Wireless VR Headsets For Computers

If we have to be honest, there’s nothing wrong with current VR headsets.

The HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are both tremendously capable and deliver a very satisfying VR experience.

That said, however, they’re not entirely without faults or annoyances.

The biggest annoyance perhaps comes from their setup. You need to connect three different wires to a PC to get the headset working.

That doesn’t seem like such a big problem, but when you consider the fact that you’ll be physically moving while wearing the headset with all these wires dangling, it can become quite bothersome.

Nothing is more frustrating than getting pulled out of a great video game scene because you pulled a wire.

Hence, we looked at the best VR wireless VR headsets for computers!

The Case For Wireless VR Headsets

The case for wireless VR headsets is obvious, and we’re sure that behind the scenes, developers are trying their level best on perfecting wireless for VR duties. But it’s not here yet.

In fact, it might be a while before we see a true wireless VR headset for PC. Microsoft hasn’t come out with a VR headset for the popular Xbox One console for this very reason.

The company thinks that wired VR headsets are just too messy to use, and it’ll come up with a VR product for the console when wireless for VR is perfected.

The Technology For Wireless VR

HTC Vive Focus

A while back we saw something interesting from HTC – the HTC Vive Focus. The Vive Focus is a standalone VR headset that doesn’t require a PC or smartphone to function.

In fact, it uses hardware similar to what you’d find on a flagship smartphone.

Making use of that hardware, the Vive Focus can function as a completely independent VR headset that’s capable of running Android apps and games.

Demos for the Focus were quite successful, with tech journalists praising the device’s capabilities.

HTC Vive + Intel WiGig

The second significant advancement we’ve seen towards mainstream high-quality wireless VR headsets comes from a combination of Intel advanced wireless technology and the HTC Vive VR headset.

This prototype wireless VR headset works by pairing a production Vive headset with a WiGig. This pair completely eliminates the need for the VR headset to have any wired connections with a PC.

WiGig is a high performance wireless standard that is able to transmit large amounts of data, much larger than traditional WiFi can manage.

The WiGig unit is responsible for providing the VR headset with power and image data. This unit can power the HTC Vive for around 2 hours. But how does it perform?

The latency between the receiver and the WiGig unit is reported to be around 7ms, which is perfectly fine and should be virtually unnoticeable to the user. As a result of this, the user is able to experience fluid gameplay without any lags.

Perhaps, this is the major breakthrough that wireless VR needs.

AuraVisor All-In-One Virtual Reality Headset

If you’re adamant about getting a wireless VR headset for your computer and can’t wait for the big companies to release their products, then you’ll have to settle for something that isn’t quite cutting edge.

The AuraVisor AIO VR headset is one such product. This VR headset can function completely on its own, much like the aforementioned HTC Vive Focus.

Thanks to a fully functioning Android OS built into this headset, it can access the complete selection of VR apps and games currently available on the Google Play Store.

All you need to do is start up the device, login to your Google account and download the apps and games you’d like to play. All of this is done of course, without any wires.

On full wireless mode, the battery on this headset should last you around a couple of hours. Since VR sessions don’t last very long, that’s quite sufficient.

As we mentioned earlier, you cannot expect a cutting edge wireless VR headset at this point.

The AuraVisor features a 1920×1080 pixel screen, so it’s not exactly a rival to the Oculus Rift in terms of raw numbers.

The refresh rate is also 60Hz, which might be fine for some but can prove to be nauseating. The AuraVisor is an all-in-one headset so it doesn’t require any external sensors.

It has a range of internal sensors including an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and proximity sensor. The processor being used in this headset is a quad-core A17-based unit running at 1.8GHz.

There’s also Bluetooth so you can connect your favorite game controller to this headset wirelessly. If you want to use it with a PC, you will have to connect an HDMI wire for graphics input.

In this sense, its not truly a wireless PC VR headset but the fact that it can be used independently makes it a very compelling product.

Some of the advantages of this product are obvious: you won’t have to use your computer to enjoy VR content. You can make use of the large library of apps and games on the Google Play store and keep yourself entertained for hours.

And when you feel like enjoying a nice high-quality PC in VR, you can simply connect this headset to your PC via an HDMI wire and a micro-USB wire, and you’re good to go.

This also makes it a very good choice for notebook users who can’t carry a bunch of wires around with them.

Overall

For widespread use of virtual reality, we need two very important things: great content and ease-of-use. Currently, we would say that most virtual reality headsets are absolutely not easy to use.

Not only are wires on a VR headset incredibly inconvenient, but they also pose real injury hazards.

You could easily trip on your VR headset’s wire because you can’t really see when you’re immersed in a virtual environment.

This is the reason why Microsoft still hasn’t announced a VR headset for the Xbox. And this is perhaps the next break-through that virtual reality technology needs to become truly mainstream.

We’ve already mentioned some promising examples in this article, with the HTC Vive and Intel WiGig combo particularly impressive.

Since it’s been proven that it’s possible, 2018 could finally herald the release of true wireless VR headsets for computers that will spearhead the next wave of VR adoption amongst the masses.

In 2019 the technology is expected to keep growing, from wireless VR to Augment Reality. What’s Next?