New HoloLens 2 owners reporting display colour issues

Microsoft’s new HoloLens 2 AR headset has just started shipping, but new owners are reporting issues with the colour consistency over the full surface of the display, complaining of rainbow colours across the virtual images, as demonstrated in César Berardini’s pictures below:

Multiple users on Reddit report the same problem, though others are unaffected.

Just had the delivery of HL2, and yes I can confirm the same colour defect in the displays (both).

No damage to packaging or to device internally.

Colour banding is almost the same level as initial photos in post so I would back the manufacture/quality issues. really poor from MS

In a statement to RoadtoVR Microsoft confirmed reports of the issue, saying:

“Microsoft continues to invest and innovate in the field of display technology. Microsoft HoloLens 2 contains a new type of display that more than doubles the field of view of the original HoloLens and is the result of a set of balanced display trade-offs. We are aware of reports from some developers experiencing issues with their displays and we’re working closely with them to understand the underlying cause.”

Alex Kipman was however rather defensive about this, saying photos taken with cameras can now capture the display due to the use of eye-tracking, saying:

Friends, we have a binocular system that forms an image at the back of your eyes not in front of it. Eye tracking is fully in the loop to correct comfort which also includes color.

Eye relief (the distance from lens to your pupil) changes the image quality. Further out you are, worse the image quality becomes in terms of MTF as well as color uniformity.

Taking monocle pictures from a phone (or other camera) is completely outside of our spec and not how the product is experienced.

When you look at it with both eyes, at the right eye relief (somewhere between 12-30 mm from your eyes) with eye tracking turned on, you experience something very different.

If you are having issues experiencing our product, first our apologies, second please get a hold of us ([email protected] is your friend) and let’s engage on how we can solve your issues. Team is fully leaned in and listening.

RoadtoVR however confirmed that in their own personal experience colour consistency was worse with the HoloLens 2 than the first generation.

As noted above, Microsoft is taking feedback on the issue, which is hopefully not inherent in the display itself. In the meantime, Microsoft recommends each new user runs the eye-tracking calibration routine as noted here.