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Having said just moments ago that wireless ‘full VR’ was surely nearly here, it’s just been revealed that indeed it is!
UploadVR reports that HTC has just now announced an expansion for its Vive headset that allows the user to ditch the wired tether to the PC. Made by TPCAST, the device has been demoed in China and is expected to launch early next year.
Vive’s Chinese president Alvin Graylin says that the tech makes no noticeable difference” to Vive’s performance, specifically latency. It will ship with a headset-mounted battery, the performance of which is unknown, and a larger capacity option that sits in a user’s pocket will be made available at a later date.
The bad news is that for the time being the peripheral will cost an additional $220 on top of the Vive’s 800+ current RRP. The launch is expected for Q1 2017 in China, and pre-orders go live today. Existing Vive owners will be given priority. It’s not known when it will be released in the UK.
We’d guess that perhaps the next iteration of the headset might include it out of the box, with Graylin adding that technologies like this will become an option for future products”, although he would not confirm this for now.
Here’s a video of the tech being demoed:
