- Leak teases Asus Tarius VR headset
- Tarius will boast eye-tracking and high-end shows
- More likely to be one of many first third-party Horizon OS headsets to ship
For the reason that announcement that Asus, Lenovo, and Xbox could be partnering with Meta to create third-party Horizon OS VR headsets – that’s the working system Meta’s Quest units use – we’ve heard subsequent to nothing about them, main me to fret that perhaps the plans had fallen by just like the Meta-LG Collab seemingly did.
Fortunately, that doesn’t seem like the case, at the very least for Asus. We lastly have our first particulars about its Tarius Horizon OS headset – and it’s already proving precisely why these collaborations have to occur.
A part of the Asus ROG household of units (suggesting it’ll have a heavy gaming focus) Tarius is reportedly the machine’s codename, with the main points being leaked by Lunayian – who was spot-on with Meta Quest 3S leaks. Luna provides that Tarius will embody eye-tracking and face-tracking, and it’ll both use micro-OLED or QD-LCD with native dimming screens – presumably to attain excessive distinction for beautiful visuals.
NEW: Particulars on the upcoming ASUS ROG VR headset working Meta Horizon OS.It’s codenamed Tarius, and can doubtless be one of many first 3P Horizon OS HMDs to ship.It’s deliberate to incorporate Eye Monitoring and Face Monitoring. The shows shall be QD-LCD with native dimming or µOLED. pic.twitter.com/K5pYxcBK4hJanuary 12, 2025
Whereas this isn’t so much to go on, these specs alone would recommend the ROG headset shall be a high-end (and high-priced) VR gaming headset. You don’t see eye-tracking on low-end machines, and the identical goes for these shows – which might rival the spectacular screens we acquired from the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional.
As at all times, keep in mind that leaks ought to be taken with a pinch of salt as nothing is official but, although Luna’s observe document means these leaks are nonetheless nicely price our consideration.
A high-end hybrid?
Except the Asus Tarius headset packs some sort of next-gen chipset relatively than the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 we have now within the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S, its shows may very well be overkill for standalone experiences. That mentioned, they’d be preferrred for PCVR – powered by a high-end Asus PC just like the 5090-packing laptops it showcased at CES 2025.
This might imply Tarius goals to do what the HTC Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient tried and (sadly) didn’t: be a full-on VR headset hybrid for each excellent standalone and PCVR.
Because of Horizon OS, Tarius already has a major leg-up on the standalone entrance over the Focus Imaginative and prescient because of the working system‘s best-in-class suite of software program exclusives.
If it may well additionally handle its weight and luxury – and throw in options like DisplayPort connectivity for a lossless video connection to a PC – Tarius may very well be the high-end hybrid headset we’ve been ready for.
And that is exactly what I needed from these collaborations.
A golden age of VR approaches
Meta’s extra mass-market Quest headsets are implausible, however as a result of they should be a middle-of-the-road product to enchantment to as many as attainable, they will’t specialise in interesting to at least one particular phase, like high-end avid gamers.
This implies these specialised clients have needed to make do both with dear headsets that lack Horizon OS and due to this fact really feel decidedly second-place or a Quest headset, which is nice worth for cash however isn’t outputting the visuals they need and deserve – basically forcing us to decide on software program or {hardware} superiority.
Tarius is already shaping up as the best VR fanatic machine because it appears to be like set to ship when it comes to each software program and {hardware}. There’s lots extra we nonetheless have to study it from a worth and specs perspective earlier than we are able to declare it a VR champion, but when Asus can stick the touchdown its machine might rocket to the highest of our finest VR headsets listing – and I can’t wait to seek out out extra about it.