Oculus Quest 2 vs Each Oculus Headset Ever

Believe it or not, the Oculus Quest 2 is Facebook’s fifth VR headset in four years (excluding Gear VR and its roughly one million variations).

But while the headset is arguably the company’s best, not every aspect has been improved over its predecessors, often in surprising ways.

For Facebook, making a VR headset – especially one for $ 299 – is often about compromising to cut costs while improving other components to improve the experience as much as possible. For example, you can see it when changing Quest 2 from an IPD slider to a three-level setting.

So without further ado, let’s shed light on every facet of any design. This is Quest 2 against any Oculus headset ever made (except Gear VR).

Quest 2 against every Oculus headset ever

Specifications

	Crack	Walk	search	Crack S	Quest 2
Art	PC only	Standalone	Standalone, later also PC via $ 79 cable	PC only	Hybrid with cord for $ 79
Start	Mid 2016	Mid 2018	Mid-2019	Mid-2019	Late 2020
Display per eye	1080×1200 OLED	1280×1440 LCD	1440×1600 OLED	1280×1440 LCD	1832×1920 LCD
Update rate	90Hz	60Hz / 72Hz	72Hz	80Hz	72Hz / 90Hz
Lens separation control	Granules 58mm-70mm	None	Granules 58mm-70mm	None	3-stage (58 mm / 63 mm / 68 mm)
Integrated audio	Good quality headphones	Strap audio	Strap audio	Strap audio	Strap audio
persecution	2-4 External USB sensors	3DoF only	Inside-out SLAM	Inside-out SLAM	Inside-out SLAM
Start price	$ 599 with gamepad $ 798 with controllers	$ 199 (32GB) $ 299 (64GB)	$ 399 (64GB) $ 499 (128GB)	$ 399	$ 299 (64 GB) $ 399 (256 GB)

The technical specs are one of two areas where Quest 2 is slightly ahead. On the standalone front, it’s more powerful than the original Oculus Quest and Oculus Go with its Qualcomm XR2 chipset, which means we should see better performance and visual fidelity from the apps running on the device. But the most immediate change here is the display. Quest 2 offers a resolution of 1832 x 1920 per eye.

Since 2016, the original Oculus Rift has offered a resolution of 1080 x 1200 pixels per eye. It was decent for the time, but if you use it today you will notice a lot of distortion from the screen door effect compared to newer headsets. Facebook made incremental leaps in resolution with its later headsets. The Oculus Go from 2018 had a resolution of 1280 × 1440 pixels per eye, which corresponds to the same resolution from 2019, the Oculus Rift S. The Oculus Quest, on the other hand, has a resolution of 1440 x 1600 per eye. In other words, Quest 2 offers by far the sharpest image in an Oculus headset yet.

However, unlike the original Rift and Quest, which used vivid OLED displays, like in Go and Rift 2, the device switches to LCD, so you don’t get quite the same richness in shadows and dark areas. But you get the full number of red, green, and blue sub-pixels, so the sharpness boost is more significant than the raw numbers suggest. Eventually, Quest 2 makes the jump to a 90Hz refresh rate versus Quest’s 72Hz, which it should bring in line with the standard on its PC VR devices, though only the home environment and browser app do it at startup support.

Comfort

The Quest 2 is a lighter and more comfortable headset than the original Quest. It weighs 503 g compared to Quest’s 588 g and you can definitely tell the difference in your face. But it’s about 30g heavier than the Oculus Go, which only offers simplified 3DOF tracking. The original Oculus Rift was also lighter at 470g, but obviously had a cable attached to its head.

But there is a lot more comfort than weight. Quest 2’s soft, stretchy strap is definitely fairer on the head than the original Oculus Rift or Quest’s hard straps. More tellingly, however, for my money, none of the designs on this headset come close to matching one of Facebook’s heaviest headsets, the Oculus Rift S.

At 561g, the Rift S is just lighter than the original Quest across the line of Oculus headsets. But Facebook used a halo ring design with a strap that rests on your head and a counterweight on your back, which makes the visor rest comfortably on your face. To date, it’s by far the most comfortable VR headset Facebook has put out, although you do get an official Elite Strap or Elite Battery Strap for Quest 2 that makes things a lot better.

Controller

Oculus controllers have seen numerous revisions over the past few years. There were the original touch controllers that hit the market six months after the Rift. They have a downward facing tracking ring, triggers, grips, and face buttons and sensors to recognize when you are touching different areas of the device. Even now, holding these things feels unbelievable, they fit perfectly in the hand and the balance is precise.

When Facebook switched to inside-out tracking at Rift S and Quest, they produced a smaller design with an upward-facing tracking ring. It’s fair to say that this design was a bit cramped and lost some of the comfort and balance of the original controllers. There was also the Oculus Go controller that worked as a 3DOF pointer.

Quest 2’s controllers, meanwhile, are trying to reclaim the magic of the original touch with mixed results. The surface of the new controller is about an inch wider than that of the original touch controller, so it’s nice and spacious, but maybe a little too big. My hand doesn’t feel like it conforms perfectly to the shape like the originals. It’s definitely a step up from Touch 2, but still not quite as strong as the originals.

Audio

Purely from what you get in the box, audio has been one area Facebook has struggled in since the original Rift. This headset had really fantastic on-ear headphones that produced crystal clear sound. Since then, every Oculus headset has used a near-ear speaker solution, which has not proven to be very popular.

That means you don’t have to wear headphones and can hear the outside world, but it does sacrifice audio quality, especially the Rift S. Quest 2 offers the best approach to speaker setup yet by being closer to your ears, however it’s still not perfect. Still, there is a headphone jack for anyone looking for an upgrade. Quest 1 had two jacks, but Quest 2 only has one.

Library

Quest 2 is ready to play any game that started with Quest 1, which features some of the biggest VR hits to date such as Superhot and Beat Saber. It’s also gearing up to support new games like Population: One, and even has exclusive titles like Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge. These games run on standalone hardware and can’t compete with the visual fidelity or ambitious scope of PC VR titles like Half-Life: Alyx.

However, if you have the PC to run these games, you can plug in a Quest 2 with a compatible USB cable and have access to whatever content you had access to on the Oculus Rift. Plus, it even plays a selection of Oculus Go games. In terms of content, there is nothing as versatile as the Quest 2.

value

In 2016, the Oculus Rift launched for $ 600 and asked for an additional $ 100 for touch controllers six months later. So it was essentially $ 700 for a full VR setup and you still needed an expensive PC. The 64GB Oculus Quest 2 costs less than half the original price at $ 299 and comes with everything you need to jump into standalone VR. It’s $ 100 more than the introductory price of the Oculus Go, but plays 6DOF VR content with more horsepower and can access a PC, and it also offers experimental hand tracking. Yes, there have been price cuts on other Oculus headsets, but even when price is taken into account, Quest 2 doesn’t come close to Quest 2 in terms of value.

Conclusion

So there you have it: the Oculus Quest 2 may not be Facebook’s most comfortable headset, and its audio options and controllers are nothing like the original Rift, but starting at $ 299 with a much better screen than any other device before it, it pretty comfortably the crown as the company’s best headset to date. What’s next, we ask ourselves?

What do you think of our Quest 2 vs. every Oculus headset that has ever existed? Let us know in the comments below and subscribe to our YouTube channel.