The Focus Vision shines best when it comes to overall build quality and comfort. Although it’s made of plastic like the Quest 3, it’s a solid device that looks more premium than Meta’s offerings. Ample padding helps the Focus Vision rest comfortably on your forehead and behind your chin. And its halo-shaped headband, combined with the ability to flip up the visors, makes it easy to slip on large glasses.
Best of all, the Focus Vision has a removable battery behind the headband. It provides a useful counterweight to the large front end, and if you’ve got enough spare batteries, it can let you stay in wireless VR all day. The headset also has a small built-in battery that allows you to stay in your VR session even when you swap out the larger rear power cell. This is something we’ll probably never see in consumer Quest headsets because it’s too expensive to implement, and the Meta isn’t built for enterprise customers who require continuous wireless. (And to be fair, connecting the Quest 3 to a USB battery pack is easy, too.)
It is in use
Using the Focus Vision isn’t much different from the Focus – a headset I liked when I reviewed it in 2021, but as a business-oriented device I cautioned against buying it for any consumer. I guess that’s not too surprising since both headsets share the same basic design, displays and CPU. In stand-alone VR mode, play Maestro the demo really made me feel like conducting an orchestra (an experience I also had on the Quest 3S), and I enjoyed wandering around several virtual worlds in VR Chat.
Other experiences like the classic underwater VR short blue, It felt as immersive as the clunkier tethered headphones. While I can say the Focus Vision doesn’t have the best lenses around, and I wish it had more graphics horsepower, it was still a thrill to stand in the middle of a sunken ship waiting for a giant blue whale to pass by. . It was also nice to see that the Vive app showcase is a little more than it was in 2021. Still, it pales in comparison to Meta’s Quest library, which has more titles and plenty of compelling exclusives (including Star Wars titles like Vader Immortal). series and Tales from the edge of the galaxy).
We already knew the HTC Vive could make a decent headset – the Focus Vision’s controllers and speakers are just as capable as the previous model – but what about the Focus Vision’s new features like mixed reality and eye tracking? Unfortunately, there is not much to say yet. There are several mixed reality experiences like the creation app Figmin XR and shooter Yukibut they’re not completely mind blowing. The Focus Vision’s 16-megapixel mixed-reality cameras offer a fuzzy view of the real world (similar to the Quest 3 and 3S), so it’s not as impressive as something like the more expensive Apple Vision Pro.
Focus Vision’s eye-tracking feature completely refused to work for me, even when I tried to calibrate it multiple times without glasses. This didn’t seem like a huge loss, as there are quite a few games in the Vive store that support it (such as Capsule Critters and Mare). This is a feature that seems more useful for developers who want to create their own eye tracking experiences, not just for people who want to play games with eye tracking.
Solid standalone VR
A better selling point for the Focus Vision is its ability to stream uncompressed desktop VR experiences — but only if you invest in a $149 DisplayPort streaming kit. Although Meta’s Quest headsets have been able to connect to computers for years, first with USB-C cables and then wirelessly, they offer a very compressed view of desktop VR. By going straight to the DisplayPort connection on your video card, the HTC Vive aims to deliver something closer to what we’ve seen with the Vive Pro 2 and other dedicated PC headsets.
After playing for half an hour Half-Life: AlyxI can attest that the Focus Vision delivers a solid desktop VR experience, especially for a standalone headset. But given that it already costs $999 and requires an additional $149 in accessories to get there, it’s hard to say who will find it appealing. True VR heads have probably already invested in serious desktop setups like this one Valve indexor end Bigscreen Beyond (Like the Vision Pro, it uses absurdly clear microLED screens).
The beauty of connecting standalone headphones to computers has always been about value. It was a huge bonus when the $300 Quest 2 could deliver adequate desktop VR. But that’s not the case with Focus Vision. I guess if you’re a developer who wants a single device to test both standalone VR and complex desktop experiences, or who works for a business that needs a multi-use VR headset, the Focus Vision can fill some kind of need. But either way, this seems like a fairly niche use case.
Focus Vision’s automatic IPD adjustment, which scans your eyes and physically moves the lenses to get them in the ideal position, was also impressive for me. At times it worked very well and got close to my target of 66 IPD. But sometimes the automatic process dropped to around 72 IPD, which made things look a bit blurry. And sometimes this feature doesn’t work at all. Automatic tuning is useful if you share the headset with other people, but otherwise it’s more useful to manually select your preferred IPD.
During my typical standalone use, the Focus Vision lasted about an hour and 45 minutes, which was close to the HTC Vive’s two-hour estimate. That’s less than what I usually see on the Quest 3 and 3S, but at least you can buy extra batteries and swap them out easily. The internal battery that enables hot swapping lasts about twenty minutes, but it’s not something you’d normally stress about.
Should you buy Vive Focus Vision?
Despite my issues, Focus Vision is still in an interesting position in the VR world – especially since then Dropped Meta Quest Proit would also be a close competitor. Despite using aging CPUs and lenses, it still delivers decent standalone VR. If you don’t want a clutter of SteamVR sensors in your office, this is a smart way to use powerful computers for more immersive VR experiences (as long as you buy the $149 DisplayPort kit). But for a $999 headset, it’s a shame the HTC Vive didn’t try harder to differentiate the Focus Vision.
