Lenovo G0A20001WW Explorer Mixed Reality Headset

Until the Mixed Reality headsets came out, the only options you really had were buying a $400 Oculus or $600 Vive, and they essentially held a duopoly on the market, refusing to reduce pricing. Thanks to the magic of the free market, the mixed reality headsets have quickly become an affordable entry-level headset as the prices have begun hitting $200 on Amazon (1/2 the price of Oculus, 1/3 the price of a Vive). For a fraction of the price, you'll be receiving the bulk of the "virtual reality experience" The Lenovo headset specifically is the best Mixed Reality offering available, besides the much more expensive Odyssey. It offers 110 degree field of vision, whereas the other headsets are just at 100. The Oculus and Rift offer 120 and 145 respectively. I believe all the Mixed Reality headsets besides the Odyssey offer 2880x1440 resolution (better than the Vive and tied with Oculus) with 90hz refresh rate. While comfort is a personal metric, I find this headset to have a very comfortable fit to it. Another reason I chose this headset is that people reported that it works great for people with glasses, and I can confirm that they do. In summary, you get a resolution on par or better than the industry leaders and you compromise on your fov with this headset for a fraction of the cost, and for what it's worth, I've had no trouble with 110 fov. It's pretty negligible The real compromise of this headset isn't the fov at all really, it's the tracking. The Mixed Reality headsets use two internal cameras to track your controllers and the results are functional but leave a lot to be desired. If you raise your hands above your head, it'll lose track. If you drop your hands all the way to the ground, it *can* lose track. If you throw your hands behind your body, it'll lose track. When you use this headset in practice, you'll observe that it calculates the trajectory of your movements and do a good job of guessing where you threw your hands. You can swing your hands behind your body in fluid motions and it'll figure it out, but you have to move them back in front of the cameras or your hands will wonk out on you until you do return them. In essence, there's a bit of an art to moving your arms fluidly that you'll want to learn but on the whole, it is functional.This is the real compromise of the headset, and it's up to you if you're willing to spend a lot more money on headsets that don't have this issue. There is an upside to this flaw. Because the tracking is all done internally, this headset is very easy to setup. You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on "lightposts" either, sensors that you place around your room to externally track your movements.You also don't need 4 4.0 USB ports to manage your headset alongside a massive amount of batteries to power the whole operation. You just plug the Lenovo into your hdmi and USB, and you're good to go in basically 10 minutes of installation. The controllers themselves use 2 AA batteries, so 4 between the both of them, and you may want to invest in rechargeable batteries if you intend to use this a lot as it'll save you money in the long run. I went with EBL 8 Bay AA AAA Battery Charger with AA 2800mAh (4 Pack) and AAA 1100mAh (4 Pack) Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries for a battery charger and purchased 8 additional batteries EBL 8 Pack High Capacity 2800mAh AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries, Battery Case Included which brought me up to 12 rechargeable alongside the 4 AA that come with the charger station. It's a totally optional move, but I digress. The quick plug and play functionality of this headset also makes the Mixed Reality headsets far more portable. Finally, Grab Steam VR for Mixed Reality to play Steam VR games, many of which are free. That just about covers everything. The head movement is very fluid all around and the bulk of your hand movements are going to be in front of you where the tracking is great, and the whole thing feels very fluid. The prices on Amazon seem to fluctuate pretty dramatically so you should know that they've hit $200. The Acer is supposed to also be a great option but has 100 fov instead of 110 namely. Hopefully you can grab a pair when the prices go low!

Firstly I really appreciate that this is one of the best WMR headsets in terms of field of view and resolution being as high as the much more expensive Vive range, and overall it's been a really good experience. Although perhaps worth mentioning that you need to have Windows 10 Home or Pro for it to work properly - I had an Enterprise version and had to re-install with Home, because there is currently no support or ability to get WMR drivers installed into Enterprise. In terms of ergonomics, the padding on the inside of the headset around the nose comes a bit loose, and if you're not careful can rub against the inside of the lenses, which might smudge them, so best to always give them a wipe with a lens cloth before each use. Also the cables coming around to the right-hand side and dropping from there means that you end up with a slight pull on that side of the headset, and if you're not careful it might tilt sideways on your head in use - my wife especially noticed this as her head is smaller and so the headset does not fit quite as snugly. If there was a strap over the top of the head which had the cables running down to drop from the back of the headset, this could be avoided. Regarding picture quality, the resolution and focus is generally really good - in the center of the frame. When playing games that hold your focus well, you don't notice it being blurrier away from the middle of the lens, but in applications like Steam VR environments or Google Earth VR where you might be trying to look around with just your eyes as opposed to always moving your head (like you would normally) it becomes more noticeable. Also in Euro Truck Simulator 2 when I was trying to check my wing mirrors, I had to turn my head right around to look the opposite side, as opposed to being able to glance out the corner of my eye. This is something shared with all headsets, not exclusive to this one, but something I did not realise at first. However in a game like Subnautica where the character in the game is also wearing a mask (for diving) it isn't something you notice at all. Battery life is hard to judge, because there appears to be a bug in the windows drivers for WMR controllers at the moment where the battery levels is not being assessed correctly - with a multi-meter I can tell that the batteries (it comes with 4xAA batteries for use with the controllers) are fully charged, but Steam VR tells me that the right one in particular is depleted. I wonder if this is something that could perhaps have been worked around if it had used rechargeable Li-Ion cells with a docking station to hold them when not in use and charge them when necessary, as opposed to relying on AAs.

This met all my expectations for vr. The headset is very comfortable though it does get a bit warm after a while. This could also be related to the intensity of play. I got an over the ear headset that fits over the lenovo headset easily. Over the ear is way better than ear buds. I do occasionally lose one of the controllers when I am holding something behind my back, like when playing space pirate trainer, but it is a minor inconvenience. It is a drawback of the inside out tracking, not the lenovo product. Besides I bought a laptop (acer predator) to drive this so it would be an easily portable system. And it is portable. From the time I pull the laptop out of my backpack until I am playing it is not more than 5 minutes. The display is sharp when properly adjusted and the controllers are comfortable in my hand and easy to use. The quality seems good, especially given the low cost. Everything worked perfectly out of the box. While the controllers seem to have a decent battery life, rechargeables are a really good idea. I gave a lot of consideration to both the vive and oculus products but chose mixed reality because of the ease of setup, cost, and portability. I chose the lenovo product because of the field of view, cost, and reputation for comfort. I highly recommend this product.

It arrived and the screen kept blacking out. After some trouble with what seemed like support not taking me seriously I finally got the go ahead for the refund.

It doesn't adjust perfectly on the head, the glasses resolution is ok but not great, and it doesn't integrate with YouTube videos 360 and VR. Limited supported apps.

Works well. Dont have any issues but i did need some adaptors to make it work with my laptop. The ones i found that work are these ones Mini DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 Adapter https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00S0BWR2K/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_B5jXCbAJJKYH8 USB-C to USB 3.0 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01GGKYXVE/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_L4jXCb66P0P35 Other wise its great.

+++ Verpackung & Versand +++ Die Verpackung wirkt hochwertig und aufgeräumt. Der Versand durch Amazon lief schnell und reibungslos ab. +++ Verarbeitung & Tragekomfort +++ Das Headset macht einen hochwertigen Eindruck, die Controller könnten etwas ergonomischer sein. Durch das geringe Gewicht kann man das Headset lange tragen, ohne das es unbequem wird. Die Oculus Rift z.B. wurde mir nach einer Stunde schon zu unbequem. Der Mechanismus zum hochklappen der Front ist praktisch, jedoch etwas schwergängig. +++ Einrichtung +++ Die Einrichtung über die Windows Mixed Reality Software ging einfach und schnell. Nach wenigen Minuten konnte ich bereits durch mein virtuelles Wohnzimmer laufen. Hier ist unbedingt darauf zu achten das man das Headset direkt in einen USB 3.0 (oder höher) anschließt, oder einen aktiven HUB verwendet, da die Brille über USB seinen Strom bezieht. Der Betrieb an einem passiven USB Hub nicht möglich. Auch habe ich einen neuen Bluetooth Stick benötigt, mein BT 2.0 Stick konnte sich zwar mit den Controllern verbinden, jedoch ist dann die Verbindung/das Tracking immer wieder unterbochen worden. Die Einbindung in Steam könnte besser sein, für die Einrichtung dafür muss die Software "Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR" in Steam installiert werden (welche sich noch in der Beta befindet). Für den Einstieg kann ich die kostenlose Spielesammlung/Tech Demo "The Lab" empfehlen, welche eindrucksvoll die Möglichkeiten von VR Demonstriert. +++ Technik +++ Von der Bildqualität bin ich - gerade im vergleich zu Rift - positiv überrascht. Das Bild wirkt sehr scharf und man hat kaum einen "Fliegengitter-Effekt". Das Tracking funktionierte auf Anhieb und ist sehr präzise, habe es in mehreren Räumen getestet. Zum Lesen/Arbeiten ist die Auflösung aber leider noch immer nicht hoch genug. +++ Fazit +++ Von mir gibt es eine klare Kaufempfehlung, ich ziehe das Headset auf jedem Fall einer Rift vor. Softwareseitig muss noch was gemacht werden, in Verbindung mit Steam VR musst ich viel rumprobieren/neustarten bis es geklappt hat.

J'ai longtemps hésité avant de franchir le pas et d'acheter un casque VR. Au vu des tarifs surtout et aussi des avis sur les différents casques disponibles. J'ai mis 5 étoiles bien que l'on ne touche pas la perfection mais parce que le rapport qualité / prix est bien là. Les 2 points négatifs sont : en premier la légère présence de ce que certain appelle une "grille" (présente pour tous les casque en fait) qui pourrait faire peur mais qui au bout de quelques heures d'utilisation se fait vraiment oubliée. Notre cerveau doit la faire disparaitre en quelque sorte surtout quant on est pris par ce que l'on regarde ou "vie" dans le casque. Le second point c'est le contenue disponible à ce jour. Il y a pas mal de chose à faire, payantes mais gratuite aussi, mais ça reste un peu trop accès sur les jeux de tirs à la première personne ou des trucs un peu trop simplistes. Les casques WMR offre moins de contenus que certains autres casques (qui coûte le double !!) Les points positifs : Il y en a beaucoup et en premier le côté bluffant de la VR. Se retrouver dans une maison immense dans un lieu enchanteur que l'on peut aménager. On peut vivre dans un garage de 15m² parce qu'avec un casque devant les yeux il se transforme en une villa sur la côte ! Je vous invite à tester apollo 11 car vous marcherez sur la lune avec N. Amstrong et le voyage est incroyable. Avec le portail de Steam pour avez également des environnements très beau et marcher sur Mars à côté du rover Oportunity est une chose à faire. Côté jeux j'ai pas encore vraiment testé ce qui est proposé mais je dispose du jeu simulateur IL*2 et se retrouver dans le cockpit d'un P40 c'est incroyable . On tourne la tête et on voit le bout de son aile, on suit une cible des yeux en virage, etc... incroyable. Bon vous comprenez que je suis conquis et que je ne regrette pas mon achat. Techniquement rien de compliqué, on branche le casque et il est reconnu sans problème. J'ai acheté des rallonges USB3 et HDMI en 3m pour pouvoir me déplacer sans problème car le câble est un peu court. J'ai également acheté un dongle Bluetooth pour les manettes car mon PC n'a pas de carte Bluetooth. Ca fonctionne très bien. Conclusion : je conseille ce produit.