HP today announced Reverb (formerly codenamed ‘Copper’) in March, the successor to the company’s first Windows VR headset. Reverb’s high-res displays raise the bar on pixel density among consumer VR headsets. Sporting a design that’s a significant departure from its first Windows VR headset, HP says that Reverb will launch on May 6th starting at $600.

Update (May 2nd, 2019): At the initial reveal in March, HP said it planned to launch its high-res Reverb headset in “late April”, but April has come and gone. The company’s website now indicates that Reverb will be released on May 6th. The article below has been updated with this information.

Original Article (March 19th, 2019), Updated: Reverb is HP’s second Windows VR headset. Though it will hook into the ‘Windows Mixed Reality’ platform at its core, it will also support SteamVR through an official plugin, just like other Windows VR headsets.

Image courtesy HP

Compared to HP’s first Windows VR headset, which has a 1,440 × 1,440 LCD display for each eye, Reverb bumps the displays up to 2,160 × 2,160, which is 2.25 times the total number of pixels. With the same 90Hz refresh rate and a similar field of view, the increase in resolution translates directly to greater pixel density, bringing a huge boost to sharpness and text legibility.

It’s an even bigger leap in resolution from the first generation of consumer VR headsets, like Rift and Vive, which use 1,080 × 1,200 displays per-eye, giving Reverb 3.6 times the total number of pixels in those headsets. The fidelity seen through Reverb’s lenses is further enhanced by the fact that the LCD display uses full RGB-stripe sub-pixels (which generally have a better fill-factor than OLED displays) which means less screen door effect than an OLED display of equal resolution.

Reverb will be the highest resolution headset in the ~100 degree consumer class when it launches on May 6th, followed behind by Samsung Odyssey and Vive Pro (both with a pair of 1,440 × 1,600 displays).

Read our hands-on with the latest Reverb prototype to learn more about what it’s like to use the headset.

SEE ALSO
Understanding the Difference Between 'Screen Door Effect', 'Mura', & 'Aliasing'

HP says that Reverb is primarily built for the enterprise sector, but they’re also making the headset openly available to consumers. The Reverb Consumer Edition and Pro Edition (let’s call them CE and PE) are identical in design and specs and both include controllers). The Reverb CE is priced at $600 and will have a washable fabric face cushion and one year consumer warranty, while the Reverb PE will be priced at $650 and come with a leather-style face cushion, an additional 0.6M cable (for use with VR backpack PCs), and one year commercial warranty that covers the headset in non-consumer settings.

Image courtesy HP

Reverb has new fresnel lenses which the company says will offer a wider field of view and a larger sweet spot than its predecessor. There’s no hardware IPD adjustment on Reverb; the nominal setting is 63mm, and software adjustments range from 55mm to 71mm, according to HP.

HP quotes the Reverb’s field of view at 114 degrees diagonally, but has somewhat confusingly told us that this isn’t the actual measurement, but instead represents what they believe is “indicative” of the headset’s field of view. From my hands-on with the headset, it feels in the same FOV class as the Rift, Vive, and PSVR, but maybe on the lower end of the group. I’ve reached out to the company for further clarification on their FOV figures.

Image courtesy HP

Aside from resolution, HP says that a major focus of Reverb is comfort. While the original HP Windows VR headset uses a ‘halo’ style headband and lacks integrated headphones, the Reverb has a decidedly more Rift-like look with an overhead strap, semi-rigid spring-loaded side straps, and compact headphones built in. The headphones are removable with a flat-head screwdriver, and a 3.5mm cable dangles from the back of the headset for easily connecting third-party headphones.

The Reverb headset weighs in at 500 grams (1.1 pounds), excluding the cable—just above the Rift and Vive’s ~470 grams.

Image courtesy HP

While the design overhaul seems like mostly a win for Reverb, it has come at the expense of the convenient flip-up visor functionality on HP’s first Windows VR headset.

Like all Windows VR headsets, Reverb makes use of inside-out tracking via on-board cameras. The cameras calculate the position of the headset by looking at the environment around the user, and also track the movements of controllers by looking at the glowing LEDs. In our experience, tracking performance is good with this system, but it’s not uncommon for controllers to get momentarily ‘lost’ when looking away from the controllers (because they may momentarily exit the camera’s field of view). Reverb uses the same Windows Mixed Reality controllers used by other Windows VR headsets.

SEE ALSO
HP Wants to Enhance Traditional CAD Workflows with "VR Snacking"

HP says that Reverb’s inside-out tracking system is virtually unchanged from the original, with the same placement and resolution of tracking cameras. For that reason, we expect that tracking performance will be mostly unchanged from other Windows VR headsets.

While the first HP Windows VR headset uses HDMI and USB 3.0 plugs, the Reverb uses DisplayPort 1.3 and USB 3.0, and also includes integrated Bluetooth which means that the host PC doesn’t need its own Bluetooth connection.

Image courtesy HP

In the enterprise space, where the company expects the headset to be most appealing, HP says the Reverb is well suited for engineering product development, design reviews, architecture/engineering/construction reviews, location-based entertainment, and maintenance/repair/overhaul training. While the Reverb CE will be sold ‘as is’, HP is trying to define itself as a VR solutions company, and says it is ready and willing to work closely with enterprise customers to equip them with the hardware, software, and services to make VR a valuable part of their workflow.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Luke

    600 no deal

    • Tesla

      Go buy Vive Pro for 1500 with shit specs.

      • Luke

        nooooo deal lol

  • TwinFire

    IT BEGINS! Resolution Wars 2019

    • Muzufuzo

      YES we need VR Resolution war

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      • Mike

        The Resolutionary War

        • Jerald Doerr

          That’s a good one!

    • Leroy Dörenberg

      Nop, same shitty tracking

      • Tesla

        I wouldn’t call it shitty, but it is not that good. What is the most frustrating is the lack of master re-center, re-floor height button in controllers OR in all apps. It kills the experience when I see I am 50 cm above floor and have to remove VR to go to pc and shift-tab to Windows app to re-center.

        • Rosko

          These other companies using windows need to get there shit together regarding the complete experience, software-tracking-design-user experience. Still interested in this headset but not as my main hmd.

        • david vincent

          IKR I have the same frustration since DK1. The worst is while demoing to people. And they are all talking about ergonomic…

        • Hmmm, I had the same problem but created a function that I can access in the main WMR portal but it doesn’t help if the app if you are not calibrated before jumping in.

        • Rogue Transfer

          You can do those two things from within VR with OpenVR Advanced Settings.

      • rosscarlson

        Works just fine for seated VR which is all I play anyway. With the Rift S looking like a huge piece of shit I’ll be pre-ordering this as soon as I can!

        • Francesco Fazio

          Totally agree with you. Rift S is horse shit really lame. I am in to upgrade my Rift with this HP reverb.

          • Robbie Zeigler

            lololol enjoy the 2 cameras for tracking… its funny to see you bashing everything that is actually quiet good (rift s) which has multiple cameras instead of just 2 and then what do you do? purchase the lamest unit of them all.. bwahahaha.

    • MosBen

      Meh, that’s the least interesting thing about new hardware to me.

      • dk

        that’s the most interesting for me since it’s far from 20/20 human vision at the moment….but it needs to have eye tracking or other optimisations so it can be properly powered by an average high end card not the super expensive ones

        • MosBen

          It’s the least interesting thing to me because it’s the easiest and most obvious upgrade for any new headset. Literally no new HMD will be released with screens at the resolution of the first generation Rift and Vive. Mostly that’s just because the panels that are in production to today are already higher resolution. Eye tracking would be interesting because it would allow lower end machines to run VR. Higher FOV is interesting because it would make the experience less like looking through binoculars. There are lots of interesting things that we’re likely to see being incorporated into VR in the next few years, but higher resolution isn’t very exciting to me. The first gen resolution was good enough for presence, but could obviously stand to be improved, and it has been and will be.

          • Jerald Doerr

            Onistly…. just about everything you said perplexies me….

          • dk

            yeah the lack of 20/20 vision can be ignored to some extend ….but I just hate it …..obviously u need eye tracking for that and for a huge fov

    • I’m all for it! These fuzzy VR HMD’s are making my real-life vision worse, I’m certain about it.

  • JesperL

    100 degree = no deal!

    • Moe Curley

      Does 114 sound better?

      • JesperL

        Not much :)
        But that said, if it is brilliant in all other areas, then this might just be interesting, and at least it has a little extra FOV..

  • Kevin White

    Only two cameras for controller tracking = no deal

    • brandon9271

      Yeah, that tracking is no bueno.. Like seriously, it’s crap. I have a Samsung Odyssey and I don’t hate it but it’s really sub par. All the tech exists to have really compelling VR but nobody can be bothered to put it all into a single device..

      • Rogue Transfer

        The Odin Deus (out in Summer) will have the same 2160×2160 RGB LCD per eye, but with a similar laser-based tracking to Lighthouse(but not compatible with Vive trackers/controllers or Knuckles), but is compatible with SteamVR games: https://www.roadtovr.com/russian-startup-deus-reveals-steamvr-compatible-headset-odin-pre/

        • Norbertas GL

          The only thing it’s russian, so i won’t count on it

          • brubble

            How nice, Russia is highly regarded as having industry leading customer service etc etc…./s

        • Moe Curley

          Stupid proprietary bullshit. I swear some car companies would make a car that would only use their special gas if they could.

    • rosscarlson

      It’s no problem at all for those of us that only play seated, so yeah, 2 cameras for tracking = DEAL.

      • Moe Curley

        Fight Sims and Driving games. This will be miles ahead for these. You have to be able to read the dials! Never played Eve but all I hear is complaints about current headsets in cockpit games because of resolution.

      • Kyokushin

        Its not problem at all for any game. Even if someone is playing seated or standing.

        • Moe Curley

          Many hands on reviews have stated that WMR tracking is problematic.

          • brandon9271

            It is. Try any archery game or the Core launching game in The Lab. Any game where the controllers are placed close to your face or overhead. It might not be a problem for people with T-rex arms but I’m 6’2 and it loses tracking if I reach overhead.

          • Kyokushin

            I cant help them then. I am playing everyday. No issue for me.

    • Moe Curley

      The only use cases that I don’t see a problem with (but may after we see visual quality) is sims and media. Racing, flight sims and media, movies. It may be the perfect *cheap* solution for them. General use for games? Not so much.

  • MeNaCe183

    might as well get a damn pimax 5k plus on ebay or wait for the valve hmd….smh…no deal

    • Good point except there are no 5K pluses for under $800 on eBay currently. If anyone wants to sell me theirs for $600, I would be happy to buy it.

  • That’sright

    100° Fov isn’t vr anymore, the illusion broke for me long time ago, now it’s like I’m looking through binocular the same feeling I get looking through the old 40° fov headsets from the 90s early 2000.

    • Tesla

      Yes and no. You simply look through ski googles into VR world or through a helmet in that world. I agree 210 FOV would be ideal.

      • That’sright

        I’ll take 160° and higher

      • gothicvillas

        Even 120 would be great

      • Rob H

        Honestly, after owning the Pimax 5k+ for a month now, can honestly say anything beyond 150° is pretty pointless. Holding out full judgement to see how samsung’s curved screens come along and see if they change my mind, but from my exerpience so far, changing ffrom 150° to 170° on the Pimax is hardly even noticeable. Beyond that would be a waste of rendering power.

        • Hivemind9000

          The FOV wasn’t dropped – 170 is the horizontal FOV at max which is 200 diagonal (which is what they pitched). I agree that 150 horizontal FOV (which must be around 170 diagonal?) is plenty good enough – for now at least.

    • Pablo C

      I do snorkeling, so I´m very used to that FOV.

      • brubble

        GooooOOOoooood

    • Rosko

      You could easily argue 15 PPD is not VR anymore. If you want a bigger FOV get Pimax although dought many are even running it a max fov on all games.

      • Rob H

        Having had the Pimax for a month or so now, the max FoV setting 170°) is completely pointless. The difference between it and normal (150°) is negligible. With that in mind, i’m yet to find a game that doesn’t run acceptably on even high settings on 150° since brainwarp was available on it. People panicking over the lack of GPU power for these kind of demanding headsets need to calm themselves down and try it for themselves, its nothing like as bad as people are making out.

        Worth noting, before I received my Pimax I was extremely concerned that people were reporting that you should expect to be using the 150° setting rather than the max 170°, after all I backed them expecting 200° like they first claimed! Now I’ve actually tried it though, it’s more than fine at 150. Sure it’d be nice to have more but it’s literally just a sliver difference between 150 and 170 in the part of your view that matters least and you’d never notice difference between unless you change the setting while you’re still wearing the headset. I don’t even bother changing to max FoV in simple games capable of running it as there’s literally that little point. For me now, the next stage of development is the vertical FoV, that’ll be the big difference maker for me. Pimax again improves on this, but it’s still far from ideal.

        • Rosko

          Its too bad they didn’t just go for 150 then as surely you are just wasting resolution the way they made it?

          • Rob H

            My thoughts exactly. I love the Pimax as it’s a massive improvement over all the competition out there atm (once you’ve worked out the shitty software and modded it with a Vive DAS that is), but it’s still disappointing in many areas. They claimed to have eliminated screen door effect – it doesn’t even come close to doing this. Individual pixels are still very much distinguishable. Condensing the screen a little to 150° would have gone a little way to improve it further but its whatever now. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s still a massive improvement over the likes of rift and vive and is up there with the samsung odyssey+ in the clarity department, but there’s still a way to go.

          • Hivemind9000

            Yeah I think SDE is another generation away from being eliminated. I assume you got the 8K? I was actually pleasantly surprised at the SDE level of the 5K+. Sure I could see it, but it seemed a lot less noticeable and in-your-face than the previous generation. I assumed the 8K would be slightly better than that?

          • Dark Avry

            Have you tried PSVR? It has no SDE and only in FULLHD, thanks to OLED screens. All the rest use AMOLED with Pentile strap which is horrible, like looking tough fabric with holes.

            PSVR has higher subpixel density then RIFT/VIVE and RIFT/VIVE has higher resolution.

          • Muzufuzo

            I tried PS VR many times and it’s super blurry.

          • Dark Avry

            Blurry =/= SDE
            PSVR Looks fine on PS4Pro, better then lots of Vive/Rift games with their Godrays, SDE and Huge Pixels

          • Hivemind9000

            Yeah if they can get higher resolution screens with a similar subpixel density to the PSVR, then I think they’ll be getting close (you can still see the SDE on the PSVR – just not as pronounced). I think the barrier will still be the cost for high resolution, low persistence OLEDs.

            The Pimax 5K+ SDE doesn’t bother me anywhere near as much as it did on the Vive. It’s using LCDs which, unlike amoleds, has 3 subpixels (RGB) like the PSVR. I think that there may be other differences that also affect the SDE (like subpixel bleed, separation, layout).

          • Hivemind9000

            Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think they had to release the 170 horizontal FOV (200 Diagonal) as it was part of their Kickstarter pitch. I think if they polled owners now, they would all agree with you – just make 150 the top FOV and get more pixel density.

            Even with those “lost” pixels, it still looks pretty damn sharp at 150 (especially compared to my Vive).

    • Muzufuzo

      Honestly, IMO ‘VR’ below 120° isn’t VR at all. It’s just crap. And screen resolution of current ‘VR’ is horrible, my eyes hurt because of using it. 2019 and still no Vive 2 and Rift 2. GPUs barely moved in performance/price since 2016. Is asking for 4K per eye 150° headset costing $500 really too much? That’s a bare bare minimum of actual usefulness with comfort. What I am going to do is to sell this crap I (and you) have. Waiting for something that’s actually good and doesn’t cost arm and leg. VR is a joke for now. I was way too naive in the past.

  • jasonmartino

    Some of us can’t afford a Pimax because there is the additional investment in controllers and lighthouses. Also, a 1080ti or higher GPU is required for Pimax. Hopefully, the requirement for the HP is less. Anyway, with a little patience, the HP will go on sale one day.

    • dk

      it’s a higher resolution than the pc signal required by the pimax5k/8k

    • Rudl Za Vedno

      No GPU today can run this thing for gaming except for lower demanding vr games like superhot unfortunately. Pimax is fed by 7.2M pixels (2x1440p) and this one will have 9.3M px (2*2160x2160p). Great for watching movies but no way can we game on this thing at 90hz.

      • Tesla

        WRONG. Totally WRONG. I have Odyssey+ and it works very well with 1050 Ti. I wanted 200-300% subsampling, effectively 2280×2800 per eye rendering so I bought 2080 RTX for 660 EUR and played the most demanding things. This card is too good for this resolution. It has most of the time about 4-9 ms. So do not worry about any foveated rendering. It could be a benefit, but it is not needed at all, with current hardware. There is also 2080 Ti if somebody wants it for some reason.

        • dk

          u know it’s funny …the hp is more than double the pixels of the odyssey/vive pro and so on

        • I am thinking about a RTX 2070 just make sure I stay in the middle of the pack for development and to take advantage of near real time rendering in Unreal with their upcoming ray tracing support in 4.22.

        • Muzufuzo

          what games?

  • superdonkey

    expecting the Rift S to be very similar specs only much cheaper

    • Tesla

      I bet they will use OLED from Odyssey+ .I hope to be very very wrong and I would love Rift S to be 2k x 2k per eye too.

      • Muzufuzo

        without eye tracking (foveated rendering) 8+ Mpixels in total will be too much for 2019 GPUs to handle (realistically we can expect vr gamers using something like 1660 Ti or 2060 so 980 Ti levels)

  • JesuSaveSouls

    If this had a wider fov like the pimax and was cordless like standalones that would be extremely cool.The high res vr headset is at a great price for something way above the competition.Jesus also died for you,He is alive!

  • 144Hz

    I want this now.

    • dk

      but what about your 144hz nickname :P jk

  • one80oneday

    Dang IPD doesn’t work for me

    • Arashi

      What the … ? No hardware IPD, them, you just shattered my dream. You’re right, hadn’t seen that ‘detail’.

      • Francesco Fazio

        sorry but softrware IPD works for like 90% of the people … where do you have your eyes on your cheeks ?

        • VR-Astro

          Wrong. Software IPD is crap.

          • Francesco Fazio

            Yes if you are a giant squid and your eyes are on the side of your face … 90% of humans dont have that problem

  • Tesla

    I am super super super happy one of WMR companies increased resolution so significantly. I hope Samsung will quickly follow, but… they released Odyssey+ just few months ago, which is troubling then. Samsung Curved VR 180 FOV…is what I am waiting for. That Curved VR must have better resolution than this 105 FOV 2k x 2k per eye.

  • Jim Cherry

    They say its for enterprise then offer 1yr warranties :(.

  • Foreign Devil

    I assume you guys are going to write up an article about the Google Stadia announcement today? If they can get chrome cloud gaming at 8K. . the potential for VR is tremendous! We can just get a high rez VR headset with no processing power and stream games and content. Google didn’t mention VR uses in the announce though.

    • James Cobalt

      The latency on Stadia is presently fine for most types of games, but not for most VR or twitch-action (think competitive FPS or Super Meat Boy) games. If they over-rendered the scene to make up for rotational latency and stuck to seated games, it’d probably work pretty well. But Beat Saber? Room scale? Not unless you have patience or a stomach of steel, respectively.

      In VR, we’re worried about the added latency from transmitting the image wirelessly within the same room. Now we have to worry about our inputs going to a datacenter maybe hundreds of miles away before coming hundreds of miles back to us.

      We’d like to keep VR latency to as close to 0ms as possible. 15ms is almost indistinguishable from reality. 50ms is acceptable for most people yet causes motion sickness in others. But Stadia… Stadia even in best conditions at just 1080p (too low for VR) is over 150ms.

      That’s an engineering marvel, but not good enough for VR yet.

      • Foreign Devil

        Thanks for the numbers. Well I guess we’ll have to wait for 5G or some other innovation like localization of some parts of the game.

      • Graham J ⭐️

        Agreed. I’d actually love to try a setup where a 360 sphere is being rendered and streamed so that rotational latency is local and only translation and controller latecy is network related, just to see how much latency could be acceptable. Space warp could probably take care of some of the former, but there’s no getting around controller latency.

        Another approach might be scene streaming – sending changes to the mesh and textures and doing a local render.

        • James Cobalt

          Outside of 3DoF point-and-click games or 360° video, racing games might work, especially if they’re only 3DoF. The controller latency could be masked as the vehicle’s “handling”. Using a gamepad or steering wheel controller instead of 6DoF controllers might also be necessary to hide the latency (plus it reduces the uplink bandwidth).

          • Graham J ⭐️

            I dunno, I think some racers might argue that with you, but you might be right ;)

            I wonder if rendering anything attached to a controller locally would work. I mean it could be done but I’ve often wondered if locally rendered objects overlaid on 3D video would actually look properly integrated. Of course reactions to the controllers would still be latent but that would be even less obvious than latent controllers.

          • James Cobalt

            Ha yeah wasn’t thinking racing sims but more so the party racing games a la Mario Kart.

          • Jim Lakey

            I am no expert in vr but I do sim race in iracing. In my opinion, you can feel the latency with a good wheel – DD w/FFB. You don’t have to render anymore than your neck can turn, so I would hope that we could cut the latency that goes into our controllers as you are not whipping your head, but are gradually turning…hopefully…

      • Graham J ⭐️

        Come to think of it, it would be easy enough to emulate that in Unity or something. Might try that sometime :)

  • Charles

    Exciting to finally hit 2160p, but… it’s LCD, rather than OLED. I learned the hard way with the Pimax 5K+ that LCD just doesn’t work for dark environments in VR, such as space.

    Still, this is exciting because it means there will surely be other 2160p headsets coming out in the very near future, and surely at least one will be OLED.

    • Good point and it does make difference. I will have to set some shots up in my Oculus Go to see how the Apollo 11 experience will look before contacting HP.

      • Charles

        Yeah, LCD is particularly bad in space when there are no large bright objects like the sun to give contrast. Like when you’re staring out into space, it just looks all grey. Titans of Space is a good app to use for reference.

        • Rosko

          I didn’t try LCD yet but the Oled panels in my rift are really bad in dark scenes like night flying in DCS. Black smear, colour banding, mura effect ruins so many games.

          • Mike

            On the Vive, I only noticed the Mura, and only sometimes. But it’s nowhere near as bad of a thing as grey black levels.

          • Engineer_92

            I had the same issue with my rift, but found a solution online that seems to take care of it!

            https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/9nvzt9/just_a_reminder_for_all_people_with_nvidia_poor/

          • Rosko

            This works for you? There is only an option to change resolution for my monitor?

          • Engineer_92

            The computer does not detect your Rift to change the settings for some reason, but it will detect a monitor. Unplug your Oculus HDMI then plug in an extra monitor or tv where the Oculus HDMI is plugged in. If you dont have an extra monitor, try switching your existing monitor over to the Oculus HDMI port. Restart the computer to make sure the settings havent changed then plug your rift back in.

    • Elijah Wolf

      LCD is better because it doesn’t have pentile sub-pixel arrangement, which effectively reduces resolution by 1.5x.
      2160 LCD per eye means killer sharpness compared to OLED.

      • Charles

        But the sub-pixel arrangement is not inherent to whether it’s LCD or OLED. They’re completely independent – all OLED TVs are and have always been full-RGB. The reason OLED VR screens (and phone screens) tend to be Pentile is because OLED is more expensive to produce, and so using fewer subpixels reduces the cost.

        Also, in my experience, the improvement going from Pentile to full-RGB isn’t THAT dramatic. I thoroughly compared the Vive Pro (1600p Pentile) and the Pimax 5K+ (1440p RGB), and the Pimax really didn’t look any better. In fact, I think it looked worse, because instead of a “fabric pattern” on smooth surfaces, there were lines.

        • Elijah Wolf

          Pimax has much wider FOV, and as a result, approximately the same visible pixel density despite the higher resolution.

          • Charles

            I used to think that, but that’s not actually true. Pimax screens have a much larger horizontal resolution compared to standard 1440p, but not vertical. This corresponds to the much wider horizontal FOV but identical vertical FOV. So the changes in FOV and aspect ratio are irrelevant in comparing the Pimax to a Vive. The vertical FOV is identical, and so all that matters is the vertical resolution.

        • Sion12

          All OLED TV is WRGB, not RGB, All OLED VR display is pentile, so not much point arguing for OLED without assuming its pentile

          • Mike

            Except that the PSVR screen is RGB non-Pentile OLED.

          • Sion12

            i stand corrected. but i assum thats the only one?

    • rosscarlson

      Damn, that’s a real fucking bummer – I’m still hopeful given the resolution. I have the Oculus Go and it doesn’t bother me, but I don’t game in it like my Rift (Elite Dangerous so lots of black space). Given the Rift S is also LCD (and such a total joke in comparison) I’ll be giving this a try regardless.

      • Charles

        Yeah it should still be great, and would be the best HMD as long as you don’t care about dark scenes or having bright scenes be vibrantly bright, and if you’re okay with the imperfect controller tracking, and if your IPD is close to 63.

  • Nothing to see here

    Ugh. Diving mask design. Will they never learn?

    • david vincent

      I am baffled too. Talk about regression. And they said a major focus was comfort !
      Just when resolution was starting to be good enough for watching movies…

  • Sky Castle

    Higher resolution isn’t enough. My next headset must have bigger FOV.

    • Marcin Stachowiak

      And also must be wireless

    • Drake Tempest

      I’d rather have the resolution than FoV. What good is FoV if it’s all blurry?

      • VR-Astro

        Same. Res before FOV. Need to establish a minimum ppd first.

      • Bryan Ischo

        The ‘good’ obviously is that it is more immersive to have your peripheral view rendered. We are already accepting lots of visual imperfections – screen door exists to some degree on every headset, it’s all computer graphics which only simulates reality and has lots of odd aspects (such as lighting, lack of texture detail, weird geometry, etc) that don’t conform to reality either, etc.

        I can understand *preferring* higher PPD (what you are calling ‘resolution’) to higher FOV, but I can’t understand *not understanding* why some people may feel that higher FOV is more important from an immersion perspective than high PPD.

        Obviously, having both would be preferrable, but it is hard to get screen technology that can do this, and even harder to get GPU performance necessary (without foveated rendering, which is still a pipe dream at this point).

        I personally think I would prefer higher FOV to higher resolution. I went from a Vive to a Vive Pro (don’t laugh) and honestly, didn’t find the difference all *that* great (although to be sure I would prefer not to go back down to the Vive). I was still very aware of the feeling of looking through binoculars with the clearly visible small field of view.

        For that reason, I assume that I would find greater FOV at the same (or maybe even slightly reduced) PPD more immersive than higher resolution.

        • Jerald Doerr

          Really bro? Vive to Vive Pro is not much of a resolution jump…. Don’t be one of them chicks that eats 80% of a snickers so she don’t get fat.

          • Bryan Ischo

            Whatever.

          • Jerald Doerr

            Don’t get all butt hurt….. The defiance in resolution is like bitching about your extra large pizza lacking 15 Pepperonis…

        • Shane Byrd

          Very helpful observations, Bryan.

    • TJ Studio
      • The Bard

        it is an alpha product, not even better. Wide FOV, but when you take resolution into account it is nothing better than 1440×1600 for 105′

        • Leon Jimenez

          I can read all the text in Elite Dangerous on the Pimax 5k and can’t say the same for anything else I tried.

          • The Bard

            Try out Odyssey+. Razor sharp.

          • Leon Jimenez

            It was ok. Not as sharp as my Pimax5k but better black and colors. But fov is just no good anymore and wasn’t comfortable on my big nose so my son uses it.

    • rosscarlson

      I’m with you – but I’ll take what I can get. If these new optics are like some of the add-ons for the Vive AND we get much higher resolution I’ll take it until someone (good) does wider FOV (as that is my biggest issue too). Unfortunately the Pimax is/will be a total POS (I owned the 4K and it was awful in every possible way) that it’s not an option for anyone serious about VR.

  • theonlyrealconan

    FOV is horrible and still uses fresnel lenses, BIG no thanks.

    • Elijah Wolf

      FOV is good. Having bigger FOV reduces sharpness, which is the biggest VR issue currently.

      • brandon9271

        Depends on who you ask. My biggest issue with VR are god rays on the Rift and poor controller tracking on my Odyssey. A combo of the two would be sufficient until a next gen device drops. Hopefully Valve will release an HMD

  • MosBen

    I suppose that we’ll see, but the entire WMR line, now including both generations, has felt trapped in a Gen 1.5 feel to me. Higher resolution is nice, but there doesn’t seem to be any real significant gains that would compel someone to get this rather than 1) waiting for a Rift/Vive 2, expected sometime next year, or 2) stick with something that they already have from Gen 1 or another cheaper HMD. If, as I suspect, the Rift S sells for something like $250, then nobody should ever buy this.

    • Smokey_the_Bear

      I would guess the Rift S will sell for 349

      • MosBen

        I mean, they recently lowered the price on the regular Rift to $350, and the primary benefit of the Rift S is that it should be significantly cheaper to produce. Maybe it’ll launch for $350, but I would expect price drops sooner rather than later. But I’d still put my nickel down on it launching for some significant price drop from the regular Rift. Maybe $300.

    • Rogue Transfer

      It’s amazing how a few days can turn the world upside-down. Unfortunately, the Rift S ended up being $400 and worse resolution than the base gen 1.5 WMR from one and a half years ago, for twice the (sale) prices.

      No one should expect a Rift 2 next year. According to FRL Michael Abrash in September, he expects their ‘next level in VR’ to launch in 2022. They can’t do higher and keep supporting minimum PCs(Nate Michel in Tested’s recent interview about Rift S covered that). The enthusiast market is not the market FB is interested in – they want the mass-market now. It’s the only one they’ll care about to make gains in, towards their “1 billion users in VR”. They’ll always be low-to-middle-road, for the next few years.

      Vive Cosmos details should be known soon, it may or may not have the same screens as Reverb, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up about pricing being comparable to HP’s Reverb. I don’t think we’ll see a Vive 2 so soon as next year with all the headsets this year from HTC and their switching more-and-more to enterprise markets.

    • Lucidfeuer

      I doubt the Rift S will sell anything below the Quest ie. $400.

      • MosBen

        Well, I was figuring that the Rift S was essentially going to be a Quest with most of the hardware and battery gutted from it in exchange for a USB 3 connection. That probably would have resulted in a relatively light headset that could be produced for significantly less than the Quest, which is where my thinking on cost was coming from. Instead, the S is like a blending of the Rift and the Lenovo WMR headset, which doesn’t seem either quite as good or are cost effective as my hypothetical version, but then I’m just a guy speculating so I could be ignoring a lot of things.

      • MosBen

        That said, I certainly wouldn’t recommend that any of my friends or family get the Reverb. Sure, the resolution is nice, but the controllers and tracking, which I consider to be much more important, aren’t great. It’s a shame because the S is a bit underwhelming at its price, so if the Reverb had made a few improvements beyond the resolution I might have had a different take.

  • Rob H

    100° FoV :(

  • Shoot! I am already pushing the limits with “Apollo 11: ‘One Small Step For…’ VR Experience’ with most textures at 4Kx4K five channel PBR for the Vive Pro and Samsung Odyssey. Oh well HP, if you are listening, I would be happy to sign up for a developer kit to show off as part of my VAMR experience that I am providing for free to the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (OMSI) on July 20th, 2019 for their 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

    Here is a link to a little 2 minute early promo video.

    This was made specifically for the HTC Vive Pro and three trackers — two mounted to “moon boots” and one around your waist to make you feel like you in a space suit walking on the moon. I am also thinking of using a WMR headset for the stand up experience of the descent and ascent part of the LEM experience since I have sunk so much time into creating a HD realistic LEM interior with a couple of custom controls to mimic those used to pilot it. The HP would be a perfect fit. :)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47153021fd6a1b3a7702f41b4c2f7d921945aef93234a6eba51345c0eaa0f40f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4439bef53bdffac46e1998d006fcbc85292b5a311f725dac64fd5634a443ca89.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8704ef02c1024eca2762c60101e11ba69e9dfb57650bc166d3828d69af6c6f38.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3da29d687e03b239f15d2b3847f252c136a9242e74c3ab5b2c8a2f4826e90be9.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8ddd5a91ee0b6f599a27547215efaeb9ecc8948f56647e6a8b72e1b794c532d1.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/536e7e3640dd0e221e3f46d7417fd2b39376345467dbc554970ab6548a20d12e.jpg

    • Jim Lakey

      Dynamite. Bit of an old school space buff. Keep it coming…!

  • impurekind

    So, this headset has moved closer to the Rift design, the Vive added the new head strap that’s closer to the Rift’s design, and the new controllers for many of the headsets look closer to the Rift’s Touch controllers than ever. Is anyone else thinking Oculus should be congratulated for obviously making some pretty great design decisions even with the very first Rift?

    • doug

      I’m thinking that, for their facebook privacy policy, they should be taken behind the woodshed.

    • dk

      yes because pulling on elastics and using velcro is a revelation in design lol https://www.designnews.com/sites/default/files/Design%20News/SegaVR.jpg …at least the delux audio strap has basically one point adjustment like with some bike helmets …..and for me a flip up function is becoming invaluable and not pressing/suffocating the skin on my face is also nice

      • James Cobalt

        Oooooo Sega VR prototype! Is it Throwback Thursday already?

      • impurekind

        Classic Sega VR headset. :D

    • HybridEnergy

      They should be congratulated for having no motion controllers at all and then copying the idea of having them in general I guess.

      • impurekind

        Eh, I think you’ll find Oculus had motion controllers being worked on basically from the get-go (along side using traditional input). It just decided to release them a bit later to totally nail the design, which it did (and the pissed all over Valve’s VR controllers).

  • Blufor

    More competition in VR markets is always fantastic!!! Innovation demands competition!

  • HybridEnergy

    Nothing but hardware news over and over. 1/4 has been a snore fest on the content side. There is nothing new to play !

    • Fat Walrus

      Play your old games. They still love you! :-P

  • Dark Avry

    The writer confused OLED which is FULL RGB with AMOLED which is Pentile RGB

    • benz145

      That’s a good observation. In the VR space people typically understand OLED to mean AMOLED; to my knowledge there’s no consumer VR headset on the market not using PenTile or similar, so it’s just a shorthand.

      • Dark Avry

        PSVR, not PC but consumer.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          But you can use the PSVR with your PC ;)

          • Dark Avry

            Just as Passive HMD or with controllers and head movement?

          • Andrew Jakobs

            head movement and with controllers (but ofcourse it’s not as simple as plug and play sadly, you’ll need some extra software (and an AUX to USB3 converter for the USB part), but it’s possible). That’s why I even bought the headset.

          • Dark Avry

            Any guides?

  • MW

    Overall – good news. However 600 USD is a very expensive piece of tech for average consumer. It’s more than newest gaming console, or average GPU – and all for a peripheral toy. Not perfect tracking, small FoV… I really don’t think it will be popular headset.

  • oompah

    Great Thumbs up
    But price is higher
    Some future improvement I suggest is :
    Use USB-C only one cable.
    Also make a pocket portable
    with say 855, 850 or 845 snapdragon proc. with 18000 mah battery or a port to connect battery. The idea is to have a standalone system (with steam onboard) but in 2 parts (headset + proc) which can connect to internet using wifi directly. With availability of 500 GB & 1 TB sd cards , it is now possible.

  • superdonkey

    the high resolution makes me wonder if dp1.3 is enough to drive them two displays at 90hz or is this using upscaling?

  • With Oculus nerfing it on the Rift S, WMR headsets might be the future of high-end VR. Show me some eye-tracking and I think I’m sold.

  • Tommy

    It humors me when I see people complain about the LCD screen for the Rift S and then go on to say they are getting a Reverb

  • John Overholt

    Anyone know which backpack he’s using here? Whichever one, is there one you can buy around 12 batteries for easily? I need it for market research and I want to use it for 12 hour periods.

  • Francesco Fazio

    The only real concern for me is the tracking. Are two cameras enough ? Will it track the controllers when I go behind the head ? My guess is no. Oculus Rift does it ….

  • gothicvillas

    Well… for me to drop 600 notes, wider FOV is missing. Of course I would use knuckles and base stations anyway.
    I guess Index it is then.

    • Francesco Fazio

      I guess that too man

  • Master

    uhh, you guys complaining about the tracking are fking retarted and are just listening to youtubers complain about it. It works just fine, It might not be the best possible with more cameras but with this many pixels who gives a flying fuk if you loose tracking once in a while ? as soon as you are back on the sensors sight they get picked up instantly . My pre purchase is set and will be enjoying real Vr may 6th

    • Jo Toku

      I know, the Odyssey + tracking is pretty good

  • Tech Guy

    …0.6M cable

    Symbol for metre is lowercase “m” and before all units there should be a space

  • MW

    For the first headset – we have winner in 2019. Offers something more than others (res.). Other specs are basically the same. Slightly worse tracking, but it works.

    Oculus Rift S – worse specs
    O.Quest – low quality
    VALVE index – delayed, insanely overpriced
    Pimax – unavailable, unfinished, unpolished

    Looks like HP is the only reasonable option in this year. And if you already have some HMD it has, in my opinion, absolutely no sense to buy any of 2019 HMD’s.

    • HybridEnergy

      600 dollars for a res bump on a windows mixed reality platform and 1.0 tracking that at 1440p you can now find discounted in places for $140? Some of you must be freaking joking or just obsessed with resolution for porn.

      • MW

        Well, what are you suggesting? What is a better deal?

  • JesperL

    To me the choice is Reverb or Valve Index.
    And although I love the higher res, the Index is (to me) a clear winner on better tracking and slightly bigger FOV.
    Also better controller and a new standard with 120-144 fps.

    • beestee

      WMR controllers are not great. These WMR participants need to put more effort into fixing that problem.

    • le Roc de l’Hexagone

      Hp reverb is for profesionnal use …

      • The Bard

        It is for any use. PRO or games or presentations, whatever. It is Oculus Rift 2 Facebook did not deliver.

        • Grey Lock

          The only downside of the Reverb is it still uses the two camera inside-out tracking designed in 2016, while Oculus and Vive are releasing four and five camera tracking systems.

    • The Bard

      WMR controllers are the best controllers on the market today. Clickable touch pad OR thumb stick. 2 things for everyone’s taste. Other controllers do not have that option.

      Also, Index is weak because of low resolution. Not for this money, not this resolution!

      • beestee

        Conceptually the controller functions available may be the best. However the ergonomics are simply functional, not well polished at all. The build quality only just meets the need. I used mine for maybe a total of 10 hours and already had stick-drift issues in one of the controllers.

        They need more time in the oven in my opinion, and not one of the WMR headset manufacturers have even attempted to improve on the basic (good but flawed) reference design.

        I would be first in line if someone would offer a premium WMR controller option.

      • Grey Lock

        I like the WMR controllers, not as much as my Oculus Touch controllers. But the issue is MS needs to step up and release four camera tracking – it’s 2019 and time to update that 2016 design Microsoft…

        • The Bard

          I agree. WMR 2.0 should be released now and it should unclude 6 cameras – bottom, top, and all 4 courners in the front.

  • judgeman

    FFS GET THE PIMAX and Shut the hell up, beats the shit out of the rest

  • Kyokushin

    Think about these poor beings who ordered low-res index for 1000 bucks yesterday xD

  • M0rph3u5

    Another reason to be glad that I pre ordered Vive Index. What’s the point in high resolution when:
    1. Not many apps/games utilize it
    2. Inferior controllers tracking compared to
    3. 1st gen FOV
    4. Lack of hardware to utilize this resolution/refresh rate in real time apps and FPS
    5. Lack of IPD (very relevant to me and those unlucky people who fall out within the average IPD)
    Valve index, vice Pro and and to lesser extent Rift S are the way to go at this stage
    Having this high resolution at this stage is like driving a Ferrari in a 20mph road

    • Arashi

      Although higher res textures will of course be better, games don’t have to support it and things will look sharper/better readable etc already. I don’t worry too much about tracking, my odyssey+ tracks very well. FoV in my experience is not as important as SDE and resolution (owning the Pimax 5k+ and Odyssey+). Of course you need good hardware but an 2080TI will drive this baby very well. I agree though on the IPD, that’s a real bummer. I might go as far as opening up the HMD to see if I can move the lenses apart by 3d printing a new holder. But yeah, HP really made a bad choice there.

    • impurekind

      It seems to me the Index and Quest are basically the two best choice of VR headsets right now, with one being the best all-round standalone and the other the best all-round PC-based.

  • superdonkey

    index is still binoculars compared to the pimax

    • polysix

      Pimax is jank

  • Walextheone

    How on earth will we able to apps/games for that resolution without FOVEated rendering? Next gen graphics card?

    • Arashi

      2080TI will run this thing very well

    • le Roc de l’Hexagone

      It’s not for gaming

  • HybridEnergy

    Good for Porn I guess , for gaming I like my VR kits to be more rounded. Good tracking, good motion controllers, decent resolution, and wireless options. This hits the nail on the head in only one and only one category alone.

  • Lucidfeuer

    Nope, crap strap and I don’t consider using/recommanding anything below 130° FOV as of now. Higher resolution is a given, but with a FOV that is half of human vision, nope sorry but can’t bare it, and it is growingly becoming the main set-back we hear about from prospects…

  • le Roc de l’Hexagone

    4k panel for 600€ day one for me :)

  • polysix

    God Rays?

    Everyone should hold off buying any NEW systems while they still have awful/immersion breaking god rays (and bad blacks). It was ‘ok’ in gen 1, but this gen 1.5 stuff like Reverb and Index should know better. Don’t excuse them.

    My old DK2 great as was PSVR without god rays, DK2 had good blacks too, my VIve, PSVR and CV1 were steps back in some ways and Rift-S, Index and Reverb are FURTHER steps back.

    Why are they chasing some aspects but ignoring what truly counts for immersive VR?

    • Gerald Terveen

      life is full of compromises and I love most of the new headsets for the choices they made. you might want to ask the question why they made the compromises they made to get an answer to your question :)

  • Jerald Doerr

    Damit… I just dropped $1076 on the Index now I gota drop it like its hot….. x 2

  • If resolution is your #1 priority then the HP’s 2160 x 2160 beats Valve Index which is 1,440 x 1,600. The Index beats it on all other areas (I think) but with a 40% extra cost.

  • brubble

    Meh, doesn’t do it for me. Screens sound nice but that’s about it.
    I wonder when Canada will see the Index?

  • Grey Lock

    Ben,

    I’m looking for a comparison between the Rift S, Index, Reverb, and Odyssey+.

    Please consider it :-D

  • Fabian

    VR hardware needs progress in so many ways, like higher FOV, eye tracking and foveated rendering, higher resolution, wireless connection, variable focus, higher refresh rates, better controllers, more cameras for inside out tracking, adjastable IPD, better black levels(OLED vs. LCD), and so on…. and HP just takes an old low end device with all it’s flaws, just bumps up the resolution and that’s it!? What a lazy approach.

  • CHRIS

    WMR is like fake VR. It’s good to get your feet wet but only the pro stuff like the index and vive pro gives you sure fire stereo separation. I don’t like wmr at all but the setup is so easy.

    • impurekind

      Looks like Oculus is about to one-up even that simple setup with the Quest.

  • Graham J ⭐️

    ok it’s May 6. Where do I buy in Canada?

  • 144Hz

    They said it would release today, but it’s still not here. WTF is going on at HP?

  • Diego Ayas

    They will release on 8th, according to to support chat

  • DC

    May 6th has come and gone and still not available.

  • impurekind

    With the outdated 2-camera tracking of the controllers holding it back, I don’t see this selling particularly well in the marketplace.

  • Franco Scuri

    It is out of stock after 2 days :-(