If there is one modern technology that hasn’t really tapped into the entirety of its potential, it’s Virtual Reality. As interesting as VR is, it still hasn’t reached the mass. Well at least not as much as it was speculated when it first started gaining some interest. In fact, a majority of the people are yet to even have their first taste of virtual reality.
Many devices were launched that were geared towards utilizing Virtual Reality. None of those managed to garner the attention of the masses. But something happened in 2019 that started changing all these. That something was the launch of the Oculus Quest.
- All-in-one VR: Simply set up the device with your Oculus mobile app and Oculus Quest has everything you need to explore VR, right out of the box
- Insight tracking: Oculus Insight tracking system instantly reflects your movements in VR without the need for any external accessories
- Touch controllers: Oculus Touch controllers precisely recreate your hands, their gestures and interactions, so every game is real enough to reach out and touch
Oculus Quest Launch
Oculus Quest was launched in May 2019. This was a truly revolutionary product that changed the Virtual Reality. It’s not that it was the first such device to be launched. In fact, there were many other VR headsets that was launched before that. But they either didn’t provide the full VR experience or they were too expensive for the general public. Oculus Quest changed that. It had enough features to provide a good enough VR experience. It was also priced at a mid range so that it was accessible to a larger no of people. Let us now check out the different aspects of the Oculus Quest.
Oculus Quest Review
1. Oculus Quest Design
The Oculus Quest is one of the most well built VR headsets. It feels like a solid and well-designed piece of kit. It has got an all-round design and build quality that makes up for a really comfortable usage. In addition to that it is one of the best-looking VR headsets available out there. Quest is a standalone VR headset. That means that everything it needs to run is already built into the device. It has a heavier body, but the design is much more comfortable. This is because of its foam faceplate which puts less direct pressure on your forehead. Additionally the head strap expands and retracts from the hinges. This gives you enough room to pull it on and fit it to your head without having to adjust it every time.
2. Oculus Quest Dimensions
The Oculus Quest is just the perfect size. It has a measurement of 120mm x 110mm x 90mm. The measurements might not give you a clear picture. But in hand it felt very compact. It is also very light in weight. This is a great achievement considering how it is able to power all your virtual experience on its own.
At the top there is a printed logo of Oculus. The exterior on the front has a black matte finish. On the sides there is a tough fabric that covers the entirety of the sides. This kind of mimics fabric that is found in the Oculus Go, their budget VR headset. On the other side, the goggles are surrounded by foams all around its inner lining. If you ask us, this has one of the most comfortable and properly fitting straps that we have used till now.
To make sure the headset is properly secured to the user’s head there are three different velcro straps. There is a strap each on both the sides and also a third one on the top. This not only helps you in easily adjusting the headset before you put it on but also after you put it on. This is very handy because there is a high probability that the headset will move during the gameplay. This is ideal for you in case you need to tighten it.
The back of your head is covered by a rubberized, triangle-shaped headband. This headband is attached to the three velcro straps. As a result of this, the headset stays secure and in its place. Even hours of repeated movements won’t loosen it up.
There’s a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the side of the headset. There are also three different buttons. One is a power button, to turn the headset On or Off. The other two buttons turn the volume up and down.
The weight distribution of the headset was uniform and it felt very comfy. This is important cause the Quest is built for a huge no of movement. It also includes a lot of turning and looking up and down.
Like the other VR headsets, the Oculus Quest also had a little bit of light leakage. This results in the breaking of immersion. This has a mixed feeling among the users. While some feel it helps them in case they feel a little motion sickness. On the other hand a few people are bothered by this. Some people totally ignore this. Whatever your stance is on this, just know there will be a slight leakage of light.
The fit is generally snug but there’s some slight leakage around the nose. This wasn’t as bad as the Go or other headsets we’ve tried, mostly because it’s small and we’d not even noticed it until we were a few games in.
Using the headset for hours didn’t have any adverse effects. It just resulted in the building up of a little pressure on the back of the head as well as the cheekbones. This however didn’t hurt at all. In fact the pressure went away soon after the headset was taken off. This is way better than what it was with the Oculus Go, where it took a little longer for the pressure to ease off.
Similar to the two other VR headsets from Oculus, Go and Rift, the Quest also has a slider to adjust the focal distance between the lenses. The slider is located under the front panel of the headset. it is hidden from the plain view. The slider helps you in adjusting the focal length to suit your viewing preference. This results in added clarity which makes your VR experience more enjoyable.
3. Oculus Quest Accessories
The Oculus Quest includes a Quest headset, touch controllers, power adapter, charging cable, glasses spacer, batteries and instructions. All of these come out of the box.
The glasses spacer is a good addition. As anyone who has tried glasses with a VR headset will know, they’re necessary but can get squashed or make the headset sit weirdly.
4. Oculus Quest Controls
The Quest comes with two different controllers. Each of the controllers is equipped with thumbsticks. There are buttons on the top. A separate button for the trigger functionality is also present underneath. Additionally, there is a grip button at the side. Both the controllers are powered by two AA batteries, which are also included. Overall the controllers are of very good quality and perfectly compliment the headset. The controllers feel just like the other existing controllers. Only smaller in size. The other difference is that the tracking ring on these controllers are on the top as compared to the other controllers, where the tracking rings were on the bottom.
The controllers have an ergonomic design, which provides a good comfort when using it for a longer period of time. The build quality is very excellent and has a premium feel to them.
The Oculus Quest includes a game called First Steps. This game serves as a tutorial for the users to get accustomed to the headset. It also provides the user with a way of testing out the different controls. This way the user can get familiar with the controls.
Overall, the Oculus Quest has a lovely design. It goes a step further with it’s untethered freedom and a very compact design. Taking all these into account, Oculus has done a fantastic job with the design of its headset.
5. Oculus Quest Features
There is one very simple rule when it comes to gadgets. No matter how good the design is if the features aren’t great then it is of no use. Well lucky for us, Quest has both. It has some very interesting features to go with its brilliant design. Let us look at a few of those features. All of these features are highlighted in the product’s official site.
Best All in One Virtual Reality Headset
This is pretty self-explanatory. With the Oculus Quest you don’t require any other devices. The Quest is a standalone VR headset. It is an all-in-one gaming system built for virtual reality. Now all you need is the Oculus Quest and you can play almost anywhere with the VR headset and controllers.
No Wires. No Limits.
The Oculus Quest is completely wireless. You can take it with you to anywhere you want. You no longer have to worry about getting tangled in the wires. Play with complete freedom.
Oculus Insight Tracking
With Oculus Insight, Quest can translate your movements into VR. It doesn’t matter which way you’re facing, it will get the correct orientation. It also provides pinpoint room-scale tracking without needing any external sensors. So you can look around, duck for cover or any other kind of movements that you want. The Quest allows it all.
Built-In Audio
Oculus Quest also includes built-in audio. It provides a direct positional audio straight from the headset. So you don’t require an extra pair of headphones. However we suggest using one because that gives a way better experience.
Oculus Guardian System
With its Guardian System, the Quest remembers the boundaries of your playing space. you just need to set it up once. Once that is done it will help you avoid nearby objects while you’re in-game. It will also make sure you are inbound and stay inside the boundary.
Two Touch Controllers
As we discussed above, Oculus Quest comes with two touch controllers. This enables you to transport your hands and gestures directly into the game.
The Oculus Quest manages to provide an excellent gaming experience with its huge range of features. Let us now have a look at its specs.
Specs
The Oculus Quest has a pretty impressive list of specs if you consider how much it costs. Following is what it offers.
- Display panel: Oculus Quest is equipped with an OLED display.
- Display resolution: The display resolution of the Quest is 1440 x 1600 per eye.
- Refresh rate: The Oculus Quest has a 72Hz refresh rate which is a little less than its competitors.
- Processor: Quest includes a built-in Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.
- Storage: It comes in two variants. The 64 GB variant and the 128 GB variant.
- RAM: It has a total of 4GB RAM
- Battery: The battery is Lithium-ion battery with 2-3 hours playtime, depending on what you are playing.
- Tracking: It has a 6 degree of freedom head and hand tracking
- Controllers: It is controlled using two touch controllers
- Weight: The Oculus Quest weighs 571g.
Now that we have seen the specs of the headset, let us see how it performs.
Performance
The VR is still going through a transition phase. This can be a little tricky. Most people may have never even had any Virtual Reality experiences. This can be a little overwhelming for them. Others who may have had a little Virtual Reality experience might have only tried out VR through their phones. This includes devices like the Samsung Gear VR headset or even the Google Cardboard. Whereas the other few people left might had some solid VR experiences. That might have come from either owning a PSVR, a PC-run headset or from trying out one of the many VR events that pop out every now on then. So what can tell from this is that the expectations will be pretty high. Be it in terms of quality of the hardware, the performance or even the level of immersion the headset provides.
The Quest has an OLED display panel that has a resolution of 1440 x 1600 per eye. The images on the screen look clear and colorful. The pictures are vibrant and crisp. For instance, the PSVR has a resolution of 960 × 1080 pixels per eye. This means the viewing experience in the Quest is going to look more realistic.
For its processing need the Quest is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor which is an android processor. This was a bit disappointing because when it wasn’t the latest processor from Qualcomm. It was however a step up from the Snapdragon 821 processor in the Oculus Go. Compared to the Rift, the Quest is less powerful than. This is because there’s no PC powering this headset. So that’s acceptable.
The Quest doesn’t require any additional equipment, external sensors or a multi-step set-up process. You just charge it up and it will be up-and-running within a few minutes.
The setup process is pretty simple. You install the Oculus mobile app and then pair the headset after it is turned on. Once the headset is paired up, you will have to pair the headset to the mobile app. Then you need to connect it to Wifi and after which you get the controllers up and running. This will be followed by a few safety notes that you have to work through.
The Quest does an excellent job in handling the task of tracking the movement. This is largely possible due to the Oculus Insight technology, which uses ultra wide-angle sensors on the side of the headset, as well as computer vision algorithms, to translate your movements into the VR. The Oculus calls this inside-out tracking.
The movement tracking is excellent and extremely accurate. Even while completing the Quest tutorial content requires you to pick up balls and blocks and handle things the movement was very accurate. The buttons and triggers on the controllers all correspond with different fingers and gestures which makes the tracking very effective.
Another aspect that the Quest pretty much nails is its Guardian System. This allows the user to ‘draw’ a boundary line in your room. This will help you avoid crashing into your TVs or furniture or any other object. It makes sure that you play within that boundary.
The recommended gameplay area is a minimum of 2 meters ad x 2 meters or 6.5 feet x 6.5 feet. However you can play in an area less than that. All you need to do is to draw out the available space. Those who have a limited space available can bypass all of this. They can just stand in a particular place or sit in a smaller area. They will still be able to enjoy the full experience. However, due to their functionalities, some games require a larger area and also need you to reach out and grab things. So, unfortunately, you can’t play those games in a limited space by standing still.
The built-in speakers in the Oculus Quest won’t be able to match the quality of a good pair of headphones. But since they’re not going directly into your ears, you will get a better sense of the ambient space in the real world, which will help avoid bumping into things. The Oculus Quest also has a positional audio built-in, which they claim delivers sound from the virtual adventures without headphones. However if you have a headphone, you can always use the 3.5 mm jack.
Overall the gaming performance of the Quest is pretty good. Even though it doesn’t have the latest snapdragon processor, you will still be able to play most games without any lag. At this price point, the Oculus Quest manages to provide a very balanced gaming performance and a good Virtual Reality experience.
Battery life
If you go by what Oculus claims on their website, you can expect the Quest to last 2 to 3 hours after a full charge. This will partially depend on what you are doing. Be it watching media or playing games.
Surprisingly this was exactly what we managed to get during our testing. With a fully charged Quest, we were able to a gameplay time between 2 and 2 and a half hours. The gaming performance remained the same throughout. For other activities like streaming media we got a slightly better battery life. It lasted for almost 3 hours which is really impressive. Given the price and fact that it is a standalone headset, the battery life it provided completely met our expectations.
In case you do require a longer battery, you can always connect the charger. With a 6 meter-long charging cable, it makes it easier to play while charging.
To fully charge the Quest up to 100 percent, it took 2 hours. That is somewhat reasonable for a VR headset.
Pricing and Release Date
The Oculus Quest was first launched on 21 May 2019 It cam in two different variants – 64 GB and 128 GB. The following are their prices at the time of launch.
64 GB Variant: The 64 GB variant of the Oculus Quest was priced at $399 / £399 / AU$732 (approx)
128 GB Variant: The 128 GB variant of the Oculus Quest $499 / £499 / AU$915 (approx) for the 128GB version.
Not Positive Things ( Cause there aren’t any negatives )
The Oculus Quest is one of the best VR headsets out there. But still there are a few things that would bug an average user.
Less powerful than wired headsets
We know that the main selling point of the Quest is that it is portable and doesn’t require any other device. But this also means that it isn’t as powerful as any of the wired headsets. In its defense, we can say that those headsets are powered by a PC which is why they perform better. That’s a fair point. But we as consumers have a few expectations. And this was one of those.
Grainy Screen
Even though it has a resolution of 1440 x 1600 per eye, the screen sometimes feels grainy and muddled out. It may due to the leakage of light or it may be an issue with the screen. Whatever may be the cause, it isn’t pleasing. This is something that could have been avoided.
Gets slightly Uncomfortable sometimes
As a headset it is a known fact that they get uncomfortable sometimes. This is not something new. But at this price point, we kind of hooped that this wouldn’t be an issue. So that’s why we are a little disappointed.
More expensive than non-VR consoles
This is one of the reasons why most of the average gamers won’t buy a VR headset. Given that it provides the user with a Virtual reality experience, it still isn’t enough for most users. For a price less than this, they will be able to get a much better gaming experience if they buy and of the non-VR consoles. Not only that, but they will also have a huge no of games to choose from. Compared to that, the gaming library of a VR- Headset is way limited. So for an average gamer, this won’t be an ideal choice.
Oculus Quest Review Verdict
We have mostly good things to say about the Oculus Quest. It was a groundbreaking launch. It has bought Virtual Reality to the masses. It successfully made VR as accessible as possible when it was launched in 2019. In fact, the Quest was single-handedly responsible for a 31 percent leap in the annual VR hardware sales in first the nine months of its release. There is one simple reason for this. The Oculus Quest provided almost everything that most premium VR headsets provided. It somehow managed to do all that at a price that most can afford. It had everything one could ask for.
It had a great looking design that had almost everything covered. They matched their design with an even better hardware. We should also mention all of the extra features that it had. Be it the revolutionary Insight Tracking that made the VR headset more responsive to movement than ever. Let us also not forget the Oculus Guardian system which made sure you never crossed the boundary while playing the game.
It also had two great controllers that made playing games way more fun than it ever was. The controls were easy, intuitive and suited perfectly in almost every scenario of the game. It also included a great built-in speaker that had positional audio built directly into the headset. So in case you don’t want to use an extra headphone, you still would be able to play without any hassles.
The display was also very crisp and sharp. It had enough resolution and further enhanced the viewing experience. Another thing that the Oculus Quest managed to nail is the battery life. It provided you with enough juice to play for around 2 – 2.5 hours in a single charge. It also included a 6-meter cable so you can play while charging the headsets.
And lastly, the Snapdragon 835 was a step towards the right direction. It was able to handle almost all games without encountering any problems. It might not be as powerful as one of the wired VR headsets or even the premium ones. But at this price range, it more than served its purpose.
So overall we can say that the Oculus Quest was the game-changing king that shook the consumer VR market. It has ensured that the VR industry didn’t lose its place. With its huge no of sales it has made sure that more and more developers are now interested in this. This would mean that even more developers will invest their efforts in making the next generation of VR games.
So the conclusion is that the Oculus Quest gets a 9.5 out of 10 from us. The half-point it didn’t get was because of all the things that could have made it an even better device.
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Last update on 2021-04-11 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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