HTC has finally taken the lid off its standalone VR headset after months of teasing. The HTC Vive Focus is a first for the VR industry; being able to operate without any external hardware, while still able to maintain “world-scale” tracking.
Standalone in this case really does mean what it says on the box. The Vive Focus eschews the need for base stations, backpack mounted PCs, and smartphones. Everything is contained within the headset that offers 6-degree-of-freedom. That said, it can also be used with a separate controller for additional functionality.
Powering the Vive Focus is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, which has been tweaked to support the instant on feature. It also packs a high resolution AMOLED display, although HTC has been rather light on the details of what this is about. Other specifications were also not particularly detailed.
HTC has also announced the Vive Wave VR Platform. It’s basically Google Daydream, but changed enough to be allowed into China. An SDK is being released for developers to integrate additional accessories like third party controllers.
There’s no word on the release or pricing of the HTC Vive Focus just yet. It’ll like be seen in China first, with a global version needing a few extra adjustments for the international market.
