Last month, HTC released its first lightweight immersive VR glasses VIVE Flow. This product broke our understanding of the large-size VR headset in the traditional hard core field, focusing on lightness and compactness, which is more like a pair of glasses in appearance, and also has excellent portability and comfort that previous VR products can't provide, bringing users a new experience and redefining the new form of VR glasses. So what about this device? Today we bring you the product evaluation of HTC VIVE Flow.
stylish appearance and ultra-portable design
HTC VIVE Flow is a product with distinctive design. As a new concept of VR equipment, VIVE Flow is very different from the traditional VR head display: there are two positioning cameras supporting 6DoF on the left and right sides under the front panel of Flow. They can not only support users to walk freely in the virtual environment when wearing glasses, but also switch the display and directly see the environment around them, which is convenient for users to display content when using outdoors, and can also switch to the camera to observe the outdoor environment.
there is an extension cord connector at the tail of the right temple, which is mainly used for external charging treasure or mobile phone. After the connection, you can put the mobile power supply in your pocket to ensure the overall portability. The official also comes standard with a 1.2-meter type-C charging cable for Flow. If it is still not long enough, you can buy another longer charging cable.
since it is a portable device, the design of VIVE Flow must give priority to the overall portable performance. The whole machine adds up to only 189g, so it really doesn't have much sense of quantity when worn, and the experience is obviously better than the traditional XR head display. The external charging treasure with long connecting wire can be put in your pocket, and a connecting wire will not be entangled at all, and there will be no problem of wearing it.
on the screen, Flow uses two display screens with 1.6k * 1.6K resolution, which can achieve 3.2K resolution with both eyes. It has a refresh rate of 75Hz and a field of view of 1 degrees. Moreover, for nearsighted friends, HTC has also adopted a refractive adjustment of -6 degrees, which can be adjusted accordingly as long as it is not very high myopia, and it is not necessary to wear a head display outside the glasses, which improves the overall use comfort.
HTC VIVE Flow adopts a magnetic detachable mask designed for Asian faces, and a nose pad is specially provided to adjust diopter. The mask that is easy to disassemble is more convenient for every member of the family to use VR. Just buy your own mask and change it when using it. In addition, the official added a double hinge fitting system to Flow, which can fit all kinds of head shapes to a great extent, with moderate strength when wearing, without the feeling of a chuck, and also ensured the wearing stability when using VR.
Interactive screen projection on mobile phone is more convenient
As it is a portable device, HTC VIVE Flow does not provide a separate handle for users. At present, the control method is realized by connecting the mobile phone. Whether the Android phone in our hand can adapt can be confirmed on HTC Vive official website. Download the corresponding VIVE APP, and you can start using it after connecting and pairing. You can operate it every time you put on your head and put on your fingers and press the screen of your mobile phone.
when using the mobile phone, the whole screen of the mobile phone is divided into four areas. The upper area is the Home button, which can be used to jump to the main interface and make networking settings. The left and right buttons have selected effects according to different applications, and the lower area is more options, generally entering a menu with more settings. If you are a friend who is using it for the first time, you can find the teaching module in the main interface and click it to learn the operation. After you are proficient, you can easily interact with each other.
after getting familiar with it, it will be very easy for us to operate the VIVE Flow headset with our mobile phone. Although the mobile phone control can't make the key position setting of the handle more reasonable, the overall experience is acceptable. After the mobile phone turns into a handle, the user can see the four areas of the mobile phone in the interface of VIVE Flow, and there will be corresponding prompts when clicking. In addition to pressing and clicking in four areas, it also supports page sliding. By sliding the mobile phone screen up and down, you can scroll the menu and browse the page. When acting as a handle, the system will automatically reduce the brightness of the mobile phone to the minimum, and only after the "handle state" of the mobile phone is released will the brightness return to the normal state.
in addition to providing interactive operation, the mobile phone can also realize the option of connecting screen projection in VIVE Flow. Different from the screen projection of other VR/AR devices, users can directly find the screen projection option of the mobile phone in the settings bar under the main interface. After clicking, they can cast the mobile phone picture into the Flow head display. At this time, the interface and all data in the mobile phone will be synchronized to the VR head display through wireless transmission.
In addition, Flow can still use the mobile phone as the operating handle when it is in the screen projection state, and the routine functions such as typing and screen zooming can be realized in the screen projection, and the delay is extremely low. In order to improve VIVE Flow's mobile phone screen projection experience, HTC controls the delay of mobile phone screen projection to a minimum through hardware and software.
movie viewing and game experience measurement
the next step is the actual evaluation and use. First, we watched several VR videos through Viveport Video. Because VIVE Flow has its own storage space, we can connect the device with the computer of the Window system through the data cable, and store the 3D video directly in the head display. From the configuration point of view, the resolution of HTC Flow is only 3.2K for both eyes. For playing 2D movies with 2K-level definition, it is actually grainy when viewed at close range, but it is completely acceptable for the portable positioning of this product. Moreover, the more three-dimensional effect in 3D movies and the spatial feedback of 6DoF, the immersion when watching movies is still very good.
considering the light VR experience positioning of this product, many users who buy HTC VIVE Flow will have the need to watch videos. in view of the relative lack of video resources at present, HTC should be able to add some exclusive high-definition video content to the application store for this kind of users, so as to meet the needs of Flow users in both software and hardware.
After testing watching movies, we experienced the meditation function through TRIPP. If it is in a quiet environment at home, the experience brought by TRIPP is really comfortable. Coupled with the visual breathing adjustment, the spatial sound effects and exquisite pictures have brought users a soothing mood and a calmer psychological impact.
at the end of the evaluation, we tested the game function of VIVE Flow through Space Slurpies. Because there is no special gamepad operation, objectively speaking, the corresponding operation of the mobile phone is not very logical, and it is easy to have misoperation problems when playing VR games. Therefore, if you want to play games through VIVE Flow, I suggest that you still have a special gamepad, otherwise it will take a long time to practice in the mobile phone mode to find the corresponding control feel, and the happiness brought by the game will not be maximized.
summary
I was very interested in VIVE Flow at the beginning of its release, and I was deeply impressed by its lightweight design and simple operation. From the actual experience, the hardware and software experience of HTC VIVE Flow has made me feel the obvious differentiated style from the previous "hard core" VR products. Although VIVE Flow can't be compared with the large VR headsets with excellent pictures and excellent performance previously introduced by HTC, the more portable design and simple and comprehensive experience make me want to experience VR products actively.
Although this interactive mode of mobile phone is simple, it can't completely cover all usage scenarios. Applications that require more complicated operations, such as games, are prone to misoperation. In this case, it will be much better if matched with handles. If HTC brings the interaction between hands into VIVE Flow through the capture of the front lens in the later period, I believe this experience will go further and make the use of such portable VR even better.