The upgraded HP Reverb G2 model is now shipping to even more countries, after it first launched in the US last October.
The upgraded Reverb G2 model is meant to address several concerns and complaints levied at the original headset, first released in late 2020. It does this by making a few hardware and software updates, including changes to the physical camera modules on the headset. HP claims these updated cameras result in a 30% increase in tracking volume compared to the original and resolved some blind spots around the waist.
There’s also a new facemask design that allows users to adjust their eye relief distance. This should mean it’s easier to dial into your own personal ‘sweet spot’ with a removable spacer, which allows the relief distance to be brought down to 9mm from the standard 15mm.
When the new model was announced in October, it was only available in select countries. HP says that the response to upgrades has been “phenomenal” so far and, and they are expanding availability to more countries. The upgraded model is now available in a total of 30 countries, including the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, many European countries and more. You can view the full list here.
There’s also some software updates that apply to all HP Reverb G2 owners, new and old models alike. Microsoft and HP have also made changes to the Windows Mixed Reality platform, which now features a new home environment that is less resource intensive and should perform better. If you want, you’re also able to bypass WMR completely on startup and head straight into SteamVR, which makes for a much nicer experience for Steam users.
Have you tried out the new Reverb G2 model? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Last week’s announcement of the HP Reverb G2 headset was met with excitement from the VR community. But, while the US can already pre-order the device, HP Reverb G2 worldwide pre-orders aren’t available yet. We know when they will be, though.
During a presentation announcing the headset at the AWE 2020 event last week, the company confirmed that HP Reverb G2 worldwide pre-orders would be launching in mid-June and then continuing to roll out across July. These regions include Asia, Canada, Latin America and Europe. US pre-orders are currently available from the official website.
Later on in the session the company clarified that, although pre-orders are coming later, shipping for the device will be global. That’s currently scheduled for launch in fall 2020. We also don’t have individual pricing for different regions just yet, but we’ll let you know when we get that information.
Reverb G2 has caught the attention of VR enthusiasts thanks to an impressive spec sheet, made possible by a collaboration with Microsoft and Valve. Like the original Reverb, the G2 boasts a 4K resolution, and inside-out tracking, but also delivers four-camera tracking, Valve Index-style audio, improved ergonomics and redesigned Windows Mixed Reality controllers. Coming in at $599, the device shows a lot of promise for the enthusiast PC VR market. HP calls it a ‘no compromise’ headset, a marketing line we discussed heavily in this week’s episode of our VR Download podcast.
Will you be laying down a pre-order for the HP Reverb G2 when they launch across the globe in a few months? Let us know in the comments below!
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).
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.
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.
Having launched its first VR headset in late 2017, alongside a handful of similar headsets as part of Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality platform, HP is preparing to take its next step with the launch of a new headset that diverges from the pack. Road to VR got an exclusive preview of the so far unannounced and unnamed headset which the company hopes will raise the bar on clarity and comfort.
It was a seemingly fitting day—unusually dreary weather for California’s Bay Area—to find myself in the basement of HP’s Palo Alto headquarters, safe from the wind and rain. After being led through secure doors, down an elevator, and along a maze of white hallways, I found myself inside a windowless bunker of a room: HP’s VR Lab, I’m told.
Inside, past a row of computers with various consumer headsets attached, I see two identical laptops sitting on a table off to the side. They’re powered up, with a long tether leading to a headset sitting in front of each. The first I recognize: Samsung’s recently launched Odyssey+. The second easily could’ve been mistaken for a Rift at first glance, but upon closer inspection would prove to be something much different.
Microsoft launched its Windows Mixed Reality platform back in late 2017 alongside a salvo of VR headsets from partner companies (HP, Acer, Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung) which work with the platform. Among that initial set of headsets, all but Samsung’s was built to nearly identical specifications, apparently based around a reference design primarily developed by Microsoft. That left little to differentiate the launch headsets (other than Samsung’s) beyond aesthetics.
This time around, HP is owning the design of its next-gen headset from the ground up. It’s still a Windows Mixed Reality headset—which means it retains the same quality inside-out tracking and ease of setup which the platform is known for (thanks to not needing any external trackers)—but beyond that, HP has crafted a significant departure from its first headset.
‘Copper’, as it’s codenamed, has a distinct Rift-like look to it; a slim, top-strap design with sleek headphones attached to the headband. Upon closer inspection, the rear of the headset sees the top and side straps culminate in a circular structure (designed to cup the back of your head), while the front is encompassed by a heathered material into which the front-facing cameras are embedded.
I wasn’t allowed to take any photos—after all, HP has yet to officially announce the headset; the company would only share a single untextured rendering. But the headset I saw already looked and felt nearly market-ready, despite still being under wraps.
Image courtesy HP
That’s because the device I tried is the very first tooled prototype, said John Ludwig, Product Manager for VR at HP, which means the company is already well on its way to doing production runs of Copper.
Ludwig, who has been closely involved with the development of the headset, walked me through a demo where I strolled around a real-time pre-visualization of an architectural design. Confident in the clarity I’d see through Copper’s lenses, he offered up the Odyssey+ as a side-by-side comparison (currently the highest res WMR headset on the market at 1,440 × 1,600 per-eye). Indeed, Copper’s clarity blew it away.
That’s no doubt primarily driven by Copper’s 2,160 × 2,160 (per eye) displays, which have more than twice the number of pixels as the Odyssey+, and more than three and a half times as many pixels as first-gen headsets like the Rift. Looking through Copper’s lenses, sharpness is a drastic step forward over Odyssey+. And while the Odyssey+ uses a diffuser on the screen (which sacrifices some sharpness in an effort to hide the screen door effect), Copper hardly has a need for a diffuser as the pixel dense RGB-stripe displays make the screen door effect vanishingly apparent.
Copper, Luwig told me, is the direct result of feedback from HP’s enterprise and commercial customers who were already using the company’s existing headset. Overwhelmingly that feedback, as Ludwig said, was “resolution, resolution, resolution,” followed secondarily by “comfort.”
The former is quite satisfied by the new displays (which offer surprisingly vibrant colors for LCD). And while there were a few visual artifacts seen through the lenses (notably a diagonal array of greyish dots across the display, as well as some mura), Ludwig assured me these would be fixed and improved, respectively, as the displays get tweaked before mass production.
Ludwig said that HP’s customers were not nearly as concerned with expanding the field of view as they were with seeing resolution move to the next step. As such, Copper’s field of view is in the Rift/Vive class, though the headset is using all new Fresnel lenses.
As for comfort, HP has completely redesigned the headset’s ergonomics, ditching the ‘halo-style’ headband shared by all previous WMR headsets, and moving instead to the top-strap approach. Copper has a fit and feel that’s much like the Rift, with a velcro side-strap on either side of the head, as well as the top strap, and rigid spring-loaded struts which make it easier to put on and remove the headset without re-adjusting the fit every time.
HP isn’t ready to share details on weight, but Copper sure did feel light, something which Ludwig says that the company focused heavily on.
Offerings from Z by HP, soon to include Copper | Image courtesy HP
Copper, HP says, is being positioned as a professional product, but they plan to make it openly available for purchase by consumers and companies alike. Price has yet to be specified.
The company is primarily pitching Copper as part of a “solution stack” for enterprise and commercial customers which are served by the ‘Z by HP’ brand, said HP’s Sean Young, the Global Lead of Industry Segments at ‘Z’ focuses on professional products and solutions, including VR Ready workstation-class desktops and laptops and a dockable VR backpack. In 2018 the Z group began offering the ‘HP VR Launch Kit’, a kit of VR Ready hardware and software designed to help businesses quickly and easily integrate VR into their product design workflows. The kit will eventually offer Copper in place of the existing HP Windows Mixed Reality headset.
With the upgrades, HP believes that Copper will answer the needs of enterprise and commercial customers who want to use VR for applications where being able to see textures up close, text at medium distances, and objects furthest is important. Specifically, the company expects that training, architecture, and VR LBE customers, among others, will benefit greatly from the improvements.
Young says that, beyond the capabilities of a given product, reliability, serviceability, and global availability are key for larger organizations before they’ll consider integrating new products into their workflow. Copper will embody those aspects right alongside the rest of Z’s offerings.
As for Copper’s launch: HP isn’t ready to say, but 2019 seems like a strong bet at this point. The company is planning a full reveal of the headset in the future where we’ll learn even more. In the meantime, feel free to drop questions in the comments below and I’ll answer what specifics I can about my time with the headset.
HP is bringing out an enterprise-focused version of its Windows ‘Mixed Reality’ VR headset in March. Called the ‘Professional Edition’, HP is pushing out basically the same headset hardware-wise save a few tweaks it considers necessary for VR-use in the workplace.
As first reported by AnandTech, the HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset Professional Edition will be available in March for $450—only $50 more than the consumer version is currently. Like all Windows VR headsets, both consumer and pro version feature inside-out positional tracking thanks to dual head-mounted cameras. Both consumer and pro versions feature 6DoF controllers, a flip-up design, double crown padding, dual 2.89-inch LCD screens at 1440 × 1440 resolution per display, a 90Hz refresh rate, and a ~100 degree field of view.
As far as we can tell, that extra $50 will get you 3 cleanable, detachable polyurethane face cushions, something that will definitely come in handy if the headset is used by more than one person. The consumer version features a non-removable, dense foam face cushion, otherwise known as a sweat sponge.
image courtesy AnandTech
As far as enterprise-focused VR headsets go, this may be the most demure (and cheapest) among the pack, including HTC’s Vive Business Edition ($1200) and Oculus’ Rift for Business ($900), both of which include premium services like dedicated customer support lines and extended licenses/warranties. It’s unclear from the product page if similar services will be provided by HP to entice would-be professional VR users.
In addition to the pro version, HP has also co-developed a VR Launch Kit with Epic with the goal of streamlining VR development for professional users working in industries such as product design and architecture. The launch kit is aiming to provide an end-to-end solution that makes viewing CAD-built 3D content easier in VR.
HP is also offering companies the headset as a ‘Device as a Service (DaaS)’, which includes a monthly payment package. You can sign-up hereto get notified when HP’s pro headset is available.
At Microsoft’s special Mixed Reality event today, the company announced that all of their VR headsets destined to ship this holiday season are accounted for, and are now available for pre-order including headsets from Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and the newly revealed Samsung ‘HMD Odyssey’. There’s still no word on a launch date for Asus’ futuristic low-poly headset.
Since Microsoft provided its list of OEMs the same reference design, all of the available headsets except Samsung Odyssey follow the basic specs below.
Windows VR Headsets: Basic Specs
Dual displays at 1440 x 1440 per eye
2.89” diagonal display size (x2)
Front hinged display
95 degrees horizontal field of view
Display refresh rate up to 90Hz (native)
Built-in audio out and microphone support through 3.5mm jack
Single cable with HDMI 2.0 (display) and USB 3.0 (data) for connectivity
Inside-out tracking
4.00m cable
Samsung HMD Odyssey
Leading the pack is Samsung’s HMD Odyssey, featuring a higher comparative resolution with its 2880 x 1600 OLED, pushing a 90Hz refresh and up to 110 degree field of view. Integrated audio and integrated dual mic array clearly put this ahead of its Windows “Mixed Reality” cousins, but it also comes at the price tag of $500 (with motion controllers), the same as an Oculus Rift.
The Samsung HMD Odyssey will be available later this year in the US, China, Korea, Brazil and Hong Kong, with pre-orders beginning in the US only on October 3rd. US launch is slated for November 6th.
At the lowest price tier for $400 (with controllers) is Acer’s retro-styled headset. Like all headsets in Microsoft’s lineup, it features a halo-style head strap and a flip-up design, although it uses less expensive materials in its construction, making it seem a little more plasticy than the others while offering the same basic functionality. Shipping October 17th.
Smooth and futuristic, Dell’s Visor falls in line with some premium styling that will set you back $450 (with controllers). A rubberized texture gives the headset good grip without collecting finger prints, and was supposedly weighted in strategic spots to be more comfortable for longer play sessions. Shipping October 17th.
HP’s headset is more business than play in styling, with its facial interface featuring cutouts for eye glasses to go along with its sober grey scale tones. HP matches Dell in pricing at $450 (with controllers). Shipping October 17th.
Another headset that looks like it means business is the Lenovo Explorer. With styling that looks at home with Lenovo’s line of ThinkPads, the headset sits at the lowest price tier of $400, of course offering all the same functionality. Shipping October 17th.
Here’s a visual tour of some of the first VR headsets to be shown adopting Microsoft’s new Windows Holographic platform. At CES Acer, 3Glasses, Dell, HP and Lenovo are all showing VR headsets due for 2017, this is what they’ll look like.
Microsoft’s Windows Holographic is the company’s immersive initiative built on foundations begun with their first foray into the augmented reality world with their HoloLens visor. At the time of HoloLens’ launch, Microsoft announced that Windows Holographic would be a unified platform for immersive devices, built into every copy of Windows 10. Therefore, any manufacturer looking to enter the VR or AR space could design and build that hardware atop Windows Holographic, knowing the APIs used would be universally available to Windows users.
The initial lineup for Windows Holographic hardware was announced in December of last year, with Microsoft OEM stalwarts Asus, Acer, Dell, HP, and Lenovo all signing on to produce VR hardware for the platform. Chinese VR headset maker 3Glasses also joined the group, and will support the Windows mixed reality environment on their S1 VR headset in the first half of 2017.
We already took a sneak peek at Lenovo’s device at CES this week and despite the device being non functional, the flip-up face interface and PSVR-like head harness impressed. Now, Windows Central has taken a closer look at the devices from other partners, and while there are some design ethos differences, that flip-up functionality and head harness design we liked so much seems to be standard across all. Here’s a quick visual tour of each, thanks to Windows Central. Note how all seem to include front-facing, dual camera sensors presumably integrated for use with inside out tracking, as has been confirmed for Lenovo’s headset.
Acer
Dell
3Glasses
HP
In terms of specifications for these new headsets, all we know at present is that they’ll be able to “scale across mainstream Intel architecture platforms natively on [Intel’s CPU-integrated] HD Graphics,” by the end of 2017. But as we’ve noted before, that it’s unlikely this will allow the creation of high fidelity VR experiences the likes of which seen on other PC VR platforms like Oculus’ Rift and HTC’s Vive.
In terms of headset resolution, we know Lenovo’s will pack dual 1440 x 1440 pixel panels but if the tracking and headset form factors may be similar across the headsets pictured above, there’s no guarantee display tech will be too. In fact, given the likely price disparity between the cheapest (said to be close to $300), different headset may opt for more premium specifications.
Road to VR are at CES throughout the show, and we’ll be doing our best to shed some light on these questions.
Today at the Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Engineering Community event in Shenzhen, China, the company announced that VR/AR (mixed reality) headsets from top manufacturers are due to hit the market in 2017. What’s more, they’ll run on integrated Intel graphics without the need for a dedicated GPU.
There’s no word on what specifications these new headsets will bring to the table, but Microsoft has said they will be equipped with inside-out positional tracking (which doesn’t require external sensors like we see with the Rift and Vive today).
These headsets are being designed to work with the forthcoming Windows 10 Creator Update, which is slated to hit users for free this Spring. The headsets will be able to natively tap into the ‘Windows Holographic’ environment, and run more than 20,000 flat Windows apps, which may also be designed to extend into the virtual environment.
Microsoft and Intel have partnered on a platform specification for these headsets such that they’ll be able to “scale across mainstream Intel architecture platforms natively on [Intel’s CPU-integrated] HD Graphics,” by the end of 2017. That means no need for a high-end dedicated GPU as is required for the current generation of PC-based VR headsets. We noted last month that the apparent Windows Holographic minimum spec was surprisingly low. With more than 400 million Windows 10 users, this push could bring VR to a massive audience.
Now, there’s no telling if the headsets running on Intel’s integrated graphics will be able to power the sort of high-end gaming experiences we see today with PC-based VR headsets. It may be that the companies are lowering the quality bar somewhat in an effort to support a basic VR/AR experience across a wider range of PCs with applications that aren’t as graphically demanding. That said, what the companies have shown off so far is very impressive for integrated graphics. Microsoft claimed that the experience shown below is running on a tiny Intel NUC PC with integrated graphics at 90 FPS:
Only time will tell what level of VR/AR/MR we can expect from integrated graphics and Windows Holographic. It’s likely that a high-end GPU will always be able to push the graphical bar for such experiences much higher, just as has always been the case for PC graphics, but even access to a basic VR experience for a much broader group of users would be a great thing for the growing space.
