Vive Pro Review: Read Text Like A Boss (One with more money than sense) 

Excellent footage through the lenses. Sold me on the Pro, well done.

Great review. Well balanced and enjoyed the "through the lens" comparisons. Thanks 👍

Definitely gonna get the vive pro thanks for the review 😀👍🏻

Well done video! I'm in and out. Got all the info I need, and well said summary. Makes sense.

Nice review Tribal!

Awesome review man!! I'm actually legally blind and have struggled a little ready text in my current vive. Can't wait till the pro arrives

Loved the video, thank you!

Thanks for the pictures can't wait till the 5th or when ever they ship mine!!!

Thanks for the review!

Good job with the comparison pics

Great review and summary, however I wish you would have touched on one more subject in the review. That subject is how the headset looks and feels for those that need glasses. You mentioned in your previous video of this headset that your wife and son both wear glasses. It would have been nice to hear how they felt about the headset as compared to the Vive 1. Does the new HMD offer better visuals for them? Is it easier to get used to than the Vive 1? Are there any issues with the new HMD that might cause motion sickness that have cropped up?

Great review! Like you said, no dirty little secrets, but I really appreciated your balanced perspective on the overall package. My big-big question is actually related to the OG Vive: How are you able to extend the DC cable from the headset to a wall outlet while bypassing the link box?

Can you use the exiting inbuilt cameras to use Leap Motion or will it require putting a Leap Motion camera over the front of them?

Thanks for sharing your honest and detailed thoughts on the Vive Pro. :) It was great that you tested out the text readabilities. Specially since you used TextMesh Pro. Just one thing that I find missing in almost all reviews from everyone is a proper check about the glasses. I wear glasses and the Vive always puts too much pressure on my nose by pushing the top of the glass down towards the nose... I have extensively tried out different glasses with the Vive along with different adjustments (the straps, lens distance, etc.) to find out about a size that fits inside and puts the least pressure on the face. If I still made videos perhaps I would have made a video covering this one particular topic... But I don't. :P

Will the HTC Vive Pro run on a mini display port? I see it comes with a full size display port connection and my MSI 1070GTX doesnt have that.

Great comparison, thanks for the side-by-side shots! Looks like an 80% increase in visible distance, which matches the 80% resolution increase. Better than I expected since the Odyssey is basically equal to Vive 1 in SteamVR.

this video was perfect... helped me make my mind up on what i wanted

Do the custom VR replacement covers for the Vive also fit the pro? I am guessing... no?

Vive owner that really wants a Vive Pro here, but really doesn't want to drop that much coin. Guess I'm just here to torture myself. Regarding the mic: Does the noise cancellation work such that you can mirror audio to an external speakers without it being transmitted on the mic? 1 more thing I'd be really interested to find out what someone with TPCast on base Vive thinks. Is it better to have wireless with Vive right now or better to have the Vive Pro Wired (assuming one already has TPCast and base Vive)?

You mention in this video that you connect your original Vive to your computer without the link box, how? I would like to do the same as I have a play area of 13' x 13'

Didn't notice anything in this vid regarding the lenses. HTC promo says improved lenses. Are they any better than the original Vive? Are godrays any better or worse? Thanks again for review.

This video got me into VR full hardly I think I am going to go with ths vive 1 idk how I am going to react to vr. Only vr I've done is on my phone. Is it the same quality of image or at least a little better than Samsung gear vr?

how can someone say the change is to small? what VR headsett you using? im def going to buy vivepro. thanks for this review 10/10

Does room view use the two cameras on the front? Has that improved visually?

Been on the fence for a while on the pro. I've had the first model since day one and love it when I have the time. Do you plan on getting the full release game from the guys doing budget cuts?

Nice review, thank you

That Elite Dangerous shot really brings home the difference. My Vive Pro will be perfect for sim racing where I will finally be able to read the telemetry and info a lot better. Thanks for your review!

Great work on the text comparison. I develop algo trading system and I currently use 4x40inch 4K monitors. Was trying to replace them with a VR headset. My vive 1 didn’t achieve it, text are just too blur. Really hope vive pro can.

The text comparison tool is a super idea, but we need the ultimate baseline case - how many lines of this text are readable on a1080p monitor? Is it possible to launch the app on monitor?

Man, remember seeing this back in the day and wanting it so bad, but not thinking it was worth it for the price. And now that the Vive Pro 2 is coming out... I found out a like new second hand Vive Pro for 360 bucks! :D This review helped me deciding to definitely get it!

Any word on whether this one has better ingress protection than the last one?

Great vid bro. Ty

Can you compare in DCS WORLD ? Performance and visual boost for flight simulator please !!! and IL 2 BOS / BOM / BOK

That text readability was a really good intro. That must make reading in Elite much better but what about the god rays? Can you look down at the throttle then slowly look up - the god rays are bad in the Vive 1 - what is it like in the Pro?

Price considerations apart, is there anything available now that is comparable to this if you are interested in accurate tracking for roomscale games? And in the near future?

Do you need the basestation for it to work?

I guess I need an adapter for vive 'n chill to utilize w/usb-c port?

So the Vive and Chill should work with a USB C to A adapter? Also, how do they expect us to utilize out own headphones without a port? I bet it's there.

What about the cameras. What are they for?

Came into some money that could have been spent elsewhere, but decided to augment my good desktop (9900k/2080ti). Boxing day sale dropped the Pro to 1499 CAD (Maple currency dislike), so I pulled the trigger on the system as well as the wireless adapter today. Betcha I get brain cancer by the time I'm 65 from the constant microwaving, but until then I'm looking forward to the untethered experience. I have a holdover WMR system that came bundled with a laptop (That didn't run well on the laptop, lulz) which DID run on the desktop, but SDE for days and tripping over cables just made the experience really shabby. This will be my first 'Cadillac' setup, and I'm looking forward to it. Have you looked at the GearVR lens mod? I'm considering it but reading up has indicated that there can be calibration issues.

Probably noted by now, but yeah, ovrdrop or its slower open source desktop overlay by hotrian can place windows over everything, and i dont think it'll kick you out when compiling, it'll just stay floating in the new game

The headphones have the same quality as the Deluxe Audio Strap? Lol gg I rather play the vive1 tetherless with thee TPCast. Vive Pro doesnt work with TPCast right?

I love your shirt :D I once wrote on a beach that "Home is where the Wifi is."

Change is too small for me. When they come up with better lenses and wider FOV then I will upgrade.

Do these things not come with instruction manuals?

A USB-C to Audio should work in that port, right?

have you played onward with the pro yet? love that game

Thanks for the honest review. Now I have to buy it ... lol Well that is if it works with my vive 1 sensores and controllers and the wireless thing is good

Why not just use Unity's built in VR editor if you want to code while in VR? Also have you set Virtual Desktop up as a default program for SteamVR?

With my windows mixed reality headset i was able to look text clearly untill 12.... my Lenovo Explorer has a similar resolution to the vibe pro at 2k per eye 1440x 1440

Will the coming HMD's will always have cables? I really need them to always have an option for cable and no wireless! As much as wireless is great I just don't want wifi directly to my brain. Am I silly? Maybe, maybe not. Is Oculus going to release a higher res HMD anytime soon?

You just perfectly demonstrated how HTC has successfully hit there target demographic. You, a VR enthusiast, says "it's worth it". So they've nailed it. As soon as the enthusiast/commercial demographic demand has dried up, it'll be reduced in price to cater for the rest.

Good coverage on both videos. A month ago I would have said there was no way I was not getting this but HTC found a price that was above all expectations. I have spent so much on games over the past 5 months that I almost feel it's worth it. Since I heard this was coming out I actually have waited to play certain games. I hate SDE and even with a smoking fast computer just find VR to not be a real comfortable environment to be in. Still play it a ton and enjoy it but for me TribalInstincts was spot on with his comments on the same issues he feels with the VIVE. Just curious now if it's going to be say over a year for the price to come down or will it be in six months when the lighthouses and controls come out? Hate to buy now and in a few months it drops.

Love that shirt, where did you get it?

So still no camera support?? 😐 cant wait to do my eye test next week lol

dude can you do a side by side with the Samsung because they use the same screens and the Samsung is half the price yes I understand the tracking is better on the vive but for things like sim racing and flight sims and space sims that's not an issue as you are sitting down so all that matters is the way it looks and for that and only that are the pro and Samsung the same ?

Do you think you will end up getting the pimax 8k at the release or will you wait until the reviews come out before u get one

This headset is nearly $1200 bucks here in Australia...for me to buy it with the controllers and sensors required...its going to cost me like $1500+ dollars. I can afford it, but well, I'm going to wait till they drop the full pak price a bit..maybe see how the Pimax 8k turns out and pick between these two around Xmas time....I have a beast high end PC rig for either of them and I do so want to get into VR.....but am going to wait to see what else happens in the next few months or so...

What about the 2 cameras? No one talks about it. I hope you could have a stereoscopic pass through view in the future.

11:19 *uses phone to play games on the toilet* Viewers: *dirty mind activated*

I'd personally like to know about how much easier it is to see distant enemies in Onward or Pavlov. That would be a great selling point. I really wish they'd priced this at $599 cause that was my upper bound for what I was prepared to spend. Kinda bummed.

9 months later, price used about 40% less? Is it worth it now? I liked it a few months back when peer pressure sold me into selling it at a loss and I've missed it since. Everyone touted the Odyssey + so I'd bought it instead and it's been a headache figuratively AND literally ever since. I never enjoy putting it on. I feel as though I need to wipe my eyes of haze continuously as well as putting a rut into my forehead. So I've just bought another VPro though waiting on it. I was never crazy about SDE but the crisp visuals and comfy headset make it seem ok now. In summary, yes it was worth $800, sorry to have to say it. Btw, I've been a musician nearly 50 years. I've never been an audiophile. I think the speakers are just fine. I hear everything I need crisp and clear. I don't need a boomy bass - that's not even natural.

Have you tried a Samsung Odyssey?

Thanks for the review(s) for the Pro. I really want one, but with $1000 into my current Vive (early adopter), another $800+ is just too much for my bank account right now. Here's to hoping the price will come down.

how about usbc to 3.5 jack .....definitely no?

Damn it I just want my Vive Pro already, come on Amazon. I dis-agree with the MIC location TI. I love how Onward for example used it as a way to create breathing effects like vapor. I will have to check out the headphones myself because something is up here, they now have an amp, they should be louder and better. Others are reporting this to be the case but you see no difference.

How looks Google Earth VR in this? :)

i dont got a vive so far so i probably buy this one now :D

Elite Dangerous fits into the same category as Il-2 but I really want IL-2 to become the benchmark for VR. In the CV1 vive planes in the not so far off distance are pixels. Makes it hard to play a flight sim if you can't even see what you're supposed to be shooting at

I hate to ask for more elite dangerous comparisons but... any chance you could take a shot through the rift of the same comparison screen? It’s an unfortunate reality that the game renders much better through the rift than the OG Vive, and I’m curious of see if the Vive Pro handily beats the rift or not. Even if you don’t have time to do a video, just a brief “yeah it’s way better” would be really appreciated!

Dude, you forgot to explain the cameras on the front!! 😑unbelievable 🤦‍♂️ !!

Can you confirm that the Vive Pre base stations aren't compatible?

The vive pro is the new enthusiast version so it's good to remember that if you're thinking about the purchase. You don't need it, but if you have the money, go for it.

Easy question, is it worth $800 dollars more then the original Vive?

I'll wait for the Pimax 8k to upgrade from my Vive 1. This is not a big enough change for me to spend that much. I want the improved fov.

Unless I skipped it you didn't mention or comment in the dual front cams

I'd probably buy this if it was a rift pro or if I owned a vive instead of a rift. Since I already own a rift buying a vive pro with accessories is a bit too expensive for now. If the pro had like touch controllers and a larger fov I might have made the jump regardless. Kindof hoping oculus will release a new awesome hmd in the future as well : ) PS I got from a sidewinder to a vulture in Elite Dangerous in my DK2! xD Green hud helps a bit with the pentile screens.

I still don't know if I'm gonna be able to see the corners clearly at the end of the straight away in racing. It's nice the text is clearer, but going to green text corrected that for me on Elite Dangerous. And it would be different if I could sell my old vive but I can't, I need the cubes. So ...... I don't think they are gonna sell very many of these. Maybe an increased FOV. But no. I'll wait till next year when it's half price and stay away from trying so I don't know what I'm missing. You can keep double dipping your early adopters. The hundred bucks for the delux audio strap was added value. This is a huge added cost for some value.

I heard you could dev in vr in unity and unreal natively, maybe it is in beta

I've noticed the problem he mentions with Virtual Desktop in general when trying to play games and open other programs. I think it's not been updated and no longer works 100%.

It would be insane to me if that usb C port couldn't be an audio port, too

Thanks for the video. I will wait until the wireless adapter comes out. Because I could have justified the 900 EUR if they would have delivered it with wireless. Without it is still an interesting product and for 500 EUR I would have bought it. But just not for the 900 EUR they ask in the EU.

Elite Dangerous did some pretty bad hardcoding of anti-aliasing with FOV and their text. If you run ED with supersampling 4x then the text is really nice even on the old Vive. But then the FPS can drop below VR standards. None of their other anti-aliasing methods really make a difference and you can see swimming noise all over the lines in the planets, docks, everything. You can also see the same FOV text issues if you change your XML config to be 75 or 90 degree FOV rather than the assumed hardcoded for 60 degree FOV as well.

For the Laund(r)y Basket! You just had to come up with something else for me to nitpick on huh??

hey, the new s9 has a 960fps camera too lol also, i HATE that i cant play elite dangerous with my vive.

notify crew :D

I currently have a Mixed Reality and want to upgrade, would this be a good choice right now? I am completely willing to spend the money, but should I wait for the new base stations and controllers or just buy the current 1.0 bundle with the pro headset?

I have 400 hours in Orbusvr, 300 in VRChat and over 100 in other games, I wish I could afford this.

increase super sampling for elite,the 1180 will be coming out sometime in the next few months so you could likely get 3.0 or even more SS the vive pro to me seems a waste of money I will buy the new gtx 1180ti and just supersample. also my vive 1 has no problem hearing my commands when using voice attack for elite dangerous. vive pro would be worth maybe 300 dollars to me,so I will wait till its around that price or they upgrade the screens to 4k 90Hz.

It would be nice to bring an optician and have a close look at the lenses differences. I would be ready to pay an optician to accommodate the lenses so I don't need glasses... probably not possibly unless I pay a fortune. Also, please mention that the lenses are less hard that glasses. I scratch my lenses with my glasses on my Vive.

As a developer: Being able to code in VR would make me buy the Vive Pro. With the original Vive, legibility is just too bad to work with and other than that, I don't think the resolution upgrade would be worth those $880 (in Europe) for me. However, if getting the Vive Pro would mean I could write code and then test in Unity without having to take off the headset every single time, that would change things dramatically. So... yes: Improve virtual desktop to the point where it's actually usable like that and I'm in.

I am absolutely stunned no one has hacked together some small improvement to the original Vive optics.

It's not really informative to make the elite dangerous comparison you made without giving your supersampling settings for each. Text readability in elite is extremely dependent on supersampling, and since the Vive pro is going to be rendering at a higher resolution anyway you should at least super sample to the same level on the original Vive for an apples to apples comparison. Otherwise great review!

i have a original vive so i will wait for the vive 2 :) oh yeah skyrim vr is amazing

12:05 For Elite Dangerous players, why not recommend them the Samsung Odyssey? Its the exact same screen, available for $420 from Microcenter, even cheaper with Best Buy price match, and doesn't need any lighthouses. The Vive's better roomscale/tracking is irrelevant to Elite Dangerous that won't be using the wands.

If you're not doing anything which is pushing the phone why buy a Galaxy S9 rather than an 8 or 7?

hmm can't they update it to better use the mics

You need a usbc to 3.5mm to use your own headphones afaik

Paying the price of the original entire kit just for the headset itself is obscene. A few hundred dollars cheaper is good? No. Try half off for starters. 800 would've been fine for an entire new kit including knuckles controllers. Seriously, they need to work on bringing the price down, not up. That's the only way they're going to increase their customer base like they desperately need to.

Considering this thing has more hardware inside than that silly 800$ phone ... (at least I suspect that the screens + lenses are the most expensive part of the headset). it's expensive, but not crazy. Yes, it would be cool if this tech got to an acceptable level for the casual VR user crowd. However the apps & games just aren't there yet either. btw : if that phone is only needed to call a few people then why the heck are you spending that much money ? ;-)