HP appears to have taken some design cues from Oculus for the Reverb. It's much smaller and lighter than HP's VR1000-100 headset from two years ago, eschewing the large, plastic headband and forehead rest for a three-point harness similar to the Rift and Rift S.

Since it's a Windows Mixed Reality headset, the Reverb has only two outward-facing cameras located wide apart on the front panel rather than the five cameras on the Quest and Rift S.

A pair of on-ear headphones are mounted on the side headbands, attached to the plastic assembly that lets the headbands extend or retract before securing them with hook-and-loop strips.

A thin plastic strap on either side and a nylon strap on the top meet at a padded circular ring on the back of the harness.

Setting up the Reverb is very fast and simple, like other Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Install the Mixed Reality Portal from the Microsoft Store, then plug the headset into a free DisplayPort 1.3 port and USB 3.0 port with the included 11-foot cable.

The Windows Mixed Reality controllers that come with the Reverb are the same ones that come with the HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset VR1000-100 and other Windows Mixed Reality headsets. The long, straight grips and mostly flat triggers on the controllers are much less comfortable than the Oculus Touch grips and triggers, which conform to the natural shape of your hand holding something. Very large, fairly loose battery doors on the grips also come free easily when you're swinging the controllers around.

The HP Reverb Virtual Reality Headset Consumer Edition comes with the headset, two motion controllers, and an 11-foot cable.

Like all Windows Mixed Reality headsets, the Reverb is designed to be used with the Windows Mixed Reality interface on Windows 10. It's a capable VR interface that puts you in a customizable virtual space called the Cliff House where you can place different floating windows to display 2D apps and virtual objects to represent and activate 3D VR apps like furniture.

The Cliff House is a bit more necessary than Oculus Home, however, since the pop-up Windows 10 menu doesn't provide full access to all of the apps and settings for Windows Mixed Reality or your computer.

Windows Mixed Reality uses the Microsoft Store for its software library, and that library is small and underdeveloped compared with SteamVR or the Oculus Store. Besides a small handful of interesting experiences, the store is filled mostly with half-baked, low-quality VR games and apps that feel distinctly dated.