- Leak Teases Asus Tarius VR Headset
- Tarius will have eye tracking and high-end screens
- This will likely be one of the first third-party Horizon OS headsets to ship
Since the announcement that Asus, Lenovo and Xbox would be partnering with Meta to create third-party Horizon OS VR headsets (that’s the operating system Meta’s Quest devices use), we’ve heard almost nothing about them, which leads me to worry that perhaps the plans had failed as Meta-LG Collab apparently did.
Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case, at least for Asus. We finally have our first details on its Tarius Horizon OS headset, and it’s already proving exactly why these collaborations need to happen.
Part of the Asus ROG family of devices (suggesting it will have a big focus on gaming), Tarius is reportedly the codename for the device, and details were leaked by Lunayian, who got the leaks right. Meta Quest 3S. Luna adds that Tarius will include eye and face tracking, and will use micro-OLED or QD-LCD with local dimming displays, presumably for high contrast and impressive images.
NEW: Details on the upcoming ASUS ROG VR headset running Meta Horizon OS. It is codenamed Tarius and will likely be one of the first 3P Horizon OS HMDs to ship. It is planned to include eye tracking and face tracking. The screens will be QD-LCD with local dimming or µOLED. pic.twitter.com/K5pYxcBK4hJanuary 12, 2025
While this isn’t much to go on, these specs alone would suggest that the ROG headset will be a high-end (and high-priced) VR gaming headset. You don’t see eye tracking on lower-end machines, and the same goes for those displays, which could rival the impressive displays we got from the Apple Vision Pro.
As always, remember that leaks should be taken with a pinch of salt, as nothing is official yet, although Luna’s track record means these leaks still deserve our attention.
A high-end hybrid?
Unless the Asus Tarius headset includes some kind of next-generation chipset instead of the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 we get in the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S, its displays could be overkill for standalone experiences. That said, they would be ideal for PCVR, powered by a high-end Asus PC like the 5090 packaged laptops on display at CES 2025.
This could mean that Tarius aims to do what the HTC Vive Focus Vision tried and (unfortunately) failed to do: be a full VR headset hybrid for excellent standalone and PCVR mode.
Thanks to Horizon OS, Tarius already has a significant advantage on the standalone front over Focus Vision thanks to the operating system’s best-in-class proprietary software suite.
If you can also control its weight and comfort (and include features like DisplayPort connectivity for a lossless video connection to a PC), the Tarius could be the high-end hybrid headset we’ve been waiting for.
And this is precisely what I wanted from these collaborations.
A golden era of virtual reality is approaching
Meta’s more mass-market Quest headset is fantastic, but because it has to be a middle-of-the-road product to appeal to as many people as possible, it can’t specialize in appealing to a specific segment, like high-end gamers. .
This means that these niche customers have had to settle for either expensive headsets that lack Horizon OS and therefore feel decidedly second best, or a Quest headset, which is great value for money but doesn’t produce the images it expects. they desire and deserve, which essentially obliges them. choose software or hardware superiority.
Tarius is already shaping up to be the ideal device for virtual reality enthusiasts, as it looks like it will deliver results both in terms of software and hardware. We still have a lot more to learn about it from a price and specs perspective before we can declare it a VR champion, but if Asus can stick the landing, its device could shoot to the top of our list of the best reality headsets. virtual, and I can. Don’t wait to find out more about it.
