HTC, which has been declining in the smartphone industry, is doing well in the VR market. Today they launched a mobile VR headset called Link. A week ago, Leifeng.com reported that they had just launched a Vive standalone headset with Google. Equipment (based on the Daydream platform, HTC also has phones that support Daydream). However, Link does not belong to the Vive brand.

 

Since its release in March 2015, Vive has helped HTC establish its position in the VR industry. In order to promote its own VR project, HTC also set up a branch specifically for Vive, so it is really surprising that Link does not belong to the Vive brand.

 

 

 

Why did HTC make such a decision? Leifeng.com learned that because HTC Vive vice president Bao Yongzhe had previously revealed that this product is only an experimental behavior of an external team and has little to do with HTC and Vive, and the machine is only available in the Japanese market. However, HTC still affixed this device with a special label for U11 smartphones. Perhaps HTC wants to boost its smartphone business. It is worth noting that in order to use the position tracking function (six-axis motion sensing), users have to use an external tracking system (included in the kit), which is the first time for mobile VR devices with generally weak performance.

 

According to Leifeng.com (public number: Leifeng.com), this external tracking system was developed by Ximmerse. They had previously demonstrated a prototype at CES. It consists of three parts: a wireless handle, a head beacon and a binocular tracker, which can support a 3x3 meter range.

 

In use, Link is also different from mobile VR headsets on the market. The mobile phone does not need to be plugged into the headset, but is connected to the headset via USB-C. This means that the mobile phone is the processing system of this device, and Link has its own screen as the display system. In terms of hardware, Link is equipped with a 3.6-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 1080x1200, a field of view of up to 110 degrees, a refresh rate of 90Hz, and a weight of 554 grams.

 

 

 

Although there have been many achievements in the VR industry, HTC’s smartphone department and VR department rarely interact with each other. It’s hard to find information on the star product of Vive on the homepage of HTC’s official website. If you want to follow Vive, you have to click The link jumps to the official website of Vive.

 

In general, Link is like Facebook released a VR device with the logo of the social giant, but this device has nothing to do with Oculus.