This is Niche Gamer Tech. In this column, we regularly cover tech and things related to the tech industry. Please leave feedback and let us know if there’s tech or a story you want us to cover!

HTC is doubling down on the VR world with their wildly successful Vive series of products. Being the market leader, they’ve decided to push for a more modular design that will have higher technical specifications compared to the original Vive while undercutting the Vive Pro by $200 at just under $700, with the newly announced Vive Cosmos.

The Vive Cosmos has a combined resolution of 2880 x 1700P at a 90Hz refresh rate up from the original Vive’s 2160 x 1200P.

The new design includes the faceplate, which has a flip up style to keep the headset resting on your head when you need to take a look around at the fire you’ve started because you knocked over the space heater playing Beatsaber.

Here’s a closer look:

The headset is now entirely self-contained using a motion system that now does not require an exterior room scale sensor.

You can, however throw on an upgrade kit for it to allow using those sensors to bring its accuracy and range of movement up to the same level as those exterior movement detectors.

It allows the additional wireless modular mod and includes improved controllers featuring their new “precision” joysticks. Here’s an introduction video:

Pricing and Availability

The Vive Cosmos will be launching on October 3rd for a price of $699.99. Niche Gamer’s Take: Overall while still expensive this is a very nice upgrade for those on the original vive who are looking for something a bit cheaper than the Vive Pro or are interesting into jumping into VR.