Home / Component / Virtual Reality / Wireless HTC Vive upgrade kit available to pre-order in China

Wireless HTC Vive upgrade kit available to pre-order in China

Once again the HTC Vive looks set to steal the thunder of the Oculus Rift. With the latter headset's impending Touch release just a few weeks away, HTC has announced an upgrade kit for the Vive headset that makes it completely wireless. The kit will purportedly cost buyers around $220 (£175).

Ditching the wires is one of the most requested features for VR headsets as tripping over the cable or feeling its tug is a great reminder that you're still in a room and not fighting dragons on a mountain top.

The wireless kit bundles the receiver for wireless transmission and a battery pack which is said to last around an hour and  a half. A larger battery version will be sold in the future we're told and will fit into the user's pocket. Not quite as wireless as the base kit in that respect, but certainly more suited for longer play sessions.

 

vivewireless

We've not been told exactly how it works yet and what the latency is like – it would need to be very low to be a truly viable upgrade – but the presumption is that it works rather well. Indeed if it wasn't, would HTC really want to sell it through official channels?

Developed by TPCast, the first third party company to be accredited as part of HTC's Vive X Accelerator program (thanks UploadVR), the wireless kit was shown off at a recent Alibaba event in preview form. While it's not quite ready for consumer release just yet, the hardware will be available to pre-order on HTC's Chinese website later today. It's expected to be ship out in Q1 2017.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: As soon as these are available for UK buyers, we'll make sure to get one so we can test it for you guys and let you know if it's worthwhile. If it does, it's going to make VR backpacks redundant very quickly.

Become a Patron!

Check Also

Vision Pro PSVR2

Apple reportedly working with Sony to bring PSVR2 controllers to Vision Pro

With Apple Vision Pro failing to become the next big thing, the company has reportedly approached Sony to add support for its PSVR2 controllers to the headset.

7 comments

  1. I hope this would also balance the weight distribution making it as comfortable as Playstation VR

  2. How will this work? A dongle in the USB 3.0 Port and a Dongle in a HDMI Port? At the moment i’m using 2 10m cables (Upstairs to downstairs in my house). but this won’t work between walls so will the best bet to connect the dongles to the 10m cables downstairs for better reception

  3. Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family! !mj177d:
    On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
    !mj177d:
    ➽➽
    ➽➽;➽➽ http://GoogleFinancialJobsCash176DigitalOnlineGetPay$97Hour ★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★::::::!mj177d:….,….

  4. Søren Chr. Nielsen

    Is it very front heavy on the Vive?

  5. One yr have passed since I decided to abandon my previous job and that decision was a life changer for me… I started working online, for this company I discovered over internet, several hours /a day, and I profit now much more than i did on my old work… Last payment i got was for Nine thousand bucks… Amazing thing about this gig is that i have more time for my loved ones… KORTA.NU/MDe

  6. It is, after an hour I find it’s tiring having the weight pull your head forward

  7. Søren Chr. Nielsen

    Aw, that’s a damn shame :/