HTC Vive review: Check out this Immersive high- end headset - HTC is bringing the future to your living room

This year, virtual reality headsets go on sale in bigger numbers than ever. Affordable models like the Samsung Galaxy VR and Google Cardboard have been around for months, but when you see the high-end editions which are arriving right now, the differences are palpable.

Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are the new machines from VR company Facebook-owned Oculus and Taiwanese phone company HTC.

Later this year, PlayStation VR, which will connect to a PlayStation 4, is due and Microsoft’s Hololens will come subsequently.


HTC’s Vive is by some way the most expensive, at £689 (against the Oculus Rift for £499 and £349 for the PlayStation VR).

But it’s also the most complete, including everything you need apart from a gaming computer to connect it to for play.

You need a high-end laptop or desktop, running Windows 10 and with a decent graphics card. I tried several laptops with no success, so it’s worth checking by Googling HTC Vive system requirements.

In the end I plumped for an MSI GT70 Dominator Pro Dragon Edition with an Intel Core i7-6820HK processor which worked well.

Even so, setting it all up was quite a palaver. You put the base stations on opposite sides of the room, high up and tipped downwards so that their angle of view covers the floor area. They connect to the Vive wirelessly.

After that, you can reap the rewards, and they’re pretty spectacular. There are lots of games available now, with more to follow and all are easily and quickly downloadable from Steam, the excellent game download system from games company Valve, which has partnered with HTC for the Vive.

Generally, the games I played were deeply engaging and looked great. Graphics are brilliant (that’s why you need the powerful computer) and the 360 degree views quickly take over.

I never got used to the fact that wherever I looked, the environment was complete. Even when I looked down I was prepared to believe I was in space, on a tennis court or standing in the wreck of a ship undersea.

The VR helmet itself is cabled to the computer, because for accuracy down to the millisecond, wireless won’t do. It needs to be that accurate to avoid motion sickness, something HTC has worked hard on (and successfully).

The helmet, by the way, is reasonably comfortable, unless you wear glasses, in which case some adjustment is necessary to make it bearable. It’s not light, but once wearing it I found myself too immersed in what was going on onscreen to notice

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