Lenovo, Dell, Asus Are Making $300 Windows 10 VR Headsets

Steven Bogos

The Taco Man
Jan 17, 2013
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Lenovo, Dell, Asus Are Making $300 Windows 10 VR Headsets

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Microsoft has officially revealed its horse in the VR headset race.

While everyone else was getting excited over VR, Microsoft showed us something a little different: The Hololens [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167026-Holoportation-with-Microsoft-HoloLens-How-It-Works]. It now appears that the lens was only the first stage in the company's bid to enter the VR race, as at today's Surface event, Microsoft has revealed that it has partnered with several PC manufacturers to create affordable VR headsets for Windows 10.

The partnership includes companies such as Lenovo, Dell, ASUS, HP and Acer, and that the headsets they create will start at the $300 mark. They will be compatible with Windows 10 - specifically as a part of the forthcoming Creators Update that was also announced today as part of a larger push to bring 3D designing and scanning capabilities to the masses.

We don't have too much info on these headsets as of yet, but Microsoft has stated that they will be the "first and only [VR headsets] with inside-out" tracking sensors.

This seems like a really good fit for PlayStation VR [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/project%20scorpio?os=project+scorpio].

Either way, more VR headsets on the marketplace is always a good thing. Nothing like healthy competition to keep companies in check!

Source: Engadget [https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/26/lenovo-hp-and-dell-are-all-working-on-300-windows-vr-headsets/]

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drkchmst

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Mar 28, 2010
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Not a fan of VR at all yet and I only have faith in 1 out of 5 of those manufacturers... Got their mobos. Bought one of their graphics cards and it was just garbage on the cooling front...asus looking at you... Went liquid cooled and fixed it myself.
 

Quellist

Migratory coconut
Oct 7, 2010
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Well, i won't be dipping my toes in the VR water at least until the Scorpio is out so i'm looking forward to watching developments here. I can't see any downside to $300 VR Headsets though, especially considering how overpriced the Oculus Rift and the Vive are and how Sony are screwing customers over with Playstation Move controllers
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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Xorph said:
List said:
F*cking windows 10!?!?! Really?
Were you honestly expecting Mac/Windows 7/Linux support out of a new Microsoft product?
What Microsoft wants is irrelevent. That message clearly defines a dislike for Windows 10 as a medium for the product, or at least as a sole medium for it. Of course, he should have gone on to say that it will bug out or Microsoft will ruin the experience somehow, but I guess that's implied. The point is that itt's a bad idea and there will be a population of people who will find the idea repulsive (Like me) and tune out. And then, of course, there will be someone who 'fixes' the software that Microsoft will claim can't be made compatible for Windows 7 or 8, because they'll lie through their teeth and then admit later that, whoops, it looks like you CAN have it on other OS's and 'WE'RE SOOO SORRY'. Insert crocodile tears and a mild curse under their breath for the Nth time for modders screwing them again for their dishonest practices.

Phew, what a mouhful! I didn't expect it to get that lengthy, but...it's pretty much how things will go.
 

Xorph

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Aug 24, 2010
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FalloutJack said:
Xorph said:
List said:
F*cking windows 10!?!?! Really?
Were you honestly expecting Mac/Windows 7/Linux support out of a new Microsoft product?
What Microsoft wants is irrelevent. That message clearly defines a dislike for Windows 10 as a medium for the product, or at least as a sole medium for it. Of course, he should have gone on to say that it will bug out or Microsoft will ruin the experience somehow, but I guess that's implied. The point is that itt's a bad idea and there will be a population of people who will find the idea repulsive (Like me) and tune out. And then, of course, there will be someone who 'fixes' the software that Microsoft will claim can't be made compatible for Windows 7 or 8, because they'll lie through their teeth and then admit later that, whoops, it looks like you CAN have it on other OS's and 'WE'RE SOOO SORRY'. Insert crocodile tears and a mild curse under their breath for the Nth time for modders screwing them again for their dishonest practices.

Phew, what a mouhful! I didn't expect it to get that lengthy, but...it's pretty much how things will go.
Modding it to work with Linux would certainly make a lot of people happy but why'd they bother making it work with W7/W8 is beyond me. They're only going to become more and more obsolete as time goes on and the people who say they're going to stick with them and never update to Win 10, gamers especially, are either delusional or masochists.
 

Darth Rosenberg

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Oct 25, 2011
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"Affordable VR" is bad VR at the moment, surely?

Not particularly fussed with VR given the XB1's specs, but if MS's approach is passable I'd be very curious to try it out primarily for Elite.
 

loa

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Jan 28, 2012
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And it's microsoft trying to shove windows 10 down peoples throat.
We can't seem to bloody well have one of those things with no downsides now, can we?
 

MonsterCrit

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Feb 17, 2015
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Last horse out the gate. $300 really? Nope sorry. What VR needs right now isn't hardware. It needs a unified API.
 

Remus

Reprogrammed Spambot
Nov 24, 2012
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Is it me or does this set look very... utilitarian. like it was made to be sold at Costco but won't because it blends right in with the walls. Not aesthetically pleasing at all. If the movie "Avalon' was recreated, a movie where the public are slaves to a government-made VR game, this is the device I foresee them wearing.
 

Vanished

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I'm sure each of these companies will fill it with pre-load adware with the excuse that they had to in order to keep costs down.
 

Xorph

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loa said:
And it's microsoft trying to shove windows 10 down peoples throat.
We can't seem to bloody well have one of those things with no downsides now, can we?
So making a peripheral for your product that isn't compatible with the years-obsolete versions of said product is now "shoving that product down people's throats"?

Vanished said:
I'm sure each of these companies will fill it with pre-load adware with the excuse that they had to in order to keep costs down.
I'm holding out hope that Lenovo will install nubbins on all of them like they still do with their laptops.
 

loa

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Xorph said:
So making a peripheral for your product that isn't compatible with the years-obsolete versions of said product is now "shoving that product down people's throats"?
Yes.
And "not compatible", good one.
 

Callate

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Dec 5, 2008
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My cynical side is waiting for the announcement that all software for the new hardware platform will have to come in UWP format...
 

Xorph

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loa said:
Xorph said:
So making a peripheral for your product that isn't compatible with the years-obsolete versions of said product is now "shoving that product down people's throats"?
Yes.
And "not compatible", good one.
Your reasoning is astounding, was Halo 3 not being compatible with the original Xbox also Microsoft "Shoving the 360 down our throats"?
 

Xorph

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Aug 24, 2010
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Callate said:
My cynical side is waiting for the announcement that all software for the new hardware platform will have to come in UWP format...
With how stuff like Quantum Break and We Happy Few have received steam releases my hopeful side in turn wants to think that Microsoft have at least somewhat come to terms with the fact that everyone hates their file format, though your cynic's prediction certainly wouldn't come as a surprise in the end.
 

loa

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Jan 28, 2012
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Xorph said:
loa said:
Xorph said:
So making a peripheral for your product that isn't compatible with the years-obsolete versions of said product is now "shoving that product down people's throats"?
Yes.
And "not compatible", good one.
Your reasoning is astounding, was Halo 3 not being compatible with the original Xbox also Microsoft "Shoving the 360 down our throats"?
Try that again with operating systems instead of consoles because this is about operating systems, not consoles.
 

Xorph

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Aug 24, 2010
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loa said:
Xorph said:
loa said:
Xorph said:
So making a peripheral for your product that isn't compatible with the years-obsolete versions of said product is now "shoving that product down people's throats"?
Yes.
And "not compatible", good one.
Your reasoning is astounding, was Halo 3 not being compatible with the original Xbox also Microsoft "Shoving the 360 down our throats"?
Try that again with operating systems instead of consoles because this is about operating systems, not consoles.
You can ignore the comparison if you want, the point remains that they're under zero obligation to make the newest periphery compatible with outdated software, especially when at the end of the day, even with bullshit like UWP and Cortana, it's inevitably in your long-term best interests to upgrade to Win 10 at some point, as over time W7/W8 are going to do nothing but lack compatibility with more and more future software/hardware and get less and less stable as more time progresses without any support from MS.

They aren't shoving anything down your throat, old OSs not being able to use new stuff has been a thing since they switched from DOS to Win95.