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HTC is gearing up for the release of the Vive Wireless Adapter and the company has now shed more light on the product’s availability and pricing. In a recent blog post, HTC confirmed the product will be available for pre-order on September 5 and will hit the shelves a couple of weeks later on September 24. US residents will be able to pre-order the unit from retail channels including Amazon, Best Buy, NewEgg, as well as Microsoft and the online Vive store. The Wireless Adapter will carry a price tag of $299, however, prospective buyers who plan on using the device in conjunction with the newer HTC Vive Pro headset will be required to pay an additional $60 for what the OEM calls the compatibility pack.
Indeed, while the Vive Wireless Adapter is compatible with the standard HTC Vive HMD out of the box, the device requires a few extra add-ons in order to work with the latest Vive Pro model. The OEM will bundle these required extras in a compatibility pack containing a connection cable for the headset, an attachment device, and additional foam padding. The bundle is optional and will be sold separately for the aforementioned price. Either way, the installation process should take only a few minutes, according to the OEM, and will require users to install a PCI-e card on their computers along with a sensor for wireless communication. In terms of specifications, the Wireless Adapter was manufactured with the help of Intel and DisplayLink, and as a result, the unit is based on the WiGig specifications running on the 60GHz band and relies on DisplayLink’s XR codec. The adapter has a range of 6 meters and a field of view of 150 degrees, and the OEM claims that all of these characteristics combined should deliver a low-latency experience at high performance. Additionally, the unit is powered by an HTC QC 3.0 PowerBank included in the retail package, but exact details regarding autonomy are missing, with HTC only mentioning that the system should deliver “hours” of usage on a single charge.
To sweeten the deal, every purchase will be accompanied by two months of access to HTC’s Viveport service for free, although it’s unclear whether existing Viveport subscribers will also take advantage of these two extra months. The OEM refers to this bonus as a “two-month trial” so it might be reserved only for new customers.