DPVR E3 4K — specification and verdict
The E3 4K pairs an unusually crisp LCD for its era, 1920x2160 per eye with an RGB-stripe layout, with 3DoF head tracking only. A trainee can read small labels and procedure text comfortably, and can look around a 360-degree scene, but cannot walk, lean or reach for anything: the headset registers rotation and nothing else. Positional tracking existed only as an optional NOLO add-on sold separately. There are no controllers in the box, so any interactive step has to come from a keyboard, gamepad or a NOLO set. At 72 Hz refresh and 300 g it is light and undemanding, and it is tethered to a Windows PC over HDMI and USB.
This is a PC-tethered device, so every seat means a Windows PC, an HDMI run and a cable someone has to manage between sessions. DPVR publishes no mobile device management or kiosk mode for it, because there is no on-board operating system to manage; whatever runs, runs on the PC and is governed by your normal desktop tooling. The manufacturer's own store lists it as out of stock, and European supply now comes mostly through clearance and second-hand channels such as Unbound XR, which makes a matched fleet in Poland or Germany hard to assemble. Hygiene is the ordinary foam-facial-interface routine: the face pad is foam, so plan on wipeable covers rather than washing it.
Do not buy it for safety training. Our courses are standalone Android VR applications and this headset has no on-board platform to run them, and even under SteamVR the missing positional tracking rules out any exercise where the trainee has to move to the right place. It remains a reasonable 360-degree video viewer for someone who already owns one; for new purchases, choose a 6DoF standalone headset instead.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the VR — PC-tethered devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Median for this class: $899, from 45 models that publish the figure.
Controllers and hand tracking
Ships without controllers, and does not track hands either.
Bare hands
No hand tracking.
Full specification
An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- DPVR
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- VR — PC-tethered
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- PC-powered VR
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- 2019-09-01
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2019
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- Discontinued
- Support endsThe date the manufacturer stops supporting it. Decisive for a fleet you are about to buy.
- Support ends: not published by the manufacturer
- PanelThe screen type. micro-OLED gives deeper blacks and higher contrast; LCD is brighter and cheaper.
- LCD
- OpticsThe lenses in front of the panel. Pancake stays sharp closer to the edges than older Fresnel, which decides how much a trainee has to aim their head to read something.
- Fresnel lenses
- Eyes coveredOne eye or both. Over a full shift this is a real difference in fatigue.
- Both eyes
- Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
- ≈1920x2160*VRcompare
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- ≈72 Hz*VRcompare
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- Field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- Pixel densityPixels per degree of view — the honest way to compare sharpness between a headset and a pair of glasses. Higher is sharper. Only shown where somebody published it; we never compute it ourselves.
- Pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- BrightnessIn a plant or outdoors, brightness decides legibility more than resolution does.
- Brightness: not published by the manufacturer
- WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
- ≈300 g*VRcompare
- Visible field of viewWhat the eye actually sees through the optics, by axis.
- Visible field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- Rendered field of viewWhat the device draws. Never smaller than what you see.
- Rendered field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- Binocular overlapWhere both eyes see the same thing — this is where depth happens.
- Binocular overlap: not published by the manufacturer
- Average pixel densityPixels per degree across the image. More is sharper.
- Average pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Peak pixel densityThe sharpest point, usually the centre of the lens.
- Peak pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Subpixel layoutHow the coloured dots sit in a pixel. A stripe looks cleaner on text than PenTile.
- RGB stripe · 3 subpixels per pixel
- Foveated renderingWhether detail is dropped outside where you look, to save performance.
- Foveated rendering: not published by the manufacturer
- PassthroughWhat the front cameras give you: colour, grayscale, or nothing.
- Passthrough: not published by the manufacturer
- Passthrough camerasResolution, density and frame rate of that camera feed.
- Passthrough cameras: not published by the manufacturer
- IPD adjustmentMatching lens spacing to the eyes. Motorised is fastest when one headset passes between people.
- IPD adjustment: not published by the manufacturer
- IPD rangeHow far the lenses travel to match eye spacing. A narrow range excludes part of any group of adults, which matters when one headset is shared.
- 54–74 mm
- Works with glassesWhether people who wear glasses can use it — fits over them, or takes prescription lens inserts.
- Works with glasses: not published by the manufacturer
- Vision correctionHow somebody who wears glasses uses it, and in what dioptre range.
- Vision correction: not published by the manufacturer
- DimensionsWidth, height and depth of the device itself.
- Dimensions: not published by the manufacturer
- Weight with strapWith the strap it ships with — the weight you actually wear.
- Weight with strap: not published by the manufacturer
- Head strapSoft band or a rigid one. Decides how the weight sits over an hour.
- Headband
- MaterialsShell and facial interface, in the vendor’s words.
- Plastic · Foam facial interface
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Black · Silver
- Haptics in the headsetVibration in the headset itself, not in the controllers.
- No
- TrackingWhether content stays put in the room (6DoF), follows head rotation (3DoF) or is simply fixed.
- 3DoF rotational only; positional tracking requires the optional NOLO add-on
- Base stationsWhether boxes have to be mounted on the walls before it works.
- Not needed
- Tracking camerasHow many cameras it uses to know where it is.
- Tracking cameras: not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking rateHow often position is recalculated. Higher is steadier.
- Tracking rate: not published by the manufacturer
- Depth sensorA dedicated sensor for distance, on top of the cameras.
- Depth sensor: not published by the manufacturer
- Hand trackingWhether bare hands can operate the interface, without a controller or the phone.
- No
- Eye trackingThe headset knows where the trainee is looking. Enables sharper rendering where they look, and attention analytics.
- No
- Face trackingTracks facial expression — for avatars, not for training scenarios.
- No
- Body trackingHow much of the body the device knows about. Estimated legs are not tracked legs.
- None
- Controllers includedWhether motion controllers come in the box, or are bought separately — or the device is hands-only.
- No
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- None (hands only)
- Other controllersWhether the headset works with controllers other than the ones it ships with.
- Other controllers: not published by the manufacturer
- Other input methodsWays in beyond controllers and bare hands.
- Other input methods: not published by the manufacturer
- Runs Skillsive appsOur own statement about whether Skillsive training applications run on it today.
- No
- Suitable for trainingOur judgement on whether it survives real deployment: comfort, hygiene, fleet management.
- No
- Kiosk mode / MDMVendor tooling to enrol devices, push an app and lock the headset to it. Practically required above ten devices.
- No
- Business tierAn official business tier, so devices belong to the company rather than to employees’ personal accounts.
- No
- Swappable facial interfaceRemovable, wipeable face padding. A consumable, and the difference between shared use and complaints.
- Swappable facial interface: not published by the manufacturer
- CertificationsIndustrial certifications stated on the manufacturer's own page. Empty means unconfirmed, never "probably fine".
- Certifications: not published by the manufacturer
- PortsPhysical sockets and charging contacts.
- HDMI · USB Type-A · headphone jack
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- Wi-Fi: not published by the manufacturer
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- Bluetooth: not published by the manufacturer
- Video from a computerWhether a computer can drive it, over a cable or wirelessly.
- Over a cable (HDMI, USB)
- AudioBuilt-in sound. Matters most where somebody has to hear a remote expert while working.
- Headphone jack
- MicrophoneBuilt-in microphone — the other half of talking to a remote expert.
- Yes
- MicrophonesHow many. An array picks a voice out of a noisy hall; one does not.
- Microphones: not published by the manufacturer
- Price bandThe band it sits in, rather than a price that goes stale.
- Mid range
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $399
- Price by configurationWhat each configuration cost at launch.
- Price by configuration: not published by the manufacturer
- Price todayApproximate current net price in USD — a general figure, since these barely differ between regions once tax is stripped out. A snapshot from the date shown, not an offer.
- $378
- Comfort (from reviews)How it wears over a full session. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers, not from our own testing.
- Comfort (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Edge clarity (from reviews)Sharpness away from the centre of the lens. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers.
- Edge clarity (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking reliability (from reviews)How tracking holds up in poor light and fast movement. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers.
- Tracking reliability (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Hand tracking quality (from reviews)How usable controller-free hand tracking is in a training scenario. Scored from agreement between reviewers.
- Hand tracking quality (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
Who this device is for
It suits a lab or classroom that already owns the units and only ever plays seated 360-degree footage from a PC. Anyone specifying new hardware for procedural training, where the trainee walks up to a machine and operates it, is looking at the wrong device: 3DoF tracking and no bundled controllers close that door before software is even discussed.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
DPVR never published a field of view, a binocular overlap or a weight for the E3 4K on its own product page; the 300 g figure, the per-eye resolution split and the 72 Hz refresh all come from VRcompare rather than the manufacturer. The weight and size shown in the web shop are shipping-carton values rather than headset ones, so we ignored them. DPVR also states no discontinuation date and no end-of-support date, only an out-of-stock label, and it still lists the launch price at 378 USD against the 399 USD recorded at release.
DPVR E3 4K in independent reviews
Reviews we consider worth your time, each with a note on what the reviewer actually tested and why it matters for a training rollout. We do not own this hardware, so the tests are theirs — the reading of them is ours.
- Cas and Chary XR2020
A review of the full gaming combo rather than the headset alone, which is how it was sold. The question it asks — whether a 4K display at this price is a worthwhile alternative — is the only reason anyone considered this device.
Watch on YouTube - Rob Cram2019
Places the maker accurately — a Chinese manufacturer operating at the low end with several headsets in the range — which is context the specification page does not give you.
Watch on YouTube - KeenGamer - More Than Just a Game Site2019
Frames the E3 4K as the cheapest tethered 4K experience available at the time, with a full written review behind the video. Useful as a second independent verdict published the same week as the one above.
Watch on YouTube
Nothing is sent to YouTube until you press play. Once you do, Google receives your IP address and device data and may process them outside the EEA — see our privacy policy for the details.
DPVR E3 4K — frequently asked questions
- Does the DPVR E3 4K track where I walk, or do I need the NOLO add-on?
- On its own it tracks rotation only, so leaning, stepping and reaching are invisible to it. Positional tracking was sold as a separate NOLO system, a third-party accessory that DPVR listed as optional rather than shipped in the box. If your scenario requires the trainee to move to a specific spot, plan for a 6DoF headset instead of buying the add-on for a discontinued unit.
- Why do our VR safety courses not run on a DPVR E3 4K despite its 4K panel?
- Panel sharpness is not the blocker. Our courses are standalone Android VR applications, and the E3 4K has no on-board platform of its own, it is a display tethered to a Windows PC over HDMI and USB. On top of that its 3DoF tracking cannot support any exercise where the trainee has to position themselves, so even a PC port would not be usable.
- Is the DPVR E3 4K still for sale now that DPVR marks it Out Of Stock?
- DPVR's own product page carries the out-of-stock label in the product title and has done so for some time, while European channels such as Unbound XR list it under clearance and second-chance stock. That is enough to treat it as end of life for fleet purposes: you may find single units, but not a repeatable supply, and DPVR publishes no end-of-support date to plan against.
Compare this device
Consider these too
The nearest devices in the same class, ranked by availability and launch price — not by our opinion of them.
Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-08. Manufacturer's specification
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