It’s hard to explain how awesome the VR experience is if you’ve never really tried it, but it’s probably similar to the experience of going from a 30Hz refresh rate all the way to 144Hz or higher with a gaming monitor that you might have grabbed from our gaming monitor deals. VR headsets are revolutionary, although they can be pretty expensive, especially if you want to grab a top-of-the-line model. Luckily, Lenovo has a great deal on the HTC Vive Cosmos Elite, one of the best VR headsets out there, bringing the price down to $799 from $899. The $100 discount is a nice little incentive to pick it up if you’ve been on the fence about VR.
The Cosmos Elite doesn’t play around in terms of specs, with dual 1440 x 1700 pixel screens that add up to a 2880 x 1700 combined resolution, providing a slightly better image than 1440p. Screen-door effect, which is when you see the individual pixels on the display of a VR headset, can undoubtedly be a problem with lower-resolution screens, and the higher resolution on the Cosmos Elite certainly helps with that. The screens can also manage a 90Hz refresh rate, which is at the sweet spot between price and performance, allowing you to enjoy VR games and content while still getting a great refresh rate.
The best thing about the Cosmos Elite is that you don’t need an incredibly powerful system to run it, with minimum recommended specs only asking for Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 4GB or an AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB GPU, and an Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350. That means you could run this using one of the better picks from our gaming PC deals without spending over $1,500.
Overall, the HTC Vive Cosmos Elite is an excellent VR headset and a great investment if the HTC Pro 2 or the Valve Index is a bit too much for you, especially considering that the Cosmos Elite is $100 off right now at Lenovo, bringing it down to $799. If you do grab a headset, check out some of our gaming deals for something to play.
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