HTC Vive officially unveils its Vive Flow 'immersive eyewear'

(Image credit: HTC Vive )

Subsequently much speculation, HTC Vive has officially unveiled its "fully grown news in a small packet" – a brand new virtual reality (VR) device, the Vive Fall.

Delineate aside the company as "immersive eyewear" designed to straddle the line between a VR headset and smart glasses, the Vive Flux arrives as a light and portable entertainment, wellness and gaming platform for VR on the go.

There's no seperate controller – the device is operated entirely by a user's Android smartphone via Bluetooth – and at just 189g, information technology's lighter than most of today's best smartphones and fits neatly into a canister-like carry case to maximize portability.

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As for its specs, two LCD screens, 3.2k resolution and a 75hz brush up rate mean the Vive Flow can't touch the brand name's more premium VR offerings like the HTC Vive Focus 3 for performance, but this is clearly a production with ease of use in mind.

The Vive Flow, does, however, boast a 100-degree subject field of view, a dual flexible joint in condition system and snap-along face cushion, immersive spatial audio and adjustable diopter lenses – which the stigmatise says should eliminate the need to wear glasses, for those that use them.

HTC Vive Flow next to carry case — (Image credit: HTC Vive)

That audio is built-in to the blazon of the device, spell two microphones sit at the front for calls. The Vive Flow also sports an active chilling system that uses an internal fan to draw air from a exploiter's side to avoid excessive heat and glass steam. It should be powerful comfortable to wear, then.

As for what the Vive Rate of flow is for, exactly, HTC is banking on a variety of use cases. As we discovered in our short hands-along time with the device, the eyewear hindquarters be used to play games, watch movies and TV shows or immerse yourself in a variety of wellness-oriented programs.

E.g., while you're typically ineffective to lug a giant VR headset onto a aeroplane when travelling, the Vive Hang can substitute as an ultra-portable cinema experience. Or, if you're in a busy office, the eyewear give the sack be utilized to enjoy few short slackening time courtesy of the many meditation apps visible on Viveport, the brand's digital depot.

"With Vive Flow, HTC is taking technology in a new direction, focusing not on what we do, simply on how we sense," aforementioned Cher Wang, CEO of HTC, in a statement. "Maintaining our wellness has come to the forefront in the last few years, so it has never been to a greater extent important to take out clip out to tranquillise our minds, and Vive Flow provides the undefiled opportunity to escape our four walls and bury ourselves in our ideal ambience."

HTC Vive Flow being used for wellness exercise — (Image credit: HTC Vive)

The Vive flow takes standardised USB to charge, thus stool be easily juiced up wherever you are, and leave lead comfortably for up to five hours, so says HTC. The company is also throwing in the carry case and incentive downloadable self-complacent for those customers World Health Organization pre-order the device as of October 14.

Less galvanic, though, is its price. At $499 / £499 / AU$749, the HTC Vive Flow is even more costly than some of the most fashionable – and furthermost higher-up – VR headsets verboten there the right way like a sho, like the Oculus Quest 2 and PlayStation VR.

Sure, it's nowhere near the price of other HTC devices like the mainline HTC Vive, only half-a-grand piano for what is essentially the PSP of VR hardware (in terms of its form and portability, at least) seems a little excessive.

Will the HTC Vive Flow from break into our list of the champion VR headsets of 2021, then? Information technology's look unbelievable, but the Hokkianese tech giant deserves praise for developing a product that does indeed bring out something new to the table – even if the cost of innovation is a high one.

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Axel is a London-based Staff Writer at TechRadar, reportage on everything from the a la mode Tesla models to newest movies arsenic part of the website's day-after-day news output. Having previously written for publications including Esq and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-midazolam in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and a degree in English Lit means he can occasionally be patterned slipping Hemingway quotes into stories about electric sports cars.