HTC has presented this afternoon a compact virtual reality viewer, Live Flow, immersive glasses designed for relaxation and consumption of multimedia content. Much of the information such as its price and appearance had already leaked yesterday, so the newest are its technical characteristics: they weigh 189 grams, have a field of view of 100º, refresh rate of 75 Hz, 1600×1600 resolution per eye (two 2.1″ LCD screen) and is 6Dof, the inside-out tracking is achieved with two outdoor cameras.
These glasses include built-in microphone and headphones with 3D spatial sound, dials to adjust diopters and an active cooling system to keep warm air away from the user’s face. The cylinder seen in all the photographs is just a carrying case. Vive Flow uses the processor Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It does not include battery, power is through any compatible external battery or using the phone.
It is compatible with mobile phones with Android P system or higher. Its connectivity is via Wi-Fi, USB-C and Bluetooth 5.0. This compact viewer does not have its own controllers, to browse the applications or interact with the environment we can use our smartphone. At the moment it does not have hand tracking, but this feature could come later. The mobile is also what we can transmit to Live Flow audiovisual content to listen to music, watch movies, series, etc.
In addition to running standalone applications, it supports Mirror mode, users will be able to duplicate the content of our Android smartphone in the viewer to view video streaming applications, play Android flat games and the like. iOS devices do not support Vive Flow for use as a controller or for content mirroring, although HTC is working to make them compatible in the future.
HTC Vive explained that this device has been specially designed for our well-being, as a relaxation tool, for which it is compatible with many applications from the Viveport catalog such as TRIPP or Nature Treks or simple games such as Space Slurpies, and also serves to organize virtual meetings in Vive Sync.
Its price in Europe is 569 €, the pre-purchase period has already opened and all those who place an order until October 31 will receive several items worth € 110: transport case, 7 accessories not specified and 2 months of Viveport Infinity. HTC also plans to offer a special subscription to Viveport for Vive Flow, with which for $ 5.99 a month we will have access to a wide range of immersive applications that will cover wellness, brain training, productivity, lightweight games and exclusive content such as a Lo-Fi room designed to look like a cozy cafe.
