Last year, HTC announced its Vive Cosmos VR headsets. Then a lot later in the year, it became available for pre-order, which surprisingly includes the Malaysian market. Now, it looks like the company has three new variants of the VR headset. They are called the HTC Vive Cosmos Play, Elite, and XR.
Starting with the lower end of the spectrum, the HTC Vive Cosmos Play is the entry level headset of the three. It comes with four-camera inside-out tracking, where the original Cosmos had six. Then comes the Cosmos Elite, which has external tracking that makes use of two base stations. In case you’re wondering, the base stations do come with the Cosmos Elite, alongside two Vive controllers.
What’s interesting about these two variants is that their tracking tech are part of a detachable faceplate. This means that if, for instance, you already have the HTC Vive Cosmos Elite and you wanted to use inside-out tracking rather than external tracking, you could just buy the faceplate of the Play variant, rather than buying the entire headset. In terms of display, they all share the 90Hz 2800 x 1700 LCD, similar to the original Cosmos.
The Vive Cosmos XR, on the other hand, is a bit of an oddball among the three. It’s more of a mixed reality headset, rather than strictly VR. It’s also meant to be a development tool rather than a consumer product.
HTC has yet to announce the pricing or availability of the Vive Cosmos Play. But since it has two less cameras than the original Cosmos headset, which was priced at RM3699, it is expected to come at a lower price point. The Vive Cosmos Elite on the other hand, will come with a price of US$899 (~RM3770). It’s expected to be available within the first quarter of 2020, with pre-orders starting 24 February.
(Source: HTC / Youtube via VentureBeat)
