News Acer, HP open pre-orders for HoloLens-style headsets

The catch is, at 1/10 the quality too.
These do not use OLED panels like the Rift CV1, Vive, GearVR phones or even Daydream phones. Instead, they use LCd panels. Full persistence LCD panels, not even having the courtesy to use a pulsed backlight. This means that any head movement will cause very obvious smearing, like on the old Rift DK1.
On top of that, according to RoadtoVR at least, the tracking is pretty high latency compared even to hololens (as expected, due to the much cheaper sensor array).
The controller's reliance on the HMD's cameras for tracking also means that if you cannot see the controller, you are not tracking the controller, and have to fall back to purely IMU-based orientation tracking (thing WiiMote if you face it too far away form the TV).

Personally, I wouldn't waste my money on one of these as they are available now. However, if later Windows Holographic HMDs were released with improved displays and optics (OLED panels, or at least pulsed-backlight) at a slightly higher price point, I would very much be interested in one combined with a backtop, even with the current tracking. I doubt it will be suitable for gaming or anything involving rapid movement, but good-enough-to-avoid-nausea-when-seated tracking combined with high resolutions would be entirely adequate for portable virtual desktop use, and for things like FPV remote piloting.

 

I do fear that headsets like this could one day be blamed for why the VR resurgence died. Maybe they'll be 'good enough' like Sony VR or maybe they'll just make everyone queasy and annoyed.

I like the 'aim high' approach of vive / rift, with a 'maybe one day' potential to bring the costs down to mass market levels. Where will these sit? I suspect closer to the 'not good enough' end

Oh yeah, and calling them 'mixed reality' is lame.