Deals on virtual reality (VR) hardware are few and far between, some devices like Valve Index never have an offer on whilst the PlayStation VR, for example, will get the occasional bundle. Today, HTC has rolled out a couple of deals for its Vive Cosmos series, knocking a sizeable £120 GBP off the regular price.
For those after hassle-free PC VR gaming with no sensors to setup then the standard Vive Cosmos has been reduced from £699 down to £579. The headset features a combined resolution of 2880×1770 (1440×1700 per-eye) using an LCD display, inside-out tracking from its 6 front cameras, a hinged halo strap to easily drop in and out of VR and built-in headphones for spatial audio.
The other option is the Vive Cosmos Elite kit which is down from £899 to £779. As you can see from the image below the main difference here is the tracking solution. The kit comes with two wall-mounted lighthouse base stations (v1.0), the Elite faceplate so they can track the headset and the normal Vive controllers. It’s a far more fiddly setup but because the base stations do have excellent tracking, the kit is sold as being more precise. The rest of the headset’s specs such as resolution and audio are still the same as the standard Vive Cosmos.
Both offers are only available from today until Sunday, 7th February, and they still include a 2 month membership to Viveport Infinity so you can access loads of free videogames and apps. You can also make both headsets wireless with the Vive Wireless Adapter for £359 if the cable starts getting in the way.
Earlier this month HTC Vive released new performance updates for its VR headsets. These included an upgrade to DirectX 12 for NVIDIA GPUs, improved latency and a reworked chaperone for fewer interruptions.
HTC Vive’s prominence in the consumer market has wained due to competitors like Oculus Quest offering an easier route into VR. The company does have its own standalone, the Vive Focus Plus, but this was always aimed at the enterprise market. Its Project Proton concept may see the light of day this year and if that happens VRFocus will keep you informed.