It used to be that there were just two basic tiers; Google Cardboard, which had you putting your mobile phone in a special viewer, and wallet-emptyingly expensive headsets. It’s not without competition; HTC manufactures the Vive range, a selection of higher-end headsets including one geared towards office VR. And because it doubles as a PCVR headset, you’ll also have access to a vast number of PC-based VR games, including the highly acclaimed Half-Life: Alyx. But there’s nothing flimsy about the Quest 2; it’s a solid, sleek piece of kit that, while we recommend you take care, has survived being knocked off the table a few times.
We suspected the strap would work its way loose, lacking a proper locking mechanism, but the Quest 2 remained firmly in place and was comfortable . That said, we have reservations about its color as white has a tendency to show up grime and dust and, after a couple of months of use, the strap is starting to look a little gray.
It has built-in 3D audio (with an optional headphone socket), but in order to raise or lower the volume you have to reach for the buttons at the bottom front of the headset. To compound this frustrating requirement, you also need to run the Oculus app on an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet (not a PC) to complete setup.
Even if the Quest 2’s enforced Facebook login has you rolling your eyes, it’s worth tolerating for this headset’s excellent standalone performance. It sports a Snapdragon XR2 chip and 6 GB of memory, a major step up from the first Quest, and we were thoroughly impressed with the Oculus native games and apps we tried. Beat Saber, a rhythm game that can be more than a little frenetic, worked flawlessly and its four cameras were able to track our controller movements even when we dialed up the difficulty. You can, should you so desire, use the headset’s hand-tracking feature with some apps but, while it’s novel, it’s not a patch on using the controllers, and pinching to activate an on-screen object feels unnaturally clunky.
In this case, your PC will be doing most of the heavy lifting so you’ll need to check your machine can run whatever game or application you have in mind. The upcoming VR version of Resident Evil 4 will be the first Quest 2 exclusive and, with Facebook putting their weight behind the headset, you can expect more down the line.
Vader Immortal, while it doesn’t have you playing as the infamous Sith Lord, is a fun foray into the Star Wars universe.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is another stand-out title; dispatching zombies, then realizing how badly you’ve let yourself get outnumbered is quite something. Even if science fiction and horror leave you cold, you’ll find plenty of Quest outings to catch your eye. There are also social apps, hence the Facebook integration, so aside from just chatting in VR, you can watch (paid) movies with other people and share your gameplay. It’s comparable in price to the PlayStation VR (when you factor in the controllers), but offers superior tracking, display quality, and doesn’t require any additional hardware. The Oculus website suggests that this Anker cable is a suitable, much cheaper, substitute and we’ve had absolutely no problems with it. If you want Virtual Reality in 5K and have a powerful PC, the HTC VIVE Pro 2 is designed to deliver stunning visual quality and exceptional comfort.
Oculus Rift vs. HTC Vive: Which Virtual Reality Headset Is Best?
After long being a pipe dream of 90s cyber-culture, virtual reality has finally made solid inroads as a serious consumer technology. VR’s return was kicked off by the Oculus Rift, which got its start as an inexpensive development kit a few years ago and has since seen a full retail release.
The Vive is the Rift’s biggest competitor, and since its launch it’s seen a beefed-up Pro version and an upcoming wireless adapter. Now that they’ve both had a couple of years to grow and refine their experiences, let’s put them head-to-head and compare every feature and characteristic of the headsets to see which one is better!
VR depends on a head-mounted display that can fill your field of view with an image and accurately track every small movement you make while looking around. The HTC Vive Pro offers a significant upgrade in video quality, with dual 1,400-by-1,600 displays.
Video is almost always paired with audio, even though it’s easy to forget that when most of the focus is an eyeball-saturating picture that virtually puts you somewhere else. The requirements for the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive are nearly identical, and if one VR headset works with a system, you can expect the other one to, as well. For either headset, you need a PC with at least an Intel Core i5-4590 CPU and Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 GPU.
HTC recommends at least 4GB of RAM for the Vive, while Oculus says 8GB is needed for the Rift, but you should err on the side of more memory for either headset, and shoot for at least 8GB no matter which one you choose. While the Oculus Rift didn’t launch with motion controllers, it now includes a pair in the standard package. The Vive’s motion controls are button-covered wands that it can track in space with remarkable accuracy.
When one of the motion controllers are activated, it will appear in the Vive’s virtual loading area exactly where it is in the real world, letting you reach out and pick it up with the headset on. We love the Oculus Touch motion controllers, which were originally released as optional accessories for an extra $100 on top of the price of the headset. We haven’t reached the point where our every move can be translated to virtual reality, but the HTC Vive offers the next best thing with whole-room VR.
By mounting two included sensor beacons on your wall at different points, you can define a space measuring at least 6.5-by-5.0 feet that serves as your virtual play area. With SteamVR’s Chaperone and the Vive’s front-facing camera (which is used only for this feature), you can move freely around that space. Virtual walls appear when you get too close to the edge, and the camera kicks in so you can make sure you don’t trip on anything in front of you when you start to stray outside the bounds.
Each store has some compelling and interesting VR experiences, though there isn’t a major headset-selling AAA title in either yet. The Rift edges out the Vive in terms of selection, because it can easily access both SteamVR and the Oculus Store. You need more USB 3.0 ports than the Vive, but plugging in the headset and sensor is much easier than running cables from a central link box to the headset, your PC, and a power outlet, while making sure two additional sensors on your walls are plugged into their own outlets. It’s $800 just for the headset, and you need to spend another $300 for the Vive Accessories Starter Kit to get motion controllers and the required external sensors.
Oculus Quest 2 review: better, cheaper VR
Oculus has kept that standalone Quest design with the same feature set, while improving its screen, reducing its weight, and — with one noteworthy caveat — making it more comfortable. Facebook-owned Oculus has become known for its all-black flagship devices, but the Quest 2 has a pure white body and a black foam face mask, giving it a two-toned appearance. The Quest 2’s screen resolution has leapfrogged most other VR headsets, offering 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye compared to the original’s 1440 x 1600; Oculus also promises to upgrade the suboptimal 72Hz refresh rate to 90Hz after launch. Oculus is also offering an alternate strap option, though: a padded plastic ring that rests more easily around your head and tightens with a convenient wheel at the back.
Wired ones need their long cords pinned behind the straps, and Oculus apparently isn’t planning wireless earbud support anytime soon — Quest 2 team lead Prabhu Parthasarathy says latency is too big an issue. But it’s a little frustrating that Oculus isn’t including the improved strap and earbuds by default, since new headset owners won’t necessarily realize how much better their experience could be.
Early Quest 2 leaks prompted fears that Oculus might be ditching focus adjustment — the option to move a headset’s lenses to match different interpupillary distances, improving the experience for a wider range of users. Instead of moving a smooth slider on the headset’s underside, you have to remove it and snap the lenses to one of three distance settings, then put it back on to see the improvement. It’s also slowly being rolled out to third-party apps, including the workplace social tool Spatial — a good, low-pressure test case where you don’t need perfectly reliable fast-twitch motion. But gestures like pinching or turning your palm can be either accidentally triggered or fail to register, and when you’re using your hand to move a cursor, it doesn’t always point where you’d expect. Upcoming games include Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, created by Lucasfilm effects studio ILMxLAB; a VR installment of Sniper Elite; a Jurassic Park puzzle game called Jurassic World Aftermath; a shooter set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe; and a VR adaptation of Myst. Stealth game Phantom: Covert Ops pushes the limits of the Quest’s power and screen with a large, dark, and low-contrast world, but its clever conceit — you’re infiltrating secret bases and assassinating enemies from a kayak — easily makes up for it.
That includes upcoming battle royale game Population: One, which will be released in the fall of 2020 and features cross-play across HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, and Oculus headsets. The Quest got a huge boost last year with Link, a feature that lets it play PC VR games with a USB-C connection. While I expressed some frustration with the system this spring, it worked great with the Quest 2, in part because the official Link cable is an improvement over a much cheaper USB-C option like the Anker Powerline.
The Oculus Quest 2 retains current-generation VR’s baseline flaws: it’s grainy, bulky, and socially maladroit compared to a modern phone or laptop. Motion sickness can still be a problem in VR, but as developers have learned better design tricks and headset tracking has improved, it’s become easier to find experiences that don’t trigger it. Facebook already owned all the information it collected through Oculus, including some data that’s predictable (your app usage history) and some that’s less obvious (how you draw the boundaries on your play space.) I don’t regularly check Facebook, but based on a recent scroll through the News Feed, it’s currently trying to sell me on distance learning and Nextdoor — not the latest VR shooter. The company’s new terms of use suggest you can lose access to content if you do something like make a Facebook account with a fake name, but Oculus says the details are still being worked out.
But Facebook moderation happens on such a huge scale that individual users can get stuck in the system, and the prospect of losing access to your purchased games and hardware is a scary one. Facebook could theoretically link VR activity to social media accounts before, but going forward, it’s automatically adding a whole new set of data points to an already vast catalog of your behavior. As Road to VR outlined last month, for instance, Facebook’s invite-only Horizon social space includes the option to have a moderator invisibly surveil your conversations with another person for potential rule-breaking. This is an extension of standard gaming moderation practices — Sony and Microsoft, for instance, let you report abusive private messages.
Facebook has discussed opening a less restrictive store for a wider range of apps, but it declined to offer more detail at this time, suggesting that developers build for PC if they want to experiment. Some social VR developers are already complaining about Facebook suppressing competition, and the Quest 2 only increases its power to set the terms of engagement — and potentially the kinds of games that headset users see.
Facebook’s VR head start is growing, and the coming year could set industry expectations for privacy, developer autonomy, and basic consumer-friendliness.
Oculus Quest 2 Review
Oculus tinkered with standalone virtual reality with its Go headset, but it wasn’t until the Quest that the company really nailed a genuinely immersive VR experience without any cables. The Quest 2 is a bit smaller and lighter than the original, weighing 17.7 ounces and measuring 4.0 by 7.5 by 5.6 inches (HWD), not including the strap.
The eye mask easily pulls out to let you adjust the position of the lenses, or to insert the included separator that lifts the headset slightly away from your face so you can comfortably use it with glasses. It’s fast and simple to adjust the headset with its default strap, but it doesn’t provide the most secure fit to keep it in place, and it can shift if you move your head quickly or sharply.
The new design makes the controllers feel a bit thicker in the hand and easier to hold securely, and the battery door is less prone to sliding off during intense gameplay sessions. While you can use your hands to navigate the Quest 2’s menu system, you’re prompted to use the controllers when launching Netflix or YouTube VR, for instance. This is impressive in and of itself, as the Quest 2’s $300 price makes it the most affordable Snapdragon 865-based device available in North America by far (phones with the same chip sell for around $1,000). You can access plenty of entertaining software through the store without needing to use a PC, including Beat Saber, Rez Infinite, Superhot VR, Tetris Effect, and more. It’s a 16.4-foot (5m) USB-C cable designed to let you connect the Quest 2 to a compatible PC to access its VR software library. First, a PC simply provides far more power than even the Snapdragon 865 processor can offer, enabling more graphically advanced VR software like Half-Life: Alyx. The Quest 2 uses the same Guardian system as its predecessor, which lets you draw boundaries around your play space so the headset can warn you if you’re about to step out of the designated area (and perhaps bump into something). It works well, remembering the specific areas you choose, or letting you set up a stationary circle for games that don’t require a lot of movement or walking around.
The headset tracked my controller movements accurately, letting me carefully aim different firearms at pop-up targets with precision. The higher resolution helped me pick out distant targets and better align head shots, for an entertaining simulator experience. Superhot VR is a first-person shooter where time only passes when you move, letting you pull off incredible feats of disarming and marksmanship. The Quest 2 tracked my head and the controllers perfectly, letting me dodge bullets and pick off attackers like John Wick. The original Oculus Quest was a VR breath of fresh air with its 6DOF head and controller tracking, strong performance, and, most importantly, standalone functionality. Optional PC tethering with accessory cable View More Cons Short battery life The Bottom Line The Oculus Quest 2 improves on nearly everything from the original at a more affordable price, making it the best $300 VR headset for newbies and experienced users alike.
The Best VR Headsets for 2022
With a headset and motion tracking, VR lets you look around a virtual space as if you’re actually there, or play a game as though you’re in it. VR’s been gaining traction in recent years thanks to compelling games and experiences, though it still seems very much in a state of flux, with headsets coming and going fairly rapidly. Oculus is focusing its efforts on a standalone VR headset, the Quest 2, but providing the option to connect it to a PC. The cable makes them a bit unwieldy, but putting all of the actual video processing in a box that you don’t need to directly strap to your face means your VR experience can be a lot more complex.
Either external sensors or outward-facing cameras provide full 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) movement tracking for both your head and your hands, thanks to motion-sensing controllers. Standalone headsets offer the greatest physical freedom by completely removing the cables and not requiring an external device to handle processing.
The Quest 2 lacks a dedicated gaming PC’s processing power, but its high-end mobile processor can still push detailed, smooth graphics. The company’s bowing out of the dedicated, tethered VR headset, though, discontinuing the Rift S in favor of focusing entirely on the standalone Quest 2. That’s hard to swallow, even if the Index features a 120Hz refresh rate, notably higher than most of its competitors (with an experimental 144Hz mode). They can track individual finger movements, making games (that take advantage of them) much more immersive than the standard trigger grips on other controllers.
This high-end PC VR headset targets both enthusiasts and professionals, with the sharpest picture available at 2,448 by 2,448 pixels per eye. It features a higher resolution, and replaces the external base stations with outward-facing cameras for motion tracking.
There are some excellent games on PS VR like Moss, Rez Infinite, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, and Five Nights at Freddie’s: Help Wanted. The newly rebranded-to-Meta Facebook might eventually be pushing the Quest 2 and other Oculus devices even further, with a bigger eye for broad platform integration. The company’s plans to build a “metaverse” will likely include AR and VR systems, and the Oculus division would be the natural means for that. VP of AR/VR at Facebook, Andrew Bosworth, has stated that the metaverse will “build the connective tissue” between Oculus headsets and other Facebook/Meta devices, so they will certainly be involved. You might have seen some other famous visual headsets pop up over the last few years, including the Microsoft HoloLens and the Magic Leap One. Basically, these AR headsets have transparent lenses that let you look at your surroundings instead of completely replacing your vision with a computer-generated image.
You can make a web browser pop up in the middle of a room, for instance, or watch animals run around your coffee table.
Oculus Quest 2 VR headset review: the virtual escape from Covid-19 we need?
The Quest 2 costs £299 and comes with everything you need to start playing – there’s no powerful gaming PC required. The original Quest released in 2019 marked a defining moment in the evolution of VR breaking it free from the shackles of cables and expensive computers – and proving more popular than expected in the process. It is a set of goggles with a foam faceplate and elasticated straps that fit over your head and round the back so you wear it a bit like a baseball cap. New for this year is a higher density, faster screen that has 50% more pixels than its predecessor and will run up to a 90Hz refresh rate, much like 2020’s top-end smartphones.
It looks really good and existing games from the Quest library automatically benefit from the improvements, running at a refresh rate of 72Hz initially with an increase to the full 90Hz coming soon via a software update. A decent set of stereo speakers are built into the side arms of the strap and produce immersive positional audio.
The Quest 2 is the first VR headset I’ve tried that doesn’t leave goggle marks on my face after an hour or so, remaining comfortable, if a little sweaty, after a solid two-hour play session. A game of Arizona Sunshine would drain the battery in about two and a half hours, which was frankly long enough for a continuous play session.
Facebook does publish annual sustainability reports and recently pledged to cut emissions to net zero across all of its operations.
The controllers are lighter, last up to four times longer per AA battery and have much improved vibrations for haptic feedback such as the pulse of a lightsaber or clashing of swords compared to those that came with the original Quest headset. The Quest 2 therefore has quite a large library of quality VR titles ranging from indie games to big-name brands that are increasingly coming on board. Oculus said the original Quest sold so well it couldn’t keep up with demand and that developers report the platform has become their most profitable.
In an industry that is still fairly niche, a profitable platform is a very positive step towards a healthy ecosystem for developers which means better games and apps for users. The Star Wars Vader Immortal adventure series is really good too, while Arizona Sunshine is an engaging romp through a zombie-filled landscape. The recent Tetris Effect is pretty addictive, while Star Trek Bridge Crew, Job Simulator and Cook-Out offer completely different experiences.
Some games are single player, some can be played cooperatively or are multiplayer, while others, such as Beat Saber are best shared with others on a play-and-pass basis.
You simply buy and download a game via the Oculus smartphone app or website, or on the headset itself, then launch and play. While the Quest 2 is a all-in-one VR solution, you can also connect it to a PC using a USB-C cable and the Oculus Link software, which effectively turns the headset into a Rift S. That way you can play all the Rift-platform games plus those from other platforms, such as Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx.
The Quest 2 feels pretty robust, but the lenses are delicate and must not be exposed to direct sunlight as it may damage the screen. I couldn’t leave the house but I explored a sun-drenched Arizona, the depths of a lava-covered planet and the streets of a virtual city, and felt refreshed and invigorated by it.
Instead it is a refinement on every level built to continue the Quest platform, which is rapidly becoming the go-to for great VR games and experiences. At £299 the Quest 2 is a really great VR headset at a much more affordable price and designed with mainstream players in mind, which building on the success of its predecessor is likely to be a hit. Pros: cheaper, lighter, great screen, comfortable, cable and PC-free quality VR, console-like simplicity, excellent library of games and experiences, better haptics, great controllers, hand-tracking, built-in mics and speakers, can be used as a PC headset. Cons: Facebook account required, VR not for everyone, difficult to repair, battery life could be longer, charging could be faster.
Oculus Quest 2 review
Facebook (now called Meta) just announced its latest VR headset – dubbed Project Cambria – at its most recent Connect event, with the company explaining that this new device will be home to groundbreaking technology which aims to help establish the earliest days of its ambitious ‘metaverse’. The Quest 2 allows you to (almost literally) step inside gaming worlds, as well as access 360-degree video content and apps covering all genres.
It’s similar to the original Oculus Quest in that it’s a battery-powered, standalone headset that allows you to freely roam around your physical and digital play spaces without fear of tripping over a wire.
What’s more, where the Quest 2 is concerned developers now have the option to make their games run at 90Hz (this is important for increased comfort and even more realism while playing), and the headset itself is noticeably lighter than before, with double the battery life in the controllers. Though some will shudder at the newly-introduced Facebook account requirement (more on this below) or the recent introduction of ads, the Oculus Quest 2 is superb when playing with friends, whether you choose to do that through online avatars, or in the same physical room thanks to the option to Google Cast whatever you’re viewing within your headset to a nearby display. And yet, while Quest 2 is the most accessible and feature-rich VR headset we’ve tested to date, it still falls foul of some of the same pitfalls that virtual reality as a whole suffers from.
There’s still the chance you’ll experience a degree of motion sickness, depending on your constitution, which is unavoidable on most headsets – even those that claim to have solved these problems – and might require you to introduce yourself to VR more gradually to avoid the telltale signs. The passthrough tech will essentially act as an overlay to your VR activities, and will be able to provide experiences based in social, productivity and gaming-focused areas.
Developers will be able to patch in passthrough API features into their games and apps later this year, and the update could allow dev teams to add even more value and functionality to their projects. As mentioned, the tech is only available to Oculus Quest 2 developers at present, but we’ll update the review when we’ve had the chance to test out some of these passthrough features in the near future. It’s certainly not cheap, but considering it’s a contained experience that doesn’t require a PC, console or even an additional screen in order to work with it, it represents great value. Where a scuba mask’s window would be, you’ve instead got a padded cavity that houses a pair of goggle-like lenses that sit in front of a screen, giving you stereoscopic 3D visuals.
It’s a similarly lightweight design to the first Oculus Quest (now available in white plastic rather than a dust-hugging, fabric-covered black) with its outer shell housing external cameras that help to track your positioning and that of the supplied controllers. While most won’t notice any difference (the three settings cover the most common IPD ranges), it’s a shame that more delicate control has been lost. Oculus has managed this thanks to significant improvements to its tracking algorithms, which extend to the controllers too, now offering double the battery life (we’re talking weeks of constant play) compared to their predecessors. They’re reasonably clear and loud enough to get across the drama and directional audio feedback of your games, while keeping your ears free in order to allow you some awareness of your physical surroundings.
You’ll turn on the headset after its first charge, and be showed a few safety clips, and a very short intro video that introduces you to controllers and how their wand like point-and-trigger system can be used to navigate menus. Facebook admits that may change over time as developers get more to grips with the increased specs potential of the new model, but for now anyone rocking the first-gen edition won’t get locked out of upcoming experiences.
Resolution is markedly sharper, the whole system and its menus feels dramatically more responsive than even the snappy earlier edition, and, where it will become buttery smooth in motion in 90Hz apps. It’s this last point that’s perhaps the biggest, most exciting change – should developers choose to take advantage of it, they can now activate a 90Hz refresh rate mode in their existing titles.
Though a tolerance to VR motion sickness can be built up over time, be prepared to limit your play sessions accordingly, or keep a bucket handy. Many games thankfully have various comfort settings that can ease you in, such as snap turning, or features to make moving on the spot less sickening, so you should be able to find something that works for you.
VR can be educational – there are applications talking you through historical moments, such as a touching look at the life of Anne Frank, and one letting you visit the Chernobyl disaster zone. There are great apps from National Geographic and other organisations that let you visit locations around the world for a spot of virtual tourism, while also opening up the very real dangers of climate change.
With fitness studios and meditation spots also available in app form, if you can visit it in the real world, there’s a good chance there’s a VR alternative being developed, or already in existence. Should you be lucky enough to have a decent-spec gaming PC, you can use the Oculus Quest 2 to tap into tethered virtual reality experiences powered by your computer. It’s simply a matter of plugging in a high speed USB 3.0 cable to your headset, setting up the PC-based Oculus launcher and store on your computer, and grabbing the apps that take your fancy. In addition, PC-based experiences, by virtue of the potential GPU horsepower behind them, can be more detailed and ambitious by an order of magnitude than their mobile counterparts.
With the greater power of a PC at hand, the Quest is capable of taking advantage of some really impressive adventures, such as the god-stomping Asgard’s Wrath and mind-blowing Lone Echo. Offering access to both these play scenarios through one headset line is a wise move by Facebook, reducing the amount of hardware it supports.
We wouldn’t want to see apps focus solely on the lower-powered mobile headset and give a cold shoulder to the more powerful made-for-PC experiences that can be achieved. What has however started to come through is third party accessories, like the Customizable Facial Interface & Foam Replacement set from VR Cover, pictured below: On sale from VR Cover’s online store at $29 (about £25 / AU$42) it includes a replaceable facial interface that includes venting for passively reducing heat from the display to reduce the build up of humidity, as well as a pair (thick and thin) of leatherette padded foam cushions for the inside of the headset, which is far more comfortable than the default standard the Quest 2 ships with. Self-contained and remarkably easy to use, Oculus Quest 2 represents the very best of VR gaming and experiences, in a package that even a technological novice can set up and appreciate. Oculus Quest 2 can be enjoyed by anyone, thanks to the way it scales its Guardian room tracker from seated, to standing, to free roaming experiences. But Quest 2 is at its best when you’ve got a large (indoor) space to roam around, free of obstacles to break the illusion of wandering around a digital world.
There’s lots of ways to minimise this effect, including not playing racing or flying games, but it’s a consideration that doesn’t usually have to be made with other platforms and media.
The Best VR Headset
The lack of external sensors that a headset like the Valve Index uses to carefully replicate your hand movements in VR might be missing here, but we found the Quest 2’s controllers still accurate enough to fly through difficult levels of Beat Saber without frustration.
Oculus Quest 2 Review
The Takeaway: The Oculus Quest 2 is a wireless standalone virtual reality headset that creates shared digital spaces over the internet. There’s no external tracking sensors, wires, or PC needed, so you can take the Quest 2 on the move and share gameplay with a group using a Chromecast-equipped TV or streaming stick.
New apps, games, and software drop weekly with highly anticipated titles like Resident Evil 4: VR edition launching exclusively on the Quest 2 later this year. Unlike any other VR system that is able to fully track your body or room, the Quest 2 doesn’t rely on a separate console or computer. A majority of the online crowd is made up of millennials, with fairly active experiences like rock climbing or military simulators drawing people in after the workday. The Quest 2 can provide a simulated office environment so you can work from beaches or mountain tops, a home gym, and even a personal movie theater that you can use by yourself or open up to others.
An accurate sense of scale, realistic physics, and expressive avatars converge to create a virtual online world that anyone with a Quest and Wi-Fi connection can access and interact with. This view is called passthrough and combines the real world with augmented-reality elements such as a virtual barrier dubbed the Guardian Boundary System and floor grid.
Confirming your play space is properly sized and obstruction-free with the tap of a button causes the real world to disintegrate, and you’re whisked away into a virtual environment facing a universal menu.
Similar to a phone’s user interface, here you can download games or apps, invite friends to meet up in virtual spaces, and even cast your activity to a Chromecast so others in the same room as you can see what you’re doing in the headset. A built-in Snapdragon mobile chip is powerful enough to run the operating system and render immersive worlds without any lag for up to three hours before requiring a charge. Without any wires, sensors, or gaming consoles needed, you can simply put on this lightweight pair of goggles and take it on the move as a portable system.
This is a huge deal because high-performance wired headsets like the are much more expensive (the Index kit is $1,000) and have a cumbersome setup that requires base tracking stations and room calibration processes that aren’t travel-friendly. Yes, I’ve gotten lost in games of Superhot and played through the meaty campaign of the Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, but 90 percent of my time in VR is spent online in social multiplayer applications with both friends and strangers from across the globe. When playing a shooter like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on a console, I can use a controller to crouch and aim instantaneously, relying on twitch reflexes and a headset to communicate with teammates. The sense of immersion and danger is heightened by the surround sound carried through the headstrap, with 3D audio that precisely captures the direction of footsteps or the angle from which a bullet is whizzing by without the need for external headphones. When the pandemic brought poker nights to a stop, my friend group moved to playing PokerStars VR and Venmoing the winner cash. While I’m all for playing poker against a cyberpunk skyline backdrop or aboard a yacht in Montecarlo, these venues are a far cry from the cramped suburban homes my group is used to.
Being together in these spaces lets us escape to the same shared dreamscape and interact with the same things, something I especially value since moving out of easy driving distance earlier this year. I enjoy poker night much more now that we can virtually rip cigars out of each others’ mouths and throw them around, shoot laser pointers in each other’s eyes, and interact with a sandbox of toys while waiting for action on the table. Your Avatar connects to Facebook Messenger, which acts as your Quest’s social hub to keep in touch with friends, organize group calls, and launch into games together. Surreal and free, Facebook does a pretty good job balancing the removal of trolls through built-in security tools while also letting players have fun with the medium. While Oculus irons software kinks out and streamlines the metaverse closer to our grasp, there’s so much to do and explore both by yourself and with other people for a shared experience that truly feels refreshing. This is a smart move to get hardware sales flowing, as Half:Life Alyx generated huge headset interest when it launched as a VR-exclusive title in 2019.
Population:One doesn’t hail from an established franchise but taps into the trending battle royale genre and updates it with mechanics only possible in virtual reality. During lockdown I was able to watch comedy sets, award shows, and events live with an active crowd through Facebook’s Venues social hub app.
Pairing my mechanical Bluetooth keyboard to my Quest 2 and using the virtual office app Spatial allows me to work with three massive floating browser tabs in my view. While VR headsets are primarily associated with gaming, too few people realize the productivity benefits and potential to be a tool for the future of online work and communication.
Outside of gaming and productivity, fitness apps like Supernatural genuinely make you sweat and provide a stimulating workout environment that keeps you pushing for your goals. I’ve seen models come and go, attended virtual reality conferences, and owned a majority of VR headsets to date with the exception of Valve’s premium Index system.
Best VR headsets to buy in 2021
Despite all that, the Quest 2 remains an extremely strong entry point to VR that doesn’t look like it will become obsolete next year. The more expensive and business-targeted Vive Focus 3 shows where more premium standalone VR headsets could evolve. Sarah Tew/CNET Good: Self-contained and wireless; great touch controllers; comfortable design for gaming; doubles as PC VR headset Bad: Requires Facebook account At $299 with nothing else needed, the Oculus Quest 2 delivers virtual reality games and an immersive VR experience anywhere.
It’s faster, smaller, cheaper and more comfortable to wear than the original Quest, but you have to log in to Facebook in order to use it. The Quest 2 reminds me of the Nintendo Switch for its versatility and fun, plus it takes mere seconds to start up and fits really well over glasses. Its more limited mobile processor still plays games such as Beat Saber, Moss and SuperHot VR extremely well, and it can even connect with a PC if you want to, using a single USB-C cable. The 2,160×2,160-per-eye resolution and 114-degree field of view are the best at this price range, and the lightweight, comfy headset also has fantastic drop-down speakers designed by Valve. Built-in camera-based room-tracking is easier to set up than the Valve Index’s external base stations, but is more prone to tracking errors. Sarah Tew/CNET Good: Amazing futuristic controllers; high-quality headset; works with Vive hardware Bad: Expensive; requires room setup and tethering cable Valve’s headset might be the most interesting PC virtual reality experience this year, just for its fancy new controllers. Not many apps make the most of them yet, but Valve’s hardware is mix-and-match compatible with the HTC Vive, which also is built on the Steam VR platform. It’s not as self-contained as Oculus’ Rift S, which can track the room with in-headset cameras, or the HTC Vive Cosmos. Sarah Tew/CNET Good: Plenty of games; lower price; works with many PS4 controllers like the DualShock and Move Bad: Resolution isn’t cutting-edge; Sony hasn’t yet made great VR controllers that match the competition, but a new version may be coming next year Sony’s years-old PSVR headset is still the only head-mounted display for gaming consoles and its screen still offers a surprisingly immersive experience.
But Sony’s confirmed it’s working on a next-gen PSVR headset for the PS5, with a new set of controllers, that could be coming in 2022 if you want to wait. There are a lot of expected headsets next year, as I mentioned above: Meta’s Project Cambria, PlayStation VR 2 and Apple’s mystery device. VR is a technology that’s still in flux, with companies aiming for products that are smaller and more able to be connected to devices like phones. The Quest 2 is by far the best value, and it also happens to be the best-designed headset with the most upside at the moment, as long as you’re OK with the proposition of living under Meta’s metaverse umbrella and Facebook’s data policies. Most PC VR headsets have similar controller designs, and can bridge to work tools and apps. Take extra care with the lenses, which should be cleaned gently with microfiber cloths the same way you’d treat glasses (don’t use liquids).
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