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- Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: What you need to know
- Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: Price and competition
- Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: Design
- Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: What does it do?
- Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: Performance and specifications
- Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: Verdict
- No fuss setup
- Cheaper than competitors
- Low hardware requirements
- Software lineup is lacking
Virtual-reality tech is expensive. After all, Microsofts own mixed-reality headset, the HoloLens, is yours for just over £3,000. Sure, VR has started getting cheaper, but Acer says those days of parting with oodles of cash to enjoy a proper VR experience are well and truly a thing of the past, with the launch of its own Windows Mixed Reality headset.
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But what is mixed reality? Well, its a term thats hardly well defined. Acer says its the process of interacting with virtual objects as if they were physical, although this isnt exactly a clear-cut definition. The differences between mixed reality and virtual reality? Well, Id suggest there arent any, but more on that later.
Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: What you need to know
Acers first stab at a VR headset is an interesting one. It was demonstrated for the first time way back in early 2017 at Acers annual press showcase in New York, and it undercuts most serious VR headsets by a considerable margin. Its supported by Windows, too, as part of Microsofts Mixed Reality family of devices and software.
Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: Price and competition
The Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset (yep, thats the full, yawn-inducing title), with a bundled set of Oculus-style motion controllers, will set you back a penny under £400.
Acers competition? That will be all the other firms signed up for Microsofts mixed reality Windows 10 bandwagon. There are five in total: Dell, Acer, Lenovo, HP and Asus. While news on the last two has been a little thin on the ground and Dells Visor is now out in the wild, Acers headset was the first to launch.
It also faces competition from the strong, already-well-established brands in the VR market. Theres HTCs Vive, which will set you back £600; the Oculus Rift, which is £400; and the PlayStation VR at £349. There are also Samsung and Googles dirt-cheap mobile-friendly VR headsets to consider: the Gear VR and Daydream View.
Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: Design
Acers headset is lightweight and snaps nicely around my bulbous noggin quite nicely. It wasnt noticeably uncomfortable over my glasses, either, thanks to its roomy interior, something Oculus could learn a thing or two from. Build quality feels a little cheap, though, certainly in comparison to the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
But its comfortable and practical, and the controllers are decent, too. They look just like Oculus touch controllers, with a thumb joystick on the top, sitting to the left of a circular touchpad and the trigger buttons underneath, where your index and middle fingers sit. Its a design thats proven and works well.
Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: What does it do?
As far as I could tell, Acers headset doesnt do much different to its Windows 10 rivals. You can pretend youre in a remote location (Machu Picchu looks lovely this time of year) and view 360-degree footage youve taken on your recent skiing trip. You can also do other, more mundane stuff, such as browsing the internet and looking through your emails, all by walking around inside the Microsoft mixed-reality Cliff House.
This all works just like that scene with Tom Cruise in Minority Report. The multitasking is easy enough to get to grips with: you plonk multiple windows around your virtual house, dragging and dropping them as you see fit, and teleport to locations using the Oculus Rift-style controllers.
The best thing, though? You dont need to place extra sensors around the room for it to work. It works entirely through a combination of four specific in-built sensors a gyro-sensor, accelerometer, magnetometer and proximity sensor and I never once had any issues with tracking.
You can use it with other Windows-branded VR headsets, too, although I wasnt able to fully test this out. As all of them use Windows 10 as a base operating system, you should be able to Skype or play VR games with your friends, regardless of which Windows mixed-reality device they own.
However, Acers Mixed Reality headset is sorely lacking when it comes to the fun stuff. And no, its not Acers fault, but the Windows Stores library of VR-capable games is scarce, and the big-hitters such as Arizona Sunshine and SUPERHOT VR are already sitting on competitors platforms.
And thats a real shame. The Oculus Store is overflowing with hundreds of excellent titles, and its clear Microsoft hasnt given its games offering any proper love. If Microsoft wants to market these devices to the average consumer, it desperately needs to put in some more effort here. Yes, Steam VR support is coming soon that should widen your games choices but as it stands these headsets are little more than wasted potential.
Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: Performance and specifications
Acers MR headset is equipped with a 2.9 x 2in LCD display, providing a resolution of 1,440 x 1,440 for each eye with a maximum refresh rate of 90Hz. This drops to 60Hz on a machine equipped with integrated graphics.
And the good news is that the minimum specification requirements suggest a VR headset that is anything but power-hungry. To achieve solid, reliable frame rates, Acer recommends a machine with at least 8GB of DDR3 memory, an integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 chip or Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M, and an Intel Core i5-7200U processor. Thats nowhere near as demanding as the Vive or Rift.
Plugging the headset into an Acer Spin 7, with an Intel Core i7-7Y75 processor and 8GB of RAM with no dedicated graphics chip, this MR headset ran like a dream. Movement was fluid at what seemed like a stable 60fps, and I only had the headset crash on me once during my time with it.
Its also less connection-heavy than your typical VR headset. Simply plug in the pair of USB 3 cables and the solitary HDMI cable, snap the batteries into the motion controllers and youre all set. No faff, and youre up and ready in a matter of minutes.
Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: Verdict
Acers Windows Mixed Reality headset may be a mouthful, but its certainly a decent first effort. I might be jumping the gun a little other devices in Microsofts mixed-reality umbrella havent reached my desk just yet but Im completely sold on this interconnected approach to virtual reality.
The headsets are dirt-cheap, and hardware requirements are low, but the caveat is that theres nothing useful you can do with them just yet. Im yet to be wowed by any software, and Microsofts games library is sorely lacking in exclusive titles.
And sure, it may not be as technically impressive as Microsofts own HoloLens headset, and it doesnt completely map out your living room, but at just over 10% of the cost, these complaints can be shrugged off.
It may still be in its infancy, but I can safely see Acers VR headset (along with those other Windows-labelled devices) paving the way for the future of virtual reality. With costs kept down low, Acers Mixed Reality headset has all the hallmarks of a best-seller.
