SIF: Pico Neo and HP Reverb hands on

At Sandbox Immersive Festival, I have been able to try some interesting VR storytelling experiences. But it is interesting to talk about not only the experiences, but also the devices through which I have enjoyed them.

Yesterday, for the first time I have been able to try two headsets: the Pico Neo and the HP Reverb. I have had only a limited time with them inside which I have only watched 360 videos and so I haven’t even been able to use the controllers… but I think that my time with them was enough to give you my first impressions.

Are you interested? Then, let’s start.

Pico Neo

The Pico Neo has probably been the first full 6 DOF standalone headset. From the reviews that I read when it came out, I know that it may have some little problems with the controllers tracking due to the only one ultrasound sensor installed on the headset, but as I said, I had no controllers, so I can’t tell.

From what I have tried, I have to say that I’m not impressed by this device.

The shape is fine and personally, I found the choice of the external material of the headset interesting: the plastic that you see is covered with a rubber layer that gives a velvet sensation when you touch it with your hands. That’s a quite original choice.

The device features two tracking cameras for positional tracking and one ultrasound sensor for the tracking of two 6 DOF controllers. On the lower part of the headset, there is a button to turn it on, off or put it in sleep mode (I found the possibility of putting it in sleep mode manually interesting). On the top of the halo that makes your headset fit your head, there are various buttons: two to change the volume level, and three to navigate all the menus even if you don’t have the controller (home/confirm/back). The idea of having all the buttons of one controller on your headband is really good, because it means that you can use it to watch 360 videos and such even without controllers, and this is fantastic for exhibitions. The drawback is that understanding exactly what little button you’re using while the headset is on your head, just by sensing them with your fingers, is not always easy.

The worst thing about the Neo is comfort. The Pico Neo is for my head the least comfortable VR headset: it is even worse than the Lenovo Mirage Solo in this. There is not a knob or straps to regulate the headband, but a strange mechanism that basically makes you use directly your hands to pull the two rear parts apart to enlarge the device and push them closer to make it tighter. It sounds more natural than using a knob, but actually, it is not. And whatever I tried to make it stay on my head, I always felt it uncomfortable, so in the end, I surrendered. Regarding hardware IPD setting, it lacks as well. Ergonomics are very important in VR, and the Neo is lacking them.

Regarding the visuals, the Neo uses a 2880×1600 LCD display. The resolution is quite good (the same of Quest and Focus+), and the fill factor is great (you know, LCD are better than OLED), so thanks to the low SDE, it is a good device to watch VR videos. The visual sweet spot was nice, even if looking at the edges of the lenses I was able to spot some chromatic and spherical aberrations. Official FOV is 101°, more or less in line with its companion standalone headsets. But I found the colors of the display really washed out, and this was a bit a problem to me.

The original Neo is quite an old device now, so it is probably obvious that I came not impressed by trying it.

HP Reverb

I was curious of trying the HP Reverb since when I read about it on Road To VR (it was still codenamed as “Copper” at that time). So, when I had the opportunity of trying it, even only for watching a 360 video in Chinese for 10 minutes, I immediately caught it.

For what I can tell, the Reverb is like an improved Rift CV1. HP has a bit copied that design of the Rift CV1, but the device feels more little and light. It is all covered in fabric, and this gives to it an elegant touch that lets you perceive it as a piece of clothing that you wear on your head. I liked its design: there is nothing original (the shape is similar to Rift, the clothing idea comes from Daydream), but it is very pleasant.

The comfort was also very nice: I was able to fit it pretty fast through the three straps (two on the sides and one on the top) and I found the sweet spot in my head. Being very light and soft, I felt it pretty well on my head.

There is no flip-up display, but the headset can be rotated a bit upwards, and this is good because it not also makes the headset easier to wear, but it also lets you give a fast sneak peek of what you have below your head easily. Audio is integrated, thanks to external headphones attached to the headband.

The positional and controllers’ tracking is performed by using the two frontal cameras of the device. This a WMR inside-out tracked headset and this means that the setup is very easy and just requires the user to plug two cables in the PC. The problem of this kind of devices is always the comfort and tracking of the controllers, though, but I can tell you since I have not tried them.

What I can tell you are instead my impressions on the visuals. This device features a whopping 2K per eye resolution. I’ve tried it to watch an 8K video (Mr. Buddha) and I was “WOW”. Thanks to the fill factor of LED displays and the 2*2K resolution, I can tell you that the screen door effect is almost inexistent. You can see the pixels only if you really try to focus on them and only if the area that you are looking at has bright colors (e.g. white). For the rest, the SDE remains like a “slight perception”. Your brain can identify that something is wrong with your visuals, sometimes you can see like a grid that is moving with your face… but you can’t really identify that grid like with other headsets. I was impressed: with an 8K video and this headset, the video felt real. This could be great for por…cough cough I mean, for 360 educational experiences in VR.

LED is great for fill factor, but it also means that the colors are not bright. I have to say that I was not impressed by display colors, but in the video that I saw, they didn’t appear completely washed out either. It seemed a reasonable compromise. But I was able to spot the same problem of my review hero Ben Lang of Road To VR: red smear. It is quite a weird issue of this headset: if you move your head left to right pretty fast, you can see like a red trail originating from the black elements in the scene. I have never had this same issue with other headsets. I hope HP will be able to fix this in future software updates.

The FOV seemed in line with other devices (HP says it is around 114° diagonal). I have not noticed big visual artifacts… but Mr. Buddha was not the best video to evaluate god rays and glares (it was all dark). The lack of hardware IPD adjustment may be a problem for some people.

HP said that wanted to create an enterprise device to satisfy the companies asking for more resolution. I think that they nailed it: I was really impressed by the resolution. If they manage to fix the red smear and other little visual problems, the Reverb can be an interesting enterprise headset. It is not a super-innovative headset like the Valve Index, but it gets the job done for the most part and then it shines for its visual definition.

I hope you have enjoyed these first-impression reviews! Here the sun has risen and the first people are going to the beach… so in 2 hours I will be again at Sandbox Immersive Festival! Stay tuned to read about my new adventures here!