Virtual reality as we know it is now five years old: Oculus and HTC have been selling VR headsets to the general public since the spring of 2016, after which more and more manufacturers have plunged into the same market.
That also applies to HP, which introduced its HP Reverb glasses in 2019. With a resolution of 2160 by 2160 per eye, it was one of the first 4K VR glasses, a trend continued with the new Reverb G2.
No screen door
It shows: HP let us use the glasses to attend a virtual press conference of the company, where almost everything in the area was razor-sharp. With the Reverb G2, there is almost no longer any question of that weird ‘screen door’ on top of the image, which shows you the edges between pixels.
The fit of the G2 has been improved, with special fabric pads to make it more comfortable than its predecessor. It also feels a lot lighter, so we hardly felt any pressure on the face even during longer play sessions. It may be the most comfortable headset we’ve used to date.
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Floating speakers
Instead of headphones, the glasses have two small speakers that float just above your ears. As a result, you do not feel that your ears are covered and sound really seems to come from your environment.
An audio system that is already on the Valve Index. In fact, the Reverb G2 is surprisingly similar to Valves competitor: the fit is also the same and both glasses only work with a PC. But the Reverb G2, with its price tag of 699 euros, is a lot cheaper than the more than a thousand euros costing Index. In addition, the G2 works with camera tracking in the glasses themselves, while an Index requires you to hang sensors in your house.
But…
Actually, there is little to criticize with the Reverb G2: it is featherlight, comfortable and has one of the sharpest screens you can find in VR glasses. But we still think that almost no one will buy these glasses, simply for one reason: the somewhat high price.
With a price tag of 699 euros, the Reverb G2 is cheaper than the Valve Index and comparable to the Vive Cosmos, but competitor Facebook has completely disrupted the market. The Oculus Quest 2 costs only 350 euros and with a resolution of 1832 by 1920, it does not differ that much from HP’s glasses.
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Conclusion
In addition to purchasing the glasses, the HP Reverb G2 also requires that you have a good PC at home. For our test, HP sent a gaming laptop and accompanying docking station to connect all properly. The combined price for this gaming package: more than 2,000 euros. Then you have the best experience that virtual reality can offer, but Facebook’s competitor only requires the glasses and can optionally connect to a PC.
Is the experience at HP so much better that you have to pay almost six times as much for it? I do not think so. It’s like a Ferrari: you can appreciate what HP is doing here, but the purchase is rarely justifiable.
That doesn’t immediately make the Reverb G2 a useless device. If you already have a hefty gaming PC at home, then the higher price of these glasses is justifiable. In addition, there are plenty of people who do not want to buy products from Facebook on principle, for whom the lower price of the Quest 2 therefore plays no role. But that group of people is a small niche, while Facebook wants to make VR a mainstream product.
The Reverb G2 will surely find its audience, but don’t expect these glasses to change the world.
Bastiaan Vroegop, editor Bright
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