Skip to main content

HTC smartphone VR headset coming by end of the year

Looking to offer an analog to the Gear VR headset and some of the emerging mobile virtual reality solutions, HTC has announced that it will introduce a mobile VR headset by the end of 2017. Designed to work with the company’s upcoming high-end smartphone, the U Ultra, it may also end up supporting other mobile VR products before the end of the year.

Having split off its virtual reality business into its own separate entity last year, HTC is making a big drive for virtual reality in 2017. Part of that has been in the continuing evolution of its Vive headset, but also it seems in the creation of a new, mobile-focused headset.

Recommended Videos

If effective, this move should help sell the U Ultra smartphone and provide additional value for those who were already planning to purchase it. More importantly though, it will give HTC a more affordable VR solution for those who cannot afford a headset like the HTC Vive, or the gaming PC required to run it.

While this will give it a comparable product to the Gear VR — which for non-Google Cardboard-type headsets, is the most popular of them all — HTC does suggest that its mobile VR solution will be more than just a “phone slapped into a headset.” While HTC didn’t give much detail about what that might be, in its chat with CNET it reiterated that we can expect something a little different with its mobile alternative to the Vive.

Speculating about what HTC’s mobile virtual reality solution might be like, we can assume from its mention of U Ultra support that it will still use the phone itself as the VR display. While it’s possible that the compatibility with the handset could mean that it plugs in and uses the phone’s processing for a secondary display in the headset, or uses the touchscreen as a controller, that seems unlikely.

Perhaps what HTC will look to offer with its mobile headset is something we have yet to see from the others. Something like inside-out positional tracking perhaps.

What kind of innovation do you think HTC could bring to the mobile VR space?

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…
Meta may have canceled its high-end Apple Vision Pro competitor
The Meta Quest 3 and Quest Pro appear side-by-side.

According to a report from The Information citing two Meta employees, Meta has canceled its plans for a premium mixed-reality headset. It seems the company told Reality Lab employees to halt work on the product this week after executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, reviewed the project.

It's uncertain whether the device was destined to be a sequel to the Meta Quest Pro or a completely new product, but it's clear that developing a competitor for the Apple Vision Pro was the purpose of the project.

Read more
The Vision Pro is about to become a legit VR gaming headset
The Vision Pro being used by someone with controllers.

Although there are games available on the Vision Pro, there's always been one missing element: controllers. The reliance on only eye tracking and hand gestures limits a lot of what games can be played. That's especially true for games that are being ported over from other headsets -- or just for more complicated games in general.

But now, Surreal Touch has announced that it's working on 6DoF controllers built for the Apple Vision Pro. The controllers each come with two buttons and a joystick, coming in two color options: glossy Pearl White or frosted Stellar Grey. Surreal Touch claims the controllers have "omnidirectional sensing" and a "proprietary spatial computing algorithm" that Surreal Touch has developed internally -- which it claims will result in the "ultimate precision and latency."

Read more
Apple’s cheaper Vision Pro may come with one big drawback
Apple Vision Pro demo unit.

One of the major issues with Apple’s Vision Pro is its price tag. Many folks aren’t willing or able to drop $3,499 on a device they’re not even sure they’re going to use regularly, while others feel more inclined to see if the tech company might follow through with a more affordable version.

Mark Gurman, a high-profile and generally reliable Apple tipster, wrote in his weekly Power On newsletter on Sunday that the Vision Pro team tasked with building a cheaper Vision Pro is struggling to reduce costs without ruining the experience of a cheaper mixed-reality headset, which Gurman suggests may launch at the end of 2025 at the earliest.

Read more