The Oculus Rift is one of the most well-known and revered VR headsets on the market today.  Two rounds of development kits pre-dated the first commercial release, which happened in March 2016.  Oculus supplies the technology behind several other headsets, including the Samsung Gear VR, along with their own range of pioneering headsets and VR accessories.

As a tethered headset, the Oculus Rift is designed to run on a VR-ready PC environment.  It meets or exceeds the specifications of other headsets of comparable retail price point, with all the onboard sensors needed for a fully immersive VR experience.  The build quality of the headset is exceptional, with attention to detail and clear evidence of craftsmanship.

Content is also an area where Oculus excels.  They have one of the largest libraries of games and VR experience content available through their platform, including titles from major franchises and brands like Marvel, Star Trek, Discovery, BBC, Jurassic World, and many more.  You can also access Steam VR and their content library with the Oculus Rift, something you couldn’t do for a long while after the initial launch.  As with many PC-based headsets, there is a good deal of customization that can be had, with custom content download and playback possible, too.  These are all reasons why the Oculus Rift is one of the best-selling VR devices 3 years running.

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The HTC Vive was developed by HTC in conjunction with Valve, the folks behind the Steam and Stream VR gaming platform.  So, it should come as no surprise that it is optimized for VR gaming and experiences.  Steam VR offers over 2,800 games and experiences available that work with the HTC Vive, and custom content, movies, and experiences can also be played back or used on the device, so there’s no shortage of content.  While the Oculus Rift can now use Steam VR as well, it’s far easier and more fluid to navigate with the HTC Vive.

On the specifications and features front, it’s quite comparable to the Oculus Rift in optics, field of view, and so forth.  Originally, it was a bit heavier than the Oculus Rift, but multiple refinements in later generations have made the two devices virtually identical in terms of weight.  The HTC Vive is generally regarded as superior to the Oculus Rift in the area of user comfort for people who wear prescription eyeglasses.

At the same time, it does come up a bit short compared to the Oculus Rift, in that, since mid-2017, it no longer comes with integrated headphones – simply a 3.5 mm audio jack.  The deluxe audio strap that is available for purchase is great, and makes the overall headset more comfortable, too – but it’s an additional purchase that drives up the total cost of ownership of the device.  It has to be said that the room tracking/positional tracking of the HTC Vive is really the best around, with greater accuracy and range than the Oculus Rift or any other competitor, so for PC-based VR gaming, it’s got a clear advantage.

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The Samsung Gear VR is a premium mobile headset.  This means it doesn’t tether or connect to a console or PC.  Rather, like a basic mobile headset, it allows smart phones to be inserted into the headset, which provides the display, sound, processing power, connectivity and so forth for the VR experience.  What sets a premium mobile headset apart from a basic mobile one is that basic mobiles are, for lack of a better term, “dumb” – that is, they are just holders, nothing more.  A premium mobile has a connection with the phone, and additional onboard sensors, that work in concert with the smart phone, to provide better quality head tracking and experiences than with a basic mobile headset.

Of course, the key downside to all of this is you need to have a Samsung smart phone, specifically in one of the compatible models and size ranges to work with the Gear VR.  If you already have one of these phones, of course, then the Samsung Gear VR is a great way to start experiencing VR.  What’s more, because Oculus worked with Samsung on some of the technology included in the headset, Samsung Gear VR-compatible smart phones have access to the Oculus Mobile content library, with hundreds of apps, experiences, games, and more.  This is a key feature of the Samsung Gear VR that sets it apart from the limited other premium mobile headset options on the market.

Naturally, since the phone serves as the display and processing device, the overall specifications of the Samsung Gear VR in terms of resolution and so forth are largely dictated by the phone itself.  That said, it has high-quality adjustable optics, which are essential to providing a good, individualized VR experience, and which most basic mobile headsets lack.  It’s more expensive than most basic mobile headsets, but orders of magnitude cheaper than a tethered, PC or console-based option.

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Since its debut in the fall of 2016, the Sony PlayStation VR headset, which works with the Sony PS4 gaming console, has sold over 3 million units worldwide.  It’s widely viewed as a great addition or augmentation to the PS4, and if you already own a PS4 or have one on order, then it’s a very logical choice of headset to purchase.  The Sony network of game developers and content providers that already feed great titles to the market for the PS4 have developed and continue to develop more and more quality VR gaming content.  And, like PC-based tethered headsets, there are apps and ways to view VR movies, experiences, and third-party content, too.

Of course, the console-based nature of the headset is also one of its weaknesses, since it’s nothing more than a fancy paperweight if you don’t have a PS4 system.  With that said, the price point is significantly below many other tethered headsets, and the specifications are not that far off from the industry leaders that cost 2x as much.  Using the console as the processor was a brilliant move, since the graphics and processing hardware are already sufficient to run VR titles.  Compared to buying or upgrading an existing PC to make it VR-ready, this is a huge cost savings play for owners of a PS4.

One of the most notable disappointments with the PSVR, though, is the lack of room tracking.  Both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift offer robust room tracking – so you can move around in the real-world space and become much more fully immersed in your gaming experience.  The PSVR does not offer this option, which is unfortunate, especially for a gaming-centric headset that could put it to such good use.  Still, it’s a good quality headset with decent specs, works well, and has a wealth of titles on the PS4 that it is optimized for, so there’s no shortage of good times to be had with the PlayStation VR.

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The HTC Vive Pro is the high-end, upgraded version of the HTC Vive.  It offers a massive increase in resolution (78% more pixels than the HTC Vive), an additional camera, and upgraded room tracking under the SteamVR 2/Lighthouse 2.0 tracking system.  With the included 2 base stations, you can accurately laser-track up to a 20 by 20 foot room, which should be more than enough for even the most avid VR enthusiast.

Unlike the HTC Vive base model, the Vive Pro comes with integrated headphones, that are certified for high-resolution spatial sound, with active noise cancelling technology.  Dual integrated microphones also complement the headphones, providing clear voice chat input for your gaming experiences.

One of the biggest changes that users really appreciate is a re-balancing of the headset.  Even though the weight is nominally the same as the Vive, the Vive Pro feels better on your head.  It’s not as weighty to the front, and feels much more comparable to an Oculus Rift when you put it on and adjust it in place – a definite step up from the base model Vive.

At the same time, there is a massive price differential between the Vive and Vive Pro, with the full Vive Pro bundle costing 2x or more than the base Vive bundle.  There’s no question the visual quality is amazing – most experts agree you’re not going to get anything better than this until the true 4K and 8K headsets debut.  But does the increased visual quality, better fit, and better tracking justify the price difference?  It all depends on your personal finances, and many consumers, though admitting it’s definitely a better product than the Vive, lament that the experience is not so revolutionary as to justify the massive price difference for them.

It’s also worth noting that the computer specs to run the Vive Pro are slightly more demanding than the Vive, and both the Vive and Vive Pro are more demanding than the Oculus Rift.  So, you might end up having to upgrade your PC in order to get the most out of the Vive Pro.  If money is no issue for you, though, the quality is definitely better on the Vive Pro, so go for it!

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The Oculus Go is one of the first of a growing trend of stand-alone wireless headsets.  These do not require a PC or gaming console, like traditional tethered headsets, nor do they use a smart phone, like basic mobile or premium mobile varieties.  Instead, they have integrated processors, displays, on-board memory, and wireless and Bluetooth connectivity all built in.  The power comes from an on-board battery pack, which in most cases offers 2 to 2.5 hours of use per charge.

There are two flavors of Oculus Go, a 32 GB and 64 GB version.  Much like smart phones, the higher storage capacity comes with a somewhat higher cost.  The tradeoff is you can store more content, games, and apps with literally double the memory.

Oculus Go utilizes similar design, adjustment, and optics as the Oculus Rift, with a definitely attention to detail and quality in the build of the product.  The lower price is enabled by several slight downgrades, including an LCD display (vs. the more common OLED or AMOLED in higher-end headsets), lower refresh rate, and limited motion sensing – 3 degrees of freedom instead of the usual 6.  This means that you can move your head on all three axes, but leaning towards or away from objects doesn’t translate, nor does moving side to side, or around an area (there’s no room tracking).

The chipset inside the Oculus Go is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, which is 2 years old as of the Go’s launch.  It’s likely an upgraded or refreshed version, possibly at a higher price point, will come out in another year or so, based on the newer 835 chipsets.  However, for the price point, the performance is quite good.

Oculus Go was designed to help bring VR to the masses, as a stand-alone device.  While you do need a modern smart phone to complete the setup of the device, everything else can be done entirely from within the Go, or in concert with the phone (it’s a lot easier to search for apps, movies, and games by name on your phone than by typing on a virtual keyboard with the wireless Go controller).  Otherwise, it is truly a stand-alone device, and a great mid-range headset, that can provide the full package of VR experience without the wires, without speccing out a PC or buying a console, and with a great deal more immersion and quality than a premium mobile or basic mobile headset.  Plus, it’s from Oculus, so it looks good, feels good, and runs well, too!

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The Oculus Quest is the flagship standalone wireless VR headset from Oculus VR, pioneers in the industry.  It’s designed to be entirely self-contained, and offer an experience far superior to mobile headsets and earlier standalone wireless headsets, including the company’s own Oculus Go.  As Oculus states, it’s designed for VR gaming, and that’s readily apparent thanks to the 4-camera driven, “inside out” room tracking capabilities – something that Oculus Go doesn’t have, nor does any other standalone headset based on the Snapdragon 835 chipset – at least not yet.  It allows full room tracking without sensor stations or wires, for truly immersive, 6 degrees of freedom VR gaming and engagement. 

The visual resolution on the Oculus Quest, in terms of pure pixels, is equivalent to the HTC Vive Pro, and superior to the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Oculus Go.  They’ve also stuck with an OLED panel for display, rather than LCD as in the Oculus Go, giving much higher visual clarity and a more convincing, higher-quality display.  This is coupled with a powerful processor and graphics system, on-board battery pack, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for setup and content management, integrated speakers, headphone jacks, and a USB-C port for fast charging.

There’s a lot to be said about the Oculus Quest, and we get into much more detail in our Oculus Quest review.  However, in terms of a summary, the Oculus Quest is definitely not as powerful as a tethered headset, since that relies on external gaming PCs with fairly high specs in order to handle its processing.  For a self-contained unit, however, the Oculus Quest is the de facto leader right now in what is possible.  It’s being heralded as an important next step in bringing high-quality VR to the mass market, without the need for wires, peripherals, or expensive PCs to act as the system’s brains.  It’s not going to be running 120 fps photo-realistic VR flight simulators, that much is certain.  However, for the hundred or so VR titles designed for the Quest, as well as the library for the Go (soon to be available on Quest via emulation), it handles things quite well. 

It’s definitely worth the money if you’re looking for something portable and self-contained to offer the highest-quality VR experience possible in that category.  However, if you have a high-end PC, you may still be better off with a tethered headset, like the core Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive, or HTC Vive Pro.  It all depends what you want to do, where and how you want to use your headset, and whether or not you have the funds to buy the Quest and then drop another $500 or so in a year or two on the next generation tethered or wireless headset.  In the meantime, the Oculus Quest is a clear step up from all other self-contained headsets on the market, and is the first-in-class of consumer-grade, “it just works”, easy setup VR headsets, delivering exceptional visuals, room tracking, and VR immersion.

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