As a matter of fact there are some questions about G2 vs Index from time to time and I believe I’m nailing some of the key differences still making the Index a better headset to me besides LH tracking:
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I can measure close enough HFOV: ±98º for the G2 and ±105º for the Index, but the G2 still makes me feel like looking through binoculars. Yesterday I’ve realized in fact the Index outermost FOV edges are not surrounded by as thick a black edge as the G2. I attribute this to the canted displays allowing them to be displaying closer and reducing the surrounding, effectively giving the impression of a wider open view. WIth the added much higher VFOV of the Index where the top edge is nearly non-visible, it really gives a better immersion into the VR world views.
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The more I think and analyze this, the more I believe the G2 lenses are calibrated for a shorter focal length and they had to make this compromise in order to support the different refraction indice of the Valve lens material with the same small sized panels as the G1. However this is very uncomfortable to me. The Index focal distance is more than 2m and I can see clearly without any reading glasses with it, with no discomfort nor eye strain after many hours.
If it turns out the G2 focal length is shorter than other headsets (given the number of people complaining about the “sweet spot” there must be something there) I believe this is even more important because it can have further implications with the vergence/accommodation problem: Vergence-Accommodation Conflict
Yesterday I’ve tried pushing the Index even further on the same hardware, thanks to the new SteamVR 1.16.1 beta, and I must say running the Index at SS250 or SS300 (thus using TAA around 60/70 max) was giving me so nice a visual it was seriously competing with the G2 (even more so when you factor in the quality of the Index and the larger FOV). I know it sounds weird but despite the lower panel resolution, when pushing the Index at this level it was not much different in the end that my G2 in practice, because I can’t run the G2 at 100+100 (which is 3K x 3K). And the best of all, it felt natural for my vision to look around both far and close, and after a couple hours I was not feeling any strain either, despite pushing the Index to 160% luminosity sometimes (gorgeous when flying over Dubaii at noon!)