I finally received delivery of my personal pre-ordered Microsoft Mixed Reality Immersive Headsets. I ordered the listed units after they were announced at //BUILD without waiting for the bundle offers for the controllers just to get the headsets early. There were two models available for order at the Microsoft Store from Acer and HP; the HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset Developer Edition arrived first.
Packaging is simple, it’s the Head Mounted Display (HMD), connector cables and documentation.
The amazing improvement to existing VR systems is the setup only requires a video display through HDMI and head tracking control with USB. No need to setup additional sensors on the desktop (Oculus) or lighthouse systems (HTC Vive) across the room. The immersive headsets use inside-out tracking, same technology as the HoloLens where the HMD manages position tracking.
The long connecting cable is detachable from the HMD, a very convenient feature for re-packing the unit without having to be concerned with the long cable and metal end connectors hitting the HMD or worse the lenses inside compared to the Oculus and Vive.
I just have to highlight the lenses are covered with blue protective film to prevent scratch damage during shipment — and there’s always a user or two who forget about it and then ask why the unit is blurry and the having a bluish tint especially in nice trainings and presentations when we use brand new units.
The HMD also flips up, another convenience feature to quickly switch from the immersive but occluded view to working with a monitor or get back to reality.
I prepared another boot partition on my developer workstation in preparation for delivery following Mixed-Reality Immersive Headset Setup. I’ll be posting additional notes on the developer tools setup and creating an immersive app.
Building Blocks 
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