TECH TALK: Seeing is believing with HTC Vive Virtual Reality headset

For years, technology has promised exactly that; from the dawn of rudimentary television to the birth of the internet.

But even those two may struggle to match VR for the ability to be transported to another world entirely. It’s that good.

Tech Talk had a play with HTC’s Vive VR headset at The Gadget Show Live. The set, which releases later this year, is the most sophisticated of all VR offerings, more so than PSVR, Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear.

VIDEO: Play the video above to see Alex Evans trying out the HTC Vive VR headset and his review.

That’s because the Vive VR comes bundled as standard with two motion controllers and a set of laser scanners to track your position in a 3D space. Other headsets don’t pack these in.

It's what puts the Vive at the top of the pile: those extras allow you to fully interact with every environment while your whole body is tracked in real-time, not just your head, making it even more immersive.

There is no way to explain how good it is until you try it yourself: we stood on the deck of a sunken ship as a whale swam past, we fired a gun into space and drew complex images, all in a fully 3D space.

You actually feel as if you are walking around the space the headset shows you, because it moves in time with your movements and is fully 3D, with a genuine feeling of depth.

It’ll cost £689, but then you can pay that for an iPhone or an iPad, and in terms of innovation and excitement, this blows any other device clean out of the water.

The only downside is that, for now (other than looking a bit silly), is that you’ll need a pretty good PC to use it with, unlike PSVR, which will work with any PS4.

Release date: Currently up for pre-order, releasing later this year

Price: £689 from HTC direct at www.htcvive.com/uk