With the Vive Pro 2, HTC delivers a new VR headset for the high-end market that, like its predecessor, offers little new but more of everything. For regular 799 euros for the pure headset, HTC beats the competition on paper in terms of tracking, resolution and field of view.
The best of three Worlds
The HTC Vive Pro combines, at least on paper, the best of the HP Reverb G2, Valve Index and the Vive Cosmos Elite and usually even goes a step further .
With the “5K resolution” with 2,448 × 2,448 pixels per eye, even the HP Reverb G2 is surpassed, albeit only marginally. For the time being, HTC is again offering the highest resolution VR headset for end customers, apart from exotic products such as PimaxVR or StarVR One, which never made it into the mass market.
LCD with three subpixels instead of OLED
In addition to the increased resolution compared to the first Vive Pro (test), the display type has also changed from OLED to LCD, which leads to less good black values, but to a number of other improvements. These include the new RGB subpixel matrix, which offers three instead of just two subpixels per pixel, which practically eliminates the fly screen effect in combination with the higher pixel fill rate compared to the first generation, according to HTC.
In contrast to the HP Reverb G2, the pixels on the HTC are distributed over a horizontal field of view of 120 °. That is 6 ° more, but still a bit removed from the 130 ° Field of View, which Valve specifies for the index in the best possible case. This information should all be taken with caution, because the values achieved in practice often deviate from the manufacturer's information. The Vive Pro 2 can be operated with a refresh rate of either 90 Hz or 120 Hz.
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VIVE Pro 2 ( Image: HTC)
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With double lenses and display stream compression
To deal with the larger field of view, the higher resolution and the To be able to bypass a higher refresh rate compared to its predecessor, HTC takes two steps into its bag of tricks.
Similar to the Valve Index, two lenses are used per eye, which should ensure a significantly improved image sharpness in the edge area. The Valve Index test showed that this approach works.
To ensure compatibility with graphics cards below the latest generation, HTC is the first to offer VR headsets Display Stream Compression (DSC). This means that all Nvidia graphics cards from the 2000 series and AMD graphics cards from the 5000 series are officially able to deliver the full resolution at 120 Hertz. Regardless of this, a computer must of course also be able to deliver enough FPS, which requires a lot of computing power for the resolution even with the usual VR rendering tricks.
Otherwise nothing new: for better or for worse
Unlike HP or Oculus, HTC does not rely on inside-out tracking for the Vive Pro 2, but relies on the well-known SteamVR tracking. As always, this requires a more complex structure, but has proven to be the most precise and least error-prone tracking method to this day. The decision to use SteamVR tracking also enables compatibility with a variety of accessories from the Vive Wireless Adapter to the Valve Index Controllers.
Speaking of controllers: HTC remains true to itself here and, if desired, continues to deliver the Vive Pro 2 with the classic wall controllers that were already used in the first HTC Vive and are no longer technically the latest standard. HTC is also aware of this fact. The manufacturer therefore advertises itself in its own press material with the compatible valve index controllers instead of their own.
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The Index Controller (Image: Valve)
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The Index Controller 
The Valve Index Controllers are much better and also compatible The design and audio solution have also been adopted almost directly from the predecessor. However, both were also able to convince in the test of the Vive Pro. Only the floating headphones from Valve Index and HP Reverb G2 would have been a significant upgrade.
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VIVE Pro 2 (Image: HTC)
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VIVE Pro 2 cheaper for pre-orderers from the manufacturer
The Vive Pro 2 can now be pre-ordered as a separate HMD with a 60 euro discount for 739 euros directly from HTC Vive, the first alternative retailers such as Alternate * or Bestware * are also offering the discount in the shopping cart. HTC describes the variant without additional accessories as the perfect upgrade for SteamVR users who already have a VR system and only want to upgrade the headset. Both the headset and the complete set with basestations and controllers will be available in stores from June 4th. The headset alone costs 799 euros and the complete package costs 1,399 euros.
ComputerBase has received information on this item from HTC under NDA. The only requirement was the earliest possible publication time.
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