HTC Vive Focus Vision — Mixed Reality and PC VR Headset + Controllers — Consumer Edition

I was unsure about buying the Focus Vision at first because of its high price, but after trying it out, I think it's worth it for those who want both standalone and PCVR functionality. Switching between untethered and PC modes is smooth, and the PCVR performance is excellent, especially when using the DisplayPort converter for clear visuals.Even though the design is a bit bulky, the headset feels surprisingly comfortable. The weight is well-balanced, thanks to the battery being placed at the back, which makes long sessions easier. One of its best features is the automatic IPD adjustment, which is especially handy if multiple people are sharing the device. The display is sharp, and the MR mode works well.But there are some downsides. The price is quite high, and the headset uses an older Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 chip, which might not handle future demands as well as newer processors. The Fresnel lenses are functional but not as clear as the more advanced pancake lenses found in other headsets. Also, the standalone software options are limited, but the PCVR performance helps make up for this.This Focus Vision is a great choice for those who want a VR headset that works well for both standalone and PCVR uses. While it has a few flaws, its comfort, display quality, and versatility make it a solid option if you’re okay with the price.

I've owned a few HTC Vive products, and was ready for an upgrade... but this isn't it. I knew these came with Fresnel lenses but figured the bump in resolution and auto-IPD would make up for it. I was very wrong... My use case is connected PCVR, primarily seated racing.First the good - the additional resolution is great! The headset is reasonably weighted but well balanced, with the battery in the back. I wear glasses, and the fit was a bit tight with my glasses often getting stuck in the face pads, but overall it was comfortable. I didn't have a chance to use these for long periods, but compared to my other VR headsets, I would say these are in the slightly more comfortable region. You can feel the fan kick on to keep your face cool during VR sessions, the pads are removable and comfortable, and it offers a lot of adjustments. I also appreciate the speakers connected to the strap but positioned to offer you great sound without cutting out exterior noise - that way you can hear when someone is trying to get your attention while you're in VR. I have no real issues with the controllers - they were light and responsive. Yes the Valve Index controllers are better, but the Focus Vision controllers are light and balanced and offer all the features you'd expect. It does come with a dual USB-C charging cable... but no charger. That's a huge miss... you shouldn't need to purchase anything at this price range, and likely most users have a spare USB-C charger, but still...My first big issue was my fault - during setup, I picked up a controller and accidentally hit a button which selected Korean as the default language. Even though this kit was intended to be connected to a PC, the headset saves your setup, so I had to hunt around to find a factory reset (hold the battery and volume down until the display comes on, let go of the battery button, wait for the menu to pop up and then use volume down to select factory reset. Hit the side auto-IPD button to select, and let it run). There should be a way to go back and select languages... that's a terrible design. It took opening a ticket with HTC and waiting a few days for a response to find the factory reset settings...You need the overpriced PC connection cable to connect to a PC - though it can work over Wifi to a limited extent, my experience was not great. I even set up a separate 5GHZ wifi just for my PC and Focus Vision. The connection was laggy... with the wired kit, it worked a handful of times but kept losing connectivity to my PC's display port (a 4070ti). I moved it to my main gaming rig running a 4090 with the same issues. For the price of the connection kit, it should work flawlessly... but it doesn't. On bootup, there's maybe a 30% chance it detects my display port. When it doesn't, I had to fiddle with shutting everything down, rebooting the headset and PC, and try again... it shouldn't be this hard.Auto-IPD almost never worked, nor did eye tracking. On occasion, the auto-IPD would kick in for no reason and start adjustments... other times it wouldn't work at all, forcing you to load up the main menu and make manual adjustments. I can see this being a huge pain over time, especially if you have more than one user with different settings. And those setting menus are sometimes static (they move with your head, not one that stays fixed so you can move around and focus on different areas). With the fresnel lenses, that means the bulk of some setup and config menus are too blurry to read. This is likely less of an issue with users who don't wear glasses, but the setup and config shouldn't include any static menus like this. I found that static menu issue more when it lost connectivity to PC over display port, so if you can get the PC cable working it may not be as much of an issue.Overall, this is a huge miss for HTC. In this price range, we should expect better lenses, it should include all the connectivity and cabling, and it should be flawless and easy to set up.

I read a lot of reviews before buying this headset. I have (for some reason…) a few high end headsets, including the metaquest 3, and the vibe pro 2, so I’m comparing this to those. I decided to give this one a try despite the reviews I’d read because I really wanted the eye and face tracking (face tracking sold separately.)As far as the build quality goes, it is put together well, in my opinion. They’ve used plastic for most of it, but I think that’s a good thing because it makes it lighter. It’s not flimsy or anything, it’s solidly built. The headset sits nicely on my head, and the adjustable strap on the top and in back makes it comfortable to play for hours at a time.As far as functionality goes, it is a bit quirky to get up and going. A little disclaimer, I exclusively use this thing streaming pcvr. I have no interest in its standalone features, so I can’t comment on them. From a pcvr standpoint, the headset performs pretty solidly, once you get past its little road bumps. I use steam index controllers and vive 3.0 trackers with it with mostly no issues, and it performs just as well as my vive pro 2 does. The auto ipd tracking is an interesting decision to go with given pancake lenses exist, but with that being said, it is pretty effective at finding the right spot for my eyes and making the picture crystal clear. I have a lot more of a difficult time adjusting my vibe pro 2 lenses to be that clear, and I dont think I’ve ever done it successfully to be as clear as the vision gets for me. The eye tracking again has a few initial hurdles to figure out, but once it’s up and running it’s essentially set it and forget it, and it works great. I was a little concerned with having to mix tracking types, as I’ve had pretty g bad experiences trying to get index controllers and 3.0 trackers to work with my meta quest 3, so this being relatively seamless after the initial setup it was a welcome change.I will say, I did end up opting to get the wired pcvr streaming kit vs doing it over WiFi. Despite having a pretty decent router with 5g streaming, there were quite a few times when the headset seemed to lost connection and freeze for a moment while it figured the connection out again. I haven’t tried doing it over virtual desktop instead of the vive streaming software though, I’m not sure if I’d have better results. Hard to determine if it was a hardware thing with the vision or a software thing with vive hub.I also did buy the vive ultimate trackers to work with this. I won’t say much about those because this isn’t a review on them, but I will say setting them up to work with the vision is pretty painless.I will say, the asking price is a little steep, though. I wouldn’t recommend anyone wanting to upgrade their setup to upgrade to this unless they really have a little extra money to spend and really want eye and face tracking. I think this headset works for a specific group of people, people in situations like mine where I like collecting these things and did want the extra functionality of the eye and face tracking. But there are better options out there if this is your first headset or you are wanting to upgrade from a metaquest 2 or something.