HTC launches Vive Pro for virtual reality enthusiasts (who already own the Vive)
HTC has announced the price for its new virtual reality headset, the Vive Pro: $799.
The headset, which was originally announced during CES in January, will now become HTC's flagship VR product. The regular Vive will become the company's entry level VR headset, with a new price tag of $499.
The Vive Pro has high-resolution, dual OLED displays, with a combined resolution of 2,880 x 1,600 pixels (a 78 percent increase). It also has a slightly different design (more comfortable, HTC claims), and new integrated headphones with a built-in amplifier.
For comparison, the HTC Vive's displays only have a 2,160 x 1,200 resolution.
There's an important distinction between the Vive and the Vive Pro that may not be immediately apparent. The $499 price HTC is asking for the Vive includes two handheld controllers and two base stations for tracking. But the $799 HTC Vive Pro price only includes the headset -- it is for some reason assumed that you already own the controllers and the base stations (which cost a pretty penny on their own -- $135 for a single base station and $130 for a single controller).
Also, there's still a huge discrepancy in pricing between the U.S. and the EU. In Europe, the Vive kit costs 599 euros ( $737) and the Vive Pro headset costs 879 euros ($1,082).
The HTC Vive Pro will start shipping on April 5. To sweeten the deal, HTC will give a free, six-month Viveport subscription for each Vive Pro purchased by June 3.
Topics Virtual Reality
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
