HTC’s latest VR headset, Vive Cosmos, is just around the corner. This week Road to VR got a preview of the headset ahead of its October 3rd launch.

In a meeting at HTC’s Vive office in San Francisco this week, I got to go hands-on with the Vive Cosmos headset. Though the headset is just a few weeks from launch, this was actually the first time that press was getting to actually use the device since it was announced at the beginning of 2019.

While HTC released an enterprise-priced Vive Pro in 2018, the company says Vive Cosmos is its first consumer-focused follow-up to the original Vive which launched in 2016. The VR landscape has changed quite a bit between the launch of the original Vive and now, and HTC hopes that Cosmos will reboot the Vive experience with a better and easier to use product.

Photo by Road to VR

Perhaps the single biggest change to Cosmos is its use of inside-out tracking. The headset comes equipped with six on-board cameras which detect the position of the headset and controllers. This eliminates the need for the SteamVR Tracking base stations used with the original Vive and Vive Pro, which moves the headset closer to a plug-and-play experience without the need to set up any external tracking hardware.

However, HTC is thoughtfully not abandoning external tracking altogether like Oculus chose to do when moving to inside-out tracking with the Rift S. HTC built Cosmos with a modular faceplate, and the company plans to offer an optional faceplate which adds the sensors necessary for SteamVR Tracking. It’s great that customers will have that choice, but unfortunately the module isn’t planned for release until Q1 2020. That said, my hands-on was with the headset and its default inside-out tracking system.

The default Vive Cosmos faceplate adds two additional cameras for a total of 6. | Photo by Road to VR

In my hour or so in the headset, the inside-out head-tracking felt very solid and quite on par with Oculus Quest and Rift S (both of which also use inside-out tracking). I’ll need to test the system in more challenging conditions to understand its robustness, but the initial impressions are good.

Hand-tracking is another story. While the controller tracking felt solid overall, it was easy to spot moments of jitter here and there (where the controller would drift an inch out of position before quickly popping back into place) even when when moving the controllers slowly. That said, my initial impressions are that the controllers are still in the ‘better than PlayStation Move’ category, which means they’ll likely be acceptable for a wide range of games, but may be problematic for more precise use-cases like drawing and modeling in VR, and games where controller occlusion is common.

Photo by Road to VR

I’m going to need more time with the controllers to get a good sense for how they’ll perform in the more challenging use-cases and environments, though it’s worth remembering that if the tracking doesn’t cut it for a particular user, they’ll be able to opt for controllers which use the bar-setting SteamVR Tracking system instead.

The controllers themselves bear a strong resemblance to Oculus’ Touch controllers, and move away from the capacitive touchpad on the Vive wand controllers to a thumbstick, and mostly brings them in line with Touch and Index controllers in terms of buttons and sticks (which is going to be a boon for developers who will no longer need to juggle significantly different input schemes when designing their games). HTC didn’t want to make life too easy for developers though, and opted to introduce a ‘shoulder’ button above the trigger which is not shared by any contemporary VR controller. While the ‘grab’ trigger is actually a button, it’s significantly easier to keep depressed than the grab buttons on the original Vive controllers, and should be comfortable enough for the ‘continuous hold’ grabbing paradigm shared by Touch and Index controllers.

Photo by Road to VR

When it comes to controller ergonomics, Cosmos’ controllers feel particularly heavy (likely owed in part to the use of two AA batteries) and they have a poor center of gravity. While certainly usable, and a step up from the larger wands, they don’t feel quite as good in the hand as the similarly shaped Touch controllers.

On the visual front, Vive Cosmos gets a solid screen upgrade which brings it to 1,440 × 1,700 up from the original Vive’s 1,080 × 1,280 display. Like its contemporaries, Cosmos is also moving from OLED to LCD, which has the benefits of full RGB sub-pixels for each pixel, which reduces the screen door effect (SDE) compared to a OLED, but also means worse contrast ratio, which is most notable in dark scenes. The screen door is not invisible, but it’s a pretty prominent reduction compared to the original Vive. As far as SDE goes, Cosmos is definitely in the same class as Index, Rift S, and Vive Pro, and might just barely have the edge over that bunch (but I can’t say for sure before until I have can make proper side-by-side comparisons).

Photo by Road to VR

While HTC says Cosmos’ lenses are new and improved, they take the same Fresnel approach as seen on the original Vive and Vive Pro, which means they show glare and god-rays in the expected high contrast situations. Quoted at 110 degrees diagonal, HTC says Cosmos has the same field of view as the original Vive, but to my eyes it actually seemed a bit larger (which may simply be due to how the headset fits against my face compared to the original).

From my time with the headset, unfortunately it doesn’t seem that the new lenses have done much to improve the notoriously small ‘sweet-spot’ (the area of the lens with maximum clarity) of the Vive headsets. While an IPD adjustment means you’ll be able to dial-in the proper distance between your eyes, you don’t have to look very far from the center of the lens before the world becomes annoying blurry.

Photo by Road to VR

The sweet spot issue is compounded by the headset’s not particularly encouraging ergonomics. Cosmos is moving to a halo style head-mount which is quite similar to what we see on the Rift S (crank in the back for tightening and a top-strap). Also like Rift S, the Cosmos head-mount seems to give you two mutually exclusive choices: comfort or clarity. When I put on the headset for the first time, I naturally dialed things in to get the best view through the lenses. It wasn’t very long before I started to feel a lot of pressure on my forehead and wanted to reseat the headset for better comfort.

Unfortunately moving it to a more comfortable position meant the visor tilted away from my face and in doing so opened a large gap for light at the bottom of the visor and simultaneously moved my eyes out of the sweet spot (reducing clarity and field of view). The halo style head-mount, it seems, may be quite depend on a particular head shape, with the biggest issue apparently being the inability to rotate the visor with respect to the face independent of the head-mount position. On the positive side, Cosmos does have a ‘flip-up’ visor which is nice for quickly peeking outside of the headset without awkwardly balancing it on your forehead.

Photo by Road to VR

I’ll need more time with Cosmos to find out if there’s some magic position which allows for a satisfying level of simultaneous comfort and clarity, but my initial impressions haven’t left me particularly hopeful. Your mileage may vary (based on the shape of your head).

Cosmos also comes with integrated headphones by default. The headphones are very similar to what’s found on the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap accessory for the original Vive, and sound similar too, though I didn’t have the opportunity to delve into an audio quality analysis. I did learn that the headphones can be removed and an on-board 3.5mm headphone jack will allow users to use their own headphones if desired.

With changes to tracking, controller design, and a modular concept which may further expand the headset’s capabilities over time, HTC is aiming to reboot the Vive experience with Cosmos. We’ll be bringing you a full in-depth review of Cosmos in the coming weeks, but drop us a line in the comments below if you have any questions about our hands-on preview.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • johann jensson

    For that price i’m expecting to get screen resolution similar to the HP Reverb. As it stands, there’s nothing there that justifies the price point. As has been said before, it’s a DOA product.

    • Jarilo

      The HP Reverb is 600 – 650 and that’s just for the resolution bump as the rest of the headset is a base WMR 1.0 kit not even sporting the Samsung Odyssey controllers.

  • Greyl

    HTC and Vice will probably fade in to obscurity after this, as the Valve Index is generally considered the true successor to the Vive. No Vive owner is going to ‘upgrade’ to this when they can just buy the Index headset and controllers. I guess it depends on price; if they can sell this for $100 less than a Rift S, then maybe it will be popular.

    • doug

      if they can sell this for $100 less than a Rift S, then maybe it will be popular.

      Do you feel the Rift S has features that would justify paying $100 more for?

      • Greyl

        No, but I’m fairly confident the Rift S is due for a $50 price cut soon.

      • kakek

        The pretty robust software support from Occulus, as well as some quality exclusives. It might not be worth 100%, but at similar price, it would definitively make me go for Occulus.

    • Erilis

      it was until recently rumored to be a little more, like 800. I think it’s like a valve index, without glare, with inside out tracking. it’s much better than rift s, but not as good as index. Ok, I got to actually read the article now

    • Jarilo

      ” if they can sell this for $100 less than a Rift S”

      lmao ok

      • Greyl

        ^ It’s not impossible, considering the price of some WMR headsets.

        I thought the Cosmos was their attempt at trying to copy the Rift S approach and make an affordable headset for the mainstream, but evidently it’s not.

      • Trenix

        These people don’t quite understand the expense of such a device along with the cost in researching the technology to make it possible.

  • Ratm

    Wasnt there a software hack to allow steam tracking in wmr devices? Now you need to buy smt?

    • Fluke

      It was possible to kinda of mix the hardware and do things like use lighthouses to track Vive wands while using a WMR HMD etc, but the headset wasn’t tracked using lighthouses, and you still need a Vive HMD for the wands to communicate with. WMR didn’t just work by itself with lighthouses.

      • James Cobalt

        FWIW you can skip the HMD for this hack by using a USB RF dongle from Valve.

      • Ratm

        They should had put that chip in the controlers to.

  • MW

    Looks like rift S is the best headset in 2019…
    More expecive – for shure – Cosmos has the same,or more, problems with inside-out tracking, same fov, basically same resolution, little better refresh rate (pointless when better games don’t get even 80fps). And it looks like 2020 will not bring any revolution.

    • gothicvillas

      why Rift S is the best in 2019? I thought it is Index?

      • Arvideo Retro

        The Rift S is the best in terms of value. Obviously the Index is the best HMD, but at more than twice the price of the Rift S.

        • Immersive_Computing

          I don’t measure VR in terms of price value /but simply “what is the best VR experience I can have at home?” and index is providing that at 1/3rd cost of my PCVR rig. I’ve used Rift S and it’s a great device for the money but not even close to Index on terms of presence.

          • João Pereira

            Can you tell me which has the worst SDE between the Rift S and the Index?
            I have a Rift S and the SDE is not bad, but I wish I had manual IPD adjustment. But I could only justify buying an Index if the SDE is a little better. Couldn’t justify it only for the IPD adjustment. But as the FOV is bigger in the Index, I doubt that the SDE is improved compared to the Rift S, even if the Index has just a bit more resolution.

    • Jarilo

      I wouldn’t even take a Rift-S over a Vive Pro. That’s at least 3k, 90hz, and I can do wireless. Rift S best anything, good one. Just price. People need to stop thinking something is better just because they can afford it. Seriously.

      • Immersive_Computing

        In the words of Lord Gaben: ” Premature cost reduction is the root of all evil”…

  • Dave Graham

    The only thing (as a non biased Rift S owner) I like about this offering the proper sound solution and the flip up design. Shame everyone is moving away from OLED though, I want proper blacks in my space games -ED

    • Bob

      I believe Samsung is working on a new OLED HMD to be released by the end of 2020.

      • Charles

        I’ve heard possibly by the end of October this year.

        • Bob

          No that’s not going to happen considering its September already and there has been no marketing push hinting at its release in the near future.

          • Charles

            I had thought of that before, and I looked back at old articles and apparently last October they announced the Odyssey+ at the same time as its release – no previous marketing. Also, Samsung has said they’re releasing multiple new VR products this year. So if not this October then I’d bet no later than this December.

          • James Cobalt

            They said multiple VR/AR products. For all we know, there’s a new Samsung storefront for Odyssey, software improvements to GearVR, and new AR features on the Galaxy.

            Really hoping that’s not the case, but we’ve been given no details. Fingers crossed for curved RGB-stripe OLED displays!

          • Bob

            It’s more than likely they will abandon Windows MR because they know it’s a lost cause. They have the resources to develop their own ecosystem but it all depends on whether or not they’re willing to go all the way with the VR industry and make major investments in the software side of things in order to become a platform holder, and not just a hardware company for VR.

            With their next product I wouldn’t be surprised if they have developed their own storefront and VR “operating system” but it’s a massive undertaking considering you have three major ones already from Oculus, Valve and HTC. They could pick sides and go with SteamVR but I don’t see that happening. Alternatively they could partner with Oculus once again and use their ecosystem but this is unlikely due to obvious reasons. Using Viveport/Vive Reality System is a definite no-no for Samsung. Going with Windows MR again is a huge risk due to Microsoft’s general negligence and indifference to their own software infrastructure. It’s all going to be very interesting to see where things will end up with Samsung on the software side :)

          • James Cobalt

            From their recent comments on the Oculus Gear discontinuation, it sounds like they are out of the Oculus partnership completely. Which makes sense, since FB has the Quest platform to iterate on now, and Microsoft and Samsung are growing tighter. So probably a safe guess that there’s nothing coming between them outside parts sourcing.

            Considering Samsung appears to have had the most successful WMR headset, and that many others in the WMR space have dropped out, Microsoft may be offering them some nice incentives to stick around for WMR Immersive Headsets 2.0. The VR space is crowded and Samsung may have reasoned they have a better chance partnering with Microsoft, especially if MS is promising timed exclusivity for the 2.0 consumer launch, cheaper component licensing, and joint marketing deals. All of which I suspect they are.

            Last summer, Korean Times reported MS and Samsung had strengthened their WMR partnership; Samsung was working on a new “premium” wireless headset that would unify WMR’s Hololens and Immersive Headsets. In exchange, Microsoft would lower the licensing cost and use Samsung chips in the updated WMR spec (meaning all WMR hardware manufacturers would have to buy chips from Samsung).

            Something I hadn’t considered – Samsung’s multiple new products may not even be consumer products. It could include new technology they intended for other companies to integrate into their products, such as new displays and chips.

    • Agree completely on OLED… I want them back as well

      • Per Larsen

        The drawback of OLED is more SDE though. Personally SDE is more immersion breaking for me than black levels and color. Unless they are really bad.

        • Immersive_Computing

          Many applications would benefit from being colour graded / lighting balanced for LCD? There is such variation between applications in my Index with some showing good blacks and others slightly washed out blacks, older applications made and tested for OLED on Rift and Vive may need adjustment?

        • Ace of Spades

          The drawback of AMOLED is more SDE.
          When Real OLED used like on PSVR there is almost no SDE effect.
          This web site been confusing users since day one and interchanging OLED and AMOLED, but in reality these are different technologies.
          Real OLED is pure RGB solution, AMOLED is mobile technology that was invented to make OLED cheap for mobile use, it uses Pentile pixel arrangement and has much less subpixels.
          This is why PSVR with only FHD per EYE has MORE Pixel Resolution then HTC Vive and Oculus RIft that used AMOLED

      • Ace of Spades

        Thats not real OLED, the only HMD with Real OLED on planet earth is PSVR, all others are basically trash that use mobile AMOLED technology with pentile arrangement

  • Zantetsu

    Just like I expected/feared, they did nothing to improve on the poor quality lenses of the Vive. It really bothered me that the Vive Pro did nothing to address the weak Vive lenses, and now that the Cosmos is out, it’s quite clear that HTC has no intention of ever improving their poor quality optics. Not sure why it’s so far beyond them, but it means I certainly would never even consider this headset.

    • Immersive_Computing

      It’s not inexpensive to get VR lenses right, Oculus, Valve and Google spent serious money in that aspect. HTC may not have the resources to develop lens technology.

  • Harold T

    If you have Base Stations, lighthouses, then this is not a worthwhile upgrade to a Valve Index HMD $500. More comfort, better screens and lower cost for the pieces you need. If you’re diving in New then this is a nice package but priced high vs Quest at $500 seems a better deal for the casual player who wants on the go fast set up and play. The fact that this is tethered, doesn’t come stock with lighthouse face plate, seems to make no sense for upgrading customers and no sense for casual ADHD player looking for instant setup of a Quest. I don’t see where they are going with this.

    • MosBen

      I don’t know, the Index is really expensive if you’re starting from scratch. I see the ideal customer for this being someone that has a decent gaming PC and wants to take their first step into VR. It’s not as expensive as the Index is if you’re starting from scratch, but it’s better than the Rift S, at least in some ways. And unlike Pimax, it’s from a company that the average consumer has heard of.

      • Bob

        Everything about this headset appears to be superior to the Rift S according to UploadVR. The only negative I can see is that if you’re starting from scratch as a new VR user I wouldn’t recommend getting into the HTC ecosystem over Oculus because it’s not a good place to start since their software infrastructure is lacking. Only time will tell if they are able to improve on this but given HTC’s financial shortcomings as of late I don’t think the company has time to build themselves to become a formidable platform holder.

        • MosBen

          Based on this preview, it seems like the controllers aren’t quite as good as the Touch controllers, but are close. It’s also more expensive than the Rift S.

          • Bob

            Ben Lang does a great job with reviews and first impressions or “hands-on” reviews of unreleased VR products but he can generally be critical of the technology that usually is not a major concern for the majority of “normal” VR users. Because he’s involved with the technology day-in and day-out and has tremendous experience with VR headsets his outlook on new and unreleased products is sometimes skewed a little negative due to his higher standard of expectations. This can whittle down to something like being able to notice slight imperfections in the tracking, or visuals for example, which may not be noticed by a “normal” VR user.

            I’m certain you have been here a while so you should already be aware of this :)

        • James Cobalt

          Multiple hands on reports claim the controllers (both tracking quality, aesthetics, and comfort) are inferior to Rift S. As is pass-thru. As is device setup.

          • Bob

            Which reports? I would like to know. So far I’ve read first impressions from UploadVR, CNET, Engadget, Digital Trends and Stuff. They’ve all been positive.

          • James Cobalt

            Many of those reporters aren’t that experienced with VR. Engagdet and Stuff made multiple false claims relative to other headsets (like stating Cosmos has the highest resolution display on the market, or that it does feet tracking).

            Regardless, Engadget commented that there was “almost” no positional lag on the controllers. DT noted it took about a second for positional tracking to resume when back in the tracking cone, and UploadVR said it took a full 2 seconds (compared to the near instantaneous recalibration on WMR, Quest, and Rift S). DT also said the thick cable was an annoyance.

            In regards to passthrough, Endgadget said:

            The reason that it’s so bad, however, is that Cosmos uses the same cameras for tracking and passthrough functions, and HTC decided to prioritize low latency over resolution to ensure responsive tracking.

            Arstechnica said of the new display:

            But LCDs aren’t up to the same color reproduction snuff as OLEDs, and the Vive Cosmos headset I tested had arguably the most muted color palette I’ve seen in a 2019 LCD headset. I was directed to a “vibrant” color toggle to try to fix this, but it didn’t do the trick.

            RoadToVR spent an hour in the headset and stated:

            While the controller tracking felt solid overall, it was easy to spot moments of jitter here and there (where the controller would drift an inch out of position before quickly popping back into place) even when when moving the controllers slowly. That said, my initial impressions are that the controllers are still in the ‘better than PlayStation Move’ category, which means they’ll likely be acceptable for a wide range of games, but may be problematic for more precise use-cases like drawing and modeling in VR, and games where controller occlusion is common.

            Arstechnica said it was a red flag they wouldn’t let testers try Beat Saber.

            Instead, I was offered a sword-swinging app, which simply asked me to wave my hands ahead of me to parry and strike foes. This motion was decidedly less intense than what’s required from an “expert” Beat Saber song, yet I was still left feeling concerned. For one, something about the Vive Cosmos’s tracking array kept losing my hands for “acceptable but noticeable” split seconds on a regular basis.

            Also:

            When it comes to controller ergonomics, Cosmos’ controllers feel particularly heavy (likely owed in part to the use of two AA batteries) and they have a poor center of gravity.

            Upload also pointed out they feel heavy. Arstechnica said their weight was heavy enough to be a real concern for mass market adoption.

            RTVR also found the sweet spot to be smaller than man contemporaries and headband to be uncomfortable after an hour, but notes that may be heavily dependent on face shape. Upload found the sweet spot to be good.

            Basically all the serious VR journalists have noted the product making some big improvements over their non-Pro line, introducing a couple new flaws, but overall being just fine – which Upload, Arstechnica, and RoadToVR imply may not be enough when you consider its price and the preexisting competition.

          • benz145

            Helpful meta-analysis of the hands-ons out there. Thanks for this : )

          • MosBen

            Honestly, I read the Engadget piece and noticed that line about resolution. It seemed wrong, but I didn’t take the time to follow up. That’s kind of a weird and glaring thing to get wrong.

  • Rudl Za Vedno

    Whole VR scene is looking sooo underwhelming. It’s been what 3-4 years since Rift release and all we’re getting are incremental upgrades at best and even some downgrades (tracking, LCD panels, sound solutions) from all major players. What’s happening?
    We live in OLED 4K era with 8K becoming new big thing soon and we should still buy 2K LCD VR MHDs in 2019/2020?
    I’ll hold on to my Odyssey+ (which costed $ 299 BTW, HTC watch and learn) not buying anything until I can get +140 FOV 4K HMD. Asking €799 ($880) for incremental upgrade in 2019/2020 is ridiculous.

    • BonWOLF

      Fast cars are great, But you need gas, or what’s the point! We don’t have GPUS that can handle that yet.

      • Rudl Za Vedno

        Today’s GPUs are just fine. Just implement eye tracking with foveated rendering into the hmds and we’ll be able to game at 4K/90Hz with GTX 1080/RTX 2060/RX 5700. You only need to render 10-20% of the panels at native resolution to get flawless results because of how human vision works. We need tech innovation, not rough GPU power at this point of time. We’ll need more GPU teraflops again when moving to 8K and beyond.

        • MosBen

          If HTC, or Valve, or Facebook thought that they could put out an HMD fitting your suggested specs at a price that enough consumers could afford to allow the product to be profitable, they would. There are reasons that we’re seeing incremental hardware improvements.

          • Rudl Za Vedno

            Can’t or don’t want to? If some “noname” Pimax can build and offer 170 FOV 5.120x1440px HMD for $650, HTC and Oculus could easily do the same and for cheaper. It’s obvious they don’t want to and chose to target only “mainstream” market.

          • MosBen

            Yes, I did say one of the qualifications is a product that enough consumers can afford to allow it to be profitable. I do not doubt that those companies could create an HMD that would cost over $1,000 and require a high end graphics card. And nobody outside a small niche of hardcore VR enthusiasts would buy it. And at this point, that audience is small enough that the product, though perhaps compelling from a technical standpoint, would be a failure.

            These are companies that are trying to build a customer base and also make money. If upping the specs of their hardware a bit would help that, they’d try it, and indeed the Index is significantly more expensive than the other 2nd gen HMDs for the whole kit. They’re not holding tech back because they’re dumb or spiteful. Those of us in the enthusiast community just need to keep in perspective how far beyond the curve we are compared to the rest of society. At some point I fully expect VR to take off in a big way, and at that point there will probably be enough of a market and enough competition that a company will try to differentiate themselves by putting out the Mercedes of HMDs. Until then, we’re looking at a Model T, a car that was supposed to be for everyone.

          • Immersive_Computing

            @mosben

            Issue is not hardware, it’s the lack of revenue developers can generate from selling applications to a community the with anda small installed base and the impact that has on creating the wealth of compelling, high quality content that is needed to persuade others to “pay to play”.

          • MosBen

            It’s a bit of a chicken/egg scenario. The hardware has to be good enough and cheap enough to convince people to buy it, but the software needs to be compelling enough to give people a reason to buy it, but developers need a solid base of customers to fund development of compelling software. This is, of course, why Oculus spent a bunch of money up front funding development.

          • Immersive_Computing

            A tricky situation no doubt. Index has convinced me we’ve breached the threshold where the hardware is finally good enough, but the content to leverage it’s potential is lacking; over to you Valve.

            As a former Oculus Rift owner I’ve been revisiting my library using Revive on Index and the content Oculus funded is very impressive.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            The pimax isn’t a good headset, and the biggest problem still is the GPU’s needed to drive those headsets.. The quality of the pimax is far from good, and if you want better quality, the price will go up..

          • Virtual Funkality

            You are right the pimax is the best headset.

          • This is all true, but I gotta admire his, “Just make it better and cheaper bro” attitude.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          “just implement eyetracking with foveated rendering”, Yep, and that’ll increase the price of the headset in a big way, AND foveated rendering isn’t the holy grail, it also has it’s problems..

          • johann jensson

            I’m prepared to pay as much as i need to pay for next gen, but no one’s offering it.

            Is it too much to ask for 2x 2k displays with 110° diagonal FOV, good lenses without glare and integrated audio? My PC can handle that.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            Appearantly it is difficult to get good lenses without glare, otherwise they would have done it already.. But YOU might be willing to pay as much as needed (which ofcourse doesn’t say anything), the regular consumer isn’t. But if you really want to pay as much as needed, you might investigate the specialized companies… But you’ll be paying ten times what the ‘mainstream’ headsets cost..

    • Andrew Jakobs

      And yet we still haven’t got the GPU’s to drive the headsets that are currently on the market. highend GPU’s have trouble, and midrange can’t handle it very well..

    • Jarilo

      3 to 4 years is nothing for a tech market to be honest. Barely the single life span of a console. Mr. Rudeeeeeel Zavednoooo.

      • johann jensson

        Hehe, i heard that in Anthony’s voice. :)

      • mAc

        The Jarilo Effect

    • johann jensson

      Well said. Cosmos should cost no more than 600€ (that’s probably 500$) for what it brings to the table.

  • An industry that can only produce Pinto hatchbacks isn’t going anywhere. Not a chance.

  • Justin Davis

    This doesn’t mention the fact that it will support the Vive wireless adapter. That’s the only reason I’d buy one.

  • Jarilo

    Looks like a good kit to me, cheaper than expected. I would have said 599 as the sweet spot so for HTC only 100 over what I would have liked is surprising actually. Looking forward to the reviews and I don’t get the hate at all.

  • Amazing review a always! As for the controllers tracking, the Vive Focus Plus has non-perfect controllers tracking as well. I guess HTC is a bit behind Oculus in this. The good news is that in these months, the tracking on the Focus+ has improved a lot

  • Ugur Ister

    Things i really like about this which make it unique are that with that other faceplate releasing later there would then also be the option to use lighthouses, so one can choose between the internal cams and lighthouse based tracking and the point that the wireless adapter seems to work with it, which, if it does work great, that’s a strong differentiator.
    So those two are the most interesting unique aspects to me compared to the other current headsets.
    The “inability to rotate the visor with respect to the face independent of the head-mount position” point seems concerning if one can’t adjust it to be both comfy and with ideal angle/fov and the
    “while the controller tracking felt solid overall, it was easy to spot moments of jitter here and there (where the controller would drift an inch out of position before quickly popping back into place) even when when moving the controllers slowly”
    part mentioned in the article worries me, too.
    I hope they get the controller tracking rock solid with software updates, because that one especially is of prime importance to me.
    It’s cool one will get the option later to also use base stations using tracking, but if one essentially has to, because the inside out cams using tracking is too wobbly, then that would take away one big differentiator for this compared to previous Vive headsets (and also the Index).
    Oculus has improved their inside out tracking quite a bit with software updates, so i hope HTC can do so, too.
    My main concern as i mentioned on another article is the pricing in Europe, i think there HTC needs to lower the price a good bit (or go even higher end on specs next time) to have a more sense making price point.
    Looking forward to the review for sure.

  • SataNeedSoulsToo

    I’ll buy one only after the steamvr tracking faceplate is released. Hopefully they release a package without the controllers and the steamvr tracking faceplate instead. I’m only really interested because of the flip up design and wireless capability.

  • How confident are you that HTC will release a faceplate for SteamVR tracking? Are they known for saying one thing and doing another?

    • johann jensson

      Exactly.

    • benz145

      They officially announced it and would big in hot water if people bought Cosmos on the grounds that the SteamVR Tracking faceplate would be available and then later they cancelled it. So I’d say 99% certainty.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Well, Valve also announced the virtuallink adapater for the Index, but later they said they weren’t going to release it.

  • paratay

    Increase the FOV and eliminate the retarded Fresnel lenses.. Dick heads.

    • asshat

      lol you sound offended because someone made THEIR product the way they wanted to. Unless you can do better, all you can say is your preferences, you can’t judge. you’re the one here whos retarded

      • paratay

        Wow, what an amazing response, why didn’t I think of that. I will, you’re a dick head too and a lost cause. asshat

        • benz145

          Yo friends, can we try to have real conversations here instead of calling each other names? Appreciate it.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      If it would be easy to replace the fresnel lenses for something better (and still being able to keep the same price and not hunderds of dollars more), they would already have done it. But hee, maybe you’re the genious who know how to do better lenses, you might apply for a job then..

  • johann jensson

    Uh-huh… Can they reboot their customer service experience?

  • fuyou2

    UTTER GARBAGE….SHITTY SHITTY SHITTY SPECS…

  • fuyou2

    SAME GARBAGE LIKE THE RIFT S

  • grindathotte .

    All the elements for a great VR headset are out there, someone just needs to put them all together. Let’s have the ergonomics of the Index (adjustable IPD and eye to lens and wide FOV), inside-out tracking from Cosmos or Rift S, resolution from Reverb, and maybe Samsung can throw in the RGB stripe OLED.

  • João Pereira

    I don’t get all the hate towards the Cosmos. Way cheaper than the Index full package, and even though also way more expensive than the Rift S, it shits all over it specs wise.
    I own a Rift S and see myself buying this for the manual IPD adjustment (68,5mm IPD) and the jump in resolution.
    Only thing that gets me worried is the weak sweet spot and glare and bad things the reviewer talks about.
    Let’s see how that compares to the Rift S and I’ll decide.

    • James Cobalt

      I believe it’s only $130 less expensive than the Index in Europe but $300 less in the US and Canada. Considering the tradeoffs, in North America, you’re getting what you pay for (good but lesser audio, good but lesser display, good but lesser lenses, good but lesser tracking, good but lesser ergonomics…). It’s much less of a reasonable tradeoff in the EU unless you need a Cosmos-specific feature like a flip visor or the ability to setup and break down quickly (such as for a person who travels a lot; though Quest is probably the better option there).

      The value prop is further complicated by the fact that for people upgrading from a Vive (instead of a Rift, as in your case), it’s actually cheaper to upgrade to Index assuming you aren’t selling all of your Vive hardware.

      I personally haven’t seen much hate towards Cosmos. The reaction spectrum seems to range from mild disappointment to cautious optimism, with the majority somewhere in the middle.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Nah, the full index package is in europe also 300 euro’s more expensive than the cosmos. But you are right, if you already own the original vive, you can do an incremental upgrade, with first only the headset, later the controllers and if you need, even upgrade the lighthouse system..

        • James Cobalt

          Ah. Thanks to the magic of VPN I now see it’s actually £919.00 for the full Index kit versus £699.00 for the Cosmos. So £220 difference ($275 USD approx), making it similar to the price difference in the States (albeit both being overall more expensive). :-/

          • Andrew Jakobs

            Let’s not forget the US price is excluding VAT, the UK/EU price is including..

          • James Cobalt

            FYI the US does not have VAT. Sales tax are determined at the State level – many of which do not have sales tax at all for online purchases.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            Yeah I know, but to me VAT is the same as sales tax… But you are right, there are states that do not have sales tax for online purchases.