Oculus Quest was released on 21 May 2019. It’s a standalone VR with inside-out 6DoFs tracking. Meaning you’re untethered, can walk around your room and wave your controllers around.
We were very fortunate to be among the first batch to receive the device. It sold out very soon after release. We actually got 2 sets as we expected such shortage in the early release period.
After spending a little over a week with Oculus Quest here’s our verdict:
- Fantastic room-scale tracking
Considered as the most defining feature of Quest, it surely deliver on its promise. The tracking is smooth and precise in all its 6 degrees of freedom. I don’t feel any lags or glitch both on headset and controllers. The caveat is that you must first understand the way its tracking works. Quest has 4 camera sensors on each corner of the headset. So the tracking field is around 180 to the front. Putting your controllers behind your head or hips will stop the tracking. Putting them too close to the headset is also not a good idea. But it’s not as bad as it sounds. Most apps and games will work flawlessly. - Sleek guardian system
The boundary system in Quest is called Guardian System. At the beginning of your setup you will require to mark the playing area in your room. Whenever you are close to that boundary, a grid wall will appear indicating you’re close to the edge. If you decide to go beyond the grid wall, the display will switch from VR to camera pass-through – letting you see the real world environment. I think this is brilliant. Not only it’s pretty cool, it’s also very practical for safety reason. - Compelling tutorial
Nobody is actually expecting tutorial upon launching a device for the first time. However, if you get it right, you will transform how the user sees your device. And Oculus is not pulling any punches on delivering an engaging tutorial. Not only it’s not boring, it’s actually fun. It reminded me of HTC Vive’s Valve tutorial, my first VR experience which I still fondly remember. The best part is I think dancing with robot. It made me see Quest in a whole different view after that. - Strong lineup of launch apps but potentially inhibiting submission process in the long run No matter how good a hardware is, it’s useless without contents to match. I believe Oculus got it right this time. Beat Saber, Vader Immortal, Robo Recall, Super Hot and Rec Room are fantastic both for new and old VR users. Moreover, there are some game demos for people to play game on Quest without paying for anything first. On the other side, developers who want to make their title available on Quest are off to a novel submission process. Instead of submitting your apps and waiting for the review verdict, now devs must submit a pitch first. Oculus will then proceed to determine whether the concept is worthy of being present in their store. I believe this can be a double-edge sword. It might be able to keep the quality bar high, but on the other hand it might affect the diversity. Now devs must first satisfy the reviewers before letting loose on creativity. This is definitely a concern for indies.
- Effortless in-and-out usage but somewhat lacking ergonomically
Quest is great for ’snacking’ experience. Fast boot-up and easy to take on and off. I can be in VR in as little as 10 seconds. Now, considering Quest is a standalone device, you have to understand that there are a lot of things packed into such tiny package. This leads to somewhat an unbalanced headset. In my opinion it’s a little heavy to the front. It tends to slide downwards and the only way to counter that is to tighten the strap. Which in my case is a little too tight to eliminate the sliding problem. It definitely put considerable limits to my usage time. 30 minutes seems to be where I start to feel uncomfortable. Another thing is, although fabric material looks cool, it absorbs sweat. Hopefully you’re always playing in an air-con room and not anything rigorous. - Nice display, but don’t expect AAA fidelity
At 1440 x 1600 per eye, Quest is higher than the original Rift and Vive. But since the processor is Snapdragon 835, don’t even try to compare it visually with PC-class VR. It’s not meant to be. Nevertheless it’s still delivering satisfactory display. Another nice thing is that we have IPD adjustment on Quest. Very handy for people who have slightly wider or narrower IPD. - Attractive price point
At US$399 for the 64GB version, this puts Quest in competition with gaming consoles such as Nintendo Switch and Sony Playstation. At the same time it zooms way ahead of other standalone VR sets. The closest one is HTC Vive Cosmos at US$799 – double the price. I believe many people will definitely give Quest a try.
All in all I give it 8.5 out of 10.
It’s a well-made device with a lot of potential. We can’t wait for our clients in enterprise and other business cases.
