Meet the HTC Cosmos, HTC’s super portable, high-end VR headset

HTC’s answer to Facebook and Oculus’ upcoming Quest virtual reality headset is here and it’s a rather impressive piece of kit. Called the Cosmos, it has a number of intriguing features, as well as enhancements like a nicer screen, dual pass-thru cameras, and crucially, inside out tracking.

Inside out tracking means that you no longer need external sensors to track the headset’s orientation and location, making it wire free and tether free. PCGamer reports that it can also flip up without being removed, making it easy to jump in and out of virtual reality — have a drink without moving your headset, hurray! We’re also told that the headset will be able to connect wirelessly to two devices: your gaming PC and your smartphone. That should open up hitherto unheard of gaming potential, but also make it possible to take calls, conduct meetings, or perform a number of intriguing social functions via your phone.

We would assume the headset will sport the same screens used in the Vive Pro — in a similar manner to Oculus’ upcoming Quest headset — but that’s not confirmed as of yet. The motion controls seen in the teaser are also significant, as they look to be knuckle designs which Valve has been working on for a couple of years. They’re vastly different from the original Vive wand controllers.

Not much else is known about the headset for now, but we expect to hear more throughout CES 2019.