2016 and owned most headsets. This is the worst experience Ive ever had with VR. Streaming has issues via USB or wireless (I have a dedicated wifi6e router and zero issues with Quest 2 or Vive focus 3 at ultra quality streaming). IPD constantly adjusts on its own. Unusable as a standalone or with PCVR in its current state. HTCs own forums and Reddit are filled with the same problems. Dont buy.

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.