HTC have slashed up to £250 off their Vive VR headsets for Black Friday
But you should probably wait to see if Valve or Oculus have better deals
As the nights grow colder and we seek the warm, sweaty embrace of a VR headset to while away our evenings with, HTC have kicked off their Black Friday deals early this year with a whole week of deals on their various Vive headsets. There are savings of up to £250 to be had here across all of their Vive headsets, including the full Vive Cosmos and Cosmos Elite kits, and their eye-tracking Vive Pro Eye.
The two Cosmos headsets are a decent choice if the Valve Index is out of your price range and you can't stand the idea of getting cosy with Facebook (sorry, Meta) and the Oculus Quest 2, but they're also my least favourite headests of the bunch. Whatever your feelings are about Face-Meta, the Quest 2's hand-tracking is miles better than the Cosmos, making it a much better pick for playing VR games like Half-Life-Alyx, especially now the Elite Strap fixes a lot of my previous concerns over the Quest 2's comfort levels.
As such, while it's tempting to jump on one of these deals right now, I'd strongly recommend waiting to see if either Oculus or Valve cut their prices during Black Friday week proper to see if you can get a better deal.
Admittedly, Valve dropping the price of the Index is unlikely. If they were going to do it, it would be during their Steam Autumn sale, which is due to run between November 24th - 30th. However, the Index has never been on sale during previous Steam sales in all the years it's been out, so I'd be surprised if Valve changed their tune this year.
- HTC Vive Cosmos (Full Kit) - £499 (down from £699)
- HTC Vive Cosmos Elite (Full Kit) - £649 (down from £899)
A Black Friday deal on the Oculus Quest 2 is much more likely, although judging by previous years, it will likely be very brief - either on Black Friday itself, for example, or they might leave it as late as Cyber Monday. It's also possible there might not be one at all, but we'll be keeping our eyes peeled throughout Black Friday week to keep you up to date on all the latest VR headset deals. This would be our number one pick to wait for, but we know not everyone wants to have it attached to a Facebook account.
Our advice, then, is to hold off for now, but if you are deadset on getting a VR headset this year, then there is a way to make the most of HTC's Black Friday deals and still get a good VR experience out of it. While we're not massive fans of the Cosmos' default controllers, or the older wand-style Vive controllers that come with the Cosmos Elite, the great thing about the Elite is that it's also compatible with the Valve Index's superior controllers. At £259, they're still quite expensive, and pretty much cancel out the saving you make on the Cosmos Elite itself, but it's still marginally cheaper than buying a full Index kit.
It's only a small saving, though, so you may think it's better to just go the whole hog on the Index itself - which is perfectly reasonable! Hopefully, we'll see some better deals arrive on the Oculus Quest 2 next week. For all the latest deals, make sure to bookmark our Black Friday VR headset hub.