At CES 2019, VR and AR took small but meaningful steps forward

Ahead of 2019’s Consumer Electronics Show, I hoped to see several key developments with next-generation VR and AR headsets — dramatically higher-resolution PC VR headsets, compelling standalone VR headsets, and and less conspicuous AR headsets with wider fields of view. I won’t tell you that these predictions turned out to be fully correct, but they weren’t completely wrong, either.

Although industry heavyweight Oculus took a back seat at CES, its chief rival HTC stepped up to the plate with two major hardware announcements: the high-end Vive Pro Eye, and mysterious Vive Cosmos, promising the company’s highest resolution screens yet. Oculus press released a relatively quiet price drop on the Rift, and offered private suite Quest demos that affirmed its upcoming standalone headset is the one to watch in 2019. And many small companies showed up with new VR and AR headsets, including models that are much lighter and wider-angled than their predecessors.