The Vive Cosmos is Coming Soon

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VIVE/HTC Corporation

There are a lot of new headsets coming to market, but it feels like the focus is now largely on standalone mobile headsets like the Oculus Quest. That doesn’t mean premium headsets aren’t receiving any love. In fact, there are some amazing things on the horizon, with the new Vive Cosmos teasing that it might just be the next big thing in premium VR.

Funnily enough, we don’t actually know all that much about the Cosmos, but thanks to one particular blogger’s visit to the company, we do know that the Cosmos might be coming to market sooner than anyone thought. As soon as Q3 of 2019!

What We May Know

You can go look at pictures of the Cosmos on HTC’s own website, and you’ll probably agree that it’s quite a handsome beast. It’s been a long time, at least in tech terms, since the original HTC Vive and it shows. Lots of industry-wide developments in VR are apparent in the new design. For one, it now has a headband design which seems to be replacing the fiddly three-way strap setup first-gen VR headsets of the new generation came with. Since these devices are now so much lighter, it’s definitely an improvement.

You’ll also immediately spot the multitude of cameras, which point not only to mixed reality applications, but also to inside-out tracking. I think we can safely declare external motion trackers a dead technology now.

While most of the details that have been revealed about the Cosmos are official and can therefore turn out to be false, they are all plausible. This is meant to be a top-tier HMD, one that can replace the previous Vive, but it may also turn out to be a serious threat to standalone premium headsets.

Why? Well if the rumours are true then this device is going to tether via USB-C using the Displayport protocol. Which means it can be tethered to a modern smartphone as well. If you had one HMD that could work as both a tethered and mobile system, that’s a pretty big deal. Also, given how quickly mobile chipsets are improving, it means you can keep one HMD over multiple mobile generations. Whereas standalone HMDs can’t be upgraded.

The Cosmos certainly seems like an HMD that every VR enthusiast should be excited about and Q3 is right around the corner, so watch this space!

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