So I was thinking of getting a VR headset and I haven’t looked and what was available in years. I just assumed there would be non-facebook competitors around the same price range that were similar in quality. But… that doesn’t appear right now to be the case. You can do better, but you need to pay twice as much to get there. I can’t find any good options between the $300 Quest 2 and $600 HP Reverb. (I also haven’t looked very hard yet, so if there’s something there, please let me know)
The quest 2 is also unique in that it has enough processing power on board that it can run games independent of a PC, which definitely gives it some added versatility. I don’t have much room in my PC room to do roomscale stuff, but if I could take it to another room and run it independently of the PC I could do stuff there. Or take it over someone else’s house that doesn’t have a gaming pc and play with it together. Definitely a cool feature.
So… I’m going to say… maybe… to the quest 2. I hate everything about facebook owning oculus, and if there was an alternative that was similarly priced and capable, or even if it were a somewhat worse value (rather than double the price) I’d recommend that. But it may be that there’s nothing even in the Quest 2’s class right now, which then makes it a harder decision.
The fact that it’s so good for so cheap makes me wonder if it’s a loss leader for facebook to spy on you in unprecedented ways, though. But then again, I guess, it’s not that different from google having a microphone and camera with you at all times on their smartphone.
Incidentally, the Rift S (also oculus) is on sale right now for the same price. I was going to compare those too. The rift is going to be losing support in the future (I’m not sure exactly what this means) in favor of the Oculus Quest 2, which is where they’re going to focus all their efforts. It may or may not be better hardware. It’s apparently more comfortable, with better straps and ergonomics, better fresnel lenses, but less resolution and no off-pc capability.