- Leak teases Asus Tarius VR headset
- Tarius will boast eye-tracking and high-end displays
- Likely to 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 next to nothing about them, leading me to worry that maybe the plans had fallen through like the Meta-LG Collab seemingly did.
Thankfully, that does not appear to be the case, at least for Asus. We finally have our first details about 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’ll have a heavy gaming focus) Tarius is reportedly the device’s codename, with the details being leaked by Lunayian – who was spot-on with Meta Quest 3S leaks. Luna adds that Tarius will include eye-tracking and face-tracking, and it will either use micro-OLED or QD-LCD with local dimming screens – presumably to achieve high contrast for stunning visuals.
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 displays will be QD-LCD with local dimming or µOLED. pic.twitter.com/K5pYxcBK4hJanuary 12, 2025
While this isn’t a lot to go on, these specs alone would suggest the ROG headset will be a high-end (and high-priced) VR gaming headset. You don’t see eye-tracking on low-end machines, and the same goes for those displays – which could rival the impressive screens 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, though Luna’s track record means these leaks are still well worth our attention.
A high-end hybrid?
Unless the Asus Tarius headset packs some kind of next-gen chipset rather than the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 we have 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-packing laptops it showcased at CES 2025.
This could mean Tarius aims to do what the HTC Vive Focus Vision tried and (unfortunately) failed to: be a full-on VR headset hybrid for both superb standalone and PCVR.
Thanks to Horizon OS, Tarius already has a significant leg-up on the standalone front over the Focus Vision thanks to the operating system‘s best-in-class suite of software exclusives.
If it can also manage its weight and comfort – and throw in features like DisplayPort connectivity for a lossless video connection to a PC – 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 age of VR approaches
Meta’s more mass-market Quest headsets are fantastic, but because they have to be a middle-of-the-road product to appeal to as many as possible, they can’t specialize in appealing to one specific segment, like high-end gamers.
This means these specialized customers have had to make do either with pricey headsets that lack Horizon OS and therefore feel decidedly second-place or a Quest headset, which is great value for money but isn’t outputting the visuals they want and deserve – essentially forcing us to choose software or hardware superiority.
Tarius is already shaping up as the ideal VR enthusiast device as it looks set to deliver in terms of both software and hardware. There’s plenty more we still need 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 rocket to the top of our best VR headsets list – and I can’t wait to find out more about it.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
