Seeing and touching virtual worlds is an incredible VR experience.

Amazing VR; Room scale; Motion controllers; Comfortable

Tracking issues

If you can afford it and have the room for it, the HTC Vive offers, quite simply, the best virtual-reality experience you can get.

Incredible; immersive free-moving VR; Intuitive controllers with good battery life; Solid selection of games already available; Nothing else quite like it

Pain to set up; Software is buggy; Expensive and needs lots of space

The HTC Vive is the most expensive option in the current virtual reality headset line-up, beating the £499 Oculus Rift and £350 PlayStation VR . But why the high price The HTC Vive offers an unparalleled experience by providing users with the opportunity to not only look around the virtual...

The HTC Vive offers the best in-home VR experience yet, but it's too unwieldy to truly enjoy for extended play sessions.

Sharp and incredibly immersive VR; Head tracking is superior to Oculus Rift; Whole-room VR is impressive; Motion controllers work well

Expensive; Tricky setup; Uncomfortable to wear for long periods

Now that both the Vive and Rift are out and both systems have their own motion controls for full functionality, they end up looking very similar on paper. The Vive has the benefit of whole-room VR, though cable management is inconvenient if you're lurching blindly around a room.

Immersive experience; Includes motion controllers and external sensors for whole-room VR

Expensive; Tethered headset makes whole-room VR tricky

Take the blue pill. HTC's Vive weaves a VR fantasy you'll never want to leave.

Incredibly immersive; Hardware works well; Decent launch library; Precise; intuitive controls; Easy to set up

Headset cord can get in the way; Field of view isn't wide enough for full immersion; Headset can get sweaty

If your life is perfect and nothing every gets lost of breaks, this may be a good gaming product.

DIdn't get to use it long enough to find them

We lost a part; HTC would not sell us a replacement; They said to buy a new unit

I took a walk through the future, and I want more. Instead of rooting you to a fixed point in your room and wrapping a 360-view around you, the $799 HTC Vive lets you stand up and explore it.

Room-tracking technology is eerily accurate; Smooth graphics with little latency; Touch controllers are easy to use and highly adaptable; Large library of games

Requires a lot of space and electrical outlets to use; No built-in audio; SteamVR Interface can be difficult to navigate

A few weeks back, we gave you virtual reality kit. While we were able to explain the Vive's specifications, setup, configuration, and give some opinions on the experience, at that point, we hadn't had the kit long enough to form any solid, concrete opinions.

The HTC Vive has proved to be quite a formidable piece of kit. Not only did it surprise when it stole much of Oculus' pre-release thunder with roomscale and hand tracked controllers, but it surprised post launch by being more widely available.

Room scale is hands down; the best VR experience you can have; Motion controllers make interaction in VR natural; Tracking is almost flawless with proper sensor placement; Chaperone gives you confidence to move around in VR; Headset is comfortable over long play sessions; Zero motion sickness...

Clearing space can be a pain; especially in smaller British homes – but it is worth it; Set up can be a bit fiddly; Steam VR still crashes; Lens contours can occasionally be seen in scenes with bright light sources; Headset weighting needs improvement; Crisp; bright screen makes pixels a little more...