After a circus of a launch, the HP Reverb has finally made its way back to the shelves and into the hands of the consumers. HP says that the display issues and the stock shortages that plagued the initial released have been resolved, and that they are ready for mass shipment once again.
HP says that customers can now find the headset through their official site and through official retailers of the HP brand. Amazon is currently the only retailer to not recognize the headset as in stock yet, as it says it will be ready by the end of September. If you are looking to buy the Reverb anytime soon, it will be best to stay away from Amazon for the time being.
The company has also finally broke the silence about what the visual problems that the Reverb was facing. They said that some headset would flicker, show black and white stripes, and even go completely blank in some cases. If you are a VR enthusiast, this is a headset that was heavily avoided for the short time it was available to the public. The main cause of this problem was breakaway connector that was included with the headsets. This supposedly didn’t hold a solid connection to the headset itself at times, making it hard to maintain a solid connection.
Although that explains why some headsets would go black or show lines, some of the flickering problems were from the internal components not behaving as they should be. This shouldn’t have ever gotten past the manufacturing of the product, but it did. HP says that it wasn’t a problem with the designing, but rather with the inconsistencies that the manufacturer maintained throughout the entire shipment process. This is deflecting some of the blame while maintaining a good image with the press, as they didn’t release who it was that made the mistakes.
HP never went to the extent of recalling the impacted headsets, but they say that the impacted customers would need to call customer support for help with their problems. Customer support has been briefed on the situation and they are ready to help fix the problems at hand. As for customers who bought a headset and never experienced any problems, you can take a deep breath. The headsets that didn’t have any problems at the start aren’t expected to get any of them problems in the long run either. This is a big win for HP in what feels like it has been a year of losses.
The HP reverb looks similar to the Valve Index, and the quality of image is nearly identical. The Valve Index was supposed to be the main competitor for the HP Reverb, but the launch problems really put a pin in that debate, but it won’t stop us from having it now.
The HP Reverb is more of a business use headset, with the capabilities of gaming when needed, especially on the consumer version. The Valve Index is a headset with a great amount of gaming capabilities, and that is the main use of the headset. The Index has the ability to cross over for business, design, training, and even healthcare like the Reverb, but it is dependent on the user. It is like comparing apples to oranges, and if the Index is the apples, they are going to win every time.
It is good to see that the HP Reverb has made its way back onto the shelves, but it is hard too see where this headset will fit in with the market right now. Its not any better than the Oculus Rift S, but is much more expensive. It is lightyears behind the Valve Index, but it is closest to that in price. Hopefully the HP community can band together to make this headset a top seller.
