HTC Vive XR Elite Teardown: Best VR Hardware Yet?

When the first awkward VR headsets started hitting the shelves in the wayback days of 2016, I’ll admit I really didn’t get it. But tearing down the Vive XR Elite felt like what VR hardware always should have been. Vive also claims to have thought about repairability. The removable battery pack alone is enough to make a fixer weep, does the rest of this headset hold up?

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Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:15 Headset Overview
00:31 Battery Pack Removal
00:55 Battery Management Board Removal
01:10 Battery Pack Dual Battery Removal and specs
01:28 Headset Disassembly
01:36 Outer Case and Arm Removal
02:04 Display Removal
02:38 MotherBoard Assembly Removal
03:22 Camera Removal

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[angryotter]

1:43 If the screws are not covered with plastic pads, they will intensively oxidize from the influence of sweat - a well-thought-out solution from HTC.

[mistaecco]

Thought this was an April fool! Instead, looks like a fantastic step in the right direction!

[EnnTomi]

love seeing another big company joins the fight. used to love HTC phones, might give them another try on this one.

[tako]

That reminds me to get more headlight fluid

[williamsanborn]

I’m not someone who’ll use this, but it’s still a good day when iFixIt uploads a long video. 😊

Edit: Congrats on a million subscribers!

[JogBird]

i wonder what the apple vr headset will be like.. probably all glue, all proprietary parts

Did you say 'time of flight sensor' at 3:35?

Also, looks like HTC is on board with right to repair if this is all true 💪

[ronlevin]

The see the Apple upcoming VR set, how replaceable it will be, my guess is 0 from 10

[SpringChickensOnlyMan]

The US apparently loves to create E waste. This economy doesn’t care about resources.
It would be very nice if they made a standalone headset powered with an external battery or power bank rather than putting one inside the headset at all so we’d technically have the option to buy a connector and use that to keep the device instead of batteries dying quickly and us having to keep throwing away our headset and buy a new one when the current battery dies.

[WesleyFiles]

The screens are waaaay higher than 2K.

4K was always misleading marketing fluff, but now it is part of the industry, so better learn it.

[AymericPachod]

hey, varjo exist too ;) it is way better than htc, a "bit" more expensive yes, but more confortable, higher hend hardware, or else there is bigscreen beyond, so even if this title is a bit clickbaity, nice video

also could you do stuff like the sennheiser he1, I have one, and I want to se what is in it, but at 60000€ i'm scared to open it, or else things like 3d printers, such has the bambulab p1p, lots of cool tech in it,


(also, could you do a manta set of bits with the tools of the pro tech tool kit please, I don't want to buy 2 sets of bits, and I need all the bits and tools, and last question, would it be possible to ship to france please)


merci bien (means thanks a lot in french)

[Charzilian]

Do not buy this thing. It is the worst headset I have ever put on. I legit felt like I was being pranked when I put it on. The most uncomfortable, setup didn't work right because It wouldn't connect to my wifi, after figuring out how to skip that, couldn't get the dang thing to connect to pc right.

Edit: so the wifi connection and PC connection was my fault. I forgot I had changed the password to my wifi awhile ago, and I didn't know you couldn't just launch vr games on PC. However, my complaints about the facial insert still stand, and now that I've played games I have a new complaint. Everything is tiny. With the quest 2, it feels like you're in the environment, with the xr elite, well, it feels like you were shrunk down and stuck in the back of someone's head looking out of their eyes. I don't know if this is also a user error, and I'm just not setting things up right, but it's impossible for me to play like this.

[Nightowl_IT]

That thing is a repair nightmare.
If I have to dig trough the whole thing to get to the 3 batteries it's a DEAL BREAKER.
The batteries should be on the strap on the back of the head in a battery enclosure.
Maybe it even works with LTO 18650 cells.