HTC’s shiny new enterprise VR headset, the Vive Pro Eye, adds a crucial new feature to the Pro series. But it won’t be replacing the original Pro.
HTC confirmed as much to UploadVR this week. In a statement provided over email, the company said that the Vive Pro Eye will ‘sit alongside’ its predecessor. It also reaffirmed it will announce the kit’s price at a later time. Vive Pro Eye adds integrated eye-tracking to the headset. This allows for foveated rendering in VR as well as a new means of input. Other specs like resolution and field of view (FOV) remain the same.
This suggests one of two things for Vive Pro pricing. It could be that Vive Pro Eye simply costs more than the original headset. That said, the first Pro costs $799 by itself and $1,399 with controllers and base stations. Raising that base price above that will make the Pro incredibly expensive no matter the target audience.
The other possibility is to cut the price of the Pro and introduce Vive Pro Eye at the original price. We could see HTC start to market Vive Pro to its existing fanbase at a cheaper price and solidify Pro Eye as the definitive enterprise product.
This is just all speculation on our part, though. HTC says its launching Pro Eye in Q2 of this year so we won’t have to wait long for answers. We’re hoping for an announcement at either MWC or GDC. Need to know more about Vive Pro Eye? We’ve gathered up everything about it in one spot.
