The successor to StarVR’s eponymous high-end headset was announced this week at SIGGRAPH 2018, and brings with it an unambiguous intent to enter the high-end enterprise market in earnest, positioning itself as a competitor to other hardware platforms, such as the HTC Vive Pro.

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Our Perspective

StarVR, a joint venture between Acer and Starbreeze Studios, have proven their ability to bring products to market in the past. The announcement of their latest product carries several strong indications that the company is prepared to make a major push into well-defined markets and practice areas, with a conviction not commonly seen even in other well-established OEMs. This is supported by partnerships with companies from industrial training to CAD to the aerospace and defense sectors. However, the inclusion of features such as VirtualLink support, foveated rendering, and automatic IPD adjustment are proof positive of a renewed commitment to delivering a highly accessible and usable device, despite a focus on commercial and enterprise markets.

Meanwhile, the StarVR One and One XT remain firmly in the premium range in terms of build quality and visual fidelity, delivering almost double the industry standard field of view and a resolution amounting to nearly 2K per eye, all running at 90 frames per second. This quality, however, comes with a computing premium, meaning that a large majority of consumer-grade graphics processors will not be able to unlock the full capabilities of the headset.

The arrival of the One and One XT is a positive sign overall for the high-end VR industry, as an indicator of more and more investment being driven by profitable use cases in niche sectors which can make effective use of today’s premium devices, as opposed to other business models which have historically struggled to balance marketing middling, jack-of-all-trades designs to as many users as possible. Moreover, its performance in the market will continue to cement StarVR’s position in the market as a quality-focused leader in high-end immersive hardware.