If an aversion to buying something from the Facebook-owned Oculus or a loyalty to Steam is holding you back from buying a Rift S, or if stock shortages are an issue and you don’t want to wait to get a VR headset, we think the HTC Vive Cosmos or Cosmos Elite could be an okay alternative. These sets have better screens than the Rift S and some interesting future-proofing features that might give them more longevity. However, the Cosmos and Cosmos Elite are much more expensive despite being saddled with additional frustrations. For the money, reviews suggest the Valve Index is a better buy (if you can even get your hands on it).

The Cosmos, Cosmos Play (which is not yet available), and Cosmos Elite have varying levels of abilities. For example, the Cosmos and Cosmos Play have controllers that look a bit like the Oculus Touch while the Cosmos Elite has wand-style controllers. It’s most important to know that whereas the Cosmos and Cosmos Play track you with sensors built into the headset (much as the Rift S does), the Cosmos Elite system adds external base stations that improve tracking. HTC sells swappable faceplates that allow you to more or less upgrade a Cosmos into the higher-spec Cosmos Elite. The Cosmos headset we tested featured the external tracking faceplate, Elite wand-style controllers, and external tracking base stations, all of which essentially turned it into a Cosmos Elite. If you know you want external tracking, it’s hundreds of dollars cheaper to buy the Cosmos Elite instead of purchasing add-on accessories for the Cosmos (which have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic).

The Cosmos line has a slightly more lengthy setup than the Rift S does; the headset plugs into a connector, which then has three additional cords that plug into your PC and power outlet. If you’re using a Cosmos Elite or add-ons such as the external tracking faceplate, you also need to install two base stations: small black boxes that act as external sensors for tracking your location. The base stations need to sit on a high shelf or be mounted on the wall, and also require an outlet. That means the Cosmos Elite demands six cords and three outlets total, while the Rift S requires a single cord (that branches at the end into two connectors) and no outlets.

Reviews suggest that, similar to the Rift S, the Cosmos does a decent job of tracking you as you move around a room but suffers without external sensors. With the base stations we used during testing, the Cosmos Elite did a bit better. However, we were still able to find blind spots where a player’s body blocked the stations’ view—fairly inconvenient when you’re about to shoot a zombie in the face. Mounting the stations higher likely would have solved the problem, but that means you may face difficulties just setting them on furniture or shelves you already have.

We dislike the wand-style controllers sold with the Cosmos Elite and older headsets like the Vive Pro. They aren’t as natural to hold as the Oculus Touch controllers. As Robertson at The Verge writes: “The Cosmos controllers are bigger and heavier than the Oculus Touch, and they require twice as many AA batteries, two for each controller. They seem carefully designed, featuring super clicky buttons and an extra gamepad-style bumper above each trigger. But they’re awkward and bulky.”

Similar to the Rift S, the Cosmos headsets have a halo-like design. I didn’t think the headset I tested rested on my face as nicely as the Rift S, which is a complaint I’ve had about every Vive headset I’ve tried. It’s still wearable for an hour or two at a time. However, adjusting the pupillary distance, which changes the distance between the lenses for different types of eyes, is more difficult; I never found a setting that made the screen look especially sharp.

The Cosmos and Cosmos Elite have built-in, fold-down headphones that were comfortable to wear and sounded convincing enough to my ears. That’s a convenient improvement over the speakers in the Rift S, but one that you can easily match with a good pair of headphones plugged into the Rift S.

Although Oculus might have a slight edge on content for its headset, you wouldn’t feel like you’re missing much on a Cosmos since you download games for Vive headsets on Steam, a content library that PC gamers are likely to already use. You can also download or launch games from within a living-room-like space inside the headset, and we think there are plenty of games, movies, and other experiences to keep anyone busy.