A major milestone in premium virtual reality has been reached in China, with HTC announcing the first wireless version of their Vive headset.
At a trade show in the country, the Taiwanese tech giant revealed the Vive Standalone, the first of the flagship VR systems that will operate without the need for a PC or smartphone to power it.
Vive, along with the Oculus Rift and Sony’s PlayStation VR, are considered the industry leaders in virtual reality.
The new Vive Standalone will use HTC’s Viveport platform to supply content – in essence the headset’s own app store – and house Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 856 processor for computing power.
Few further details have been released, including the screen specification or what kind of battery system the Vive Standalone will have in order to keep it powered.
HTC’s Alvin W Graylin said: “China is the leading mobile market in the world today, and has the momentum to lead the global VR market as well.
“Partnering with Qualcomm to deliver an easy to use and more affordable Vive VR system will enable us to make premium standalone VR widely accessible to the masses in China.”
Wireless VR headsets do already exist – most notably the Samsung Gear VR and Google’s Daydream View – but both use a smartphone slotted into the device to provide the screen for virtual reality content.
