Tech Junkie Overview: Oculus Quest 2 VR headset

Over the years I’ve had a love-hate relationship with virtual reality headsets. I love the idea, I’ve tested high-end VR headsets and love them, but man, I hate the “insert your phone” version that most of us couldn’t use at home. Each phone seems to offer a different experience and there always seems to be too much work for the reward. It changes. Finally, real VR headsets are finally affordable. The Oculus Quest 2 is certainly the most popular right now. I took it for a test!

hardware

The Oculus Quest 2 comes with the headset and two Oculus controllers. The hardware feels studied and very well built. It feels like you are receiving a high quality headset and controller.

The headset has adjustable elastic straps that wrap around the sides and top of your head. The settings are typical pull forces to tighten the straps and it’s a bit annoying to adjust this from person to person. There is an on / off switch and volume buttons, as well as 4 small cameras that the headset uses to track your surroundings. The headset is charged via a USB-C port on the side. Otherwise, it’s a pretty basic headset. The magic, of course, is that the Oculus Quest 2 has two screens to enable this 3D experience.

The controllers feel futuristic! They are used to control gaming with the buttons and joysticks, but also to keep track of the movement of your hands. The placement of the buttons felt natural and the controllers were super easy to use. More impressive is how well the games track your hand movement.

What’s unique about the Quest headset is that it doesn’t need to be connected to a phone or computer. It runs Android on a Snapdragon processor so it’s a 100% standalone experience. This is important because it eliminates much of the complications associated with other headsets. In my tests, the software seemed snappy and the experience just seemed to work. Loading games and apps was as easy as pointing and clicking the controllers, and I never felt like I was waiting for a response.

The Oculus experience

The important part of the “Oculus Experience” is the software that runs on the headset. It’s actually pretty simple. You are given a floating main menu that gives you quick access to these apps and games and an easy way to jump into the settings menus. Navigating these menus is done with the controllers (or even with your bare hands) and was a simple process. The most important area will be the built-in app store, where you can find a pretty large selection of games for Quest 2. The important thing to know is that most games are priced in the $ 20 plus range. There aren’t many free games out there, so you should include the cost of games in the price of the quest. You’re buying a gaming system (think Switch, Xbox, PS5), not a smartphone, and prices match that attitude.

This thing is a great thing to play!

The most important thing about the Oculus Quest 2 is the fun factor. In this case, Oculus did it. The technology doesn’t interfere. It’s a great time playing games with this VR headset! In fact, you almost forget that you are wearing a fancy headset with screens in it. They forget that there is so much cool technology out there that makes this possible. I was in the world of the game I was playing. This is exactly how it should be.

So – should you?

The price is correct. On a $ 300 (64GB) model, this is a deal for a headset that would easily cost $ 1,000 a few years ago. They put a lot of technology into the Quest 2 and still managed to keep it affordable. With so many screens, sensors, controllers and cameras, it sounds complicated! It is not. It just works. You put on this headset and you are transformed into another world. It’s an experience I really enjoyed and my kids kept asking to play. I think you will too.

Keep in mind that games aren’t cheap and the good ones can easily cost over $ 30. This shouldn’t be a deal breaker, but it’s something to consider when considering the cost of the quest.

Overall, the Oculus Quest 2 does it. It’s the perfect VR headset at the perfect price. It’s the VR we’ve all been waiting for without having to plug our phones into a cumbersome headset.

Oculus Quest 2 is available in most major stores and directly from Oculus.com.

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