Technologies

HTC’s Standalone Vive XR Elite, Hands-On: An Evolution for Virtual Reality

Yes, $1,099 is costly, but HTC’s new Vive XR Elite truly feels like a step up. I just hope it ends up working better for my eyes.

Virtual reality headsets have changed quite a bit over the past decade, mostly getting more powerful and more expensive. HTC’s Vive XR Elite, like Meta’s recent Quest Pro and possibly Apple’s long-awaited device, asks the question: Are we truly ready for the rise of the $1,000-plus VR rigs?

The $1,099 headset, available for preorder now, is arriving by the end of February — remarkably soon. That means it’ll be available alongside Sony’s PlayStation 5-connected PSVR 2. While less expensive than the Quest Pro, the XR Elite’s price costs about as much as buying a PS5 and a PSVR 2 together. It’s far from an impulse purchase. But the hardware, which shrinks down the VR form to a pair of nearly glasses-like goggles and includes mixed-reality capabilities that could allow for AR apps, looks to solve how we’ll be using the metaverse for more in our lives than just games, simulation and fitness.

No other company has really cracked this challenge either. But this Vive headset looks, more than ever, like it’s a stepping stone to future AR glasses.

«We see where mixed reality is going to create a whole new suite of use cases. We know the virtual reality use cases are great. I think the AR side is amazing, too,» Dan O’Brien, HTC’s general manager of Vive, told me in a conversation at CES in Las Vegas earlier in January. He acknowledged that HTC tried to make an AR device in 2015 but stopped because of the complications. O’Brien sees 5G and cloud computing as a key next step. «You need a 5G network, a really robust one to make AR go to scale — you need a cloud infrastructure to deliver to those types of wearables.»

The XR Elite is primarily a standalone VR headset, and it looks like an impressive piece of tech: It has a familiar Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip much like the Meta Quest 2, Quest Pro and Vive’s existing business-focused Focus 3. But it adds a higher-resolution 110-degree field of view, LCD displays with 2K resolution per eye that can run at 90Hz. There’s also a boosted 12GB of RAM along with 128GB of storage. It can connect to PCs to run SteamVR or HTC’s VivePort software, or connect with Android phones. But its potential as a bridge to AR experiences seems like the most impressive feature.

Those are just specs, though. The XR Elite is a VR headset with a similar proposition to previous models, but with expanded capabilities. Its compact size is the most surprising part: At 340 grams, it’s less than half the weight of the Quest Pro. The rear hot-swappable battery gives about two hours of life. It gets even smaller by unclipping the back battery strap and adding glasses arms that can turn the headset into a modified pair of VR glasses, which could just plug into an external USB-C charger or battery for power. It’s small enough to fit in a compact carrying case tube.

But that compact size comes with a twist: Instead of fitting on top of glasses, the XR Elite uses adjusting dials, or diopters, which can change the lens prescription on the fly without you needing to wear glasses at all — for some people, at least. The diopters only accommodate up to a -6 prescription, but my own vision is over -8 for nearsightedness. It’s a challenge HTC faced with its even smaller Vive Flow phone-connected VR goggles, which also went for the glasses-free approach.

The XR Elite has a dedicated depth sensor on the front, along with color passthrough cameras that can eventually show mixed reality-experiences, similar to the Quest Pro. The Quest Pro doesn’t have the Elite’s added depth sensor, but it accommodates for that with its onboard cameras.

The XR Elite could also adapt further. While the hardware doesn’t have its own eye-tracking tools onboard, eye- and face-tracking add-ons are coming later in the year. The headset’s controllers are the same standard ones that HTC has for the Vive Focus 3, which follow the same game controller-like playbook as the Meta Quest 2 and others. But HTC already has its own line of wearable VR body trackers and wristbands, and more accessories could follow.

O’Brien acknowledges that the sticky, mass-market appeal of VR and AR aren’t here yet. «I think developers will be using cloud computing, being able to actually get their content into the metaverse much faster, and much more efficiently,» he said. «If you think about the streaming business, these streamers, these TikTokkers, all these kids that create the really compelling, fun experiences that just keep drawing you back in? That’s not in the metaverse today, We need to create more opportunities for less sophisticated immersive content creators to get involved, and then create more [of an] economy.»

O’Brien sees cloud computing, driven by eye tracking’s ability to compress graphics data via a technology called foveated rendering, as a way of eventually shrinking the processors on future headsets, getting smaller and fitting on more people.

My concern is about the limited prescription options at the moment. «As we get to much lighter glasses, people will probably be bringing more of their prescriptions to it in the future,» says O’Brien. «For now, what we can do is just try to address the majority of the market as best we can with these types of setting changes, because we have to get the headsets lighter. We’ve got to get them more comfortable. And if you’re going to have these big eye relief areas inside of these headsets, they’re going to stay really big.»

O’Brien sees the included VR controllers as possibly becoming optional one day, even maybe being left out of the box and bought separately, but not yet. Hand tracking isn’t reliable enough. «Hand tracking has to make massive advancements over the next two to three years to really become much more of a natural input tool.» But O’Brien suggests it’s a way for future headsets to get more affordable. «If a user can just put on glasses and interact with content [with their hands], that’s going to be a much less expensive product.»

Hands-on thoughts

My feelings after trying HTC’s new Vive XR Elite for myself in Las Vegas couldn’t be more mixed. I am excited to see a fully self-contained VR headset — with mixed reality passthrough camera capabilities, no less — fit in something so small it can be folded up in a carrying tube. I just wish it worked for me without having to remember to wear contact lenses.

Vive’s premium standalone headset undercuts the Meta Quest Pro by $400, and it’s a lot smaller and lighter. But it’s hard for me to tell how good it is in comparison, for several reasons. My handful of demos in Las Vegas were largely standard VR-type experiences, with only a couple that added a background of the real world provided by the headset’s color passthrough cameras. Also, my extreme nearsightedness and my glasses didn’t work with the headset’s limited built-in vision-adjustment diopter dials, and I didn’t bring contact lenses. I either had to play with slightly fuzzy VR, or wedge my glasses into the headset and sacrifice comfort and field of view.

The headset’s extremely small, and with its battery back strap, it balances weight to feel more like a simple ring-like device you rest on your head. The back strap can be detached in favor of glasses-like arms (and powering up via an external battery pack through USB-C), but I didn’t wear that configuration. The face fit wasn’t perfect, though: I found some pressure on my nose and around my eyes, even without glasses, in ways I don’t get from the Meta Quest 2.

The Vive XR Elite’s controllers are the same ones that Vive uses for its business-targeted standalone Vive Focus 3. They’re fine, and similar to the Quest 2, but not particularly surprising and don’t improve the experience beyond other standard VR headsets. They use the same tracking system that needs the headset’s front cameras to help position location. The more advanced Quest Pro controllers, in comparison, have their own tracking cameras inside.

The XR Elite has depth sensing to potentially measure rooms and layer VR into them via mixed reality, using the passthrough color cameras in a way that the Quest Pro does. The dedicated depth sensor promises better mixed reality accuracy, but no demos I tried really showed this off. The closest experience, a Beat Saber-like music conducting game called Maestro, layered a VR interface on top of the real-world demo kiosk I was in, allowing me to look around and be in the game… but it didn’t blend the real and virtual much beyond that. Another demo, which had me punching targets on a grid in front of me, suspended the grid onto a background of the world around me, but without much interaction: The real-world passthrough cameras were just a backdrop.

The color passthrough camera quality seemed about equivalent to the Quest Pro, or the Pico 4 VR headset. I’m more interested in what other AR apps could emerge.

For that, though, the XR Elite will need willing software partners. Meta hasn’t released many mixed reality-capable apps for the Quest Pro yet, and the same challenges might be in store for HTC. In that sense, this headset feels as much like a developer kit for future mixed reality as it is a working, PC-compatible VR product.

This product has been selected as one of the best products of CES 2023. Check out the other Best of CES 2023 award winners.

Technologies

Using Kohler’s Poop-Analysis Camera? Double-Check This Key Privacy Setting First

Don’t perch on your camera-equipped throne assuming your «data» is end-to-end encrypted. It’s not quite that simple.

In October, Kohler launched Dekoda, a camera that attaches to a toilet and uses AI to examine your poop. Some say you can’t put a price on good gut health, but the Dekoda costs $599 for the device, plus a subscription fee that ranges from $70 to $156 per year.

But after a blog post published this week raised questions about Kohler’s data practices for its new toilet gadget, the company was forced to explained what it means by «encrypted» data for customers, and what its policy is for training its algorithms on their… uh… waste information. And it’s not as straightforward as it initially appeared to be.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

On its website, Kohler says Dekoda «analyzes gut health and hydration and detects the presence of blood in the toilet bowl, providing data for building healthy habits.»

On the same webpage, Kohler touts privacy features for the gadget. It says that the camera only ever points down into the toilet bowl, that it offers fingerprint authentication optionally via the Dekoda remote and that, «our technology is designed to keep your personal data personal. It is end-to-end encrypted.»

The blog post published by security researcher Simon Fondrie-Teitler raised questions about what that encryption entails and pointed out that Kohler would likely have access to the data and images collected by Dekoda.

«Responses from the company make it clear that — contrary to common understanding of the term — Kohler is able to access data collected by the device and associated application,» he wrote.

Kohler responds to privacy concerns

Kohler itself appeared to confirm this notion in a statement it shared with CNET. It wrote: «The term end-to-end encryption is often used in the context of products that enable a user (sender) to communicate with another user (recipient), such as a messaging application. Kohler Health is not a messaging application. In this case, we used the term with respect to the encryption of data between our users (sender) and Kohler Health (recipient).»

The company went on to say: «We encrypt data end-to-end in transit, as it travels between users’ devices and our systems, where it is decrypted and processed to provide and improve our service. We also encrypt sensitive user data at rest, when it’s stored on a user’s mobile phone, toilet attachment and on our systems.»

In other words, the data Dekoda collects is encrypted in transit, but can be decrypted by the company on its end.

In regards to how the company uses the data for AI systems learning, Kohler said in the same statement: «If a user consents (which is optional), Kohler Health may de-identify the data and use the de-identified data to train the AI that drives our product. This consent check-box is displayed in the Kohler Health app, is optional and is not pre-checked.»

Based on Kohler’s statement, it will remove information that pairs a user’s identity with the data before it’s used for optional AI model training.

The meaning of ‘encrypted’

This may cause confusion for people who are familiar with the kind of end-to-end encryption offered by services such as Signal or even Apple. Here, the expectation that companies wouldn’t have access, or even a technological way, to decrypt data that people are transmitting through their services.

What Kohler is doing sounds different from that expectation, as Fondrie-Teitler points out in his post: «What Kohler is referring to as E2EE here is simply HTTPS encryption between the app and the server, something that has been basic security practice for two decades now, plus encryption at rest.»

Kohler did not respond directly to questions about Fondrie-Teitler’s post to CNET beyond the statement it shared.

Technologies

A Mario Kart Deal Worth Racing for, This Switch 2 Bundle Is Now $50 Off

With a discount on the console and game, this is one of the easiest Switch 2 savings to recommend.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is one of the most popular handheld gaming consoles and it continues to sell out rapidly after its launch this year. Bundles are a great way to get a game included at no extra cost and this one is a standout.

Right now, Walmart is selling the Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle for $449 — a $50 discount from the regular $499 price. If you prefer Amazon, the retailer is price-matching. Note that you’ll only see the lower price once you add the bundle to your cart on both platforms. That’s a $50 savings on the standard cost, making it one of the better Switch 2 deals I’ve seen after Black Friday.

This bundle includes the Switch 2 console along with a full game download of Mario Kart World, the newest entry in Nintendo’s long-running and wildly popular kart racing series. With the Switch 2’s improvements, Mario Kart World takes advantage of higher resolution, smoother frame rates and more detailed tracks than we’ve seen in past games.

CNET’s Scott Stein reviewed the Switch 2 and gave it 8.5 out of 10, praising its design, display and notably better graphics than rivals like the Steam Deck. The Switch 2 is an excellent overall upgrade and earned an Editors’ Choice award from our team. It is worth noting, however, that, in his tests, the battery lasted a mere 2 hours before dying. He points out that storage will need upgrades as well, given that newer games are larger in size.

While you’re buying the Switch 2, browse our roundup of Switch 2 accessories to deck it out and truly make it your own. And if you’re Team Blue, check our list of the best PlayStation deals too.

CHEAP GAMING LAPTOP DEALS OF THE WEEK

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$750 (save $295)
HP Omen Slim Intel Ultra 5 RTX 5050 512GB SSD 16GB RAM 16-inch Laptop:

$800 (save $650)
Alienware 16 Aurora AC16250 Intel 7 RTX 5050 512GB SSD 16GB RAM 16-inch 120Hz Laptop:

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Acer Nitro V Intel i5 13th Gen RTX 4050 512GB SSD 8GB RAM 15.6-inch Laptop:

$709 (save $41)

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why this deal matters

A $50 discount on a new console bundle is rare, especially this early in the Switch 2’s life cycle. Because Mario Kart World is a $70 title on its own, getting both the game and console for $449 is excellent value. If you’ve been waiting for a meaningful price break on the Switch 2, this is one of the best opportunities so far.

Technologies

You Can Turn Your Old Phone Into an MP3 Player. Here’s How

If you miss having an iPod, here’s the next best thing.

Back in the days before smartphones, it seemed like everyone had an MP3 player. The best-known device was the iPod, which debuted in 2001. It wasn’t the first portable media player, but it definitely helped popularize the idea of putting 1,000 songs in your pocket.

MP3 players continued to exist alongside smartphones for some time, and even added support for additional music file formats like WAV, AAC, WMA and FLAC. But as music streaming replaced the traditional practice of buying digital albums and tracks, it wasn’t long before having a separate music player felt redundant. iPod sales peaked in 2008 (the same year Apple launched the App Store for iPhones), and the last iPod was discontinued in 2022.

Still, just because you can keep all your music on your phone, that doesn’t mean it’s always the best idea. Let’s say you’re headed to the gym or going out for a run, and you don’t want to be tempted to check your messages. A separate portable music player gives you all your tunes without the distracting notifications.

Or say you’re somewhere with a poor signal: You’re riding the subway or driving through the woods, and you want to listen to a podcast. You can still access any episode that you’ve downloaded to your phone. But all those files take up precious storage space, which is probably already being used by your apps, photos and videos.

One solution is a 2000s throwback: keep all your music and podcasts on a separate device.

Before you rush out to buy a secondhand iPod or Zune, you might want to dig through that box in the back of your closet. Chances are, you already own a device that can be used as a dedicated MP3 player.

Your old smartphone is perfect for this task; it doesn’t have the classic iPod click wheel, but it can still run Spotify or hold the music files you own.

What are the requirements for turning an old phone into an MP3 player?

Your old phone probably no longer has a data plan. No problem: as long as it can still hold a charge and power up, you can play any track that you’ve saved in your digital music library.

If you can connect your device to Wi-Fi, you can use it to stream songs or podcasts. And if you download your files while your device is connected to your home internet, then you can take them with you wherever you go.

To save your songs and podcasts, you’ll need to use the latest version of your preferred music streaming app. Even if your old phone can’t upgrade to the latest system software, there’s a decent chance that it can still run Spotify, YouTube Music or similar apps.

Spotify can still be accessed on phones that were released eight years ago. You can download the app on any iPhone running iOS 16.1 (supported by devices as old as an iPhone 8 or iPhone X) or above. You have even more options if you use an Android phone: Spotify is supported on Android OS 7.0 (Nougat), which was released in 2016.

YouTube Music has similar requirements: you can download the app on iPhones running iOS 16 or above, and on Android phones running Android OS 8.0 or above.

SoundCloud can be downloaded on iPhones running iOS 16.4 or above, and on Android phones running Android OS 8.0 or above.

Apple Music has the fewest restrictions. The app can be downloaded on iPhones running iOS 10.0 or above, and Android phones running Android OS 5.0 or above.

How to put your music on your old smartphone

If you’re using a streaming app like Spotify or SoundCloud, you can download tracks, playlists and albums to listen to them offline. However, you’ll need to have a premium subscription to the service. (Spotify lets free users download podcasts.)

As for how much music, audiobooks and podcasts you can download, your main limit will be the amount of storage on your device.

Spotify lets you download up to 10,000 songs on up to five separate devices. You can keep your downloads indefinitely, as long as you maintain your Spotify Premium subscription and you access the app at least once every 30 days.

You can’t download individual songs separately on Spotify, but you can download albums or custom playlists. Tap the arrow icon to save the album or playlist to your library. Once they’re downloaded, they’ll be marked with a green arrow icon.

YouTube Music will let Premium users download an unlimited number of songs across up to 10 devices. To save a track for offline listening, tap the three-dots icon and tap Download. You’ll see a checkmark icon appear next to each saved track.

SoundCloud Go and Go Plus users can also download an unlimited number of tracks for offline listening. Tap the arrow icon next to any of your Liked songs and albums.

Apple Music subscribers can download up to 100,000 songs. Go to your library, tap the three-dots icon next to the tracks you want to save offline, and tap Download.

If you’ve purchased any songs or albums digitally, you can access those files from your phone’s music player app. And if you own CDs or other physical media, you might consider saving those tracks to your device with the help of an external disc drive.

Once your old phone is set up with your favorite tunes, all you need to do is find a pair of wired headphones and party like it’s 2005.

Don’t have an old phone? Here are some great portable MP3 players

If you don’t have an old smartphone lying around or don’t feel like setting it up, you can still buy a brand-new MP3 player. These modern devices are compact and easy to use. They’re relatively affordable, with some options under $100. And they include a headphone jack — arguably one of the most important components of a dedicated music player.