HP Reverb G2 Virtual Reality Headset $449

PaulG

Jun 30, 2021 10:37 PM

581 Comments

Joined Oct 2006

PaulGJun 30, 2021 10:37 PM

581 Comments

Quote from swiftwind

:

Sold by HP, returnable to Walmart stores.
Ships with an HP VR Headset, 6m headset cable for desktop and mobile PC's, 2 motion controllers, 1 DisplayPort to mini-DisplayPort™ adapter, USB-C to A adaptor, 1 Power Adapter. Setup document.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Reve.../413944813

599.99 --> 399.99 --> 499.99 --> 599 --> 449.99

Back when I used to actually use ebay, that was me with my listings. My pricing was all over the place. My spirit lives on in HP.

1

sysadmin

Jul 6, 2021 7:34 PM

210 Comments

Joined Mar 2013

sysadminJul 6, 2021 7:34 PM

210 Comments

I ended up ordering since I missed the previous sale and I'll be using valve index controllers. Now i just need to order the prescription lenses from https://vroptician.com/prescripti...everb-g2/#

Thanks op!

TequilaEarthrise

Jul 6, 2021 8:35 PM

165 Comments

Joined Nov 2019

TequilaEarthriseJul 6, 2021 8:35 PM

165 Comments

Was lucky enough to get mine direct from HP ahead of most people who had pre-ordered through Connection. Despite the constant stream of complaints on Reddit and even the bad reviews on Walmart and others, I have had a lot of success with it and really love the thing. That said, I'll start with the bad things:

1) The cables are FRAGILE. Do not, under any circumstance, get in the habit of plugging and unplugging the cable into the headset itself. If you need to unplug, do it at the PC or plug. I am willing to bet that the vast majority of complaints of failed headsets, dropouts and other problems stem from the cables being plugged in and unplugged constantly. If you need to transport it, unplug from the PC and coil the cable LOOSELY around the headset. I know this sounds like a huge negative, in practice it really isn't. If you desperately need to transport the headset all the time, I would look elsewhere.

Separately, I would add that the cables are rather unwieldy if you intend to use the VR in a standing/moving position. You're definitely going to want some sort of cable management. If you're in a seated position (racing or flight sims), it won't be a big deal but just prepare to have a lot of excess. They do make a 1 meter cable, but I have never seen it in stock.

2) The sweet spot and field of view is, indeed, small. That said, the resolution and clarity within the sweet spot more than makes up for it. The manual VR IPD slider is easy to knock out of place if you happen to be adjusting the headset, once you find your sweet spot, a small bit of gaffer tape would be wise. All that said, I would argue that most people with sweet spot issues with the G2 are not actually wearing the headset properly. Which brings me to:

3) Wearing the thing. For the love of all things sacred, do not put this headset on like you are putting on a baseball cap, pulling it down over your head by the headset itself. If you do, at best, you're going to end up with the lenses askew and wonder why the clarity sucks. At worst, you're going to break it. Seat the front of the headset on your face first like you would wearing scuba goggles, pull the back down after and tighten. Some people find that this headset is a little front-heavy and rig up a counter weight strapped to the back, that has not been my experience but I also wear it fairly tight because it is the most comfortable VR headset I've ever worn and you can wear it tighter because of it.

4) Sound: One of the *other* biggest complaints about this headset is that the sound from the speakers is either too quiet, even at max volume, or imbalanced/drops out. Every single one of these issues is because the user failed to tighten the screws connecting the speakers to the headset, I guarantee it. My G2 arrived with the speakers very loosely installed and because of it, I had audio drop outs on the right channel and the right sounded far more quiet. Tightened it all up using a small jewelers screw driver, no issues since. The speakers are really great to be honest, though I would recommend going into your Windows settings and enable bass boost for the G2 audio output. It really does help fill out the sound in your head.

The sweet spot for the speakers is actually quite small as well, but they're super easy to adjust on the fly and they can get LOUD without distortion. I run them at like 50% and even that is pretty loud.

5) This isn't really a negative, and it is totally optional, but I would very highly recommend plugging this headset into either a smart plug or a plug you can easily access and/or switch off when not in use. This headset can get warm and you really do not want to have it powered on all the time your PC is on. If you only use the PC when you're in VR, it doesn't matter, but being able to shut it down at the source without needing to unplug from the headset itself is incredibly useful. A smart plug works wonders for this. Tell the voice in the wall to turn VR off, VR goes off, done. No messing with the fragile cables or breakout box, easy. The headset does go to sleep and the newest Windows update has new sleep settings for it, but sleep can be a bit quirky and I'd rather not need to keep changing my audio out settings for when I am not using VR but am using my PC (all the time).

Now that I've sufficiently scared you off, let's go to the good:

1) It is easily the most comfortable VR headset on the market today. By a mile. Nothing comes close. The pad, which is not replaceable on the stock gasket, is insanely comfortable and allows you to really pull tight during high motion stuff.

2) The resolution, colors, clarity and lack of screen door effect are unbeatable at this price. The small sweet spot will turn a lot of people off if their IPD doesn't work, but it is outstanding. The does of course mean it is tougher to power than quite a few other VR headsets on the market, but that is a tradeoff you know you're making going in. Make sure your GPU and CPU can handle it.

3) The controllers. A number of complaints about the G2 is the controllers, and they are definitely not the best in show, but I find them to be very intuitive and have never had any tracking issues that some people complain about. I really do believe that people having tracking issues with either the controllers or headset are just not setting up their environment all that well. Bringing me to:

4) Tracking. Headset tracking has been amazing. A vast majority of my G2 usage is flight and racing sims, fairly late at night so my office is completely dark except for my monitors being on and the monitors by themselves are more than enough light for perfect tracking. Again, setting up your environment is important. That said, I also run this without boundaries for flight sims and again, no trouble at all. Low light tracking is amazing.

5) WMR. I know a lot of people aren't fond of needing to use WMR, but I find it to be incredibly intuitive, it works instantly and perfectly every time the headset is powered on and it is just incredibly convenient to use. The downside is if you only use Steam, in which case you do need to use both WMR and Steam (Steam has an applet for WMR) together. It kinda sucks, but I also rarely use Steam these days.

6) Sound. Coming back from my comments above, the sound coming from these speakers is second to none in terms of VR headsets. I actually tested removing the speakers and using very high quality professional monitoring headphones over the headset using my desk DAC/Amp and the speakers were just as good. They're a little light on bass, but again, bass boost in Windows sound settings is your friend and I'm not a bass head anyway. That said, the headset itself is so comfortable and slim around the sides you can easily remove the speakers and wear headphones if you want more sound isolation.

=========

I know that was a tl;dr post if ever there was, but I think it is important to clarify some of the stuff you commonly see online about this headset. I would very highly recommend it, I think at this price point you cannot do better. Yes, there are lemons out there like with any electronics piece, but now that availability is more common, returns and exchanges should be very easy. I think a lot of the complaints you see are from people who preordered through Connection that really got screwed, waiting forever and then getting early run models with the early cable/breakout box (since updated). I bought mine early in January direct from HP and had it arrive at my house literally the next day, have used it constantly since with zero issues.

As long as you are careful with the cable, don't plug and unplug from the headset constantly and aren't just banging the headset around all the time, you should be in good shape. I store mine in my old padded flying helmet bag hanging under my desk with the cable coiled loosely around it and leave it plugged into a smart plug to power it off.

tl;dr summary - Highly recommend, just don't be an idiot with it.

1

dirtyvu

Aug 12, 2021 7:27 PM

1.5K Comments

Joined Jun 2009

dirtyvuAug 12, 2021 7:27 PM

1.5K Comments

Quote from TequilaEarthrise

:

Was lucky enough to get mine direct from HP ahead of most people who had pre-ordered through Connection. Despite the constant stream of complaints on Reddit and even the bad reviews on Walmart and others, I have had a lot of success with it and really love the thing. That said, I'll start with the bad things:

1) The cables are FRAGILE. Do not, under any circumstance, get in the habit of plugging and unplugging the cable into the headset itself. If you need to unplug, do it at the PC or plug. I am willing to bet that the vast majority of complaints of failed headsets, dropouts and other problems stem from the cables being plugged in and unplugged constantly. If you need to transport it, unplug from the PC and coil the cable LOOSELY around the headset. I know this sounds like a huge negative, in practice it really isn't. If you desperately need to transport the headset all the time, I would look elsewhere.

Separately, I would add that the cables are rather unwieldy if you intend to use the VR in a standing/moving position. You're definitely going to want some sort of cable management. If you're in a seated position (racing or flight sims), it won't be a big deal but just prepare to have a lot of excess. They do make a 1 meter cable, but I have never seen it in stock.

2) The sweet spot and field of view is, indeed, small. That said, the resolution and clarity within the sweet spot more than makes up for it. The manual VR IPD slider is easy to knock out of place if you happen to be adjusting the headset, once you find your sweet spot, a small bit of gaffer tape would be wise. All that said, I would argue that most people with sweet spot issues with the G2 are not actually wearing the headset properly. Which brings me to:

3) Wearing the thing. For the love of all things sacred, do not put this headset on like you are putting on a baseball cap, pulling it down over your head by the headset itself. If you do, at best, you're going to end up with the lenses askew and wonder why the clarity sucks. At worst, you're going to break it. Seat the front of the headset on your face first like you would wearing scuba goggles, pull the back down after and tighten. Some people find that this headset is a little front-heavy and rig up a counter weight strapped to the back, that has not been my experience but I also wear it fairly tight because it is the most comfortable VR headset I've ever worn and you can wear it tighter because of it.

4) Sound: One of the *other* biggest complaints about this headset is that the sound from the speakers is either too quiet, even at max volume, or imbalanced/drops out. Every single one of these issues is because the user failed to tighten the screws connecting the speakers to the headset, I guarantee it. My G2 arrived with the speakers very loosely installed and because of it, I had audio drop outs on the right channel and the right sounded far more quiet. Tightened it all up using a small jewelers screw driver, no issues since. The speakers are really great to be honest, though I would recommend going into your Windows settings and enable bass boost for the G2 audio output. It really does help fill out the sound in your head.

The sweet spot for the speakers is actually quite small as well, but they're super easy to adjust on the fly and they can get LOUD without distortion. I run them at like 50% and even that is pretty loud.

5) This isn't really a negative, and it is totally optional, but I would very highly recommend plugging this headset into either a smart plug or a plug you can easily access and/or switch off when not in use. This headset can get warm and you really do not want to have it powered on all the time your PC is on. If you only use the PC when you're in VR, it doesn't matter, but being able to shut it down at the source without needing to unplug from the headset itself is incredibly useful. A smart plug works wonders for this. Tell the voice in the wall to turn VR off, VR goes off, done. No messing with the fragile cables or breakout box, easy. The headset does go to sleep and the newest Windows update has new sleep settings for it, but sleep can be a bit quirky and I'd rather not need to keep changing my audio out settings for when I am not using VR but am using my PC (all the time).

Now that I've sufficiently scared you off, let's go to the good:

1) It is easily the most comfortable VR headset on the market today. By a mile. Nothing comes close. The pad, which is not replaceable on the stock gasket, is insanely comfortable and allows you to really pull tight during high motion stuff.

2) The resolution, colors, clarity and lack of screen door effect are unbeatable at this price. The small sweet spot will turn a lot of people off if their IPD doesn't work, but it is outstanding. The does of course mean it is tougher to power than quite a few other VR headsets on the market, but that is a tradeoff you know you're making going in. Make sure your GPU and CPU can handle it.

3) The controllers. A number of complaints about the G2 is the controllers, and they are definitely not the best in show, but I find them to be very intuitive and have never had any tracking issues that some people complain about. I really do believe that people having tracking issues with either the controllers or headset are just not setting up their environment all that well. Bringing me to:

4) Tracking. Headset tracking has been amazing. A vast majority of my G2 usage is flight and racing sims, fairly late at night so my office is completely dark except for my monitors being on and the monitors by themselves are more than enough light for perfect tracking. Again, setting up your environment is important. That said, I also run this without boundaries for flight sims and again, no trouble at all. Low light tracking is amazing.

5) WMR. I know a lot of people aren't fond of needing to use WMR, but I find it to be incredibly intuitive, it works instantly and perfectly every time the headset is powered on and it is just incredibly convenient to use. The downside is if you only use Steam, in which case you do need to use both WMR and Steam (Steam has an applet for WMR) together. It kinda sucks, but I also rarely use Steam these days.

6) Sound. Coming back from my comments above, the sound coming from these speakers is second to none in terms of VR headsets. I actually tested removing the speakers and using very high quality professional monitoring headphones over the headset using my desk DAC/Amp and the speakers were just as good. They're a little light on bass, but again, bass boost in Windows sound settings is your friend and I'm not a bass head anyway. That said, the headset itself is so comfortable and slim around the sides you can easily remove the speakers and wear headphones if you want more sound isolation.

=========

I know that was a tl;dr post if ever there was, but I think it is important to clarify some of the stuff you commonly see online about this headset. I would very highly recommend it, I think at this price point you cannot do better. Yes, there are lemons out there like with any electronics piece, but now that availability is more common, returns and exchanges should be very easy. I think a lot of the complaints you see are from people who preordered through Connection that really got screwed, waiting forever and then getting early run models with the early cable/breakout box (since updated). I bought mine early in January direct from HP and had it arrive at my house literally the next day, have used it constantly since with zero issues.

As long as you are careful with the cable, don't plug and unplug from the headset constantly and aren't just banging the headset around all the time, you should be in good shape. I store mine in my old padded flying helmet bag hanging under my desk with the cable coiled loosely around it and leave it plugged into a smart plug to power it off.

tl;dr summary - Highly recommend, just don't be an idiot with it.

thanks for the tips. I own the Samsung Odyssey and the Samsung Odyssey+ and love them but the new features sound enticing. In any case, if the HP fails me, I can fall back to the Samsung ones.

HP Reverb G2 Virtual Reality Headset $449

$449

$599

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