HTC VIVE Focus Plus — specification and verdict
The Focus Plus paired a 1440x1600 AMOLED panel per eye with a 75 Hz refresh and roughly 110 degrees of field of view, which was competitive for a 2019 standalone and is legible enough for machine labels and signage in a training scene. What dates it is the compute: a Snapdragon 835 with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, the last generation before the XR2, so current course builds targeting newer chips have no headroom here. Battery life is about three hours from a 4000 mAh cell, enough for a training day with a charging break. Tracking is inside-out 6DoF with two included 6DoF controllers, so trainees can reach, grip and place objects rather than only look around. IPD adjusts by hand between 60.5 and 74 mm and the headset is built to be worn over glasses.
HTC no longer sells the Focus Plus — its own VIVE Business page states the product is no longer available, so a fleet can only be assembled from used stock with no warranty path. Commercial use was originally conditional on buying VIVE Business Warranty & Services, an add-on that no longer applies to a device HTC has withdrawn. The 702 g headset with its retractable strap and wipeable synthetic leather facial interface was designed for shared use, which still helps if you inherit a fleet. The controllers run on two AAA cells each for about four hours, so a fleet of ten headsets means twenty batteries in rotation rather than an overnight charging rack. Wi-Fi 5 and 32 GB of storage also mean course content has to be curated rather than simply pushed.
Do not buy the Focus Plus in 2026. HTC has withdrawn it, the Snapdragon 835 sits at the bottom of the performance scale, and our courses do not run on it. If you want an HTC enterprise standalone, look at the current Focus line; if the budget is the constraint, a current-generation standalone with XR2-class silicon costs less than the $799 the Focus Plus launched at.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the VR — standalone devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Median for this class: 180 min, from 26 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: $624, from 36 models that publish the figure.
Controllers and hand tracking
VIVE Focus Plus Controller
6DoF
The odd middle generation: HTC gave the Focus a second controller with real position, but tracked it with ultrasound rather than cameras. It survives a hand behind the back, and HTC dropped it anyway — the Focus 3 that followed went to camera tracking.
In the boxHow it is tracked
Ultrasound
The headset and the controller locate each other by sound rather than sight, so a hand behind the back keeps tracking. Range and reflective surfaces are the limits instead.
The controller itself
- Controller power
- AAA batteries
- Controller haptics
- Yes
Other controllers
This headset’s own controllers only
Bare hands
Full hand skeleton
The application receives a jointed hand pose, so a scenario can check what the fingers are doing and draw the hand as it moves.
Full specification
An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- HTC VIVE
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- VR — standalone
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- Standalone VR
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- 2019-03-25
- 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.
- OLED
- 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.
- Optics: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- 1440x1600
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- ≈75 Hz*VRcompare
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- ≈110°*XR Today review
- 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.
- Weight: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- PenTile · 2 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.
- Manual
- 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.
- 60.5–74 mm
- Works with glassesWhether people who wear glasses can use it — fits over them, or takes prescription lens inserts.
- Yes
- Vision correctionHow somebody who wears glasses uses it, and in what dioptre range.
- Fits over glasses
- 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.
- ≈702 g*VRcompare
- Head strapSoft band or a rigid one. Decides how the weight sits over an hour.
- Rigid strap with a dial
- MaterialsShell and facial interface, in the vendor’s words.
- plastic · synthetic leather facial interface
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- White · Black
- 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.
- inside-out 6DoF
- 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.
- Yes*VRcompare
- Hand tracking detailHow much of the hand reaches the application: a pinch, or a jointed hand pose a scenario can read.
- Full hand skeleton
- Hands and controllers at onceWhether a controller in one hand and a bare hand in the other work at the same time.
- Hands and controllers at once: not published by the manufacturer
- Hand tracking SDKThe SDK an application reaches the hand tracking through, and any named modes that change how it behaves.
- Hand tracking SDK: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- Yes
- Controller modelThe manufacturer's own name for the controller.
- VIVE Focus Plus Controller
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- 6DoF
- Controller tracking methodWhat establishes where the controller is. It decides whether the controller keeps working behind your back or down at your hip — “6DoF” on its own does not say.
- Ultrasound
- Other controllersWhether the headset works with controllers other than the ones it ships with.
- This headset’s own controllers only
- Finger tracking on the controllerWhether the controller senses individual fingers, and how.
- Finger tracking on the controller: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller inputsButtons, sticks and triggers the controller offers.
- Controller inputs: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller hapticsVibration feedback in the hand.
- Yes
- Controller powerDisposable cells or a built-in rechargeable — a fleet question.
- AAA batteries
- Controller weightOne controller, as the vendor weighs it.
- Controller weight: not published by the manufacturer
- Other input methodsWays in beyond controllers and bare hands.
- Other input methods: not published by the manufacturer
- PerformanceHow much the headset can run — sharper scenes, more objects, smoother mixed reality. Higher is better.
- Dated — we no longer recommend it
- ProcessorThe processor and memory inside. This is what the performance grade above is derived from.
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
- CPUCores and clocks, where the manufacturer publishes them.
- Octa-core Kryo 280 (4 x 2.45 GHz, 4 x 1.9 GHz)
- GPUThe graphics part of the chip.
- Adreno 540
- MemoryRAM on the device. Together with the chipset it sets how complex a scene can be.
- 4 GB
- PlatformThe platform an application is built against — and what an MDM has to speak.
- Android
- StorageOn-board space for downloaded courses. More matters for an offline library in several languages.
- 32 GB
- SD card slotWhether storage can be added with a card.
- SD card slot: not published by the manufacturer
- BatteryRuntime as the manufacturer states it. A hot-swappable pack matters more than the figure.
- 180 min
- Battery capacity (Wh)Energy in the cell. Bigger is longer, given the same power draw.
- Battery capacity (Wh): not published by the manufacturer
- Battery capacity (mAh)The same fact in the other unit vendors use. We never convert between the two.
- 4000 mAh
- Charge timeFrom empty to full. Rarely stated by the manufacturer, so it usually comes from whoever timed it.
- Charge time: not published by the manufacturer
- ChargerPower of the supplied charger — it decides the charge time above.
- Charger: not published by the manufacturer
- External batteryBattery on a cable or a puck instead of on the head.
- External battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Charging caseExtra runtime carried in the case the glasses ship with.
- Charging case: not published by the manufacturer
- Hot-swap batteryWhether a charged battery can replace the empty one without ending the session. This is what decides if a headset can hold an all-day training station.
- Hot-swap battery: 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.
- USB Type-C · headphone jack
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- 5
- 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.
- Video from a computer: not published by the manufacturer
- AudioBuilt-in sound. Matters most where somebody has to hear a remote expert while working.
- Built-in speakers · 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.
- Enterprise
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $799
- 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.
- Price today: not published by the manufacturer
- 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
Of interest mainly to organisations that already own Focus Plus units from a 2019-2021 rollout and want to know whether to keep them running. For anyone specifying new hardware for VR safety or process training, this headset is a historical entry, not an option: it is out of production and out of headroom.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
HTC publishes almost nothing about the Focus Plus now beyond the withdrawal notice, so there is no stated end-of-support or end-of-updates date, no current warranty terms and no price. Field of view, weight, refresh rate and hand-tracking support here come from VRcompare and an XR Today review rather than an HTC spec sheet. We also could not confirm whether the passthrough view is colour or greyscale, or whether any mobile device management platform still enrols the device, so both are left out of the record.
HTC VIVE Focus Plus 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.
- Tyriel Wood - VR Tech2019
The reveal coverage, and it names the thing that made the Focus Plus notable: a standalone headset that could also run SteamVR content from a PC. That hybrid idea is now standard and this is where HTC introduced it.
Watch on YouTube - Gear Sense Now2025
A late look at a headset that had already been withdrawn, which is the situation most people meet it in now. Note the description is built around a shopping link — treat the enthusiasm accordingly.
Watch on YouTube - Evetech2019
An unboxing from a retailer's channel, included for the box contents and the controllers — the Focus Plus was the first VIVE standalone with 6DoF controllers and seeing them handled is more useful than reading the row.
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.
HTC VIVE Focus Plus — frequently asked questions
- Can you still buy the HTC VIVE Focus Plus in 2026?
- No. HTC's own VIVE Business product page now carries the line that VIVE Focus Plus is no longer available and points visitors to the current headsets instead. Units still appear on the second-hand market, but they come without HTC's VIVE Business Warranty & Services, which was originally required for commercial use.
- Will Skillsive VR training courses run on the Focus Plus and its Snapdragon 835?
- No. The Focus Plus runs Android on a Snapdragon 835 with 4 GB of RAM, the generation before the XR2 that our course builds target, and it sits at the bottom of our performance scale. We do not ship builds for it and would not accept it into a training fleet; a current standalone headset is the answer here.
- Do the VIVE Focus Plus controllers use AAA batteries?
- Yes. Each 6DoF Focus Plus controller takes two AAA cells and runs about four hours on them, unlike the rechargeable controllers on later headsets. For a shared training room that means keeping a stock of disposable or rechargeable AAA cells and swapping them between sessions rather than docking the controllers overnight.
Compare this device
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Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-08. Manufacturer's specification
Product and company names used here are the trademarks of their respective owners and appear only to identify the hardware being compared. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of these manufacturers. Illustrations are our own.