HTV Vive Provides Serious Competition To Oculus Rift


The first commercial version of the Oculus Rift finally arrived in March after several years of special “development” releases. Unfortunately, the reviews haven’t been stellar. The New York Times says the Oculus Rift is a clunky portal to a promising virtual reality.

“I can report that while the Rift is a well-built hardware system brimming with potential, the first wave of apps and games available for it narrows the device’s likely users to hard-core gamers. It is also rougher to set up and get accustomed to than products like smartphones and tablets.”

Geoffrey A. Fowler from the Wall Street Journal believes that the Oculus Rift just isn’t ready for the mainstream.

Facebook's Oculus Rift
The Oculus Rift may not be ready for prime time.
[Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images]
“The Rift demonstrates flashes of a brilliant future where we can move freely through countless virtual worlds. But even after I fixed the sensor glitch, a week with the Rift showed me it still needs to dig itself out of some deep holes,” Fowler believes.

The review adds that the Oculus Rift is the type of product you want to try, but you don’t really want to own — that is, unless you are a serious gamer. If you are a serious gamer, both a compatible PC and the Rift together cost around $1500.

The only major competition for the Oculus Rift right now is the HTC Vive. Even though the reviews for the HTC Vive aren’t completely stellar, critics are definitely more enthusiastic over this device than the Oculus Rift. The Mirror describes the Vive experience as “mind-blowing” in a five-star review.

“Although the Oculus Rift may have heralded this tech revolution, it’s the HTC Vive that’s the most advanced…After a relatively involved set-up process – which involved tackling a huge box of cables and breakout boxes intimidating even for this seasoned gadget hack – the Vive proves to be one of the most remarkable gadgets of recent times.”

The review notes that the Vive effectively transforms your living room into any 360-degree location a game developer chooses. It could be a sunken shipwreck or even at the top of a skyscraper in the distant future. Trusted Reviews is just as impressed with the HTC Vive.

HTC Vive Virtual Reality
The HTC Vive may be the best virtual reality headset available now. [Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images]
“If you can afford it and have the room for it, the HTC Vive offers, quite simply, the best virtual-reality experience you can get,” says reviewer Evan Kypreos. He especially likes the intuitive controllers and the fact that there are already a lot of games available for the Vive.

HTC has been slow in rolling out the Vive. However, as Polygon notes, HTC is starting to bring the virtual reality headset to certain retail locations.

“HTC is partnering with Microsoft and GameStop in the U.S. and Canada to bring Vive demos to retail. It’s starting out small; the first retail locations to get Vive demo units will be the Microsoft flagship store in New York, Microsoft at Bellevue Square in Washington, Microsoft at City Creek Center in Utah and Microsoft at Park Meadows Mall in Colorado.”

The HTC Vive can currently be ordered at HTC’s website, although it is not known how long it will take for purchasers to receive their headsets. The Vive will be more readily available to purchase in several retail stores this summer. Which virtual reality headset would you rather have — the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift? Let us know in the comments section.

[Photo by Mike Pont/Getty Images]

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