HoloLens 2 — specification and verdict
HoloLens 2 defined what enterprise spatial AR looks like: a standalone see-through headset that anchors holograms in the room, with hand and eye tracking and impact-rated protective lenses. It is also the device that shows how a platform ends — Microsoft stopped manufacturing it in December 2024 and its hardware page publishes no display field of view, so that figure is absent here rather than quoted from a review.
Applications are built against Microsoft's own stack and deployed through the Store or through device management — no Android package, so an existing Android training application would need a full port rather than a rebuild.
If your organisation already owns a fleet, keep using it until support ends: Microsoft has committed to security updates only through December 2027. Do not start a new deployment on it — you would be buying second-hand hardware with under two years of security life and no successor.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the AR — spatial devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Median for this class: 132 g, from 9 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: 180 min, from 6 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: $1900, from 9 models that publish the figure.
Full specification
An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- Microsoft
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- AR — spatial
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- Standalone AR
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- 2019-05-02
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2019
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- Discontinued in 2024
- Support endsThe date the manufacturer stops supporting it. Decisive for a fleet you are about to buy.
- 2027-12-31
- DisplayHow the image is produced. "No display" is a real answer in this category, not a gap.
- Waveguide
- Eyes coveredOne eye or both. Over a full shift this is a real difference in fatigue.
- Both eyes
- Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
- ≈1440x936*VRcompare
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- 60 Hz
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- ≈52° diagonal*VRcompare
- Pixel densityPixels per degree of view — the honest way to compare sharpness between a headset and a pair of glasses. Higher is sharper. Only shown where somebody published it; we never compute it ourselves.
- Pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- BrightnessIn a plant or outdoors, brightness decides legibility more than resolution does.
- Brightness: not published by the manufacturer
- WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
- 566 g
- Visible field of viewWhat the eye actually sees through the optics, by axis.
- 43° horizontal · 29° vertical
- Rendered field of viewWhat the device draws. Never smaller than what you see.
- Rendered field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- Binocular overlapWhere both eyes see the same thing — this is where depth happens.
- Binocular overlap: not published by the manufacturer
- Average pixel densityPixels per degree across the image. More is sharper.
- Average pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Peak pixel densityThe sharpest point, usually the centre of the lens.
- Peak pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Subpixel layoutHow the coloured dots sit in a pixel. A stripe looks cleaner on text than PenTile.
- Subpixel layout: not published by the manufacturer
- Foveated renderingWhether detail is dropped outside where you look, to save performance.
- Foveated rendering: not published by the manufacturer
- Vision correctionHow somebody who wears glasses uses it, and in what dioptre range.
- Fits over glasses
- DimensionsWidth, height and depth of the device itself.
- Dimensions: not published by the manufacturer
- Weight with strapWith the strap it ships with — the weight you actually wear.
- Weight with strap: not published by the manufacturer
- Head strapSoft band or a rigid one. Decides how the weight sits over an hour.
- Rigid strap with a dial
- MaterialsShell and facial interface, in the vendor’s words.
- Plastic · foam
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Grey
- Haptics in the headsetVibration in the headset itself, not in the controllers.
- No
- TrackingWhether content stays put in the room (6DoF), follows head rotation (3DoF) or is simply fixed.
- 6DoF (position in space)
- Tracking camerasHow many cameras it uses to know where it is.
- 4
- Tracking rateHow often position is recalculated. Higher is steadier.
- Tracking rate: not published by the manufacturer
- Depth sensorA dedicated sensor for distance, on top of the cameras.
- Yes
- Hand trackingWhether bare hands can operate the interface, without a controller or the phone.
- Yes
- Face trackingTracks facial expression — for avatars, not for training scenarios.
- No
- Body trackingHow much of the body the device knows about. Estimated legs are not tracked legs.
- None
- Controllers includedWhether motion controllers come in the box, or are bought separately — or the device is hands-only.
- No
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- None (hands only)
- Other input methodsWays in beyond controllers and bare hands.
- Voice · Look and pinch
- Where it computesWhether the device computes on its own or depends on a phone, PC or belt-worn puck.
- Standalone (own computer)
- ProcessorThe processor and memory inside. This is what the performance grade above is derived from.
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 Compute Platform
- CPUCores and clocks, where the manufacturer publishes them.
- Octa-core Kryo 385 (4x 2.96 GHz, 4 x 1.8 GHz)
- GPUThe graphics part of the chip.
- Adreno 630
- MemoryRAM on the device. Together with the chipset it sets how complex a scene can be.
- 4 GB
- PlatformThe platform an application is built against — and what an MDM has to speak.
- Windows Holographic
- StorageOn-board space for downloaded courses. More matters for an offline library in several languages.
- Storage: not published by the manufacturer
- SD card slotWhether storage can be added with a card.
- No
- BatteryRuntime as the manufacturer states it. A hot-swappable pack matters more than the figure.
- 180 min
- Battery capacity (Wh)Energy in the cell. Bigger is longer, given the same power draw.
- Battery capacity (Wh): not published by the manufacturer
- Battery capacity (mAh)The same fact in the other unit vendors use. We never convert between the two.
- Battery capacity (mAh): not published by the manufacturer
- Charge timeFrom empty to full. Rarely stated by the manufacturer, so it usually comes from whoever timed it.
- Charge time: not published by the manufacturer
- ChargerPower of the supplied charger — it decides the charge time above.
- 18 W
- External batteryBattery on a cable or a puck instead of on the head.
- External battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Charging caseExtra runtime carried in the case the glasses ship with.
- Charging case: not published by the manufacturer
- Hot-swap batteryWhether a charged battery can replace the empty one without ending the session. This is what decides if a headset can hold an all-day training station.
- Hot-swap battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Third-party appsHow a third party's application reaches the device: an ordinary Android package, a vendor-only SDK, or not at all.
- Vendor SDK only
- Runs Skillsive appsOur own statement about whether Skillsive training applications run on it today.
- No
- Suitable for trainingOur judgement on whether it survives real deployment: comfort, hygiene, fleet management.
- Suitable for training: not published by the manufacturer
- Kiosk mode / MDMVendor tooling to enrol devices, push an app and lock the headset to it. Practically required above ten devices.
- Yes
- Business tierAn official business tier, so devices belong to the company rather than to employees’ personal accounts.
- Business tier: not published by the manufacturer
- CertificationsIndustrial certifications stated on the manufacturer's own page. Empty means unconfirmed, never "probably fine".
- ANSI Z87.1 · CSA Z94.3 · EN 166 · IP50
- PortsPhysical sockets and charging contacts.
- USB Type-C
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- 5 (802.11ac 2x2)
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- 5.0
- Video from a computerWhether a computer can drive it, over a cable or wirelessly.
- Video from a computer: not published by the manufacturer
- AudioBuilt-in sound. Matters most where somebody has to hear a remote expert while working.
- Built-in speakers
- MicrophoneBuilt-in microphone — the other half of talking to a remote expert.
- Yes
- MicrophonesHow many. An array picks a voice out of a noisy hall; one does not.
- 5
- CameraA camera is what makes a remote expert call and photo documentation possible.
- Yes
- Price bandThe band it sits in, rather than a price that goes stale.
- Enterprise
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $3500
- Price by configurationWhat each configuration cost at launch.
- Price by configuration: not published by the manufacturer
- Price todayApproximate current net price in USD — a general figure, since these barely differ between regions once tax is stripped out. A snapshot from the date shown, not an offer.
- Price today: not published by the manufacturer
Who this device is for
HoloLens 2 is the device that defined enterprise AR: standalone Windows Holographic, hand tracking, waveguide optics and a genuine industrial deployment record in maintenance, field service and healthcare. Microsoft discontinued it in 2024 with support to the end of 2027, so this page is for organisations with a fleet deciding what happens next — our applications do not run on it.
How it differs from its predecessor
Against Magic Leap 2, the other serious spatial AR device here, it is fully standalone rather than tethered to a compute puck, heavier at 566 g, and built on a Microsoft platform rather than an Android one. Both are now discontinued with support horizons in 2027, which makes the comparison a migration question rather than a purchase.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
Discontinued in 2024, with vendor support ending 31 December 2027 — that date, not the specification, is what should drive planning. Microsoft never published a display field of view, a per-eye pixel count or a brightness figure: the 52° diagonal and 1440x936 per eye shown here come from VRcompare, not from Microsoft, and no to-eye brightness figure exists anywhere. Applications also need the vendor SDK rather than an ordinary Android build, so our courses cannot be deployed to it.
HoloLens 2 in independent reviews
Reviews we consider worth your time, each with a note on what the reviewer actually tested and why it matters for a training rollout. We do not own this hardware, so the tests are theirs — the reading of them is ours.
- The Verge2019
The launch coverage, and the framing has proven decisive: sold to companies, not consumers, for people who work with their hands. That decision shaped everything about the device, including who is still using it.
Watch on YouTube - MRTV - MIXED REALITY TV2020
A demonstration of what the hardware could actually do in an ordinary room, which is more useful than a specification for a device most people have never worn. Good on the field-of-view limit that defines the experience.
Watch on YouTube - UploadVR2021
A review that credits the technology and is honest about the distance still to travel. For a buyer today the relevant part is which of those limits are inherent to waveguide optics rather than to this generation.
Watch on YouTube
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HoloLens 2 — frequently asked questions
- What happens to HoloLens 2 devices after support ends in 2027?
- They keep working, but without security updates or vendor support, and Microsoft has announced no successor. Any organisation with a fleet should be planning the migration now — the realistic replacements for most industrial use cases are Android-based AR glasses or a tablet workflow, not another HoloLens.
- Why was HoloLens 2 so widely used in industry despite the price?
- Because it was the first standalone AR headset with credible hand tracking and spatial mapping that a company could actually deploy: it worked without a phone or a PC, Microsoft supported it as an enterprise product, and remote-assist software for it was mature well before rivals had any.
Compare this device
Consider these too
The nearest devices in the same class, ranked by availability and launch price — not by our opinion of them.
Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-04. Manufacturer's specification
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