HTC Vive XR Elite vs Meta Quest Professional: What is the distinction?

• HTC Vive XR Elite

  A versatile compact VR and XR headset

  The following-gen headset from HTC gives a flexible design, in a position to be standalone or related, with a hot-swappable battery. It is good and light-weight, whereas the entrance RGB digital camera supply a terrific passthrough expertise to assist its XR abilities. It is costly, nevertheless, a lot will depend upon the pipeline of content material for this headset.

• 

  Meta

  Meta Quest Professional

  An enormous step up from the Quest 2

  Meta Quest Professional is a strong standalone VR headset that additionally works along with your PC in numerous methods.

There are a couple of different virtual reality headsets on the market now, however the struggle for probably the most well-known machine has typically been between HTC and Meta.

Each corporations have had a lot of attention-grabbing headset choices through the years, with Meta focussing on the extra wallet-friendly end of the market and HTC producing flagship PCVR and enterprise-grade headsets.

In 2023 although, we lastly have the 2 corporations on a extra degree taking part in area. With two headsets that seemingly supply very comparable capabilities.

The Meta Quest Pro and HTC Vive XR Elite are premium standalone digital actuality headsets which can be each designed to be light-weight and handy to make use of, whereas not skimping on options and specs. These are usually not low cost gadgets, however as an alternative, headsets which can be constructed to ship the products and end in a satisfying VR expertise in many alternative methods.

What units them aside although and which is value your cash? We’re right here to speak in regards to the variations and provide help to make up your thoughts.

Headset value, specs & availability

The Meta Quest Professional and HTC Vive XR Elite are instantly comparable because of a design that is basically meant to make them light-weight and moveable. These are each standalone headsets that pack comparable specs underneath the hood.

Each VR headsets are powered by the Snapdragon XR2 platform and have 12GB of RAM making them able to operating all types of video games and VR experiences with out being tethered to a PC.

You continue to do have the option to tether as effectively although, however now the know-how is on the stage the place you are free to wirelessly expertise VR in a satisfying manner.

Each the Meta Quest Professional and HTC Vive XR Elite make use of inside-out monitoring know-how which suggests you do not want exterior trackers (as with older HTC headsets) and as an alternative can precisely be tracked with built-in know-how. That tech consists of all the things from monitoring cameras to depth sensors, g-sensors, gyroscopes and proximity sensors. Each headsets additionally now use color passthrough cameras, so you possibly can simply see your surrounding world when that you must and that is particularly helpful for the HTC Vive XR Elite which has XR capabilities as effectively.

• 	Meta Quest Professional	HTC Vive XR Elite
  Model	Meta	HTC
  Decision (per eye)	2 x LCD panels (1800 x 1920 pixels per eye)	1920 x 1920 (3840*1920 pixels mixed)
  Show Sort	LCD	Pancake lens, 110-degree FOV
  Storage	256GB	128GB
  Battery Life	2 to three hours	As much as 15 hours of battery life (2 hours actual world)
  Monitoring Expertise	inside out	6 DoF Inside-out Monitoring

Show variations and lenses

• Meta Quest Professional – 2 x LCD panels (1800 x 1920 pixels per eye) with native dimming backlight, Subject of view (claimed): 106° horizontal × 96° vertical, 55 to 75 IPD vary, Eye monitoring in-built
• HTC Vive XR Elite – 1920 x 1920 pixels per eye (3840 x 1920 pixels mixed), 90 Hz refresh charge, 110-degree area of view, 54-73mm IPD vary

The specs of those headsets are comparable in different methods too. They each have comparable decision screens with the Meta Quest Professional boasting 1800 x 1920 pixels per eye whereas the Vive Elite XR has 1920 x 1920 pixels per eye. The HTC Vive headset does have a barely wider area of view although, at 110-degrees in comparison with the 106-degrees on the Quest Professional.

The place issues get attention-grabbing is with the lenses and the variations there. The HTC Vive XR Elite has a manually adjustable IPD slider in addition to a sensor to make sure the appropriate setup in your eyes. This enables for an IPD vary adjustment between 54 and 73mm. Whereas the Meta Quest Professional has lenses that you simply manually slide along with your fingers and it has an IPD vary of 55 to 75mm but it surely’s additionally attention-grabbing as a result of his headset gives eye-tracking know-how to enhance your view as effectively.

The HTC Vive XR Elite is exclusive because of its Built-in Diopters which permit the show to be adjusted to go well with the wants of spectacles wearers. Which means with a few dials on the lenses you possibly can alter the view to account in your prescription. So there is no have to put on specs whereas utilizing this headset which ought to make issues extra comfy and stop you from steaming up when you play.

The Meta Quest Professional would not have the identical logic for glasses wearers but it surely does have enough house so that you can put on each spectacles and the headset on the identical time. We additionally discovered throughout our evaluate that the open nature of the headset design means it is simple to maintain cool and comfy carrying the Quest Professional with glasses too. Way more so than the Quest 2.

Headset design variations

• Meta Quest Professional – Wi-Fi 6E-enabled, Bluetooth 5.2, PC assist with Oculus Hyperlink and Air Hyperlink
• HTC Vive XR Elite – Bluetooth 5.2 + BLE, Wi-Fi 6 + 6E, USB-C 3.2 gen 1

The headset’s designs differ barely in different methods too. The Meta Quest Professional has an open house the place your face meets the lenses. There’s not the same old face gasket wrapping round your head right here. As an alternative each the edges and backside of the headset are open to the environment. This works higher than you’d count on and truly has some advantages.

It permits the face to breathe extra and retains you cool, but it surely additionally allows you to regulate your environment extra simply, which is helpful in case you get disoriented in VR simply. You may connect aspect blinkers to the headset that make a distinction too in case you want extra immersion. We had been stunned by how little this design impacts the expertise although. Regardless of not having an all-encompassing faceplate you do not actually discover mild bleed impacting your VR view. That is as a result of the Quest Professional has a mini-LED backlighting system that has 500 dimming zones and enough brightness to make it simple to make use of even in brighter rooms.

The Vive XR Elite makes use of a fabric pad that covers the face and blocks mild from across the eyes. This headset’s design is totally different in that it is modular. So the battery may be taken off the rear of the headset and it may be used extra just like the Vive Flow, like a pair of immersive glasses somewhat than a VR headset.

In any other case, each headsets have an analogous headband design that ditches the highest strap that was once on most VR headsets and as an alternative has an adjustable band that goes round your head and is counterbalanced by the battery on the rear.

One factor that stands out for the Meta Quest Professional is the built-in monitoring. The Quest Professional gives all types of monitoring capabilities as customary. It has eye and face tracking in addition to hand monitoring too. You may flip these options off however they can be utilized in numerous helpful methods – eye monitoring for instance can be utilized to enhance efficiency by rendering what you are taking a look at within the highest high quality doable. Face monitoring is used in your avatar for pure expressions when in social conditions in VR and hand monitoring can be utilized in video games and for navigation.

The Vive XR Elite would not supply the identical degree of monitoring, however this may attraction to many in case you don’t love the concept of Meta getting access to mainly observe your total physique whenever you’re utilizing your headset.

Battery life

Just like the Meta Quest Professional, the Vive XR Elite is intelligently designed with the battery on the rear to assist with steadiness and luxury. The distinction although is that the Vive XR Elite additionally has a swappable battery design, so you possibly can have one on cost and change it out when that you must, somewhat than having to cease taking part in in an effort to plug it in for a cost. When within the glasses mode you may also connect your individual powerbank by way of USB-C connection as effectively.

The Meta Quest Professional in the meantime comes with a handy magnetic dock which you could pop each the headset and controllers onto when not in use and guarantee it is charged. There’s additionally a USB-C connection that you need to use to tether it to PC for enjoying PCVR games or powering the headset when you use it.

Throughout customary use although you may discover that each headsets handle round two to 3 hours of use earlier than they must be plugged in.

Controllers

The controllers for each headsets are fairly a bit totally different.

The HTC Vive XR Elite makes use of the identical controllers as the Vive Focus 3 and supply comparable monitoring capabilities.

The Quest Professional controllers by comparability are considerably fancier as they’ve a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 cell processor per controller. A mix of cameras constructed into the controllers additionally assist with monitoring and so they can be utilized for intelligent issues like portray in VR too. These controllers have built-in batteries and may be docked for charging. They’re fairly a bit smaller than those with the Quest 2 and so they haven’t got the monitoring ring on prime, in order that they’re nicer to make use of. Do not lose them although as they cost a lot to replace.

Entry to content material

Each headsets have entry to an ever-growing quantity of content material. The HTC Vive XR Elite provides customers entry to content material by way of Viveport which HTC has been pushing because the unique Vive headsets. Whereas the Meta Quest Professional works with Meta Quest video games downloadable by way of the Meta Quest Store. There is not any lack of content material for both of the headsets and even whenever you’ve exhausted these libraries you possibly can all the time connect with a PC and entry SteamVR content material as effectively. So there’s a lot to maintain you going.

The HTC Vive XR Elite has entry to XR content material so you need to use it with combined actuality experiences and ensure of the color passthrough cameras in attention-grabbing methods. Each HTC and Meta need to encourage customers to make use of the headsets for productiveness causes too. Working in VR or accessing numerous totally different productiveness instruments for assembly and work in VR. So there are many alternative ways to make use of each headsets.

Each headsets additionally assist each wired USB-C and Wi-Fi 6E wi-fi connectivity to your PC as effectively. In order that helps preserve the standalone wi-fi expertise even whenever you’re utilizing a extra highly effective machine.

Which must you purchase?

As you possibly can see, the Meta Quest Pro and HTC Vive XR Elite are very comparable in a lot of methods. These are two premium standalone headsets which can be packed filled with high-end tech and first rate specs. The HTC Vive XR Elite may attraction to those that worth their privateness extra, however the Quest Professional can be interesting for it is monitoring capabilities. Each headsets have nice screens, comfy designs and lots on supply. You should definitely learn our evaluations to get a extra in-depth take a look at what’s on supply and the way they stack up.