The Oculus Quest and Rift S are now open for preorders, which is exciting news!
The Oculus Go was already released a year ago and will continue to be sold.
But which one of these headsets is the right choice for you?
And should you wait for future VR headsets that are coming out like the Valve Index?
In this video, I put together a guide for anyone new to VR that can help you understand
what each headset is capable of and which might suit you best.
So if you are looking to order one of the Oculus headsets.
Be sure to watch this video first.
A special thanks to Oculus for providing us a Quest to review.
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In this comparison, I will only talk about the most important specifications and differences.
I don’t want to bore you with too many in-depth tech talk.
I’ll save that for our reviews.
So let’s start with the biggest difference of all.
The Oculus Rift S needs a PC with recommended hardware to run Virtual Reality games or apps.
The Oculus Quest and Go do not need an expensive PC, they are standalone VR headsets powered
by a mobile processor.
So they can be used wirelessly.
This means that even though the price of the Rift S is 399 dollars (which is the same price
tag as the Quest) you will need to spend more money if you don’t have a VR ready PC yet.
VR ready PCs and laptops can add more than a thousand dollars on top of the headset’s
price.
However, because the Rift S is powered by a powerful PC, it offers the best seamless
VR experience out of the three.
The best games with the best VR graphics will be available on the Rift S content store compared
to the Quest and the Go content store.
If you have a PC with a NVidia GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 480 power or more, then you
would be able to play most VR experiences that the Rift S has to offer.
If you want to know the full recommended and minimum specifications, I will put a link
in this video’s description.
The Rift S also offers 6-degrees-of-freedom tracking, which I will call 6DoF from now
on.
6DoF allows you to move in the virtual environment like you would in real life, just like the
original Rift could.
This is the same for the Quest.
The biggest difference here is the Oculus Go, which only has 3-degrees-of-freedom tracking.
This means you can only look around the virtual environment.
Both Rift S and Quest have 2 controllers, also 6DoF, making it possible for you to naturally
move your hands to, for example, grab stuff or throw stuff in the virtual world.
Also, the Oculus Go only has one 3DoF controller.
With 3DoF, You can only swing the controller left and right.
You can’t reach out to the front to pick up something on the virtual floor.
However, practically you mostly are able to point and select an object to move it around.
Just like what you do with your computer screen and mouse for example.
This also means that you will most likely use the Go stationary.
While with the Rift S and Quest, you can move around and feel like you are actually walking
in a virtual world.
The rest of the specs are of minimal difference, especially when you are playing a VR game,
you kind of forget about the display, resolution, etc. unless you really look for it.
However, be aware that because the Rift S uses a powerful PC, the graphics on the Rift
S will always look better than the other two headsets.
It is also worth noting here that the Quest has the best display as it uses two OLED displays.
This means more color contrasts and deeper blacks.
And it also gives you the ability to adjust the lens distance to match your eyes with
a hardware IPD adjustment.
The Rift S and the Go both don’t have a hardware IPD adjustment.
IPD is short for interpupillary distance, which is the distance between the center of
the pupils of your eyes.
Being able to adjust the distance between the lenses to match your IPD helps with seeing
sharp, and seeing fewer distortions.
With the Rift S, you can change the IPD in the software.
This can improve the rendered image based on your IPD, but it won’t be as good as
a hardware IPD adjustment.
The Oculus Go has a fixed IPD, and you can’t adjust it.
So you cannot.
So if your IPD is way above or below the average IPD, I would suggest to try out the Rift S
and Go first to see if you can see sharp enough.
To measure your IPD, you can try it at home or go to your local glasses store to get it
measured.
While the display of the Quest is better in colors, it does have a disadvantage which
is that you will also see a bit more screen door effect and god rays than with the Rift
S or Go.
Screen door effect is a visual artifact of displays, where the fine lines separating
pixels become visible in the displayed image.
It kinda looks like this.
Godrays looks like this.
Except it isn’t this bad at all.
Most of the time I forget about the screen door effect or god rays, but there are people
who are more sensitive to this.
The Quest also has a slightly higher resolution, which helps with reading text better, but
honestly, during gameplay, I don’t notice much difference here.
Neither do I notice differences with the refresh rates.
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The audio is almost completely the same tech.
Except the Quest has two 3.5mm headphone inputs.
This is for an in-ear headphone accessory that you can order from the Oculus website.
And the Rift S has a different strap, making it more difficult for you to put on headphones
comfortably.
But the strap also makes it the most comfortable headset to me compared with the other two.
The most important with a VR headset is content to me.
Content is king right?
So let’s move on to what you can actually do inside the headsets.
As said before, since the Rift S is powered by a gaming PC, you will get the best graphics
and thus, the best VR experience with the Rift S out of the three.
The Quest comes close in terms of experience.
This makes the Quest the most accessible Oculus VR headset that can provide the same kind
of experiences as a PC VR headset at this moment.
Even though the Quest is a stand alone VR headset.
A lot of Rift S-quality games and experiences will be available on the Quest if a developer
chooses to optimize their games for it.
However, because the Quest is powered by a mobile processor, those experiences will have
lower graphics to make it compatible.
The Oculus Go has an older processor than the Quest and isn’t able to handle the same
kind of experiences as the other two headsets.
This is why I think the Oculus Go is more of an entertainment device, a device to watch
shows or movies in.
The Oculus Go has its own VR content store with their own experiences.
There are a lot of games available, but they are mostly more of a point-and-click kind
of experience.
And since the Quest and Go are completely wireless, they both run on battery.
The Quest is able to run about 2 to 3 hours of playtime until it runs out.
But with its provided USB-C adapter, the charge time to a full battery is only about 2 hours.
While the Go uses a micro-USB adapter, has less battery life and takes longer to charge
as well.
So it isn’t strange that the Oculus Go is also half the price than the other two headsets
because of these specs.
So out of three headsets, which one do I think you should buy?
I can’t tell you which headset is the best out of the three since every headset has its
own uses.
But I can tell you who I think each headset is for.
Let’s start with the Oculus Go.
I think the Go is for someone that is only looking to watch movies or shows and are not
really into gaming.
This is an entertainment headset and a headset that is very very cheap.
The Oculus Quest is the best bang for the buck headset.
It’s an all-in-one headset that you can use to play Rift-quality experiences out of
the box.
You will have lower visual fidelity than with a PC VR headset, but especially if you are
new to VR, you will most likely forget about that.
You can also use this device to watch movies and shows instead of the Oculus Go.
So if you have 200 dollars extra to spare, I would always go for the Quest.
The Quest is the most accessible 6DoF VR headset out there in the market right now.
And since it is very portable, I might use this headset more than the others because
I can bring the Quest everywhere I go.
So definitely if you need a portable headset and still want to be able to do most things,
then this is the option for you.
The Oculus Rift S is for people that already own a VR ready PC or have the budget for one.
Remember, this does mean you will probably have to buy a PC that is over a thousand dollars
next to the 400 bucks that you need to pay for the headset itself.
However, the Oculus Rift S will be able to provide you the best VR experience overall
out of the three.
I think the Oculus Rift S is especially suited for a hardcore gamer.
However, it is less portable than a Quest since you are tethered to a PC.
It is also worth noting that the Rift S will replace the original Rift, and will be the
only Oculus PC VR headset available from now on until a new one comes out.
Compared with the original Rift, the specs are upgraded with some trade-offs.
For example, the LCD display resolution is higher, but it runs on a lower refresh rate.
The trade-offs are made to keep the PC recommended specs about the same, so you don’t need
to buy more expensive hardware if you already own a VR ready PC.
Check out our full Oculus Rift S hands-on video if you want to know more about the differences
and the technical specs.
A full review on both the Rift S and Quest are coming.
I also wanted to mention that at the moment of making this video, the Valve VR headset
specifications were announced and the specs are awesome.
The headset will be about 1000 dollars for the full set though, so it will be expensive.
Although if you have the budget, it might be worth it to check out this headset too.
We will definitely keep you informed on this headset too once we have bought one.
Anyway, I hope this video helped out.
If there is anything else you would like to know about the headsets.
Let us know down below and we’ll answer the questions there.
And please let us know if you are going to order one of the headsets and if so, which
one?
A special thanks goes to artArmin and a special shout out goes to his Patreon page.
Everyone, thank you all so much for your support!
And
as always, VR on!