HTC is working on a lightweight, self-contained standalone AR/VR headset that doesn't require a PC or phone; sounding like a competitor to the Meta Quest 2, this unnamed headset was announced prior to its full launch at the CES conference on January 5, HTC's global Head of Product Shen Ye revealed to The Verge (opens in new tab).

In 2019, HTC announced the Vive Cosmos as a lightweight standalone competitor to the Rift. Unfortunately, due to tracking issues, the Vive Cosmos Elite went back to the base station to improve accuracy. (The Cosmos Elite still sneaks in at #5 on our Best VR Headsets list)

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HTC's new headset will feature an outward-facing camera and color pass-through for a mixed reality experience, and a depth sensor for more efficient perimeter mapping and tracking. It will also support hand tracking and a six-degree-of-freedom controller, and the battery is said to last two hours of use.

One area where Meta can't compete is price. He did not say how much HTC's next headset will cost, but Ye made it sound like it won't be as cheap as the Quest 2 was when it launched. We're in an era where consumer VR headsets are heavily subsidized by companies trying to siphon off and take personal data to provide to advertisers," he told The Verge. We don't believe that compromising privacy is the approach we want to take."

Meta's last headset, the Meta Quest Pro, was more expensive gear, but the Meta Quest 3, which will likely be available in 2023, will be more consumer-friendly. It is also rumored to support mixed reality like Apple's upcoming AR headset.

Meanwhile, John Carmack has left Meta. As CTO of what was still called Oculus when he joined the company, he called the organization "an organization that knows nothing but inefficiency."