Despite my qualms about tripping over cords, PC-tethered VR is still going strong, as seen in the excellent Valve Index. Before the Index, though, Valve partnered with HTC to produce the first Vive VR headset to work with the SteamVR platform. The two companies parted ways on VR development, with HTC vying for much more enterprise and development attention with its Focus and Pro Eye headsets while Valve released the grip-sensing Index. HTC isn’t out of the consumer VR game, however, with its middling-but-functional Vive Cosmos headset and its new Vive Pro 2. Despite its name, the Vive Pro 2 is intended for both professional VR and consumers, offering the same SteamVR compatibility as the Valve Index along with HTC’s own Viveport ecosystem. On one hand, it offers some of the highest resolution and cleanest visuals we’ve seen in a consumer-available VR headset. On the other hand, it’s by far the priciest at $799 for only the headset, requiring a sizable extra spend for the base stations and controllers it needs to work.
Physically, Your Standard VR Headset
The Vive Pro 2 headset looks like a darker version of the Vive Pro, and not too dissimilar from the Vive Cosmos. It’s black rather than blue, but otherwise shares a nearly identical design. The front panel combines the original Vive's nubbly points (which the base stations use to track position) with the Vive Cosmos' front-facing stereo cameras (which the headset uses to track surroundings). That headset section can be pushed forward or backward against the facemask part with the press of a button on the lower-left corner, letting you adjust the distance between the lenses and your eyes to improve focus. A knob on the front panel's lower-right area lets you tweak pupillary distance (how far apart the lenses are horizontally, to best align with how far apart your eyes are).
The head harness features the same design as the Vive Pro, a three-point system with wide plastic arms on the sides and a wide strap on the top. The back of the harness is heavily padded, and features a dial for tightening that section against the side arms, while the top strap can be manually adjusted with velcro fasteners.
A pair of on-ear headphones are built into the headset, connected to the harness' sides by their own plastic arms. The arms rotate forward and backward to align the earcups with your ears, and flip in and out to let you listen to your surroundings. The left earcup has a volume rocker on the back edge, and the right earcup has a mic mute button (the microphone is built into the front section of the headset, not the earcups). The headphones can be removed and replaced, but there is no headphone jack to simply use your own.
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A 16-foot cable runs out of the headset and over the harness' side to drop behind you before connecting to the included Link Box that connects to your computer. The box is a rectangular, gray, plastic enclosure, about the size of a wallet, with a port for the headset cable on the front along with a power button. The back panel holds a connector for the power adapter, a mini-DisplayPort, and a USB 3.0 port (cables are included, along with a mini-DP-to-DP adapter). The top of the Link Box features an indicator LED. As is typical with a tethered VR headset, you have to be mindful of where the cable is so you don't trip over it.
Missing Some Pieces
The Vive Pro 2 currently ships only as a headset, but it requires two compatible base stations and two compatible motion controllers to fully work. HTC offers different base stations and motion controllers that range in price from $134 to $199. That said, you can also mix and match those components with the Valve Index’s components, which are available at $149 per base station and $279 for a pair of controllers. That’s the choice we recommend, particularly for the controllers. The Valve Index’s controllers feature individual finger tracking that the Vive ones lack, and feel much more natural and immersive to use than the stiff HTC wands. The Index’s controllers are the main reason the Valve Index stood out to us as the best tethered PC VR system, so being able to incorporate them into your Vive Pro 2 setup is a compelling option.
Besides those components, the Vive Pro 2 works with several optional accessories, such as the $349 Wireless Adapter Pack that lets you use the headset with a wireless connection to your PC instead of a physical cable, and the $130 Facial Tracker that reads facial expressions (though you’ll obviously need to find software that takes advantage of that, or use it for development).
The Highest Resolution So Far
Internally, the Vive Pro 2 displays 2,488 by 2,488 pixels to each eye, with a field of view of 120 degrees and a refresh rate of 90Hz or 120Hz. The resolution is the headset's main draw, a fairly massive bump from the Valve Index's 1,440 by 1,600 pixels per eye. It requires a PC with at least an Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 1500 CPU and a GeForce 1060 or Radeon 480 graphics card, along with a DisplayPort 1.4 interface for full resolution.
Testing the HTC Vive Pro 2
For the purposes of testing, we used the Vive Pro 2 with a pair of Valve Index base stations and a pair of Valve Index controllers on our already configured VR test system. Switching the Index headset for the Vive Pro 2 was easy. After disconnecting the Index headset, I plugged the Link Box into the PC with the included DisplayPort and USB cables, then connected the headset and power adapter. Pressing the button on the Link Box turned on the headset, and the PC detected it without issue. After opening SteamVR, I was prompted to install and configure the HTC Vive Console for SteamVR, an additional free piece of software on Steam that lets the Vive Pro 2 work with the platform. With that installed, I accessed the same SteamVR interface and software library with the Vive Pro 2 that I could with the Valve Index.
Besides SteamVR, the Vive Pro 2 can access HTC’s own VR software store, Viveport. The headset includes a two-month subscription to Viveport Infinity, an Xbox Game Pass-like membership that provides unlimited access to a wide selection of VR games and experiences. Considering the Vive Pro 2's price, a year-long subscription would have been more generous, though (especially since some games are only available with an annual membership to Viveport Infinity).
Steam VR and the HTC Vive Console both have to be running at the same time to use the Vive Pro 2 with SteamVR games, and it can make loading them a bit slower than with a Valve Index. I found it could take 10 or 20 seconds for the headset to register both pieces of software after turning it on. It’s a minor inconvenience, and it was pretty smooth to use outside of the waiting for everything to sync up.
Since it’s the flagship game for the Valve Index and therefore SteamVR, I played Half-Life: Alyx on the Vive Pro 2 using the Valve Index controllers. The game looks fantastic at the Vive Pro 2's higher resolution, showing more detail and cleaner edges than on the Index. The Index is no slouch to begin with, but the bump in clarity is noticeable.
I also played the Aperture Hand Lab VR demo, comparing it with how it looked on the Valve Index. Again, the higher resolution provided a sharper picture than Valve’s headset, and I had no issues using it with Valve’s controllers and base stations. Motion was also smooth as I moved my head, with the headset and base stations accurately tracking my position and orientation and translating them to the in-game picture with fluid graphics.
Even less graphically advanced games benefit from the higher resolution. For example, SCP: Labrat is a game with much more simple, less detailed models and textures that looks good on the Vive Pro 2.
The SteamVR interface also comes through clearly on the Vive Pro 2. It's easy to read text in the pop-up menus, and the virtual environments are crisp and colorful. Broadly, the Vive Pro 2 simply offers a sharper picture than the Valve Index or other headsets we’ve tested.
Pricey, Premium VR
Visually, the HTC Vive Pro 2 is the most impressive consumer-available headset we’ve seen yet. Its high resolution and smooth refresh rate provide the best picture available for VR gaming. This doesn’t mean it’s the best pick if you’re looking to jump into tethered, PC-based VR, however. It’s $800 for just the headset, and requires nearly $600 more in extra equipment (not counting the PC to run it) just to work. That makes it much more expensive than the Valve Index (an Editors' Choice pick for VR headsets), which we already found to be pricey at $1,000 for its full, everything-included package.
If you’re really open to splurging for the best VR experience you can get, you can buy the Vive Pro 2 and supplement it with the Valve Index base stations and controllers. Still, the Valve Index is no visual slouch, and for almost $400 less we consider that kit to be the best value in a PC VR setup. And if you want to dabble in VR and are willing to trade much less power for a much lower price, the standalone, $299 Oculus Quest 2 (another Editors' Choice pick) is the most accessible VR headset available.
The Vive Pro 2 is the highest-resolution VR headset we've seen yet, with a price to match. It's worth considering if you want the best VR experience available, and don't mind mixing and matching components.
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