Oculus Quest Review: A Compelling New VR Entry
The team at Tech Report was lucky enough to test out Oculus' latest and greatest virtual reality (VR) entertainment device: Oculus Quest.
Oculus Quest is the fourth consumer VR headset released by Oculus. Its siblings include Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, and Oculus Go. Like the Oculus Go, Quest has a standalone design, which means there are no wires; no PC is required to play. Unlike Oculus Go, however, Quest is designed for both mobile viewing and gaming purposes - with an emphasis on gaming.
We can honestly say we love Oculus Quest. Although the VR industry is still in its early days, Quest is the best "VR for the masses" product we've seen to date.
Now let's get into it!
Unboxing Oculus Quest
Oculus Quest comes in a sleek box, ready to rock and roll. In the box, you'll find your headset, two touch controllers, a power adapter, a charging cable, a glasses spacer, an instruction manual, and two batteries for your controllers. Yes, batteries are included.
Quest has a sleek matte black design, with three straps to secure the device to your head. The sides are covered in a tough fabric with an inner foam lining around the goggles, giving it a tight, yet comfortable, feel.
The weight is slightly heavier than wired Oculus devices, but I didn't find it hindered the experience in the slightest. Considering how much computing power is built into the headset, it's considerably light.
Setting Up Oculus QuestSetting up the device is a breeze: You'll simply need to download the Oculus app on your iOS or Android device and connect the headset to your phone and a wireless network.
The controllers are quite sturdy as well. They're essentially smaller versions of the existing Oculus Touch controllers, with tracking rings on the top instead of the bottom. The controllers are quite ergonomic to your hand, which you'll find is quite important for gameplay. The majority of games like to incorporate your hands in the experience, asking you to make fists, grab items, throw items, and more.
Once your headset is on and controllers are connected, you'll truly get to experience the mobility of the tetherless device.
Our team was able to test two of the more popular experiences on the VR market today: "Beat Saber" and "Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series - Episode II." If you're a VR fan, you've probably seen or heard of the "Beat Saber" experience before, so to give you some new insights, we'll talk about some saber action over on Mustafar.
"Vader Immortal - Episode II" really allows you to test out the 360-degree action and movement tracking of the Oculus Quest. Prior to starting any game, Quest requires you to draw a "guardian" safety system, which essentially acts as your boundary while you play. As you approach the edges of your boundary, you'll see faint gridlines reminding you to step back into your zone. This is quite an awesome step toward building a portable everyday VR gaming device.
The movement tracking is also quite impressive. We can thank what Oculus calls "Oculus Insight inside-out tracking," which uses ultra-wide-angle sensors on the side of the headset, as well as computer vision algorithms, to translate your movements into VR. All this computing power is handled by a Snapdragon 835 processor.
"Vader Immortal - Episode II" was nothing short of amazing. While the experience is short, it's a truly remarkable VR experience. The experience features responsive combat scenes, 360-degree action, and stunning graphics. We've seen some reviews talk about how the visuals are still a bit grainy and scenes can be laggy, but we didn't experience much of that at all. Sure, VR still has some ways to go to match what we see produced by other consoles, but it doesn't hinder the experience in the slightest.
One of the more memorable scenes from "Vader Immortal - Episode II" allows you to climb up and down walls using the controllers, squeezing the triggers to grab rungs of the ladder. In any other video game experience, this would be a trivial task. On Quest, this was one of the most immersive experiences we've had in game. (And trust me, the Tech Report team has played a lot of video games.) Besides climbing ladders, you get to use the force to battle droids, slash bogies with your lightsaber, and meet Vader face to face in the game. Needless to say, we can't wait for "Vader Immortal - Episode III."
Oculus Quest most definitely has our stamp of approval. It's a huge step toward creating a VR device optimized for the everyday user. We're confident Quest is going to lead to much wider adoption of VR devices, which is hugely important for future advancements in the industry.
With tethered VR devices, you need to bring friends, family, and others to your PC/VR setup to get the experience. With Oculus Quest, we were able to bring the device to the office, friends' houses, and even outside to experience the gameplay. This means more headsets on more faces, which also means more VR fans.
Oculus Quest comes in at an affordable $399 for 64GB and $499 for 128GB. This price point is competitive considering it's an all-in-one console.
Happy hunting!
The post Oculus Quest Review: A Compelling New VR Entry appeared first on The Tech Report.