Full HTC Vive Pro kit up for UK pre-order for an eye-watering £1299
You can finally pre-order the complete HTC Vive Pro package in the UK. The set, which includes the headset along with two controllers and second generation base stations, contains everything you need to experience virtual reality barring a PC. Read our HTC Vive Pro Review here.
Although the Vive Pro was released back in March, you could previously only buy the headset. You’d then have to purchase motion controllers and base stations separately.
The only problem is its price. At £1299 the set is over double the price of the standard HTC Vive, placing it well out of the reach of most consumers.
Instead, as its ‘Pro’ moniker suggests, the headset is meant for professional and enterprise use-cases. As a case in point, the 2.0 base stations are no more accurate than the current generation boxes, but can be daisy-chained together with further stations to cover much wider play spaces — a very useful feature for professional uses.
The controllers also appear to have been updated to match the colour-scheme of the headset, but there don’t appear to be any functional differences. In other words, you’ll have to wait for the highly-anticipated ‘knuckles’ controllers for a real next-generation VR experience.
Recently Valve announced ‘Moondust‘, which it billed as ‘A technology demo for Knuckles EV2’, suggesting that we might not have long to wait until we see an updated version of the motion controllers.
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The best VR headset, for a price
We really liked the HTC Vive Pro when we reviewed it. It offers a substantial resolution bump over the original HTC Vive, and its redesigned strap mean that the weight of the headset sits much more comfortably on your head.
But all this functionality comes at a price, and without some severe price reductions the Vive Pro is going to remain out of the reach of most consumers for the time being.
Even at their existing prices, the current generation of VR headsets aren’t exactly flying off shelves, so the Vive Pro is going to have its work cut out if it wants to ever become a consumer device.
How much would you pay for a VR headset in 2018? Let us know @TrustedReviews
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
