During an online launch event today, HTC unveiled its new VR headset, the VIVE Flow. While some details leaked online earlier this week, we now have official details of the product. Unlike the company's previous consumer products, the VIVE Flow will not require a beefy PC to work with as it has been designed with portability in mind. Instead, you use a power bank to supply its juice and can pair with an Android phone over Bluetooth, with the latter working as a controller. With Android devices that support HDCP 2.2, users can mirror their phone's content but it is mainly advertised for dedicated wellness apps, some light gaming and to create a distraction-free VR workspace.

Below are some use cases for the device:

• Meditation 2.0 with apps like TRIPP, or taking a scenic, immersive drive down Route 66 with MyndVR’s original series: A Road to Remember
• Watching TV or movies on their own personal, cinema-sized VR screen
• Exercising their minds with brain training apps
• Collaborating and socializing with colleagues and friends on VIVE Sync

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Specs-wise, the Flow is also HTC's lightest VR headset yet, weighing at 189g. It packs a 100-degree field of view allowing HD quality content, 3.2K resolution, 75 Hz refresh rate. The headset also has built-in diopter dials, speakers pump out crisp as well as noise- and echo-canceling mics. For improved comfort, the VIVE flow also integrates an "active cooling system" that is said to pull warm air away from the user's face.

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The HTC VIVE Flow will retail for £499, with pre-orders starting today, October 14th, globally while open sales begin in November. Anyone pre-ordering will receive the official VIVE Flow carry case and a gift bundle of 7 pieces of content. HTC also announced a a special Viveport subscription plan to accompany the VIVE Flow launch. For £5.29 per month, it provides subscribers with unlimited access to a wide range of immersive apps covering well-being, brain training, productivity, light gaming, and exclusive content like a Lo-Fi room designed to look and feel like a cosy café.

More details about the HTC VIVE Flow and pre-order link can be found on the official website linked below.

SOURCE: GBAtemp Inbox
HTC VIVE Flow Official Website

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

$500 for what is essentially only useful as a media-only VR headset? HTC must be fucking high as shit

You literally might as well just buy one of those shitty $20 plastic-y Google Cardboard things and get the same basic experience, or a Quest 2 and get more for your money than you do with this. The high res screen is nice, but beyond that...nothing remotely worth the price.

 

[RichardTheKing]

Meditation 2.0 with apps like TRIPP,

So this thing has a low pH, then...interesting.

 

[europat]

She clearly doesn't have kids... and relation

 

[fvig2001]

I think I'll stick to my shitty gear vr

 

[Axido]

watch me wear these while walking down the street, i will get laughed at constantly and that is a guarantee

then again i wouldn't be able to see where i'm going so

As much as I see that this device looks horrible to begin with, it's not really meant to be worn while walking down the street.

Yet, I still need to figure out whether this device is even meant to be bought.
This is a new low for HTC. Hopefully, Valve will eventually fill the gap with a proper SteamVR-compatible standalone HMD. I'm probably not the only one waiting for that kind of competition to Facebooks effed up marketing strategy.

 

[WG481]

The next Google Glass.

 

[titan_tim]

Wow, HTC will have the single, yoga-loving, overly stressed office worker, phone addicted, women niche market in the bag!!

 

[Mama Looigi]

VR is that gimmick still around?

Does it still count as a gimmick if it’s continually growing exponentially and improving all the time?

…
Ignoring this
Joke of a headset they just announced

 

[Deleted member 397813]

this is just tai's goggles but in real life

 

[jefffisher]

$200 more than a quest 2 for infinitely less features?
that thing better cause brain damage

 

[ZeroFX]

Looks like some punk sunglasses.

 

[Skelletonike]

These..... remind me of Raz:

 

[Xzi]

this is just tai's goggles but in real life

These..... remind me of Raz:

Reminds me more of:

 

[Skelletonike]

Reminds me more of:

View attachment 279874

The Raz resemblance was more due to the colour tones.

 

[RatherSimple]

having pulled air right into your nose seems like a very bad idea. Some people can be extremely sensitive to micro dusts and pollens and this device literally sucking right into their nose. We'll see how that's gonna turn out lol.

 

[FAST6191]

I should learn to more carefully click on these sorts of things.
My marketing buzzword alarm, one normally trained on politicians, is a smoking pile on the floor now.

Anyway hopefully they sell a few around here to people that fell for it, and then it fails hard (but also gets cracked). £20 for one I can find some uses for.

Does it still count as a gimmick if it’s continually growing exponentially and improving all the time?

You say this a lot. Depending upon the jumping off point (some pick 3d glasses becoming a thing again for computers, some want dedicated) I reckon it is coming up to ten years (about 3 weeks out) since AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome was released and things have not gone past that.
To that end exponentially only makes sense if it is like a capacitor charging or something and we 95% reached the plateau back then with everything being a fraction of a fraction.

 

[MohammedQ8]

I already have it lol.

 

[Bagel Le Stinky]

oh no

 

[nraudigy2]

$500 for what is essentially only useful as a media-only VR headset? HTC must be fucking high as shit

You literally might as well just buy one of those shitty $20 plastic-y Google Cardboard things and get the same basic experience, or a Quest 2 and get more for your money than you do with this. The high res screen is nice, but beyond that...nothing remotely worth the price.

Isn't Quest 2 has higher resolution than this?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Isn't Quest 2 has higher resolution than this?

You know what, you're 100% right. I was misremembering, the Quest 2 is 1832x1920 but I was thinking of the original Quest's res which was 1440x1600.

So basically no redeeming features on the Vive Flow, good