Oculus Quest 2 review

Last years

Oculus Quest

blew us away with its wireless, plug-and-play VR. And as if 2020 wasn't a big enough year for video games (with new consoles on the horizon), Facebook is releasing a brand new

Oculus Quest

2 on October 13, with tweaked controllers, improved specs, and a sleek white look - not to mention an even more affordable $299 price tag.

Oculus Quest 2

7

PICTURES

Design and features

The Quest 2 looks a lot like its predecessor, aside from the new paint job and a slightly smaller frame (which Oculus claims is 10% lighter than the original Quest).

geometric patterns

Where

swiss cheese tracking sensors

– only four cameras along the front corners. Gone is the rough fabric covering the body of the headset, resulting in a more unified look that will likely show dirt more easily - but will also be easier to clean without the fabric. The strap, however , uses a white fabric, which will almost certainly become dirty after sweaty use. (It also seems a bit cheaper than the original Quest's wristband, although its less stiff nature makes the Quest 2 more wearable.) Oculus sells a new Elite strap separately, which uses a plastic halo design with a thumbwheel to tighten. that clicks on the headset at the waist. It's a worthy upgrade, if you can make the extra cash, and there's even one with a battery, for those who spend hours at a time in VR .

Speaking of cash, the Quest 2 is $299, making room-scale VR more affordable than ever. That price is for the 64GB model, and as a Quest owner, I found 64GB more than enough for my use. a whopping 256 GB of storage space (twice as much as the Quest 1 top tier).

The rest of the Quest's specs have been improved too, with 1832 x 1920 resolution per eye (compared to 1600 x 1440 on the original Quest), 90Hz refresh rate (up from 72Hz), 6GB of RAM (against 4 GB) and a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2, which

Qualcomm claims to have twice the CPU and GPU performance

of the Snapdragon 835 of the previous headset. I haven't been able to test 90Hz support, as the games haven't implemented it yet, but hopefully the developers will roll out 90Hz support soon after launch.

The interpupillary distance adjustment (IPD) now only has three settings, rather than being able to adjust it millimeter by millimeter. If you wear glasses, the Quest comes with a glasses spacer, and you still have the option to get prescription lenses for the helmet, but this is a minor downgrade.

Finally, the controllers have an updated design, with better haptic feedback, four times the battery life (according to Oculus) and a larger size with plenty of room for your thumbs to rest without risking accidental pressing. on the buttons. It's a double-edged sword, though, which I'll get to in a moment.

Setup and Requirements

The Quest 2 is just as simple as its predecessor, giving it a big advantage over more complex PC-based VR headsets. Once your headset is charged, all you need to do is download the Oculus app to your phone and follow instructions to set everything up. You will connect to Wi-Fi, put AA batteries in the controller and wait a few minutes for the latest firmware - oh, and log in to your Facebook account, which is required for the Quest 2. Those who use Already Facebook regularly can't problem with it, but for those who are philosophically opposed to Facebook, it's a legitimate dealbreaker for a device that, unfortunately, has no real competition.

Best Gaming Chairs

16

PICTURES

You'll then need to draw the boundaries of your room, which is just as intuitive as on the original Quest: the headset will use its cameras to "walk through" a vision of your room, and you can paint your boundaries along the floor. you get too close to these limits in-game, a virtual grid will appear and warn you that you're about to stick your hand through the wall – or worse, your TV. The bigger the space, the better. is - I use my Quest in a 6x9 space, but I've settled for much smaller in the past. You can just lose a bit of freedom of movement in some games.

That's all there is to it - once you've drawn your boundaries, your quest will remember them unless you take it to a new room, in which case you can take 30 seconds to draw again. The Quest has built-in speakers, but I highly recommend using a

good pair of headphones

Where

listeners

for more realistic sound. You'll also notice that the charging cable is much shorter than the original Quest's, which means you can't charge it while you're playing, i.e. unless that you don't buy your own cable. I don't mind (since wireless gaming is the main draw of the Quest to begin with), but it seems silly that they're skimping on an otherwise cheap part. I got about two and a half hours of intense playtime from the Quest 2's battery, which is similar to the original Quest. That's not a ton of time if you're showing VR to a group of friends, but I find that I usually need a break before two hours if I'm playing alone.

Games

Playing on the Quest 2 is just as smooth and enjoyable as the original Quest: just put on the headset and you're immediately placed in the Oculus Home environment, where you can choose a game from the menu. That is, honestly, which convinced me to trade my

HTC Vive

for a quest: you can go from real life to gaming in 30 seconds, without having to fiddle. The freedom of wireless gaming is hard to explain - you don't think tethering is a big deal until what you were playing without it, and once you do, it's hard to go back. Oculus' backside tracking continues to be excellent, with only minor issues (like when you put your hands behind your head) – more than adequate for the vast majority of gamers. Oculus Hands tracking is also fun for games and demos that support it.

Compared to next to my original Quest, I noticed the Quest 2 does a much better job of blocking outside light around the bridge of your nose - where my original Quest had a large gap, the Quest 2 is almost completely enclosed, which is a more noticeable improvement than you'd expect. The foam is also softer against your face – it's little things like this that push the Quest 2 ahead of its predecessor.

You're still making sacrifices for that convenience, compared to traditional PC-connected headsets, including graphical fidelity and the inability to play high-end games in standalone mode. Thankfully, Oculus Link is officially out of beta , which means you can connect to your PC with a USB-C cable whenever you want to play something not available on the Quest - like Skyrim VR or

Half-Life: Alyx

– or if you just think a game deserves better graphics than Quest's Snapdragon chip can deliver. Oculus Link will also support the Quest 2's 90Hz refresh rate and uses

the same expensive jumper cable

- though there is

plenty of cheaper alternatives

.

The other downside, as before, is the weight. The Quest 2 is lighter than the older model, but still heavier in the front end than other headsets like the Rift S, so you'll need a good one. snug fit to hold it in place, which isn't comfortable for long periods of time. Still, I'd take this game captive any day.

The Quest 2's improved specs should also make for smoother, better-looking games, but for now the experience is essentially the same. The games don't support 90Hz at the time of this writing, and a lot of between them have the same degraded graphics compared to their PC competitors, although I felt the Quest 2 produced a little less color banding in games like

space pirate trainer

.There is still a lot of aliasing around the edges in games - even if the screen resolution is high, many games still run at a lower resolution to keep motion smooth, so higher resolution is primarily an inhibitor of the screen door effect. Ultimately, graphical fidelity is less important than fun experiences, which the Oculus Quest has in spades.(

VR super hot

is easily one of the most enjoyable games you can play right now, despite being incredibly low-poly.)

The controllers were my biggest issue with the Quest 2. While I appreciate the longer battery life (theoretically - I haven't drained them myself yet), I found the larger size more difficult to use, especially in shooters like

Robot reminder

Where

Whip Gun

.Felt like my fingers only covered half of each trigger, making repeated presses more tiring than the original Quest triggers.Someone with bigger hands might not notice as much, and I understand it was done for that extra thumb rest on top, but I personally prefer the ergonomics of the original touch controllers. It's not a compromise, but it's a little disappointing.

Ultimately, Quest 2 doesn't feel like a huge leap forward. Rather, it's a bunch of small steps forward in some areas, with a few small steps back in others. 'one of

best VR headsets

you can buy today, for all the same reasons the original Quest broke the mold - and $100 cheaper to boot. Getting into VR and playing is a seamless, near-instant affair, and the freedom without wire is absolutely invaluable, especially when playing free-roaming games like the upcoming Big Box VR.

Population:One

battle royale (which I had a chance to demo during my review period). Diehard users may still prefer high-level hardware in the

Valve index

, and that's not a big enough jump to justify selling your original Quest, but for just about anyone entering the VR space, the Quest 2 is the headset I would recommend.

Purchase guide

The

Oculus Quest 2 is available for pre-order

now with an MSRP of $299 for the 64GB model and $399 for 256GB of storage. Both will be available for purchase on October 13, 2020.

To see on Amazon

See it at Best Buy

To see at Oculus