bHaptics' new TactSuit Pro and TactSuit Air are cheaper than their predecessors, and the new TactSleeve is significantly lighter than Tactosy was.
If you're unfamiliar, bHaptics makes and sells haptic vests, armbands, gloves, shoe attachments, and even an attachment to add vibration to headsets. Now, bHaptics is announcing and opening preorders for the next version of its vests and armbands.
The new TactSuit Pro replaces the old TactSuit X40. It actually has fewer vibration points, 32 instead of 40, but is $30 cheaper at $500, and has 1.5 hours extra battery life for a total of 13.5 hours.
TactSuit Pro also features a new physical dial on the front, with a ring of colored LEDs, which controls the intensity of haptics and lets you toggle haptics on or off with a press.
Meanwhile, the new TactSuit Air replaces the old TactSuit X16. It's notably cheaper, at $250 compared to $330, but the specs otherwise appear to be identical.
While TactSuit Pro only comes in one color, black, TactSuit Air comes in Ash (white and black) or Onyx (black and red).
As well as the new vests, the new bHaptics TactSleeve replaces the old Tactosy armbands. It's now 42% lighter at 185 grams each, which should feel better on your arms, and remains $200 for a pair. However, the tradeoff bHaptics has made to achieve this is to halve the number of haptic points, down to three per band.
TactSuit Air (top), TactSuit Pro (bottom left), and TactSleeve (bottom right)
The new TactSuits and TactSleeve are compatible with all the same headsets and content that the previous suits and Tactosy were.
The devices connect wirelessly to Quest headsets, your PC, or PlayStation 5 via the phone app. They're supported in over 100 Meta Quest games, over 200 PC VR games, and nine PlayStation VR2 titles, in which developers have implemented the bHaptics SDK. You can find a full list of supported titles here.
For unsupported titles, you can use "audio-based haptics". This involves connecting the TactSuit to your headset or PC via a 3.5mm audio cable, wherein it uses the audio to drive haptics.
Preorders for TactSuit Pro, TactSuit Air, and TactSleeve are now live on bHaptics.com. Preordering offers free shipping, a sticker, and a free VR game key, with the choices appearing to be between Into The Radius, Medieval Dynasty, and Hitstream. bHaptics says shipping will begin on November 27, and preorders will end.
bHaptics is also offering a bundle of TactSuit Pro and TactSleeve together for $600, saving $100 compared to buying them separately.
