Oculus Quest Review

The new VR headset from Oculus, the Oculus Quest, is the first fully wireless VR headset from the American company. Oculus - also known from parent company Facebook - dominated the VR market in 2016 with the very first VR headset for consumers: the Oculus Rift. With this headset, Oculus developed the first VR headset that was available for a relatively affordable price for consumers, thus creating the landscape for the next VR headsets. The disadvantage of the Oculus Rift was that as a user you still needed a powerful (VR) computer. The VR headset ultimately works with the graphical power of the computer, so a strong PC was necessary

• Processor: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 835
• Memory: 4 GB LPDDR4X
• Storage: 64 GB, 128 GB
• Resolution (per eye): 2880 x 1600 pixels
• Screen: 72 Hz OLED screen
• Refresh rate: 72 Hz
• Weight: 571 grams

The Quest weighs noticeably more than the Oculus Quest. With a weight of 571 grams, it's not a very light headset, but it certainly doesn't feel heavy either. You attach the VR headset with a Velcro system to the face. When you first put the headset on your face, you may notice that it slides down and sits uncomfortably. Therefore, our tip is to first put the headset against the forehead and then fasten the Velcro straps. This prevents the headset from sliding down and resting on your nose

The material of the Quest is fine. The Velcro feels sturdy and is easy to adjust. The front of the Quest consists of a matte type of plastic, while the top and sides are made of a fabric material. The headset therefore has a somewhat luxurious appearance, which looks good in our opinion

The Oculus Quest, along with the Rift S, is equipped with the new Oculus Touch controllers. These controllers make it possible to capture multiple movements of your hand and fingers accurately. When you rest the controller on your hand, you will see that you have an 'open' hand in the game. If you then grab the controller and squeeze it, you have made a fist in the game or grabbed something. This takes some practice at first, but you will soon get the hang of this principle and it results in a few fun (new) game elements. For example, when you take a VR gun out of your pocket during a shooter game, you'll notice that you really go to your pocket with an 'open' hand and then squeeze the controller when you want to grab the gun

The Oculus Touch controllers work well in our experience. How they compare to the newer Valve Knuckle controllers remains to be seen, but for now it is a good upgrade from the earlier Oculus controllers

The Quest operates on the basis of inside-out tracking. The headset incorporates a number of cameras that can see the environment. This means you only need to put on the headset and the tracking is automatically performed. During the installation and preparation of the Oculus Quest, you have the opportunity to demarcate your play environment. You do this by (via the camera) looking at your environment and pointing out the play area with your controller. This works very easily and is a very good way to determine the play area. While playing a VR game, you will then see a transparent grid when you get too close to the demarcated area

Because you do not have to set up external sensors as with the Oculus Rift, the ease of use of the Oculus Quest is incredibly friendly. Anyone can use the VR headset, even if you have no technical knowledge of the tracking. However, inside-out tracking also has some disadvantages. For example, the tracking is less reliable than with external sensors. This 'problem' sometimes occurs when you play a VR game in which you have to move a lot with your arms, for example during a spirited game of Beat Saber. When the controllers are outside the field of view of the two cameras on the headset, they briefly lose the connection. This can result in a brief stutter in the tracking or a drifting controller

Fortunately, in our experience this does not happen very often. Once in a while you lose the tracking when you swing too enthusiastically with the controller above your head, but in our opinion the advantages of this method of tracking (no sensors) outweigh the disadvantages

The better known VR headsets are similar in terms of platform to the major game consoles Xbox and Playstation: each VR headset has its own pros and cons with regard to the choice of platform. While the HTC Vive has a particularly extensive range of games and apps through SteamVR and VivePort, the Oculus platform is somewhat less extensive. However, it should be mentioned that Oculus has a few very cool exclusive games on the Oculus platform, such as Space Junkies and Robo Recall. The Quest has a game library that is separate from the Oculus Rift and Go store. The reason for this is that the Quest focuses mainly on gaming and not, like the Oculus Go, on watching 360-degree videos. Oculus is doing its best to encourage game developers to create games specifically for the Oculus Quest, but it seems that some AAA titles are only limited to the more powerful headsets such as the Oculus Rift S and HTC Vive Pro

The Quest is Oculus's attempt to make VR gaming mainstream. Due to the relatively low entry price (after all, you don't need a computer), it is already possible to have high-end VR experiences. The limited VR offer in the Oculus Store is a shame, but not a deal-breaker for us. There are plenty of cool games with enough depth to keep you entertained in the VR world for hours. The completely wireless freedom combined with the high image resolution provide a very good gaming experience. In short: Oculus has developed a very good product with the Quest that is intended for gamers who want to dive into virtual reality.