Earlier this month, at Microsoft"s Build 2017 developer conference, HP and Acer opened pre-orders for their new Windows Mixed Reality dev kits, quickly followed by 3Glasses. Microsoft also announced the first motion controllers designed for Windows Mixed Reality.
Today, at Computex 2017, Microsoft showed off more head-mounted displays (HMDs) on the way for consumers later this year from some of its other partners. "These headsets, coming to market this holiday, use Microsoft’s platform to enable a single and consistent user interface, standardized inputs, and a universal app platform for developers," the company said.
ASUS has arguably the most distinctive and striking design of any Windows Mixed Reality headset seen so far; Microsoft described it as "a futuristic head-mount device with a unique polygonal 3D cover panel". It added that the ASUS HMD is "fast, powerful, and ultra-light", and will come with a six degrees of freedom (6DoF) tracked motion controller.
We saw Lenovo"s HMD at CES 2017 back in January, and its design appears unchanged since then. The Lenovo headset includes "built-in sensors to enable inside-out tracking and simplified set-up to let users move around more easily".
We also saw Dell"s headset at CES, but the image that Microsoft released today shows that it"s had a bit of a redesign since then, losing the black front panel, in favor of an all-over white aesthetic with exposed external tracking sensors. The HMD was "designed by the same team that craft"s [Dell"s] XPS and Alienware PCs", according to Microsoft.
The head strap also appears slightly different, now with "comfortable cushions that can be replaced for a personalized experience", which weren"t shown on the prototype model that appeared at CES.
Unfortunately, Microsoft didn"t announce pricing or exact release dates for any of these HMDs.