HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset VR1000-100nn – Black-Jet Black

Having had an Oculus Rift for a year I sold it a while back as it had a couple of things I didn't like, mainly, "God Rays" (when you have a dark background a light object/text creates a star effect on the lenses) and Dark screen/screen door effect which made most things look like you’re constantly wearing sunglasses with a grid pattern.So I pulled the trigger on one of these last week and initially wasn’t that impressed with the limited windows store options and the narrower field of view and almost initiated an Amazon return. Luckily I managed to bag a SteamVR preview key (public release should be next week around the 15th). Now having played both Project Cars 2 and Elite Dangerous I can easily say the visuals are way better on the HP WMR over the Oculus Rift.Elite Dangerous, so much easier to read the HUD and overlays + almost zero god rays/bloom effect which you used to get a lot of on the Oculus seeing as pretty much 90% of the game is spent with a dark space background and everything else looked like you had bloom effect maxed out :).Project Cars 2, screen door/dark tint pretty much gone completely (still some if you look hard enough but can be ramped out with PC2’s exposure compensation options). I set up my Driving force GT wheel and plopped on the headset and WOW! It is honestly the first time I really felt like I was in a car driving around Brands Hatch. Running at 1440p with all details Antialiasing and 28 cars does start to bring in a stutter to my poor i5 with GTX970 but when I drop it down to a 10 car race or remove AA for larger opponent races all is good. I managed 2 hours of PC2 racing and never felt any nausea or eye strain (something I used to get a little with the Oculus and Project Cars 1).Controllers do feel a little cheaper construction compared to the Touch controllers but are still a decent build and I have had zero issues with tracking so far (even when only using gyro sensing when swinging out of site of the MR headset cameras).Nice and easy to swing up to glance at the keyboard or grab a controller. Love not having to have 3/4x usb ports used up and separate cameras aligned for tracking, Just 1 USB and inside out tracking means plop it on your head and off you go (used to have to adjust the Oculus sensors when switching between seated driving and standing shooting.Still in the honeymoon period but so far loving it and was a worthy upgrade. Might need a 1080ti as my next upgrade though just so I can go full mental detail.

This is an awesome VR product for the price! it's not quite as good as a HTC Vive but it comes damn close. If the vive is an 8 out of 10 product this is 7 almost 8 out of 10. I've played Elite Dangerous, Skyrim VR, Fallout 4 VR, Vanishing Realms and Sairento VR and can confirm the SteamVR library games work fine. Tracking can be a minor issue in some games when moving, ducking and grabbing quickly in some games as the vive has better tracking... but this is a minor issue and doesn't spoil game play. The fact these work without mounted sensors is a great achievement.Overall it's not a massive upgrade on the vive in terms of graphics even though the specs state the resolution is slightly higher. For anyone wanting to get into PC virtual reality this is good for the money, it has positives and negatives. Image quality is slightly improved making text easier to read and it's far easier to setup taking less than ten minutes over its HTC and Oculus rivals. It will only work with the latest Windows 10 update. The main negatives are the vive has built speakers, slightly better motion detection as mentioned before BUT comfort is far better.The main negative of this device really is the comfort aspect it doesn't adjust or feel as well fitting as the vive and having to wear a set of headphones with is not ideal. The reduced field of view over other products is only occasionally noticeable but once you're immersed in a game it's fine. With the comfort t's not going to give you head or neck ache but you'll need the odd break as the padding is no where near as good or foamy as the vive and the adjustment knob isn't that good. Another negative is the controllers don't charge off USB so expect 8-10 hours out of pack of double AA batteries until someone makes a recharge dock/battery pack. You could just buy your own rechargeable double AAs to solve this and it's still cheaper than a vive or rift.My reason for buying was I own a vive but due to a temporary home move I don't really have the space to use the vive due to the number of cables and the base stations needing to be mounted high up with that setup. This offers a more compact less space using VR solution all done through one or two cables. Anyway with my vive packed up and wanting to play Skyrim VR and Fallout 4 VR but with less space I decided to take the plunge and buy the HP version of the Microsoft Mixed Reality product. I was sold on the fact the sensors were on the headset and it only required two cables plugged in as opposed to the vives extra cables.Functionally it works just as well as the vive, the image quality is slightly better and room scale VR works well but the negatives being comfort, batteries and one or two tracking issues but very rare.Positives:Uses less space than other vr products due to not needing sensorsSlightly better graphics until the vive pro is released... then this will be a budget productCheaper already!Easy to setup (does need Windows 10 Creators though)Supports pretty much any VR game and SteamVR titlesNegatives:Battery powered controllersComfort/adjustment not as good as other products on marketNo built in headphonesBuild quality is slightly worse but your not going to break it by dropping itBLOODY CORTANA :-D

A great product with a fatal flaw. No papillary distance adjustment is possible. The AR possibility is also evolving, and this headset is compatible with steam VR apps and games. The compatibility, resolution, weight, and controls are on par with oculus or vive (with adjustable PDs) but since I don't have the average PD distance, it only gives me a headache and almost all of the field of view is out of focus causing me much eye strain. The software adjustment does nothing to help. Useless product for me. If your eye distance is perfect for the product (hard to be, since children and adult PDs vary greatly) then this product would probably be 5 stars for you. Due to this oversight, they killed their own product and lost market share. I am surprised a large company can make such a basic mistake.