The HTC Vive Focus Vision is a mid-lifecycle refresh of the business-focused Vive Focus 3. It adds eye-tracking, mixed-reality capabilities and a wired PCVR Displayport mode. With these additions HTC hopes to not only make the headset more appealing to businesses but to PCVR enthusiasts alike who would like to enjoy the uncompressed visuals only Displayport can provide. At $999 and €1199 the headset is actually fairly priced taking into account that HTC is not able to subsidize it like Meta and Pico do, also they do not try to profit from your data but instead are truly a hardware play. But can the hardware actually compete with its slightly outdated XR2 processor which has not been upgraded? Actually the Vive Focus Vision is a really good upgrade for business customers and it might even be worth a closer look for some PCVR enthusiasts, especially those who are looking for built-in eye tracking and optional face tracking capabilities, like VR Chat fans. So let’s delve in deeper!
Features & Build Quality
The Vive Focus Vision is a hybrid headset. It can do standalone but also offers a wired Displayport connection mode for uncompressed PCVR visuals. The needed cables are sold optional for another $149 and are highly recommended to actually make full use of the headset.
The Vive Focus Vision also offers depth correct color pass-through now thanks to the two additional RGB cameras in the front. There is also a depths-sensor and even an infrared flood light built in for better hand-tracking in dark environments. Other than that, the Focus Vision does look exactly like the Focus 3. It also comes with exactly the same controllers like its predecessor, the same exchangeable battery and the overall excellent build quality.
In terms of the optical stack, we are still looking at high-resolution 2560 Ă— 2560p LCD panels and the same Fresnel lenses that we have seen in both the Focus 3 and the Vive Pro 2. This time though we got eye-tracking and automatic IPD adjustment.
Visuals
So how about the visuals? Actually the optical stack is able to produce a really sharp picture with very above average colors for an LCD panel when in Displayport mode. And just like in the Vive Pro the FOV is pretty wide. Unfortunately though the lenses and the small binocular overlap take away from the overal positive impression. Let’s go more into detail.
Displays
Like mentioned above, we are looking at two LCD panels with a resolution of 2560 Ă— 2560p per eye. That is more than what Quest 3 and Pico 4 have to offer and it does show! Visuals are very sharp in wired PCVR mode and colors are much better than in the lower price competition. For an LCD panel, the blacks are very good and colors are incredibly vibrant. It is not OLED level of course but this is without a doubt one of the better LCD panels out there. Also as far as refresh rate is concerned we are getting up to 120Hz here. So absolutely nothing to complain about. Brightness levels are also better than what we see with the direct competition from Meta and Pico, and that might also be caused by using Fresnel lenses instead of pancake ones that are less efficient in letting light pass through.
Lenses
Unfortunately, the lenses have not received an upgrade. We are still looking through the same Fresnel lenses that could not really excite us in the Vive Pro 2 years ago. They still introduce quite a bit of god-rays and especially when reading text in VR you will see how pancake lenses are simply better. I would not want to work in this headset for exactly that reason but instead would without a doubt prefer the Quest 3 or the AVP.
But for actual games, the glare of the lenses is not a showstopper for me at all. I absolutely enjoyed playing Half-Life: Alyx in this headset and also Kayak Mirage & Subside look incredible here. Once you are in the sweetspot, the lenses are overall fine for gaming.
And the automatic IPD adjustment truly helps users to get into the sweet spot. In the Focus 3 and Vive Pro 2, you still had to find that sweetspot yourself. Here you simply put the headset on, you hear the motors turn on and the lenses simply move to the right position. That indeed is a big improvement. Especially when using the headset in a business environment with many customers. No more worrying about the headset being set to the wrong IPD value. That is truly a game changer for Location Based Entertainment venues.
FOV
The FOV is very solid. For my face shape I measure 114° horizontal and 90° vertical. That is a bit less than the advertised 120° horizontal but the provided facial interface unfortunately puts you quite far away from the lenses, decreasing your FOV. If there where 3rd party facial interfaces that could decrease that distance we would get closer to the 120° and we would also increase the binocular overlap.
Binocular Overlap
By now you know how important the binocular overlap is for headsets. A good binocular overlap makes a headset comfortable to wear and it simply increases immersion. Unfortunately, the binocular overlap is the major pain point of the Vive Focus Vision. In order to maximize FOV HTC has sacrificed binocular overlap and it shows. When you first put the headset on, you feel something is wrong. You feel that something is not right. That is the less than average binocular overlap.
Interestingliy, like mentioned above, you could mitigate that problem by getting really close to the lenses. The standard facial interface does not allow that though and you would have to exchange that with a third party one. So far I have not yet found such a product though and you might have to become creative yourself. Not allowing for any kind of eye-relief or getting closer to the lenses is one of the big shortcomings of the Vive Focus Vision.
Pass-Through
The Vive Focus Vision now comes with depths-correct color pass-through. And yes, it works well. There is little to no distortions, even when bringing objects like your hands closer to the headset. So that is a plus. Unfortunately though, the pass-through still does not look as good as Quest 3 or Pico 4 Ultra pass-through. It looks more grainy, so resolution could be higher. However, it is still very usable for mixed-reality applications or if pass-through is simply used to navigate your environment while wearing the headset. So it works but it is not leading the pack.
Comfort
The Vive Focus Vision, just like the Focus 3 is a comfortable headset. Its headstrap offers a balanced fit that does a good job of distributing the weight of the headset over all of your head. you are wearing the Focus Vision like a hat and it is not front heavy.
However, the headset is also not really a lightweight with its approximately 700g. But yeah, it is a sturdy design that can be worn for extended periods of time. And for sure in a business environment like an LBE where its all about how easy it is to put the headset onto customers, this is simply a winner. Put it on, tighten the headset with that one adjustment wheel at the back of the strap and customers are good to go. And again, no need to worry about the correct IPD adjustment, the headset itself will take care of that thanks to the auto-IPD function.
Audio
The built in speakers offer an audio quality that matches that of the Quest 3. It is absolutely fine and I personally do not need to use an additional headphone with the Focus Vision. But yeah, it is also not as good as the floating over ear speakers of a Reverb G2 or a Valve Index, if that is what you are coming from. For non-audiophiles, this will do. And if that is not enough, you could still wear your own headphones.
Microphone
I am glad to report that HTC had solved their microphone issues with the predecessor already. So no, you are not getting the bad microphone of the Vive Pro 2 but instead the good ones of the Focus 3. They are actually good enough even if you want to livestream a game.
Tracking & Controllers
The Vive Focus Vision does not depend on base stations for its tracking. It does camera based inside-out tracking just like all the other standalone headsets. And that is good news for those PCVR enthusiasts out there who were interested in the Vive Pro 2 but did not want to invest in the Lighthouse ecosystem.
The tracking works just as well as all with the other standalone headsets on the market. This truly is a solved problem by now. Same goes for the controller tracking. It is absolutey smooth and also does not have problems with slow motions or when aiming though sites or similar situations.
The headset comes with exactly the same controllers like the Focus 3. They simply do their job as expected. The standard Oculus Touch button layout that is an industry standard by now helps with compatibility. These controllers still have the tracking rings of yester-year that the competition has already gotten rid off. It is not a big problem though in my opinion. The handle part is a bit longer than what we are getting from Meta or Pico and that is actually nice for users with bigger hands.
The controllers need to be recharged on a regular basis via their USB-C ports though. I am not a big fan of that and I prefer exchangeable batteries, so you can get back to gaming directly after simply putting in new ones. Also would have been a better approach for arcades instead of having to recharge the controllers at the end of the day. But at least the controllers will be good for 15h so they can run a whole business day.
Battery Life
Talking about battery life, how long can the Vive Focus Vision run on a single battery when using standalone or streaming PCVR wirlessly? Of course it depends on what you are doing with the headset. Mixed Reality applications with full pass-through will without a doubt drain the battery faster than simply using a standard app. But you can expect around 2 hours. The good thing though is that the batteries are hot-swappable. There is still an internal backup battery that would facilitate the swapping process that will last long enough to let you exchange batteries. So yeah, perfect for arcades that let their customers play wirelessly. After each session, simply swap in a new battery and the next customers are ready to go.
When connected in PCVR mode the headset is powered by an external adapter, so you won’t run into any problems here.
Game Compatibility & Software
If you are a consumer that is looking for the latest standalone games, this is not for you. The store has a few games and apps but HTC does not even try to compete with Meta or Pico. This headset is truly made for business and enterprise customers that run their own apps. The weaker XR2 chip also would not allow developers to port their latest Quest 3 games over to the Vive Store.
What you can find on the store though is Virtual Desktop and that is good news. Virtual Desktop is the leading wireless streaming app, so should you want to wirelessly stream your SteamVR games onto the device, you can do so and it will work very well! However, when using Virtual Desktop, unfortunately the eye-tracking information will not be passed to the PC. The reason is that HTC is not using industry agreed upon standards but and if you want to use the eye-tracking information for wireless PCVR, for VR Chat for example, you will need to use Vive’s own streaming app, which unfortunately is not as good as Virtual Desktop.
Wired streaming using the Displayport adapter works really well though. I had no problems whatsover to play any of my PCVR games and they all looked really good. So in my opinion, this is for PCVR enthusiasts who are looking for a headset that could give them the best quality in wired mode but that also want to be able to play some of their PCVR games wirelessly, either using Virtual Desktop or the built in solution, should they need eye tracking.
Conclusion
The Vive Focus Vision is a great upgrade for those business customers who had already been using the Focus 3. The new mixed-reality capabilities are solid and should allow enterprise customers to use the headset in completely new ways, an upgrade that was very important when looking at the very capable competition. But that’s not all. Eye-Tracking and auto-IPD adjustment are truly game changers in business settings where customers that are completely new to VR are expected to put on a headset and of course set that IPD right. Now they do not need to do that anymore because the headset itself takes care of that. Great.
And of course the Displayport connection for PCVR games and applications. It’s an addition that HTC hopes could even make the Vive Focus Vision a viable product for PCVR enthusiasts that are looking for a headset that could do both: wired Displayport PCVR for best visuals but also wirless PCVR streaming if more movement is required. And indeed, the headset delivers this at a price that in my opinion is fair for the high-quality hardware that we are getting here.
So the headset is a recommendation for all business customers that need a standalone workhorse that offers eye-tracking, automatic IPD adjustment, exchangeable batteries and robust streaming features with multi-user capabilites. It’s a true and tested solution that simply got better.
For PCVR enthusiasts, this could be worth a look as well, but without a doubt you will need to be aware of the lense and binocular overlap problems of the headset. The optical stack simply feels quite a bit outdated and you would need to try to solve the issues mentioned by getting a facial interface that would let you get closer to the lenses.
For VR Chat fans, the Vive Vision might be a very interesting choice though since HTC offers the Ultimate Trackers for full body tracking and a Face tracker plugin for the Focus series that will capture your facial expressions. And there are not many other headsets out there that could offer all of that without the need for Lighthouse base stations.
