HTC Vive Focus Vision — Mixed Reality and PC VR Headset + Controllers — Consumer Edition

After my experience with the Vive XR Elite, which I reviewed as a standout addition to my extensive VR/AR/MR headset collection, I decided to give the HTC Vive Focus Vision a shot. And wow—HTC continues to impress with their innovation.The Focus Vision builds on the strengths of the XR Elite while pushing the envelope further in mixed reality integration. The device feels lighter and more streamlined, which makes it incredibly comfortable for extended sessions—something I value as someone who spends hours testing and exploring new virtual worlds.Setup was straightforward, and I was pleasantly surprised at how intuitive the interface felt. The controllers, too, are responsive and ergonomic, elevating the overall experience. What sets the Focus Vision apart is its ability to seamlessly switch between standalone mixed reality and PC VR modes without compromising performance or visual quality.Compared to the XR Elite, the display on the Focus Vision feels slightly crisper, with improved clarity and vibrant colors, making the immersion even more compelling. HTC’s focus on reducing motion blur and latency has clearly paid off here.While no device is perfect, this one comes close. I did notice that some niche PC VR titles had minor compatibility quirks, but firmware updates from HTC have been consistent and responsive to user feedback.If the XR Elite was a “quantum leap,” the Focus Vision refines that leap into something more polished and versatile. It’s a worthy successor that I can see myself using as my go-to headset, especially for mixed reality experiences. HTC is setting the bar high, and I’m excited to see where they take this tech next.For VR enthusiasts, this is another must-have from HTC! Highly recommend.

I've owned a few HTC Vive products, and was ready for an upgrade... but this isn't it. I knew these came with Fresnel lenses but figured the bump in resolution and auto-IPD would make up for it. I was very wrong... My use case is connected PCVR, primarily seated racing.First the good - the additional resolution is great! The headset is reasonably weighted but well balanced, with the battery in the back. I wear glasses, and the fit was a bit tight with my glasses often getting stuck in the face pads, but overall it was comfortable. I didn't have a chance to use these for long periods, but compared to my other VR headsets, I would say these are in the slightly more comfortable region. You can feel the fan kick on to keep your face cool during VR sessions, the pads are removable and comfortable, and it offers a lot of adjustments. I also appreciate the speakers connected to the strap but positioned to offer you great sound without cutting out exterior noise - that way you can hear when someone is trying to get your attention while you're in VR. I have no real issues with the controllers - they were light and responsive. Yes the Valve Index controllers are better, but the Focus Vision controllers are light and balanced and offer all the features you'd expect. It does come with a dual USB-C charging cable... but no charger. That's a huge miss... you shouldn't need to purchase anything at this price range, and likely most users have a spare USB-C charger, but still...My first big issue was my fault - during setup, I picked up a controller and accidentally hit a button which selected Korean as the default language. Even though this kit was intended to be connected to a PC, the headset saves your setup, so I had to hunt around to find a factory reset (hold the battery and volume down until the display comes on, let go of the battery button, wait for the menu to pop up and then use volume down to select factory reset. Hit the side auto-IPD button to select, and let it run). There should be a way to go back and select languages... that's a terrible design. It took opening a ticket with HTC and waiting a few days for a response to find the factory reset settings...You need the overpriced PC connection cable to connect to a PC - though it can work over Wifi to a limited extent, my experience was not great. I even set up a separate 5GHZ wifi just for my PC and Focus Vision. The connection was laggy... with the wired kit, it worked a handful of times but kept losing connectivity to my PC's display port (a 4070ti). I moved it to my main gaming rig running a 4090 with the same issues. For the price of the connection kit, it should work flawlessly... but it doesn't. On bootup, there's maybe a 30% chance it detects my display port. When it doesn't, I had to fiddle with shutting everything down, rebooting the headset and PC, and try again... it shouldn't be this hard.Auto-IPD almost never worked, nor did eye tracking. On occasion, the auto-IPD would kick in for no reason and start adjustments... other times it wouldn't work at all, forcing you to load up the main menu and make manual adjustments. I can see this being a huge pain over time, especially if you have more than one user with different settings. And those setting menus are sometimes static (they move with your head, not one that stays fixed so you can move around and focus on different areas). With the fresnel lenses, that means the bulk of some setup and config menus are too blurry to read. This is likely less of an issue with users who don't wear glasses, but the setup and config shouldn't include any static menus like this. I found that static menu issue more when it lost connectivity to PC over display port, so if you can get the PC cable working it may not be as much of an issue.Overall, this is a huge miss for HTC. In this price range, we should expect better lenses, it should include all the connectivity and cabling, and it should be flawless and easy to set up.

This is NOT the best VR headset you'll ever try for its price. This IS a solid headset at a fair price that doesn't sell your personal information to the highest bidder and brick itself because you disagree with some billionaire's personal politics.The LCD panels are adequate, the visual artifacts from the fresnel lenses are really only noticeable if you're looking for them, the RGB passthrough cameras are far better than anything Facebook is offering. Battery life is actually pretty good. You can extend it using a USBC to 12V adapter(available elsewhere on Amazon) on a PD-capable battery bank, but I actually find that a 2-hour session and a 2-hour break is just about right.The tracking is surprisingly good, coming from an original HTC Vive. No jitter on the camera or handsets, no need for lighthouse setup. The headset gets its bearings within a few seconds, and boundary setup is easy. Visual quality is good, and the resolution upgrade is downright stunning. I went from wishing I could ever see clearly in VR to admiring distant scenery that would have been little more than a smear before.Wifi streaming was incredibly easy to set up, it was practically plug-and-play using ALVR once I got a 5ghz capable wifi router. Quality of your experience will depend heavily on your host PC, network layout, and how loud your neighbors' wifi networks are.I do wish HTC had gone with the Snapdragon XR2+ instead of the XR2, and included compatibility support for side-loading Quest titles, but I rarely use it as a standalone headset anyway, so that's a minor gripe.Yes, the Quest 3 costs $500 less and has better lenses, displays, and processor, but the $500 increase in price is the difference between owning your own headset, and renting a headset that really belongs to Zuckerbot, and it's worth every penny to me.