HTC announces the Vive Focus Vision with color passthrough and an eye on gaming


HTC has announced the Vive Focus Vision, a new VR headset that builds on the Vive Focus 3 with features like color passthrough and better PC tethering support. The $999 Focus Vision is available for preorder from now until October 17th on HTC’s website.
The Focus Vision can be used either as a standalone device or tethered to your PC using USB-C. It’s essentially a beefed-up version of the Focus 3, which the company released in 2021 — it has the same 2448 x 2448 per-eye resolution and 120-degree field of view, and also uses a Snapdragon XR2 chip. But it gains features like dual 16MP cameras with color passthrough, and it can now automatically adjust the lenses to compensate for the distance between your eyes.
HTC is going for gamers with this headset. Part of that is the inclusion of foveated rendering, meaning it can focus its graphical resources only where you’re looking instead of across your whole field of view at once. “Now, PC gamers can bring the same high-end headsets used in VR arcades into their homes,” Shen Ye, HTC Vive’s global head of product, said in a press release.
The Focus Vision also adds DisplayPort support via USB-C, which HTC says enables a lossless connection when tethered to your PC. And after an update later this year, DisplayPort tethering will allow the displays’ refresh rate to go from the normal 90Hz to 120Hz. The Focus Vision has 128 GB of storage (with a microSD slot for up to 2TB more), and 12GB of RAM, up from the 8GB of its predecessor. The headset also supports all Focus 3 accessories.
A built-in battery can keep the Focus Vision going for 20 minutes, giving you time to swap out the main power pack if you burn through its about two-hour battery life. Additionally, the headset has a new fan that will pull 30 percent more air through for better cooling, according to the company.
The headstrap got some love, too. “Users can be pretty abusive,” said Dan O’Brien, HTC president of Americas. But that showed the company where there were “weak points” in the Focus 3’s design, and as a result of that, HTC “improved the metal hook for the back, topside handling, as well as the side arms.”
The Vive Focus Vision aims right at the consumer market that HTC’s Focus 3, with its Quest 2-style controllers, seemed to flirt with. (Previous Focus headsets were heavily business-oriented.) Other headsets from HTC have also targeted consumers, like last year’s Vive XR Elite, a lighter, $1,099 headset that also has color passthrough video, but uses lower resolution screens than the Vision.
Anyone who preorders before October 17th will get a free kit that includes a 5-meter USB-C cable with DP 1.4 alternate mode support, as well as multiple adapters for PC VR streaming. The company also says it’s tossing in a “choice of three popular game bundles.”
HTC has announced the Vive Focus Vision, a new VR headset that builds on the Vive Focus 3 with features like color passthrough and better PC tethering support. The $999 Focus Vision is available for preorder from now until October 17th on HTC’s website. The Focus Vision can be used…
Recent Posts
- FTC Chair praises Justice Thomas as ‘the most important judge of the last 100 years’ for Black History Month
- HP acquires Humane AI assets and the AI pin will suffer a humane death
- HP acquires Humane AI assets and the AI pin may suffer a humane death
- HP acquires Humane Ai and gives the AI pin a humane death
- DOGE can keep accessing government data for now, judge rules
Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2018
- October 2017
- December 2011
- August 2010