While HTC is seen struggling in its smartphone business and not getting as much attention as other smartphone players in Malaysia, the company has finally decided to officially bring in the HTC VIVE after two years of its existence, in fact it is introducing both the HTC VIVE Consumer Edition and VIVE PRO headsets, and the good news is the products are directly supported by the company and is distributed by well known distributor ECS Astar Sdn Bhd.
The consumer edition HTC VIVE has been in the market for a while now, it features a dual AMOLED 3.6″ display that supports a 90Hz refresh rate and 110 degree field of view, both lenses will produce a combined resolution of 2160×1200 pixels, while it sports I/O of HDMI, USB 2.0, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth and an integrated microphone.
If you have been keeping tabs on the VR HMD market, you would probably be more excited about the VIVE Pro that was launched in CES 2018, the headset features a built-in high resolution headset and has a much higher resolution AMOLED screen as compared to the VIVE Consumer Edition at 2880 x 1600 combined. The VIVE Pro uses USB-C 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.2 for receiving image signals, and HTC mentions that the headset would offer wearers a more comfortable experience with an improved headstrap.
The VIVE Pro will come in a starter kit which provides a complete premium solution for VR enthusiasts, it comes with two wireless controllers and two SteamVR tracking base station with room scale capability.
In conjunction with the launch, HTC has also introduced VIVEPORT, the company’s subscription service for VR apps and games that has over 1400 titles to date, the subscription allows customers to select five titles with unlimited access for RM37.99/month with no contract.
The HTC VIVE Consumer Edition will be available starting next week at HTC online partners and major IT retailers for RM2,999, the first 200 consumers who purchase it will enjoy a 3-month subscription to VIVEPORT. The VIVE PRO Starter Kit will be available towards the end of November for RM6,099, customers who pre-order device from now till 31st December will receive a 3-month subscription to VIVEPORT.
