oculus quest 2 lcd panel made in china

Alibaba.com offers 8,348 quest 2 products. such as ocean waters. You can also choose from abs, silicone, and plastic. As well as from 3.1 - 4m. And whether quest 2 is polarized, shutter, or magenta&green.

Meta Quest 2 (initially sold as Oculus Quest 2) is a virtual reality (VR) headset developed by Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.). It was unveiled on September 16, 2020, and released on October 13.

As with its predecessor, the Oculus Quest, the Quest 2 can run as either a standalone headset with an internal, Android-based operating system, or with Oculus Rift-compatible VR software running on a desktop computer. It is a refresh of the original Oculus Quest with a similar design, but with a lighter weight, updated internal specifications, a display with a higher refresh rate and per-eye resolution, and updated Oculus Touch controllers with improved battery life.

The Quest 2 received mostly positive reviews as an incremental update to the Quest, but some of its changes faced criticism, including its strap, reduced interpupillary distance (IPD) options, and a new requirement for users to log in with a Facebook account to use the headset and Oculus services.

The Quest 2 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 SoC, a derivative of the Snapdragon 865 designed for VR and augmented reality devices.LPDDR4X RAM — an increase of 2 GB over the first-generation model.

The dual OLED displays of the first-generation Quest were replaced by a singular, fast-switch LCD panel with a per-eye resolution of 1832×1920, and a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz (an increase from 1440×1600 per-eye at 72 Hz). The display uses striped subpixels rather than a PenTile matrix; this arrangement improves image clarity by reducing the screen-door effect.

An update in February 2021 added support for up to three additional accounts to be logged into a single Quest 2 headset, with the ability for accounts to share purchased software between them.augmented reality features.

The included controllers with the Quest 2 are the third generation Oculus Touch controllers. The design of the new controllers was influenced by the original Oculus Rift controllers.

Quest 2 supports all games and software made for the first-generation model, and existing titles can be updated to support higher graphical quality on Quest 2. It also supports Quest Link, which allows the headset to be used with Oculus Rift-compatible software on a PC.Oculus Go apps and games.

Quest 2 was first released in two SKUs differentiated by storage capacity, with a 64 GB model priced at US$299, and a 256 GB model (replacing the original Quest"s 128 GB model) priced at $399. Both are a US$100 decrease over their equivalent SKUs on the first-generation model.

In November 2021, as part of the rebranding of Facebook, Inc. as Meta, the Oculus brand began to be phased out; Oculus Quest 2 was rebranded as "Meta Quest 2" in promotional materials, and Oculus Store was rebranded as "Quest Store" (Oculus-developed community platforms took on the "Horizon" brand).

In July 2022, citing increased production costs and to "enable us to continue investing in ways that will keep driving this increasingly competitive industry forward for consumers and developers alike", it was announced that the prices of all current Meta Quest 2 SKUs would be increased by US$100 beginning in August 2022. It was concurrently announced that

Facebook presented an "Elite Strap" accessory, which contains a ring-like pad for the back of the head and a tightness dial, along with a variant with a battery pack built into the strap.Logitech headphones "certified" for Quest 2, including the G333 VR—the company"s first in-ear headphones—which have shortened cables designed for use with VR headsets.

In October 2022, Meta unveiled new Touch Pro controllers for the Meta Quest Pro, which will also be available as an optional accessory for existing Quest 2 headsets. These controllers have a more compact design, replace the infrared tracking rings with cameras for on-board inside-out tracking (thus no longer needing to be within the line of sight of the headset"s cameras for best performance), and also include a pressure sensor for pinching gestures, and rechargeable batteries.

In November 2021, Qualcomm stated that at least 10 million Quest 2 headsets had been shipped worldwide.iOS App Store and Google Play Store in the United States for the first time—implying that Quest headsets had been heavily purchased as Christmas gifts during the holiday shopping season.

The Quest 2 has faced criticism over the mandate that users must log in with a Facebook account in order to use the Quest 2 and any future Oculus products, including the amount of user data that could be collected by the company via virtual reality hardware and interactions, such as the user"s surroundings, motions and actions, and biometrics.rendered the headset a "paperweight".Germany after it faced criticism from the German Federal Cartel Office over the requirement.Mark Zuckerberg stated that the company was "working on making it so you can log in into Quest with an account other than your personal Facebook account".

Meta later announced in July 2022 that it would establish a new "Meta account" platform, which will not be explicitly tied to the Facebook social network, and that users who transition to Meta account would be allowed to decouple their Facebook logins from its VR platforms. However, Ars Technica noted that the new terms of service and privacy policies associated with the new Meta account system could still allow enforcement of a real name policy (stating that users would be obligated to provide "accurate and up to date information (including registration information), which may include providing personal data", and still allowed for "rampant" use of user data by Meta.

In December 2020, Facebook stated that it was investigating reports of users experiencing rashes and other skin irritation from the Quest 2"s foam face pad. In April 2021, Facebook stated that it had identified and reduced the use of "a few trace substances that are normally present in the manufacturing process which could contribute to skin discomfort", but that they "did not find any contamination or unexpected substances in our manufacturing process." On July 27, 2021, Facebook announced that it had issued a recall of the face pads in Canada and the United States, would issue free silicone covers to existing users, and would temporarily suspend global sales of the Quest 2 in order to allow these covers to be included with all future shipments of the headset.

Virtual and augmented reality news seems to have taken a backseat these days. Even coverage about the Metaverse has somewhat died down after the initial hype and frenzy. Of course, it’s not that these technologies and buzzwords have actually disappeared, just that the market is slowly starting to settle down and become less sensational. That said, there still aren’t that many mainstream VR headsets available, especially in some markets with restricted access to some brands and technologies. Their design also still has plenty of room for improvement, especially in terms of convenience and comfort. Although Meta’s (formerly Oculus’) Quest 2 and HTC’s Vive seem to be the top two choices in VR, Lenovo is taking another stab at that market, particularly one that Meta can’t reach.

This isn’t Lenovo’s first virtual reality headset, not by a long shot. Since 2017, it has dabbled in that space and experimented with wildly different designs. There’s the Mirage Solo, for example, which was a standalone headset for Google’s now-defunct Daydream platform. And then there’s the Lenovo Explorer that ran the Windows Mixed Reality and would have made you imagine you were cosplaying as Cyclops from X-Men. This time, Lenovo is attaching its Legion gaming brand to its latest headset, and it’s taking on the Meta Quest 2 in both looks and specs.

The Lenovo Legion VR700 didn’t have much fanfare when it was announced a few days ago, probably because it is serving only one country so far. With no word on a global launch yet, Lenovo’s new VR headset might be limited to the Chinese market only. Given its design, it’s almost a direct stand-in for the Meta Quest 2, which can’t be officially activated in China due to regional restrictions. The HTC Vive is available there, though, so it’s not like Lenovo can claim dominance in the market even with this Quest 2 look-alike.

Some might consider it unfair to even suggest that Lenovo is copying Meta (or Oculus), though there are definitely some similarities you can’t ignore, like the design of the visor as well as the controllers. The two also have some similar specs, like the aging Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset that allows the headset to function without being tethered to a computer. Then again, the designs of VR headsets, as well as their basic hardware, have become almost too common for any single headset to claim originality.

Whether the Lenovo Legion VR700 makes it big in China will largely depend on the software platform it will use. Without something like Oculus or Vive, Lenovo might be forced to come up with its own VR experience, which isn’t that easy to pull off these days. If that is the case, the VR700 headset could fall flat on its face, no matter how cheaper it is than the competition.

As reported by Chinese language publication 36Kr , WeChat developer Tencent is set to promote Meta Quest 2 in mainland China. This isn’t the first time Meta hardware has found its way into mainland China.

Oculus previously announced earlier this year that Oculus Go , the company’s 3DOF standalone headset, would officially launch in 23 consumer markets, although China would be receiving its own version with Xiaomi branding. Now, at a conference in Shenzhen the Chinese tech giant announced that Mi VR has officially launched in China. Image courtesy Xiaomi, Oculus. The post Oculus Go Launches in China Under Xiaomi Branding appeared first on Road to VR.

After the review of the Huawei VR glasses we did together, this time I interviewed him and FXG’s CTO Wilson Li about the incredible work they’re doing with VR videos in China. Thanks for connecting with me from the distant China. It’s like Oculus or Meta currently.

The Chinese variant of the Oculus Go, sold by Xiaomi as the ‘Mi VR Standalone’, appears to be seeing strong launch demand, with the headset quickly selling out, in some cases within just minutes. The Mi VR Standalone is priced at ¥1,500 ($235) and ¥1,800 ($280) for the 32GB and 64GB versions respectively, a slight increase over Oculus Go’s $200/$250 price tag in the US, which can be accounted for by the Chinese value added tax of 17%.

Xiaomi, the Chinese electronics giant, officially announced that they’ve partnered with Oculus to not only manufacture Oculus Go, the company’s upcoming $200 standalone VR headset, but also produce a China-only standalone VR headset called Xiaomi Mi VR Standalone. Xiaomi’s headset is said to incorporate everything Oculus Go does hardware-wise, albeit with Xiaomi branding and its own Mi VR content store.

Having initially announced that their Vive Focus standalone VR headset would operate as part of Google’s Daydream VR platform in 2017, HTC later scrapped those plans ahead of the headset’s recent launch in China under HTC’s own ‘Wave Vive’ platform. Recent comments from HTC’s Vive China President suggest that a Western release for the headset will likely hinge on its reception in China.

The Chinese variant of the Oculus Go, sold by Xiaomi as the ‘Mi VR Standalone’, appears to be seeing strong launch demand, with the headset quickly selling out, in some cases within just minutes. The Mi VR Standalone is priced at ¥1,500 ($235) and ¥1,800 ($280) for the 32GB and 64GB versions respectively, a slight increase over Oculus Go’s $200/$250 price tag in the US, which can be accounted for by the Chinese value added tax of 17%.

Yesterday I detailed you what is the Oculus Rift S , while today I want to write you a recap about what is the Oculus Quest , the most awaited virtual reality headset of 2019. What Is the Oculus Quest? Oculus Quest is the first standalone 6 DOF virtual reality headset by Oculus. What is its difference between the Oculus Quest and the Oculus Go? And with the Oculus Rift? Oculus Go (Image by Oculus). Oculus Quest specs.

HTC is making yet more moves in China today, announcing a partnership with the Shenzhen Municipal Government to kick off two new initiatives. The first of these is a new China VR Research Institute. Industry rivals like Oculus also have their own research groups dedicated to solving the long-term breakthroughs VR will need to become more immersive and reach mainstream potential. Tagged with: china , htc , investment fund , Shenzhen.

During the Fall, I was invited by Tsinghua, “China’s MIT”, to design a new blend of curriculum for their students. Let’s see how Xiaomi’s latest headset is illustrating the growing leading role of China in the VR industry, and its particularities compared to the Western market. Two out of the four HTC Vive X accelerators in the world are located in China, in Beijing and Shenzhen. Xinhua, China’s official news agency, opened a VR/AR channel in May 2016.

China Joy kicked off Thursday at the Shanghai New International Expo Center with over 600 firms showing the latest in entertainment and technology. Let’s take a look at some of the common themes we came across at China Joy. We saw quite a few multiplayer Vive setups, but we also saw Move controllers on heads, branded headsets and even headsets that look like a Vive controller and Oculus Touch controller had a baby!

PlayStation VR is a promising new contender on the scene, but all eyes are still on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift when it comes to VR rivalries. Alvin Wang Graylin, China Regional President of Vive, made this point during his talk at last week’s Vive developer conference in Hangzhou, China. It’s a noble thought, though it’s tough to look at those slides and not feel like Oculus has come up a little short-changed.

Back at CES, Oculus announced that Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi would exclusively bring its own branded version of the standalone Oculus Go headset to China. The headset will support the Oculus Mobile SDK, meaning existing Gear VR and future Oculus Go apps can be packaged up for sale to the Chinese VR market through Xiaomi’s Mi VR store. Xiaomi will exclusively sell and control the headset in China while the Oculus Go will be sold in other regions.

Alvin Wang Graylin is the China President of Vive at HTC, and I had a chance to talk with him at CES this year about what’s happening in China. On average, the VR hardware from China tends to be no where near the quality of the major VR players of the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Sony PSVR, or Samsung GearVR, but there were some standout Chinese companies who are leading innovation in specific area.

Today at CES, Oculus shared details about their partnerships with Xiaomi and Qualcomm Technologies. Xiaomi is the hardware partner for the global launch of Oculus Go and are also announcing Mi VR Standalone —a VR headset based on Oculus technology exclusively for the Chinese market. Xiaomi is working directly with Oculus developers to localize some of the most popular content from the Oculus Store and to bring it to the Mi VR Store in China.

VR Cover is a Thai company that produces accessories for VR headsets since 2014, and i t has recently started selling covers for the popular Oculus Quest as well. VR Cover for Oculus Quest review. Oculus Quest original facemask with cotton cover installed on.

In the interview with me, he talked about many topics, like the rumors he heard on Apple Glasses, on the Oculus Quest 2 , the America vs China war, XR entrepreneurship, Tesla, and more! The first leaked photo of the new Oculus Quest (Image by WalkingCat). USA vs China.

After being backordered by weeks in many regions, Oculus Quest is now “unavailable” from Oculus in 17 out of 23 regions where the unit is sold, including the United States, Canada, and much of Europe.

Hugo Barra, one-time head of Oculus and VP of Facebook Reality Labs partnerships, has announced that he’s left Facebook. Barra came to Facebook in 2017 from his role as Global VP at the China-based tech giant Xiaomi, replacing Oculus’ first CEO Brendan Iribe.

Oculus and HTC have already reduced the prices of their respective headsets, with the Oculus Rift now selling for $500 and HTC Vive for $600. HTC hopes to address this in China with a new partnership between Dalian Television and Beijing Cyber Cloud to offer a set-top, cloud-based box—meaning you don’t need a traditional VR-ready rig to run VR games. Called Vive Arcace , this was also a ‘China-first’ program that latter went global.

Original image by Oculus). Oculus kills the Go and opens to content on Quest. In the end, the time of the Oculus Go has come. Devices like Oculus Quest , Pico Neo 2 , and Vive Focus Plus have proven that 6DOF VR is more interesting and has far more retention.

Today we hear from Alvin Wang Graylin, HTC’s China President of Vive. Graylin is the China President of Vive at HTC leading all aspects of the Vive/VR business in the region. He has had over 22 years of business management experience in the tech industry, including 15 years operating in Greater China. Oculus’ Head of Content, Jason Rubin. The post On the Hunt for VR’s Killer App with Vive’s China President, Alvin Wang Graylin appeared first on Road to VR.

The developers say in a recent tweet that the arcade machine’s public debut will begin this September at KVRF in Seoul, and the GTI Expo in Guangzhou, China. The post Dedicated ‘Beat Saber’ Machine to Hit VR Arcades in South Korea & China appeared first on Road to VR. HTC Vive Games News Bits Oculus Rift Games PSVR Games SteamVR Games VR Arcade VR Games Windows Mixed Reality Games beat games beat saber beat saber arcade vr arcade

While the Pico Neo 3 will be sold as an enterprise device in the West with the name of Pico Neo 3 Pro, it is currently on sale as a consumer-oriented headset in China. But a question popped up in my mind: could it also be used here in the West as an alternative to the Oculus Quest 2?

iQiYi , something akin to the Netflix of China, has just launched its new standalone VR headset: it is called QiYu 3 (??3, It seems a very good headset , apart from the terrible exterior design that looks like the son of an Oculus Quest 2 and a Vive Cosmos.

They are the business counterpart of the Pico Neo 3 , the consumer headset that Pico is selling in China for around $400, hoping to kickstart a consumer VR ecosystem there. Tracking is not as amazing as Oculus Insight, though. Best articles reviews virtual reality China pico

The Vive Focus was most probably the best VR standalone on the market when Oculus last week announced what will be the first consumer 6DOF VR standalone headset. And so here we are again: Oculus vs HTC, America vs China, Hugo Barra vs Alvin Wang Graylin. And now the battle is on standalone headsets: Oculus Quest vs Vive Focus. I’m a huge fan of the Vive Focus and I’m hyped about the Oculus Quest. The magic of the Oculus Quest (Image by Oculus).

Oculus Go is an upcoming standalone VR headset and controller that offers the same content library and a similar experience to Gear VR, but in a dedicated unit rather than a ‘headset shell’ accessory for a smartphone. What is Oculus Go? Originally announced at Oculus Connect 4 in October 2017, the Oculus Go is a VR headset and controller designed to offer mobile VR experiences in a self-contained, standalone unit. Want to know what it’s like to use Oculus Go?

According to a report from Digi-Capital , China is likely to beat the United States in AR adoption. How China could win in AR adoption, and our thoughts. According to the report, the following is true: The United States has a larger VR install base than China, through products like PSVR and the HTC Vive. The recently-released Oculus Go may impact these numbers as well. While China has a smaller VR install base, it has a much larger number of mobile devices in play.

This makes it the cheapest enterprise standalone headset in the market, considering that Oculus Quest 2 For Business costs €800 and Vive Focus 3 BE costs around €1200. reviews virtual reality China pico

When ByteDance bought the Chinese VR headset maker Pico a year ago, the message it sent was clear: It was betting that the immersive device would be where future generations spend most of their time consuming digital content. It’s a marriage reminiscent of Meta’s acquisition of Oculus back in 2014, except the world is now in a different place with technological advances that make VR headsets cheaper, less laggy and more comfortable to wear.

The TikTok parent has long aimed to compete in a market dominated by Oculus’s VR devices for consumers. When Meta launched Quest 2 in 2020, ByteDance worked on a confidential internal project to develop AR glasses, The Information reported. Pico’s product launch this week is a further indication of its ambition to challenge Quest, which has enjoyed roughly two-thirds of the global AR and VR market for the past two years.

The Pico 4, which starts at €429 (around $420 thanks to a strong dollar) for 128 GB and ships to Europe, Japan and South Korea, has received applause in the VR community. Itweighs only 295 grams without the straps and can function as a standalone device but also be tethered to PCs for more advanced VR experiences. It uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor as Quest 2 does.

“Was impressed with the weight, comfort, LCD display, pancake lenses, color AR passthrough and controllers. All it needs now are serious triple-A VR exclusives to distinguish itself from Meta to get gamers interested,” writes a VR content creator.

Merely “matching” Quest 2 specs doesn’t sound good enough given the latter came out two years ago and became an instant hit. Pico not only has a lot of catch-up to do on the technological front but also in terms of content and branding.

“Oculus’s content ecosystem is more established, providing a better understanding of what consumers want,” says Newton-Tanzer. Popular rhythm game Beat Saber, for instance, had generated $100 million in revenue on Oculus Quest by October 2021.

Pico is facing a chicken-or-egg problem, the XR expert suggests. Its user base across product lines isn’t currently large enough that top-tier creators would be devoted to making games, videos and other VR content exclusively for its platform. It reportedly sold 500,000 units last year, half of its target. In contrast, Quest 2 shipped 10 million units in the space of October 2020 and November 2021. But without premium content, Pico will have a hard time attracting users in a meaningful way.

The good news is Pico has established a strong foothold in China and doesn’t face much competition in the home market. Oculus doesn’t have an official presence in China, meaning users have to go through the hassle of ordering an overseas version, getting the Oculus app from a foreign app store and accessing its global app ecosystem through a virtual private network as Meta’s servers are blocked in China.

According to the announcement of investor relations activity record form disclosed by Changxin technology, the company has been committed to the construction of "yuanuniverse" industrial chain. The VR project of the company has been laid out since December 2019, the project has been approved in March 2020, and mass production has been started in July 2020. At present, the peak capacity of each month has reached 1kk / month; The company provides the latest VR quest2 display module for Facebook (now renamed "meta") and VR head display module for domestic VR giants.

Quest Pro has finally been revealed, and while it’s a much more expensive headset, inevitably people are interested in knowing how it compares to Meta’s next best headset, Quest 2. So here we’re going to look at Quest Pro vs Quest 2 specs side-by-side and break down what they really mean in detail.

There’s so much about XR headsets that is difficult to communicate from paper specs alone. So similar to my PSVR vs. PSVR 2 spec comparison here we’ll look at the numbers and I’ll use my recent experiences with the headset to explain more about what they do or don’t mean.

The big deal with the new pancake optics in Quest Pro is that they’ve allowed the headset to shrink so it doesn’t feel quite as much like a box on your face. But Meta also says they are clearer, offering a 25% increase in sharpness at the center, and a 50% increase in the peripheral region.

That should mean the Quest Pro has a much better ‘sweet spot’ (the variance in clarity from one edge of the lens to other). However, it’s not apparent to me yet if these supposed increases in sharpness are specific to just the optics or if they include Quest Pro’s display as well—after all, if your resolving power is fundamentally limited by the number of pixels on the display, increasing the clarity of the lens won’t make any difference (I’ve been attempting to clarify this with Meta).

Granted, we know that the periphery of Quest 2’s lens is definitely limited by the lens rather than the display, so any increase there is sure to be an improvement in the overall sweet spot of the lens, especially if it’s really by 50%!

Regarding the refresh rate of Quest Pro and Quest 2… while the latter originally shipped with a 72Hz refresh rate, it can now run up to 120Hz. Quest Pro on the other hand tops out at 90Hz, and sources tell me it’s unlikely that it will increase after launch.

90Hz is largely considered the industry standard for a ‘good’ refresh rate on a VR headset, whereas anything higher has proven to be a nice-to-have but not quite essential feature. On Quest 2 only a small number of apps actually run at 120Hz. I’d bet the majority actually target 72Hz.

Here Quest Pro gets some upgrades that I’m happy to see. While both headsets technically have a physical IPD adjustment and eye-relief adjustment, Quest 2 is somewhat hampered in this regard because the lenses can only be placed in three discrete IPD positions (58mm, 63mm, 68mm) and the eye-relief only has two positions. Neither of these adjustments can be easily made while wearing the headset itself.

Quest Pro on the other hand gains a continuous adjustment for both IPD (55–75mm) and eye-relief. And both adjustments are made with dials on the headset, making it easier for anyone to find the best lens position with less fiddling.

And one small but meaningful bonus on Quest Pro comes from its eye-tracking sensors… the headset will automatically measure the distance between the user’s eyes and tell them to position the lenses in the correct place. This is great because most people don’t actually know their IPD value, despite it being pretty important to XR devices, nor are most people particularly good at finding the right IPD position by visual inference.

My understanding is that XR2+ is—transistor for transistor—literally the same chip as XR2 but backed up by twice the RAM (12GB) and a better cooling solution which allows it to run at higher speeds without overheating. Anyone who has ever overclocked their PC knows just how much heat is a limiting factor in processor performance; Meta’s claim that Quest Pro is getting some 50% more power out of the same chip is not unreasonable.

The big question on my mind is how much of that additional power translates to a headset that can run existing content at higher fidelity as opposed to how much of the extra power is reserved for the headset’s system-level functions. I would guess the majority of the extra power is going to the latter—after all, Quest Pro not only has higher resolution sensors, it has six additional sensors compared to Quest 2. All of that extra incoming data needs to be processed with as little latency as possible.

Assuming that’s the case, existing Quest 2 games probably won’t run any better on Quest Pro, while the benefits in processing power will come in the form of new apps that take advantage of system-level capabilities like improved passthrough and face-tracking.

However, a nice little bonus from the new continuous eye-relief adjustment on Quest Pro is that everyone will be able to move the lenses as close to their eyes as they are comfortable with. With varying facial topography, people can experience fairly different fields-of-view when the lens position is static. The ability to move the lenses forward and back means more people will be able to experience Quest Pro’s maximum field of view than if the lenses couldn’t move.

Another note on field-of-view is that Quest Pro is designed with an open peripheral view (compared to Quest 2 which blocks as much of the outside world as possible). This is intentional to make the headset’s passthrough mode feel more natural (since the real world in your periphery matches up with the passthrough view in the center of your vision.

Thoughtfully, Quest Pro also ships with ‘light blockers’ which magnetically attach to hide much of the outside peripheral view. An optional ‘full light blocker’ accessory goes even further and provides a more complete face-gasket for blocking out as much of the outside world as possible.

In the future it would be nice to see some kind of dynamic solution to opening or closing the peripheral field-of-view to the real world, but in any case, Quest Pro gets good marks for a high level of flexibility in this regard.

Facebook"s new Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, which the company announced Wednesday, is faster, lighter and features better graphics than its predecessor. Perhaps more important, it"s also a lot cheaper: Facebook was able to cut the price by $100, with the cheapest model retailing for just $300. Oh, and it"s white now, which makes it look much more like a Wii than a gaming PC.

In other words, it"s a mass market product, not something only geeks would buy. Which raises the question: Is the Quest 2 that elusive iPhone-like product many in the VR world have been waiting for? The affordable, easy-to-use device that will finally take VR mainstream? I talked to key Facebook executives to get their take on what Quest 2 means for VR — and what they"re worried about.

Facebook execs are excitedabout Quest 2. "I"ve been really blown away by it. This is going to be a career highlight for me," head of Facebook Reality Labs Andrew "Boz" Bosworth told me. "It"s a pretty phenomenal device," agreed Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer.

Quest 2 is priced to sell.Asked about his favorite Quest 2 feature, Bosworth replied: "For me, it"s the price. It"s so important." Schroepfer agreed: "If you make me pick one, it would probably be the price. You can"t go into all the details of the amount of work this team did to make this thing work at this price and the volumes we want to sell."

But it isn"t meant to sell out.Some of the caution that Bosworth and Schroepfer expressed may be due to the original Quest"s market performance. Introduced in May 2019, the Quest 1 sold out quickly — and then remained unavailable for months at a time, including during the valuable holiday shopping season. Sourcing issues for the device"s dual OLED displays were said to be partly responsible; for Quest 2, Facebook switched to a single LCD display, and significantly ramped up manufacturing. "We anticipate selling much more than Quest," said Quest 2 product manager Rangaprabhu Parthasarathy.

There"s momentum here.Facebook hasn"t released any Quest sales numbers yet, but the company did reveal Wednesday that Quest users have now spent more than $150 million on content, with more than 35 titles each generating more than $1 million in sales. "I have a lot of experience taking product [from] zero to one and looking at what those curves look like," Bosworth told me. "I can tell you the feeling that I have being a part of this team reminds me of the feeling I had being a part of early things at Facebook, like Messenger."

Having used the Quest 2 for a little over a week, I have to say that it does feel the closest to a mass market product a VR headset has ever felt. Let"s see whether consumers agree.

Pico is no newcomer to VR – itrevealed its first headset in 2016. Last year it was acquired by ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant behind TikTok. Pico has always sold to Chinese consumers but focused on businesses elsewhere. This changed earlier this year with the launch of Pico Neo 3 Link to European consumers. But itwas pitched as a “beta program” with the company teasing a successor byoffering a discounton it toNeo 3 Linkbuyers. That successor is Pico 4.

Much of the discussion so far about Pico 4 has centered on the on-paper technical specs. We havea rundown of those with a comparison to Quest 2 already. But in this review, I’m going to talk about the experience those specs create when they all come together, what the device is like in real usage, and whether or not you should actually buy one instead of a Quest 2.

The first thing you’ll notice about Pico 4 is its slimmer & lighter visor. Whereas Quest 2’s visor weighs 470 grams without straps, Pico 4 without straps is almost 40% lighter at 295 grams. I give the weight of the visor (the front) rather than the overall headset because that’s what you actually feel pressing against your face.

Pico 4’s rigid strap is similar to Quest 2’s Elite Strap accessory and has the battery built into the rear – part of the reason the visor is lighter. This balances the weight significantly better than the default flimsy elastic strap that gives Quest 2 its front-heavy feeling out of the box. The downside to Pico 4’s strap is that it’s not removable, so you can’t choose a 3rd party alternative.

The combination of the lighter visor and the battery as a rear counterbalance weight makes a dramatic difference to comfort. It no longer feels like a brick strapped to your face. Frankly, Quest 2 just looks and feels antiquatednext to Pico 4. It’s noticeably boxier and heavier.

Pico 4’s facial interface material also feels much gentler on your face. It’s the same kind of breathable fabric that was used for Oculus Go, rather than the cheap-feeling face-hurting foam that comes with Quests.

With Quest 2 you need multiple accessories to make it comfortable: a proper strap and a replacement facial interface. Pico 4 is comfortable out of the box – it’s a refreshing change.

There is however a major issue with Pico 4’s comfort – but it only affects some people. Pico 4 has continuous lens separation adjustment to theoretically support a wide range of interpupillary distances (IPDs), which is great for visual comfort. But while the lenses can get as close as 58mm, there’s a good reason the spec sheet only claims support for 62mm – 72mm. To set the IPD below 62mm you need to accept a notice warning you that the lenses might “press directly against” your nose.

Trying this out, the nose-crushing was so uncomfortable I would actually describe it as a design flaw.If your IPD is over 62mm you won’t even notice this flaw exists, but if it’s below I really don’t recommend buying Pico 4.

So yeah, the lenses are so big they crush the nose of people with a narrow IPD. But their size also delivers my favorite aspect of Pico 4: the field of view. It’s both wider andtaller than Quest 2, and it’s instantly noticeable.

Interestingly, Meta’s CTO was right: the field of view being taller is actually more impactful than it being wider. Ironically, Quest Pro’s field of view is as wide as Pico 4 but not as tall. I haven’t yet received a Quest Pro review unit, but based on my initial impressions I suspect Pico 4 will be my wireless PC VR driver due to the vertical field of view alone. Quest 2 just feels claustrophobic in comparison.

But the Pico 4 lenses don’t just have a larger field of view. They’re pancake lenses, sharper in both the center and periphery compared to the fresnel lenses used in Quest 2. They still exhibit lens glare, but the effect is reduced.

The downside to Pico 4’s optical system is the display looks dull and slightly washed out. When I tried Quest Pro I was impressed by the contrast and colors compared to Quest 2, but Pico 4 is the opposite in both regards – a step back. Some people seem to think the only spec of a display is resolution, but that’s not true.

The problem with Pico 4’s higher resolution and larger field of view is that it’s powered by the same old Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 chipset used in Quest 2. The result of asking the same chip to render more pixels and more geometry each frame is somewhat predictable: performance issues.

In some games that run at a buttery smooth 90 frames per second on Quest 2, such as Superhot VR, I experienced frame drops on Pico 4. This could probably be remedied by Pico reducing the default render resolution, or maybe developers just need more time to tweak their titles. But as someone who doesn’t get motion sick from locomotion but does from frame drops, the result is the same: it makes me feel slightly sick. Standalone VR’s main bottleneck is current chips, not current displays, and Pico 4 proves this.

Perhaps this is the reason Pico 4’s refresh rate is 72Hz by default, and 90Hz is an experimental option, as 120Hz was on Quest 2. Other than the frame drops though, I didn’t notice any technical issues with 90Hz mode.

Another disappointing technical aspect of Pico 4 is that the positional tracking just isn’t as solid as Quest 2. Even in a room with good lighting & plenty of high-contrast features, there’s a tiny jitter on both the headset and controllers, and the position of both sometimes slightly shifts as if to correct accumulated drift. It’s subtle, but it makes me feel slightly sick when this happens too. Using Quest 2 in the exact same lighting, no such issue occurs and the tracking feels rock solid.

Inside-out tracking is relatively easy to ship these days, but it’s still astonishingly difficult to do well enough to feel flawless in VR. Facebook has been working on this since acquiring 13th Lab in 2014, so it may take time for Pico to catch up.

Some people don’t like the requirement to use a smartphone to set up a Quest, but Pico’s setup experience shows why you probably don’t reallywant to do this from VR yet. Typing in your email address & desired password with tracked controllers as laser pointers is cumbersome, and means you can’t automatically save your credentials to a password manager. You then have to take the headset off to find a verification code sent via email, then put it back on to enter that code.

The system software inside VR is verysimilar to Quest. It’s clearly “inspired”, in the same sense as many Chinese Android brands are “inspired” by iOS. If you’ve tried a Quest and liked the interface, you’ll probably like Pico’s. If you didn’t, you probably won’t like this either.

It is much snappier though. Bringing up the menu while in an app is fast & smooth, with none of the juddering you often see on Quest’s menu. The downside is it feels less polished, with little touches like haptic feedback on the virtual keyboard missing. Expect the system software to change over time though.

It’s a big step up visually at first glance, but there’s a major caveat. Pico 4’s passthrough isn’t depth-correct, like the original Oculus Quest until a software update it received 5 months after launch.

That’s not to say it’s completely monoscopic. There is a different perspective delivered to each eye. But this stereoscopy is faked from the single color camera in the center. The scale of the image delivered isn’t true to life and exhibits distortion over the entire view, a much worse experience than the depth-correct passthrough on Quest Pro which can exhibit distortion on specific objects in 3D space.

So barring a major software update, don’t expect Pico 4 to deliver the mixed reality experiences you’ll find on Quest Pro. Pico is pitching this as a virtual reality headset, and it’s a quarter of the price.

Whereas Quest 2’s controllers house its infrared LEDsin a ring in front of the controller, Pico 4’s controllers have them in an arc over your hands.The advantage is that you can bring your hands much closer together without bashing together plastic you can’t see inside VR. This makes interactions like rapidly reloading a weapon far less frustrating.

But the handle shape of Pico 4’s controllers doesn’t feel quite as ergonomic. My hands feel entirely neutral in Quest’s controllers, whereas they’re ever so slightly strained in Pico’s. I suspect this will vary across hand shapes though.

Controller-free hand tracking isn’t available on Pico 4 yet unless you enable developer mode- and thus isn’t supported in any Pico Store apps – but the company says it’s coming in a post-launch software update. Meta has been continuously improving Quest’s hand tracking with software updates though, so Pico has a tough act to follow here.

Pico 4’s app store is slowly but surely filling up with many of the top Quest titles. You’ll find games like Superhot VR,Blade & Sorcery Nomad, Demeo, After the Fall, Arizona Sunshine, Eleven Table Tennis, Walkabout Mini Golf, Space Pirate Trainer, and GORN. Here’s a full list.

But Meta has built-up a catalog of standalone exclusives you won’t find on Pico 4 including Beat Saber, Resident Evil 4, Population: ONE,Onward, and soon Iron Man VR. Meta has acquired 8 game studios over the past 3 years but has only teased 1 new game from them, so expect a range of new Quest exclusives in coming years.

If you own a gaming PC though, you can play Beat Saber and Onward as well as PC VR exclusives like Half-Life: Alyx and Skyrim VR via SteamVR. Like Quest, Pico 4 has built-in wired and wireless PC VR streaming. It doesn’t work quite as well as Air Link, with more noticeable occasional stutters. But thankfully Virtual Desktop is also available on the Pico store, and it works just as well as on Quest.

Pico 4 offers sharper, wider and taller lenses in a slimmer & lighter design that makes Quest 2 look outdated by comparison. But the content ecosystem is far less developed, the software isn’t as refined, and the processor can struggle to keep up with higher resolution.

Assuming your IPD is above 62mm, the decision to buy Pico 4 or Quest 2 comes down to an exceedingly difficult question: do you want ByteDance’s superior hardware, or Meta’s superior software tech & content library?

But the same is true of the hardware market itself. There are a lot of headsets to choose from, from the super-portable HTC Vive Flow, the more powerful but still stand-alone Meta Quest 2, right through to the high-end PC-based Valve Index. It helps to have a budget in mind but, even within the same price band, features can vary. Our VR headset deals page can help you get more bang for your buck.

It’s important to consider what you want out of a VR headset; the Valve Index will give you spectacular graphics (provided you have a powerful enough PC), but the wireless Meta Quest 2 will let you roam free without a cable anchoring you to reality. The good news is that because most headsets support Steam VR, you’re not going to purchase a headset and find you’ve nothing to play on it.

Wirefree and self-contained, the Meta Quest 2 (formerly the Oculus Quest 2) is an excellent introduction to the delights of virtual reality. Relatively affordable, this wireless headset has everything you need to get into VR gaming right out of the box, without the need for a PC. It’s powerful enough to run some of the most enticing VR experiences without breaking the bank, and taps into Oculus’s impressive library of exclusive virtual reality titles, including the Quest 2 exclusive Resident Evil 4 VR.

Its screen isn’t the sharpest, but its wireless nature makes it one of the simplest to use and most comfortable to wear. And, for those really invested in the virtual reality scene, it will even work with titles originally designed exclusively for PC VR players. This is thanks to the Meta Quest 2’s flexible support for additional wired gameplay through a PC. An experimental feature, Air Link, adds wireless PC streaming connectivity, though results may vary between games.

The Meta Quest 2’s price has recently gone up by $100/£100 which makes it a little less competitive than it once was. But, right now, it’s still a great way to experience the joys of VR, wireless or otherwise.

And while its hardware and software are compatible with the new PS5 console, a PSVR 2 has already been confirmed to be in the works at Sony HQ. If you’ve not already bought into the idea of VR on your PlayStation, it may be worth holding out for the sequel at this point, which promises much-improved controller ergonomics and far more detailed displays. There’s no release date for it yet, but we’re expecting to find out more later this year.

If you’re after sheer fidelity from your PC VR gaming experiences, you’ll struggle to find a better headset than the HTC Vive Pro 2. With a stonking 5K resolution, it’s about as sharp as VR headsets get before entering truly niche enthusiast territory. With a fast refresh rate and wide field of view, you’ll really be able to see every detail from your time in VR, to the point where you begin to approach photo-real quality in some high-end apps.

Alas, clarity like this comes at a high price, and we’re not just talking the expense of the HTC Vive Pro 2 kit itself. To be able to power this headset at any sort of stable framerate, you’re going to need a very high-specification PC and graphics card, which may make the whole endeavor prohibitively expensive.

Though it doesn’t have the showstopping specs of the newer Vive Pro 2 model, it still has a lot going for it. Its base stations track movement well, its field of view is relatively wide, and its library of games (through both the Steam VR marketplace and HTC VIVEPORT subscription service) is deep and entertaining.

However, the failings of the Vive Pro 2 are apparent here also – it’s the same unwieldy controllers, and you’re still going to need to find places to pop its motion-tracking base stations around a room, too. All things considered, it’s still a solid VR choice though, especially if its advancing age means you can pick it up at a bargain price.

The HP Reverb G2 occupies an unusual place on this list. On the one hand, its high-resolution screens make it strong competition for the Valve Index and HTC Vive Pro 2, but then its lowly refresh rate means it can’t match the natural-feeling smoothness of the Index.

Then there’s its price – at $549 / £530.80, it’s in the same ballpark of affordability as the Oculus Quest 2 and PSVR. But it doesn’t come with controllers in the box, and its wired nature means you’re still going to need a rather powerful (read: expensive) PC to pair it with. And yet, it has a physical IPD slider (letting its lenses more accurately match the distance between your pupils), whereas the Oculus Quest 2 does not.

The Flow resembles mirrored ski-goggles and, due to its small size, should easily slip into a bag or big pocket. Games are supported, though since it’s less powerful than the Meta Quest 2, don’t expect great gaming performance (or a huge library of games). You can also use the Flow as a virtual cinema of sorts, so you can watch Netflix on a huge virtual screen no matter where you are.