HTC Vive Pro 2 review: "Jaw-droppingly good" - henrythadermly

Our Verdict

The HTC Vive In favou 2 provides a sensational VR experience - erstwhile you've got it set ascending properly.

Pros

Incredible visuals
120Hz display
Surprisingly comfortable
120° field of view
Hullo-Reticuloendothelial system insane 3D spatial sound

Cons

The be
Requires calibration
Gets incredibly hot

GamesRadar+ Verdict

The HTC Vive Pro 2 provides a stunning VR experience - once you've got it unmoving up in good order.

Pros

+
Incredible visuals
+
120Hz expose
+
Surprisingly comfortable
+
120° field of panoram
+
Hi-Res certified 3D spatial sound

Cons

-
The cost
-
Requires calibration
-
Gets unbelievably hot

If you'Re sceptical some VR, I'd like to posture you down in head-on of the HTC Vive Pro 2. Most headsets pinch at what virtual reality fanny DO, but are held back by tech limitations. This one and only shows what happens when those limitations don't exist.

High-RES visuals. 120Hz displays for tranquil framerates. Base stations for more right tracking. In other words? It's enough to ensure that you'atomic number 75 not putting improving with a downgraded PC gaming experience for the fallal of VR. Sure, you invite it in a very plain sensory faculty thanks to an big - and painful - price tag. Yet anyone who invests in the HTC Vive Favoring 2 will enjoy peerless essential realness.

Features

Substance info

Covert: Dual RGB low persistence LCD
Resolution: 2448 × 2448 pixels per eye (4896 x 2448 pixels combined)
Refresh rate: 120Hz / 90Hz
FOV: Up to 120°
Speakers: Hi-RES certified headphones
Sensors: G-sensor, gyro, law of proximity, IPD sensor, SteamVR Tracking V2.0

This isn't a novelty; the HTC Vive Pro 2 goes all in along VR like a professional athlete. Take unrivalled look at its spec sheet and you'll know information technology means business.

To start with, the headset is fitted with a 120Hz display for smoother, less choppy visuals. The lenses also offer a '5K' resolution (2448 × 2448 pixels per eye, or 4896 x 2448 pixels combined) to go with a 120° horizontal field of view that feels to a greater extent instinctive. IT's sharper, more detailed, and downright more impressive than competitors like the Eye Quest 2.

IT's quite the immersive undergo

Following up connected this are Hullo-Res certified headphones. Attached to the headset itself, they provide 3D spatial vocalize integration. When combined with the two base stations the Vive Pro 2 requires to work (these track your movements from afar) and a pair of controllers with SteamVR Tracking 2.0, it's quite the immersive experience.

To inexact out the feature-set, HTC Vive Pro 2 headsets go adjustable interpupillary outdistance (IPD) so you can tailor the experience to your eyes. A G-sensing element, gyroscope, and SteamVR Tracking V2.0 are also on for the ride.

Just remember, you'll need a powerful system with leastwise an RTX 2060 Oregon AMD Radeon RX 5700 - not to refer an i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 1500 processor - for the full see. You can get absent with less, but you won't be healthy to enjoy 120Hz or higher resolutions.

Innovation

If someone told me that the HTC Vive In favor 2 was a prop from a sci-fi movie, I'd be inclined to believe them. Thanks to numerous divots finished the front, there's something quite futuristic about it.

However, it's non heavy in spite of its bulk. While the build-materials are still clean bounty, they're jackanapes too. Relatively, anyway. You aren't going to feel to a fault weighed down with it on, though it does postulate a lengthy cable that's attached to a Pro 2 Link Box (which is, in turn, attached to your Microcomputer or laptop).

Thanks to a big amount of money of effervesce padding - including a extractable one at the front that can be swapped unconscious for cleaning - they're homy as well. This complements an engineering design that can follow altered to fit pretty much anyone; a handy dial on the back tightens or loosens the full-length affair. It's a-OK even if you wear glasses.

Performance

Let's develop the downsides out of the way first, shall we? Simply put, the cost of the HTC Vive Pro 2 is oculus-lacrimation. With the basis stations and controllers (that are organic for the headset to work), it'll set you back roughly $1,400 / £1,300. Although the merchandise is astounding, that's a lot of money. You'll motivation a operative rig to handle it, too.

What's much, the In favor 2 is a pain to set up. Even though its base stations are a strong poin that leave more hi-fi trailing, they can be a nuisance to prepare. Unless you're going to wall-put on them (which is extremely recommended), getting each single into situatio adds a fair chunk of prep-time before you've even started messing about with virtual reality. While you can use tripods as an alternative, information technology's not an ideal long-term result - peculiarly because the base stations, which are somewhat limited by the duration of their power cable, need height to function aright.

Similarly, it's worth noting that you'll need to pass a couple of hours adjusting the headset itself to your eyes. It took me few days to figure out optimal settings to avoid blurriness, so factor that into your plans - it won't look stunning off the cricket bat. Rather, the Pro 2's lineament is discovered complete time.

All that feat is Worth it one time you've got the headset figured out, though. Its two screens are some of the best - if not the better - in their field, and they winnow out the common Optic Oregon PSVR issue of fuzzy, low-res visuals. This is the supreme realistic reality know, and it shows off today's games as they'ray supposed to look. If you've got one of the best graphics cards and a good CPU, you'll reap the rewards of something stunning.

Principal Wars Squadrons is the perfect example. The Vive Pro 2 dumps you into the cockpit of fighters some of U.S.A have dreamed of flying since we were kids, and it's transportive. Instruments and displays are portrayed with impressive clarity, and existence healthy to look over your shoulder to see the seating area of Rogue One's U-Wing (or to palpate hemmed in by the ceiling of a incommodious Y-Wing bomber) is a bizarre feeling. Equally, being competent to admire the gimpy's scene or interact with its characters 'up close' adds to a sense of place you simply don't get from a 2D screen. Plus, the In favou 2 really helps in a tangible way - being able to look around freely whilst dogfighting is on the far side functional, particularly for trailing enemies that are zipping all around you.

It's good story for something this simple to be and then satisfying

Half-life Alyx is equally breathing tim-taking, if non more so. The raddled-down filth of City 17 looks incredible with the Pro 2's higher answer, and information technology's here that the comptroller's correct tracking excels. Being fit to reach unstylish, grab a marker pen, and feel the immunity through the French telephone as you scribble on a window is remarkable. Good-bye equally you've got the fundament stations sic up aright, tracking is seamless.

Vader Immortal impresses excessively. Scorn existence an Oculus and PSVR exclusive, downloading the Resuscitate software gives you New York minute get at to your Oculus library - and it works brilliantly. Once you've gotten wont to the remapped controls (the HTC Vive controllers don't have thumbsticks, thus you'll need to compensate with the trackpad), you can enjoy an receive that looks better than IT always has. In fact, it was so convincing that I legitimately flinched when a role flipped a table in social movement of Maine or blaster enkindle darted past my head. This is partially down to the evolution team's sense of story and pacing, naturally, but a lot of it fire be laid at the feet of how well the Vive Favoring 2 performs in carry through. It's easy to forget that the headset itself is connected after a while.

Combat sims like Until You Fall are also winners in this attentiveness. Thanks to tracking that's as near matched As makes no difference, you sense fully in control of weapons that only exist in member form. Crushing power-ups in your gloved pass on to press release their energy via the controller's two side buttons is easy and natural, for exemplar. It's funny for something this simple to be then appreciated.

The slight downside of tech this powerful is temperature. To be precise, the Vive In favor 2 pumps out a tremendous amount of passion during play, and you'll almost certainly feel wet after an hour or so of use. This isn't a extraordinary problem, and IT won't impact your use of the games, but I can definitely see the (thankfully removable) pads getting complete if you don't look after them.

This was an occasional issue for my glasses; they would steam clean up every so often, impeding my vision and forcing me to remove the headset so I could clear-thinking them.

Yet I didn't mind the inconvenience. It was good plenty in every opposite view that I was eager to get plump for in as shortly as practicable.

Overall - should you buy the HTC Vive Professional 2?

If you take over the money and a frame-up capable of running the Pro 2, you won't be disappointed. This is a jaw-droppingly good VR experience, and I'm not sure it can be matched.

Sure, it's selfsame expensive and needs calibration to work its magic. Just you get what you invite out. The HTC Vive Pro 2 is a top-tier realistic reality headset, and IT's an hand clapping-worthy piece of tech that kinda blew my mind.

HTC Vive In favou 2

The HTC Vive In favour of 2 provides a stunning VR experience - once you've got IT set up properly.

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As the web site's Tabletop & Merch Editor, you'll discovery my grubby paws on everything from board secret plan reviews to Lego buying guides. I've been written material about games in one work or other for nigh a decade (with bylines ranging from Metro.co.uk to TechRadar) and joined the GamesRadar+ squad in 2018. I commode normally be found cackling ended some immorality plan I've cooked up for my grouping's succeeding Dungeons &ere; Dragons press.