There are two things about the Oculus Quest 2 that almost every Quest 2 user seems to agree on.
The first being when you consider it's capabilities and price point,
the Quest 2 is THE BEST VR headset on the market today! And the second being that the stock head
strap SUCKS! While I don't hate the stock head strap like it seems a lot of other people do;
I do feel the way you adjust it by tugging on these things
is kind of a pain. And then there's the issue of it cutting into where my ears connect to my head.
Getting it where it doesn't cut into my ears and also sits low enough around the back of
my head to keep the headset on, requires a fair bit of careful adjustment to get it just right.
Since I share my Quest 2 with my family and none of us have the same head size and shape we're
constantly adjusting the head strap. So in an effort to make adjusting the head strap easier
for everyone, and to hopefully eliminate the discomfort caused by the strap cutting
into my ears, I decided to try out two of the top rated aftermarket head straps currently available
for the Quest 2. That being the Quest 2 Elite Strap from Oculus and the BoboVR M2 Halo strap.
The first one I tried was the BoboVR M2 and it currently sells for 39 U.S. dollars on Amazon.
Link in the video description. To remove the stock head strap you first remove
the facial interface... then remove the strap that goes over the top of your
head... and finally unclip the headband from the headset by grabbing this end
with your thumb and pointer finger like so and giving them a little twist.
The BoboVR M2 comes fully assembled, other than the Velcro strap that goes over the top of your
head, and has a lot of adjustment that can be made to it to get it to fit most comfortably on
your head. These clips slide over the Quest 2's... uhh... speaker arms... I guess I'll call them. And
I found for me, I wanted to slide them on until the back of the speaker arm aligned with the back
of the clips like this. I then threaded through the strap that goes over the top of your head
and finally reinstalled the facial interface. I then fiddled around with the headband for a good
30 minutes or more trying to adjust it to fit comfortably on my head and provide an optimal
viewing experience. At one point I thought I had it figured out, but after wearing the headset
for just a few minutes these little arm things were pressing on some pressure points on the top
of my head which didn't feel comfortable at all. I messed around with it some more without any
luck and was contemplating returning it to Amazon but before doing that I decided to see if BoboVR
had a recommended way to wear their head strap and found that they did.
I had this front band rocked back a bit like this. And they recommend it sitting
right down on top of the facial interface like this. I tried their recommended positioning and
that made all the difference for me when it came to these little arms pressing on the top of my
head. Adjusting the size of the head strap is a piece of cake thanks to this wheel mechanism at
the back. You simply turn it clockwise to tighten it and counterclockwise to loosen
it. Similar to the stock head strap finding the most comfortable setting does require some trial
and error. You have to adjust the strap that goes over the top of your head as well as dial in the
right amount of tension on the headband which is admittedly much easier said than done.
The things I like the most about the BoboVR M2 is that it more sits on your head like a hat
rather than pressing the headset onto your face and because of it's halo design it doesn't come
anywhere near my ears. The downside is with as much adjustment as it's capable of,
it took me quite a bit of time to dial it in where it felt the most secure and comfortable to me.
The Quest 2 Elite Strap which retails for 49 U.S. dollars, also linked in the video description,
is a far simpler design compared to the BoboVR M2. It simply clips onto the speaker arms of
the Quest 2 like so... you thread the strap that goes over the top of your head through...
re-install the facial interface and you're good to go. The Elite strap adjusts using a
wheel on the back just like the BoboVR M2, by turning one way to tighten it
and the opposite way to loosen it. The downside to the Elite Straps design is, like the stock strap,
this design presses the headset onto your face making it easy to tighten it up too much and leave
you with a nice VR ring on your face for awhile after you finish a play session. You can minimize
and even eliminate this by adjusting the strap on top of your head to do most of the heavy lifting,
but you still need to get enough tension on the strap to keep the Quest 2 from moving around
and finding that balance can be a little tricky. Thanks to the adjustment wheel though this is much
easier to do than it is with the stock strap. The thing I like the most about the Elite Strap is the
flexible brace here at the back. This thing feels really, really nice. It gently cups the back of my
head helping keep the headset secure and also allows for the head strap to sit high enough
that there's no issue at all with my ears like I experience with the stock strap.
Now I've spent several hours playing games with both the Quest 2 Elite Strap and the BoboVR M2
and when it comes to comfort I personally prefer the Quest 2 Elite Strap but both feel good
once you get them properly adjusted to your head. As for build quality... I feel the BoboVR
M2 has the edge here. Both are made pretty much entirely out of plastic but the BoboVR
M2 just feels much more solidly built. Kinda funny seeing as it's more than $10 dollars cheaper
than the Elite strap. Also... the number one complaint online about the Quest 2 Elite Strap is
the arms of the headband eventually break. Some complain about it breaking after several
months of use while others after only a few uses. Oculus supposedly looked into this issue and has
addressed it but as of the making of this video I was easily able to find instances of Elite Straps
continuing to break even now. If Oculus has indeed fixed this problem on it's current Elite Straps
then I have no problem recommending it as it's a very comfortable and easy to use head strap.
I should also mention that they increased their warranty period to 2 years. So... I
guess that's good. That being said with it's history of breakage... I'm hesitant to give it
my full recommendation; which is a real shame because the brace for the back of your head
on the Elite Strap feels much more comfortable to me than the padding on the back of the BoboVR M2.
So I guess this means I'm recommending the BoboVR M2 over the Quest 2 Elite
Strap. But you should know I also found complaints about it cracking and breaking
in a similar fashion. The cases for the BoboVR M2 are much more isolated however than they
are with the Quest 2 Elite Strap so it does seem to be much less of a problem for the M2.
I share this with you guys not to cast shade on the BoboVR M2 but because I want to make sure I
share everything I know so you can make the most informed decision. In the end both the Elite strap
and the BoboVR M2 offer a marked improvement over the stock head strap and I feel you can't go wrong
with either one... that is of course assuming Oculus has actually fixed the breakage issue.
I really want to thank those of you that have watched the video all the way to this
point. You guys are the ones that help keep the watch time up which lets YouTube know my videos
are worth suggesting to other people, which in turn helps keep the channel growing. So thank you,
so, so much! Interested in more videos about the Quest 2?
You can check out my Quest 2 playlist right over here...
or whatever other one of my videos YouTube decided to suggest to you down there. See ya later.