HTC announced the price of the Vive Pro today, as well as its shipping date. The Vive Pro is going to be priced at $799, and it will begin shipping on April 5. That is actually the same price that the original Vive saw when it was released commercially in 2017. A bit surprising given the many upgrades that the Vive Pro has over the original Vive. Speaking of the original Vive, HTC has announced that it’ll get a permanent price drop to $499. That’s $100 off of its recent regular price, and $200 off of its original price.
The Vive Pro actually debuted at CES earlier this year, and it was the first time HTC had announced an upgrade to the Vive which launched in 2016, after being announced in 2015. HTC has been taking a pretty slow approach to the Vive, making it so that users weren’t going to need to buy a new headset every year, like a smartphone. The Vive Pro’s biggest upgrade is arguably in the display. There are two OLED displays with 1400×1600 resolution for each eye. That’s compared to 1080×1200 in the original Vive. There are some other ergonomic changes here, that aren’t really noticeable by looking at the headset, but when putting it on, you can really see the difference. There are also headphones built into the headset, so you don’t need to pick up another pair to use with the headset. The Vive Pro does still work with SteamVR Tracking 1.0 and 2.0, which is going to leave you with a great experience in games.
With the original Vive dropping in price to $499, many may be worried about HTC’s support for the headset in the future. But Vive has confirmed that it will continue selling the headset throughout 2018, and since the hardware isn’t really changed (as far as software goes), it will be able to continue to support it for quite some time. Though no concrete date for support ending has been announced, users should not worry. Those that buy the Vive at $499 will also get a two-month subscription to Viveport for free. Viveport is where you can find a number of games and other apps to play and use on the Vive and Vive Pro. So it’s a pretty useful subscription.
Buy the HTC Vive Virtual Reality HeadsetBuy the HTC Vive Pro Virtual Reality Headset