HTC Vive Pro

The definitive VR experience of the moment. Hideously expensive, but worth it for those who love the cutting edge.

- Tim Danton

PRICE Headset only, £666 (£799 inc VAT) 

from htc.com

Every new technology needs a tipping point before it explodes. In the case of virtual reality, we’ve been waiting for decades. So long, that many people - including several within PC Pro - have written it off. It may seem bizarre to herald the HTC Vive Pro as the breakthrough product, but at last we’ve seen what’s capable when hardware and software meet in the middle to create something genuinely great.

When I took delivery of the Vive Pro for an in-depth test – as I write these words, I’ve been living with it for two weeks – I didn’t have such amazing expectations. I’ve used the HTC Vive, played with the Oculus Rift through its various incarnations, and currently have three Windows Mixed Reality headsets sitting on a shelf behind me. They’ve all shown promise, but the Vive Pro – in cahoots with a slew of VR games – has taken me from a supporter of VR into a genuine fan.

So what’s new?

The reason my expectations were so low are simple: on paper, the Vive Pro doesn’t seem like such a huge upgrade on the Vive, Oculus Rift or Windows Mixed Reality. Who cares that the resolution per eye has been boosted to 1,400 x 1,600 – is that really so different to the 1,080 x 1,200 of the original Vive? After all, they both have a 110-degree field of view and 90Hz refresh rate.