Oculus Quest 2
Heralding the arrival of true consumer-ready VR gaming
Simplistic styling belies a hard-to-fault VR performance.
OCULUS REALLY HAS established itself as the king of VR, in spite of its onerous Facebook ownership. With only minor quibbles, the Oculus Quest 2 is a tour de force of VR consumer technology, delivering an easy-to-set-up, affordable, slick, cutting-edge consumer-level VR experience, which works as a standalone unit or as a PC-powered VR headset. In short, it checks all the boxes.
Perhaps we should deal with those quibbles. Firstly, the headstrap is poor. The Quest 2 headset is quite heavy and the awkward-to-adjust soft strap doesn’t distribute the weight very well. It’s obviously a cost-cutting exercise, because Oculus does sell an Elite Strap option. Secondly, a Facebook account is mandatory, which is an annoying and baffling move, especially considering Facebook’s recent record on privacy and security. Less quibbles and more points to know, the built-in speakers are acceptable—not very loud, but clear and without distortion—and the controllers feel cheap, but are sturdy, and require just a single AA battery each.