Want to know how long you can play PC VR games on
your Quest 2 headset using a USB cable before it runs out of power?
Want to know whether there's a difference between using a USB-A cable or a USB-C cable?
And what's the mystery cable that I've got under here?
Welcome to my Tech Gear…
Let's find out!
So I've reviewed a number of USB cables for the
Quest 2 before, and there's plenty of comments on those videos about power.
Some say that a USB-A cable isn't worth it
and it isn't going to keep your headset charged so don't bother.
Ohers say that a USB-C cable will keep your headset charged forever.
So I thought that making a video that tested both of these sounded like a good idea.
Now this one here is the Kiwi Design one. This is the USB-A cable here. It is a 16 foot cable. The
cable itself is 181 grams, which is pretty light. It's also pretty flexible for a USB-A cable.
This cable here is the USB-C cable. It is a fiber optic cable from a company called FIBBR.
It has the same spec as the official Meta
Link cable but it only costs $50 instead of costing $80.
Now it is easily the most flexible of the two cables here and this is because it's
fiber optic. This cable weighs 211 grams so it's about 30 grams heavier than the
Kiwi Design one. I didn't generally feel it though when I was playing. So it wasn't
pulling on my headset any more than this one was and it was nice and easy to play with.
That mystery cable that I was talking about?
Well, this is the JSAux Quest 2 Link cable. This is a 15 foot cable that has both USB-A
and USB-C plugs. So it connects to your PC using the USB-A plug, and then it uses the
USB C plug to plug into the mains charger for Power. All down the same cable to your headset!
JSAux advertised this as an all-day cable. That's potentially great news if you've only
got a USB-A port on your PC. The cable itself has a nice long USB-C power cable so it's easy
to plug into a power source without it having to be super close to where your
PC is. The cable itself is braided, which is really nice, but it is quite thick which
actually makes the cable quite stiff. So that, and the cable splitter that's here,
and the extra power cable, make this the heaviest cable here. It weighs 239 grams.
So I want to keep the test as even as I possibly can. So before testing each cable I am going to…
Charge the headset up to 100%.
I'm going to be using the same PC.
I'm going to be testing with the same game, using Half-Life:Alyx.
And playing for two hours when I test each cable.
I'm actually going to be using the same spec USB port on the PC as
well. So both the USB-A and the USB-C port on my PC support USB 3.1 Gen 2.
For testing the JSAux cable for that USB power I was talking about I'm going to go and just
use the bog standard charger that comes with the Quest 2 out of the box, so nothing special there.
So with that all said and done I need to go do some gaming,. So I'l see you in a bit…
Here's a handy hint to help protect the cable and the headset...
When you're attaching it, use a velcro strap, or something, to attach it to the side of the head
strap. That's going to help stop it pulling on your headset so it's going to help protect the
cable and it's also going to help protect the socket on the Quest 2 headset as well!
So that's the testing all done, and you might actually be surprised by the results.
So the first cable I tested was the Kiwi Design one here. This is the cheapest
cable. It's about $20. I've seen it down to around $17. Well, after two hours of gaming
the power on the headset dropped to 65%. So it lost 35% power in two hours of play.
The fiber optic cable from FIBBR here,
after two hours that dropped down to 85%. So that dropped 15% over two hours.
The JSAux cable here, it's a USB-A cable but with that dedicated power,
it dropped 5% in two hours of gaming! So it kept the headset charged at 95%
So what does that mean in real terms? Well, based on the power drain over the two hours
with these cables, and assuming a linear decline in battery power,
your headset would eventually run out of power using each cable as follows…
Kiwi Design cable, as it dropped 35% in two hours, would run out of power in 5 hours and 43 minutes.
The FIBBR fiber optic cable that dropped 15% in two hours, that would therefore allow you to
run for 13 hours and 20 minutes before your headset ran out of power with that cable.
So you're getting over double what the USB-A cable provided here.
The JSAux cable though was the big surprise. It only dropped 5% in two hours! That means in
theory it would run for 40 hours before your headset ran out of power, and that's mental!
Now that was a real surprise because I was expecting a USB-A cable to be the weakest
to be honest, but I didn't think the JSAux one would keep your headset as charged as it did.
The fiber optic cable is a solid cable. Nice, light,
no external power needed. You get over 13 hours of gaming. It's definitely a solid investment.
So all the cables here are charging your headset to some degree, and whilst the
tests were created as equal as they could be, to get a fair result there are a couple of things
that you should watch out for that can have a significant impact on the battery time for you.
First up, the USB port.
So the USB port that you use on your PC is vitally important. USB-A ports on a PC typically provide
about two and a half or four and a half watts of power depending upon whether it's a USB 2 or USB
3 Port. So if you don't use a USB 3 port on your PC then you are going to significantly reduce the
amount of power that can be delivered to the headset and so you'll get less playing time.
USB-C ports on the other hand can provide up to 15 watts of power.
So these provide typically three and a half times more power than the best USB-A port.
Second, refresh rates.
Now refresh rates matter. So these tests were conducted using the default refresh
rates that Meta recommends for pcvr gaming which is 72 Hertz,
or 72 frames per second. Now you can ramp that all the way up to 120 frames per second
for smoother gameplay but if you do that then your headset is now displaying over
50% more frames per second than it was by default. So that will impact battery life.
So both those things are definitely going to have a significant impact
on how long you'll be able to play pcvr games on your Quest 2 headset.
With all that said and done, which should you buy?
Well, it depends.
The great result out of all of this testing is that no matter which cable you buy you
will get at least five hours of gameplay. So from as little as $17 you can get the kiwi
design cable. That should do you well if you only want to play for a few hours at a time.
For those more hardcore gamers that want to max it out to 120 frames per second and play
for most of the day on a single charge… I could never justify the $80 that Meta
charge for their fiber optic cable, but at $50 the FIBBR C5 cable is a good buy,
and I think worth the upgrade over the cheaper cables if you have the extra budget.
And finally for those of you that basically want to live in your VR headset, or more realistically
want to have the most play time that you can get but don't have a USB-C port on your PC,
then the JSAux is a good option, if you don't mind the weight and stiffness of that cable.
I hope that has helped you decide if any of these cables are the right one
for you. Do let me know in the comments down below which one you got and why. Or,
if you've already got one of these, let me know what you think of it.
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Thanks for watching, and as always…
I'll see you…
in the next one!