Told you… It’s on its way to Norway. 
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It turns out that Interpol intercepted @Troll’s amateurish attempt at hijacking my Reverb Pro, and it finally arrived quite unceremoniously on our doorstep last night. The Ring doorbell cam was in some sort of Wi-Fi ambiguity, so the only notification I received was my wife yelling down the stairs, “Did you get that package that FedEx tossed on the porch a while ago?”
“What package?”, I asked.
“I don’t know. A big box they threw at the front door.”
Leaping to my feet, I ran to the door, only to trip over the box that my wife failed to mention she had brought in. Checking the Ring app for possible evidence that the driver had obviously treated my almost $750 (with sales tax) object of techno-affection with utter disregard, I was greeted by a 2 minute recording of black screen. Then Claudia reminded me that before I tear into whatever was in the box (she really shouldn’t bother herself with expensive manly man toys), the kids needed their homework checked, feeding, and perhaps a bedtime story. Yeah, so much for being a man.
OK, so the two four hours of setup, flight simming, and two four pint review. What was meant to be a quick report after my first night’s experience turned into two.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
- While not quite at Oculus CV1 level, HP did a did a decent job of packaging.
- Sets up easily enough using the Mixed Reality Portal device wizard for connecting the controllers.
- I do not see the advantage of using the Odyssey + controllers, other than not having to setup a second set. For me the Reverb controllers are not as sculptured, but are thinner and easier to manipulate. So a toss-up IMHO.
- While the headset is light and comfortable, that dinosaur tail cable is annoying. Thinking about a way to make it more manageable. Mine is the improved version with clip.
- Build quality seems very good. Light but sturdy. Of course this is only after four hours of flying.
- I miss the volume control on the bottom of the O+. The Reverb 2.0 needs something similar.
While I’m at it, the omission of a mic seems short-sighted, especially in this price class.Edit: it has two microphones. - I have a measured IPD of 68 and didn’t have an issue the lack of a mechanical adjustment. I’m not saying that this will work for everyone, but in my case it wasn’t missed.
BUT HOW DOES IT FLY?
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Simply put, the class leading resolution makes you smile the first time you experience it. Everything looks better, menus, cockpits, and the world outside. Even before loading your favorite sim, the improved image quality is very apparent in the MR cliff house. Objects and textures are smoother and sharper, enough so that I felt like doing some exploring before stampeding off to IL-2 GB. It’s like getting a new prescription from your optometrist, whom you’ve procrastinated visiting for 10 years.
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On to Great Battles. I really wanted to try a furball in IL2 GB, because I’ve yet to feel confident in VR without labels on. Sure, when you saddle up for a kill at a few hundred meters its no problem. But it’s pretty frustrating to spend half your time chasing friendlies. With the Reverb I can leave labels off and get near real world recognition. As a test I loaded Jade Monkey’s Battle of Britain Revival mission, which has you flying a 109 G2 escorting an HE111 gaggle against Spit VB interceptors. The G2 and VB are fairly evenly matched IMO, and will force you to fly the ME to its strengths, working the vertical to maintain any advantage. The Spit shape is easily identifiable at normal range. At last I can concentrate more on air combat than recognition. With the Reverb it is huge satisfying fun.
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Next up DCSW. With our relocation to South Carolina, my sim rig was packed up for nearly a month. Being that navops are a perishable skill, I had a desire to get comfortable in the Charlie around the boat again. The first thing that I noticed is how sharp the DCS main menu was. Then the DCS Hornet cockpit was almost like it’s had a makeover. Of particular note is how crisp the HUD and displays are. The AMPCD is completely usable without leaning in. I wanted to try some CAS to get a feel for how ground objects, but instead knew that regaining my sea legs again was more important. To that end I did 8 x CASE I traps and launches. It was pretty ugly, but I did avoid a ramp strike or swim. I found myself using the IFLOS without zooming and likewise, recoveries are a bit less of an event.
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I made half-hearted attempts at XP11 and P3Dv4, but failed miserably. I probably need to tweak either sim graphic or SteamVR settings. I’m not really current on the best way to setup either, so will try this over the weekend.
More as I get time under the hood.
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Thanks for the report!
What are your rig’s specs again?
Ok… I updated my Christmas list for this winter- I want 10k Euros. 
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Awesome report. Your reaction to the initial Cliff House resolution and clarity was the same as mine. It is the first headset where I can actually use a Virtual Desktop and do it without feeling I’m struggling to see things.
Re X-Plane. Be sure to move your graphics slider out of HDR. That makes all the difference.
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Love the description of the cable as a dinosaur tail. I’ve also heard it referred to as an I-beam cable… The weight of it definitely has me concerned about the connection to my graphics cards ports. I’d love a little pigtail or something that I could clamp off. I could just secure the cable 12 inches or so from the port, but I’m trying to keep my Reverb mobile. Maybe a spring clip or something easily removable would be a good solution. Of course as a seated gamer/simmer, I’m not too worried about reaching the end of the slack in the cable…so it may not really be an issue. I am curious of what the technical requirement for such a beefy cable is.
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Thanks Aginor. This is probably the easiest way to answer this. Please ignore the juvenile display of GPU bravado.
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Yes! I felt exactly the same way 
Yeah, the cable design is not exactly excellent…
I solved the issue in this way:
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That is excellent, since my main gripe is that no matter where you begin with the cord monster, it eventually finds it’s way going down your left shoulder.
So wait, there is no built in microphone? I never realized that.
It’s supposed to have two mikes, AFAIK… 
I was looking at the HP quickspecs which only list the input jack, but the data sheet does list two mics. Will edit my previous statement.
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I would have been all, “Once upon a time, a clever wizard granted the handsome prince the gift of virtual sight. A brave delivery knight brought the gift to the prince’s castle in a big white box. Shall we help the handsome prince open the box? Yeah! Let’s do it.” 
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The Reverb is now finally widely available in Switzerland too. I just ordered one for CHF 600 (~USD 600), which I think is pretty reasonable for our usual pricing level. I should get it be the end of the week hopefully.
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Out of curiosity I just checked localy and it is cca 580 EUR for the Pro version here.
So I agree with ‘pretty reasonable for our usual pricing level’. 
But for me it would be plus another 1000 EUR to change my PC into ‘VR ready’ machine
Where ‘here’? I was seeing around 650 eur when I was purchasing mine (from Belgium in the end) but those prices were without VAT (!).
So yes, whatever around 600 eur with the VAT is actually a great price tag.
I mean Slovakia. I checked here :
Ok, to teda koukam
Doporucuju se ujistit, ze je to novy model.
Break break.
Price looks correct to me. Hopefully it is the 2nd gen headset.
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Kukol som to len zo zvedavosti. Zatial VR neplanujem