HTC VIVE PRO 2 REVIEW - Should You Upgrade? - Full MRTV Video Review (Reverb G2 & Index Comparison)

the vive pro 2 is htc's latest pcvr headset that is aimed at enterprise customers and vr enthusiasts alike it promises a wider 120 degrees fov and a higher vr experience thanks to its upgraded resolution of 2.5 k by 2.5 k pixels per eye and a higher 120 hertz refresh rate now does htc keep those promises and is the device worth the 799 dollars asking price for the headset only that's exactly what we're going to find out in this full video review of the vive pro 2. hi and welcome back to mr tv my name is sebastian ang and i bring you independent in-depth vr hardware reviews just like this one here and this review is indeed in-depth in 25 minutes you will know everything about the vive pro 2 that you need to know so if you're considering to spend those 800 bucks do yourself a favor and watch the whole video if you prefer written reviews i have those two now and you can find them at my new website at mrtv.co not only will you find all the reviews of all the headsets but also reviews about all the accessories so it's absolutely worth a visit and now stay tuned watch the whole video because all of the goodness is coming up [Music] the vive pro 2 is a solid update as far as visuals are concerned but other than that plays it safe and does not stray away too much from the original vivepro formula for some parts that's good for others it's quite hard to understand in a competitive environment that pits it against innovative headsets like the valve index or the reverb g2 build quality and comfort let's start with the basics htc has not made any design changes from outside you could not tell the pro 1 and 2 apart if it was not for some slight color changes that was probably the most economic way to bring the device to market but it also does not help to make the device more exciting from a consumer's standpoint however the pro 2 is just as sturdy and well built as its predecessor and it has just as many options to adjust it to the individual user we have manual ipd adjustment with a range from 57 millimeters to 70.5 millimeters and there is eye relief so glasses wearers can make more room to wear the glasses within the headset the head strip allows users to quickly adjust size with an adjustment knob and i personally prefer this over velcro solutions like the one of the reverb g2 any day for the headphones htc actually did make a change they are still on ear but at least the part that touches the user's ears has been updated and feels better especially for longer play sessions this has to compete against the now industry gold standard of the floating valve index headphones though and we will get to that discussion when we talk about audio in this review overall the build quality is great i especially want to point out the cable management here it is well thought through and the cable is being led from the headset itself to the back of the head strap in the most unobstructive and elegant way talking about the cable the pro 2 is also compatible with the vive wireless module so if you prefer wireless gameplay that is possible as well at an added expense of 349 dollars and i will review the wireless performance in a separate review since design wise nothing has changed the pro 2 is also compatible with the htc vive facial tracker which should be good news for anyone that's interested to use it for social vr experiences comfort of the pro 2 is great thanks to the excellent head strap the device sits on your head in a balanced way there is no front heaviness and cushions are as soft and accommodating as ever wearing the pro 2 feels like putting your head into a comfy sofa people coming from headsets that do not offer such lavish cushioning might have to get used to that kind of comfort first visuals but now let's get to the upgrades virtual reality is all about immersion and the visuals play a major role in that htc has massively upgraded the pro 2 in this department the pro 2 now features two lcd panels with a resolution of 2.5 k by 2.5 k pixels per eye that boasts a refresh rate of 120 hertz and boy do these panels look great as was to be expected the screen draw effect is now truly a thing of the past and there are no ugly pixel gaps left that would remind us of looking at a screen instead of just feeling immersed virtual worlds simply look fantastic with the pro 2 and the resolution allows for sharpness and clarity that so far only the reverb g2 could offer vr veterans coming from all other major headset companies will without a doubt perceive this bump in the visual department and will adopt it as the new standard quickly the panels don't just offer a high resolution they also offer vibrant colors and a high contrast this is in fact the best lcd panel in terms of color reproduction that i've seen in the vr headset yet the only panel that comes close in terms of colors for an lcd panel is that one of the reverb g2 but if i had to choose the better one i'd still give it to the pro 2 because colors simply have a bit more intensity and contrast is a bit higher which makes for really dark blacks it is still not an oled panel but lcd has actually made quite some improvements as far as contrast is concerned if you are coming from the valve index you will without a doubt directly be able to tell the colors of this panel are superior same goes for users that come from the pymax headset that sport an lcd panel fov field of view oh yes we always wanted more and finally we've been heard but does the vive pro 2 really deliver those 120 degrees horizontally and is therefore wider than the valve index the answer is yes but without a doubt i foresee quite a bit controversy here because htc chose a very unfamiliar fov ratio until now for vr headsets the horizontal fov kind of matched the vertical one so we looked into virtual reality through windows that had kind of a four by three ratio now htc expects us to learn a new trick and adapt to a wider kind of 16 by nine like ratio because the horizontal lv is visibly wider than the vertical one also the window into vr is more squarish now than oval and that does take getting used to my very first reaction when i was looking through the pro 2 was i'm getting less fov i couldn't appreciate the horizontal fov at all and also for the horizontal fov i had the feeling i'm getting less it just felt weird for me to see that unfamiliar fov ratio it's like looking at a 4x3 tv set all my life and then for the first time seeing a 16 by 9 tv my first knee jerk reaction was to dismiss the device and i'm very sure that this initial knee jerk reaction will play out to its fullest hyperbole potential on youtube as soon as the device drops so how large is the fov then i have a very standard ipd of 64 millimeters and when i measure the fov using the test hmd tools i get to 140 degrees horizontally and 90 degrees vertically using the standard phase pad that comes with the device that is better than the 108 degree i see in the index horizontally but worse than the 100 degree i see vertically there my concerns about the flv ratio completely faded though when i found out that there is plenty of room to increase the visible fov by getting my eyes closer to the displays the facial padding that comes with the device is kind of thick and therefore i simply replaced it with a thinner vr cover and then i had the experience i was hoping for i could finally enjoy the wider fov to its fullest extent with a thinner face pad i then measured an fov of 116 degrees horizontally and 96 degrees vertically and that did make a huge difference you will even get better results here than modding the reverb g2 using thinner face pads so after modding you get a visual experience that plays in reverb g2 territory with a wider fov than the valve index and that is quite a proposition for all the people that care about visuals more than anything else in vr lenses after having used the same lenses for years now htc finally introduces new ones for the pro 2. we're now looking through a double stack pair of lenses a technology that we know from the valve index just as with its direct competitor this lens design allows for a wider field of view unfortunately though fresnel lenses with the typical concentric rings are being used once again as we know those are prone to god rays for the double stack design of the valve index we had huge problems with glare unfortunately the pro 2 is also plagued with similar problems the glare is not as pronounced as in the valve index but it's still a problem nonetheless if the god ray problem of the valve index puts you off you won't feel differently here in standard playing sessions you will likely not be bothered by it just it is the case with the valve index in high contrast scenes you will see glare though like white text on a black background in these situations the glare will take away from the beautiful clarity of the panels and that is also the reason why in direct ap comparisons with the reverb g2 i often prefer the picture quality of the ladder simply because there is less lens glare so if you are used to the reverb g2 you will see more lens clear if you are used to the valve index you will see a little less but in general you know what to expect also in terms of sweet spot we unfortunately do not see any improvements in order to get to the position that will grant you the sharpest picture quality over the complete panel you will need to adjust the headset for quite a bit if you are coming from headsets with better sweet spot like the oculus ones you will find that you probably need a bit longer to find that ideal position however in direct comparison to the valve index i do not see any disadvantages here since also with that headset you will need some time to find the perfect adjustment once you are in that sweet spot though you will get a clear picture also the edge to edge clarity is on par with the index like with all fresnel lenses there is a certain amount of clarity degradation the further you get to the peripheral areas though and to get a completely perfect picture quality we simply need to go away from fresnel lenses and reintroduce the clear aespheric lenses back to vr the first company to do that for the consumer market will without any doubts not only get lots of goodwill but also the dollars of many happy customers so overall the pro 2 is a very solid visual upgrade that scores with its fantastic high resolution panels that offer best-in-class colors in that display category the wider fov is a nice add-on that especially shines when you're able to get your eyes as close as possible to the lenses if that is not the case because you probably wear glasses or because of your anatomy you will likely prefer the wider vertical fov that the index offers the viewing pleasure is only clouded by glare in high contrast scenes caused by lenses that do not improve on the valve index double stack lens formula audio the valve index has introduced a stellar audio solution with its floating headphone design that is now the de facto gold standard and any headset that plays in the high end enthusiast market must compete with that standard the pro 2 offers standard on-ear headphones that have been improved in terms of their design they look better and more importantly feel better on your ears now also for longer playing sessions i've already gotten used to having headphones not touch my ears though and i personally do prefer the index solution however i can also appreciate the notion that some people want to be shut off completely from the real world for these people on-ear headphones the block noise coming from the outside are preferable and the pro 2 offers such a solution the audio quality itself will be good enough for the majority of consumers i could tell the developed index headphones offer a better audio quality especially the bass department but the pro 2 headphones also did not put me off audiophiles will without a doubt prefer the valve index solution though but listen for yourself for a moment [Music] [Music] you can find the whole audio comparison in the written review at mrtv.co the headphones are an acceptable audio solution but htc shows no ambition here to actually compete with the best solution that's on the market right now microphone of shame it is hard to express just how disappointing it is to see that htc again did not manage to improve the microphone quality in every single of my wife headset reviews i've pointed out that the microphone is utter garbage it was already quite unbelievable for me that the company did not improve the microphone from the original vive to the vive pro but missing that upgrade once again is simply inexplicable the problem is not so much the audio quality itself but the missing pop filter every p sound will result in ugly pop noises that will identify you as a vive customer in social vr situations that is especially bad for enterprise customers who want to use the headset for virtual meetings and at this point is quite honestly speaking just embarrassing for htc this is how the microphone of the vive pro 2 sounds vive pro 2 microphone check peter parker still plays piano peter parker still plays piano i've tried to improve the pop noise problem by attaching wind filters for camera microphones and the results are actually pretty good those will cost not more than a dollar and will allow you to interact with other people in vr without giving away that you're using a vive headset in my opinion this is a must do mod for everyone who wants to pick up the pro 2 and i'm leaving a link to those pop filters down in the description of this video but now let's check out the results this is how the modded microphone of the vive pro 2 sounds vive pro 2 microphone check peter parker still plays piano peter parker still plays piano i've reached out to htc about the microphone situation and they told me they want to improve the microphone by software updates now unfortunately that is exactly the same answer that i got years ago when i reviewed the vive pro so i'm not too hopeful here controllers the vive pro 2 does not come with any new controllers if you go for the full package at 1 399 you will receive a pair of base stations needed for tracking and the vive wand controllers the one controllers have been around since the very first vive came out and i will not review them here again for business customers they should do the trick but gaming enthusiasts will without a doubt use the valve index controllers instead which are fully compatible i was at first disappointed when i heard that we wouldn't get any new controllers with the vive pro but considering the fact that this is more of an upgrade to an existing lighthouse system it is kind of understandable htc told me that a new controller for gamers would unlikely add any value to the ecosystem so if that's the case i would have hoped for htc to work together with valve and offer a bundle with those valve index controllers for people that are new to this ecosystem performance with all those pixels that need to be rendered you rightfully ask yourself now can you actually run this beast the answer is yes you can at least that is what i deduct from my tests conducted on my rdx3080 system no surprises here but also on my weekly gtx 1080 ti machine in both cases the pro 2 ran very well and actually better than my reverb g2 on my rdx 3080 the vive software allowed me to choose from 5 settings performance balanced high ultra and extreme for my tests i chose the extreme setting since i wanted to max out the pro 2. i was pleasantly surprised by how well all my games were running at this maximum fidelity i could play half-life alex at its highest graphic settings at a constant 120 fps and it simply looked stunning we know that half-life alex is a very well optimized game that runs well on lots of machines so therefore i also tested more demanding titles such as x-plane 11 or project cars 2. for both games i managed to achieve a very respectable 60 fps a feat that i could not pull off with my reverb d2 at full visual fidelity on that same system in order to allow for better comparisons with other headsets i ran the open vr benchmark tool for the vive pro 2 i achieved a very respectable 33.6 fps on the rdx3080 compared to the 28 fps that the reverb g2 scored on the same system you can tell that the pro 2 performs quite a bit better than the reverb g2 how is that possible the reverb g2 renders quite a high resolution at 100 super sampling for its frame buffer and therefore is not quite as performant as the pro 2. on my gtx 1080ti system i could not choose the ultra and extreme option because you will need displayport 1.4 and dsc so i went for the high setting of course i also ran half of alex here even at that low resolution i saw a nice bump in visual fidelity over the valve index the high fill factor simply makes the difference and will eliminate any screener effect no matter if you run it in very high resolutions or not i was pleasantly surprised that i could run half-life alex at a constant 90 fps on that older machine with visuals that were absolutely gorgeous still to be able to test the performance more generally i also ran the openvr benchmark here on that 1080ti machine the tube was able to render an average of 38.49 fps which was even a better result than i could get on the 3080 machine at a lower resolution of course though these tests edited 100 super sampling however you must take into consideration that other headsets render more than their native resolution at 100 super sampling like the reverb d2 for example if my results could be replicated on similar setups it would mean that the pro 2 is an exciting upgrade proposition for enterprise customers and vr enthusiasts that want to enjoy wider fovs and visuals without screen door effect using their existing setups without the need to get faster gpus and that is truly a great proposition especially in times like these when it's hard to get by a new gpu conclusion the vive pro 2 is a solid upgrade in terms of visuals and fov that many customers will enjoy you can expect reverb g2 level visuals on a wider than valve index fov htc played it a bit too safe here though to call the pro 2 an exciting or must-have update we didn't get a facelift for the design still bearable but more importantly htc did not have the ambition to also compete for the best audio solution and they completely drop the ball on the microphone again for vr enthusiasts that are willing to mod that microphone though by adding a one dollar pop filter and they do not insist on the floating valve index headphones the vive pro 2 is a solid upgrade that will not force them to upgrade their existing gpus but once the high-end gpus will be more broadly available the headset will give you these ultra and extreme graphics settings to really show you what it can do in order to help you make a more informed purchasing decision i will give you my advice based on the headset that you currently own if you own a wealth index and are happy with it i'm not going to tell you that your index is not good enough anymore the index is a hell of a headset and the panel still looks good enough if you are not already used to high resolution screens like that of the reverb g2 it has a microphone that is so much better and an audio solution that is still unmatched if you deeply care about that microphone and the floating headphones sit this one out however if you ever so enviously looked over at the reverb g2 crowd and also wish to enjoy those incredibly sharp high resolution panels with even better colors you can now have that together with a tracking solution that you love and an even wider fov i myself am in exactly that category i really enjoyed the index but the reverb g2 has spoiled it for me in terms of visuals i'm therefore glad that we now have a lighthouse version with an even bigger fov therefore i will personally keep my pre-order for the pro 2. i already bought a pack of glue on pop filters so i will be alright with that microphone if you own a reverb g2 though the situation is a bit different you are already used to that high-end visual experience in vr and you even have better lenses with less glare moreover if you do not own lighthouse base stations and controllers this upgrade would cost you 1400 for sure and that is quite a sum if you cannot stand reverb g2 controllers and look for a better tracking solution and a wider fov then that is the price you have to pay though but perhaps you still have base stations and controllers lying around for owners of a vive vive pro or cosmos elite the vive pro 2 is a really good and even recommended update without the need to update your gpu you will get a much better visual fidelity and a wider fov for wife pro users who are used to their device running hot you will now get a headset that is not plagued by this problem however you will feel the change from oled to lcd even though this is a really good lcd panel but still the blacks of oled headsets are still unmatched by any lcd panel up to date if you own any of the pymax headsets for the huge fov then for the first time since the vault index you might actually want to explore this new option though especially when modded the pro 2 can give you an fov that will get you into the fov territory that you enjoy most completely without any distortions in terms of visual quality the pro 2 trumps all the pymax offerings the only pymax headset that can compete in terms of pixel per degree is the 8kx however the colors are way better on the pro 2 panel and you get that with 120 hertz if you own a quest or quest 2 and you want to get into the high-end pcvr market you might consider picking this one up you will get way better visuals colors and fov however the expenditure is most probably too high and you could rather just go for a g2 or an index instead probably just keep that quest 2 though and wait for the quest to pro overall the vive pro 2 is a solid update not an exciting one but solid nevertheless and it will help us to bridge the time until we enthusiasts get that oled high def beast that uses aspherical no glare lenses that we're all dreaming of and that was the full mrtv review of the vive pro 2. i hope i could help you make a more educated purchasing decision and if you like this video give this one a thumbs up if you want more content from me and reviews like this one days earlier than the rest consider becoming a member of the mrtv elite at mrtvelit.com my patreon channel 500 members can't be wrong about this one so now make some noise for the algorithm and tell me in the comment section are you going to pick up the vive pro 2 that's everything for this video if you have not yet subscribed to motv yet then do that now and click on the bell button so that you don't miss anything and i'm looking forward to see you in the next episode you

Channel: MRTV - MIXED REALITY TV

Views: 60,903

Keywords: vr, virtual reality, mrtv, vive pro 2, htc vive pro 2, vive pro 2 review, vive pro 2 video review, vive pro 2 vs valve index, vive pro 2 vs reverb g2, vive pro 2 vs index

Id: rYjcoOB7mfc

Length: 25min 0sec (1500 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 02 2021