New HTC Vive Focus Plus Coming This Year

The world of virtual reality is about to get another exciting piece of hardware, as HTC has just announced the Vive Focus Plus. The new headset builds on the Vive Focus by adding two new controllers that offer a greater range of movement and freedom to virtual reality experiences.

The Vive Focus Plus

The key thing about the Vive Focus and newly announced Focus Plus is that they’re standalone virtual reality devices. This means that you don’t need a high-end PC hooked up to them, nor do you need to attach a smartphone to the front. Instead, everything the headset needs to deliver a virtual reality experience is contained within, much like the Oculus Quest.

In fact, HTC’s new headset feels like a direct response to the Oculus Quest, because the company’s main focus was on the new controllers that are included with the Vive Focus Plus. Compared to the controller that came with the original Focus, these offer six degrees of freedom (the original supported only three), which means they can be tracked as they move around. This puts HTC’s standalone headset on a level playing field with Facebook-owned Oculus.

Outside of the two controllers, HTC also announced that the new one would be very similar to the original Focus. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor powering its 2880 x 1600 AMOLED display.

Physically, the headset has received a slight tweak that will cause it to make contact with more area of the wearer’s forehead, which should help to distribute the weight more evenly, thus creating a more comfortable device for moving around.

Like the previous Focus, buyers will be able to access the Viveport online store to download new apps to their headset.

Vive Focus Plus Price and Release Date

A key thing to note about the Focus Plus is that it’s not really a device targeted at consumers. Instead, HTC is aiming this device at businesses.

For those who are interested in getting their hands on one, HTC didn’t announce exactly when it would be available, only saying that it’ll be out in the second quarter.

The company didn’t announce how much it’ll sell for yet, so we’ll need to wait and see just how much the future of virtual reality will cost.

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