One week ago, when VR AR Expo China began, DPVR announced Project Titan, its small but powerful PC mixed reality headset. Let me tell you more about it, and give you my (not) first impressions from my (not) hands-on.
DPVR Project Titan
Project Titan is the codename for the upcoming PC mixed reality headset by DPVR. Even if it is not super well-known in the West, DPVR is one of the most famous Chinese brands of virtual reality headsets. There was a time when most of the shipments of 3DOF VR headsets in China were delivered by DPVR to schools and enterprises.
Project Titan is poised to have some interesting specifications:
- It is small and lightweight, weighing only 110g
- It features a 4K MicroOLED display per eye (Marketing says this is 8K, but we know it is not…)
- Expected FOV is around 100°
- It can connect with both Windows PCs and Android phones.
What is amazing about it is especially the design: this headset really looks like big sunglasses. It’s a design that is not scary and isolating like the classical shoebox on the face, but it just looks like the user has big glasses. And this does not compromise the resolution (4K per eye is a lot), but of course, it has to sacrifice a bit of the FOV.
Non-hands-on Project Titan
DPVR is the first booth I went to because I really wanted to try this incredible headset. When I took Project Titan in my hands, the first thing I noticed was that it was exactly identical to the GravityXR reference design I tried when I visited GravityXR. I so asked for a confirmation, and the clerk at the booth confirmed that this headset is absolutely based on that reference design.
The overall look of the headset was cool in my opinion: I loved the fact that it was very lightweight and also that it looked colourful as opposed to the usually black or white devices by other manufacturers.
I then put the headset on my face, and the first thing I realized was that the center of the glasses was as hot as lava. It literally BBQ-ed my brain. If you remember it from my previous article, this was a problem that I also noticed with the GravityXR reference design. Apart from this, I also noticed that they were very lightweight, and taking a selfie, I noticed they looked pretty cool on my face.
I guess now you would like to hear more about my impressions with resolution, FOV, and all the rest. Actually, trying it, I had the same impressions I had when I tried the GravityXR reference design. Speaking with Sunny Chen, the CEO of DPVR, I realized that this happened because this actually was just the reference design of GravityXR. The real Project Titan headset does not exist yet, and it will come from expanding the GravityXR reference design from 2.5K displays to 4K ones and expanding the FOV from 75° to 100°, circa. As for the heat, the plan is to offload half of the computations to the host machine (e.g., Windows PC), so the Gravity X100 chip has less burden and overheats less.
This means that basically I didn’t really have a hands-on with Project Titan, but just with a completely different device, that is the reference design it is based upon. Sorry for that.
Price and release Date
Mr. Chen unveiled that they plan to officially launch Project Titan at CES 2027. As for the price, he didn’t want to share an estimate, but he reminded us that two 4K MicroOLED displays are going to be expensive, so this will be a headset mostly for prosumers and enterprises.
Final impressions
You already know that I think that the GravityXR reference design is pretty intriguing, and if DPVR manages to build a real product upon it, and also upgrade the basic specs at the same time, it could really build something many people in the community would like to have. The headset could be cool to wear, have a very crisp resolution, support mixed reality, and be cross-compatible between Windows and Android.
This all sounds very exciting, but before celebrating, we should verify two things:
- If DPVR really manages to deliver a headset with all these amazing characteristics and a good execution (e.g., the overheating should go away)
- What would be the final price (e.g., if a headset like this costs $3000, not many people could afford to buy it)
Anyway, DPVR is a reliable brand; it has been in the game for many years, so I believe it can deliver a good product. Let’s see what will happen at CES 2027!
Some fun facts
Ok, with the previous paragraph, the real article on Project Titan ends. But I’m adding a few more lines if you want to read some funny things about my experience at the DPVR booth.
The first fun fact is that I was one of the first couple of people to try the Project Titan prototype. But I don’t know what I did, but I basically made the whole runtime crash, and the headset became unusable for at least one hour. The poor Sebastian Ang from Mixed Reality TV came to the same booth to try the device, but I broke everything, and he could not. Poor Seb!
At the DPVR booth, it was also possible to try a demo with a robotic arm. Using a DPVR controller and Udexreal gloves, it was possible for me to control the robotic arm and fingers and try to grab a nearby plastic bottle. It was cool, not gonna lie. But I totally sucked at it, as you can see from the video below. Well, at least this time I did not break anything…
DPVR is also making 6 models of AI glasses. The DPVR glasses have an AI assistant called Sunny, like the CEO. So you say, “Hey, Sunny,” and then you add what you want to ask the AI. I was just imagining what would happen if Meta did the same. Like, you want to use Ray-Ban Meta, and you say “Hey Mark” or “Hey Zuck” and then you make a request… can you imagine how weird it would feel??
Let me know in the comments what your question would be to Meta glasses after “Hey, Zuck”! And if you want to support my trips around the world to discover new VR technologies and my fun stories about them, please donate on my Patreon!