At CES 2019 Qualcomm was showing off a new VR headset reference design with dual 2160×2160 LCD displays. Interestingly, the headset was being powered by a smartphone reference device via a USB-C cable.
Does that feature remind you of anything? Earlier this week, HTC announced Vive Cosmos at their pre-CES special press event.
As well as being a PC VR headset, HTC mentioned that Cosmos might connect to “other devices”. Their announcement video showed a silloute of what looks like a HTC smartphone- seemingly hinting that will be the “other device”.
To be clear, Qualcomm isn’t a consumer facing company- they sell chips and licence technology to consumer OEMs. HTC has utilized Qualcomm’s technology in the past. The Vive Focus standalone is based off Qualcomm’s VR835 reference design and licences Qualcomm’s positional tracking technology.
HTC’s website claims the Cosmos contains the company’s ‘sharpest screens yet’. It also states they have an RGB subpixel layout. Given that most OLEDs are PenTile rather than RGB, this makes LCD the most likely candidate for the Cosmos’s screens. And if they’re the ‘sharpest yet’, they’d have to be higher resolution than the Vive Pro, right?
So these 2160×2160 LCD panels in the Qualcomm headset, using the same unique feature as the Cosmos, may not be a coincidence. It’s very possible this headset isn’t just the basis of the Cosmos’ connectivity, but also contains the panels the Cosmos will use.
HTC has been tight lipped on any details about the Cosmos, but we’ll keep you updated on any further hints or announcements about this interesting headset.
