[Review, Unboxing] Cheaper Oculus Quest 2 with Elite Strap: What Specs, Features Did Facebook Compromise to Make it More Affordable?

Krisana E., Tech Times 17 September 2020, 12:09 am

Excited to get a hold of Facebook's new VR headset Oculus Quest 2? Not so fast, read on the following 'partial' review and unboxing from a popular youtube channel Cas and Chary VR.

Oculus sent the headset to the youtubers before launch so they could test it and share their thoughts on it. The primary person in the video, Cas, shared that she's been testing it for about two weeks.

Cas kickstarted by telling the price of this new headset as she claims it changes things. She confirmed that the rumored prices of 299 US dollars for the 64-gigabyte version and 399 for the 256-gigabyteversion are true. This means the Quest 2 is cheaper than its predecessor, and that brings a couple of questions. Where did Oculus compromise to make this hardware more affordable?What has improved?And what does that mean if you already have an Oculus Quest?

Below is an excerpt from the youtube video:

This is the newest headset by Oculus and it has been rumored for a while now, for over a month, and interestingly enough, lots of the rumors are right, but there are also things you may not have expected.
It is still a standalone VR headset, this means it's a wireless headset and you don't need a PC to use it, and it still has inside-out-tracking and 6-degrees-of-freedom, that means it has sensors integrated into the headset that tracks your head movement and also your controllers so that you can move naturally in the virtual environment like you would do in real life.

The Quest 2, as the name suggests, is the successor of Quest 1. So the sad news is that this new Quest will replace the Quest 1, so that means that thefirst Quest will not be sold anymore.

Software support for Quest 1 will stay, this means you can still play games on the Quest 1 for quite a while, even the upcoming new games, so that's good news. But how long this will be is not clear yet.

Price

So back to Quest 2. There will be two versions you can buy. 64 gigabyte for $299 USD (€349 EUR) 256 gigabyte for $399 USD (€449 EUR) Lower price. But there is a catch...When this headset releases, Oculus will also be offering official comfort mods that allows you to customize your headset to your liking. And, you are probably going to need it, so that will add to the total price

Pre-orders are available from September 16, an the headset will be available for purchase from October 13 this year. Yes, that's sooner than most of us expected.

By the way, the only difference between the two versions is the storage space; everything else hardware-wise is the same.

Unboxing

It's a simpler box this time, it's white, and it suits the headset's color.

In the tiny box inside the box is a power adapter with a USB-C to USB-C cable, this time much shorter than the Quest 1 charging cable.
The Touch controllers, which are new and redesigned by the way

There are two AA batteries included in the controllers already, 1 for each controller.

There's a glasses spacer you use it to make room inside the headset for those who wear glasses when in VR.

There's still some protective plastic on the lenses

Specs

So some of the specs are pretty exciting, some are even better than expected. However, it isn't all perfect; compromises have been made to make it more affordable.

But first, I'm happy to say that what is powering this thing is for sure better.

The RAM has improved from 4GB to 6GB.

The Quest 2 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip.This is a system-on-a-chip that can handle higher resolutions, refresh rates and it has like twice the performance over the Quest 1, but more about that later.

I was optimistic in my prediction video when I thought it would include the 855 processor, which is one generation lower than the XR2, so this is really cool.

And yes, the performance is noticeably faster. For example, the startup time is already much faster.

Design & comfort

There is some good and -bad- news here. The exterior looks the same, but you can see that Quest 2 is smaller in size; which makes it 10% lighter -weighing about 503 grams now instead of 580 grams.

And it's white instead of grey, some fabric has been removed at the sides and also inside the headset. I personally enjoy this new color, although I am scared it might get dirty fast.

The strap is not rigid anymore. Instead, you get a flexible strap; the top still has the Velcro strap, though. To tighten the back, you pull and stretch the strap holders, which is easy to do.

The face foam is different, seems a little lower quality than the Quest 1, but it's still very soft, and there's enough thickness to allow you to put the headset just that tight enough without putting too much strain on your face.But there is still light bleed from the nose gap. However, there will be accessories coming that will help in this department. So I think the strap is the first thing I feel Oculus compromised in as this strap doesnot make the headset less front-heavy- which was one of the biggest complaints of Quest 1.

However, because the headset is a bit lighter and the face foam is sufficient, I can make the strap just tight enough to play with this headset for about 45 min before I start feeling the strain on my face. This is longer than I could do with an unmodded Quest 1. So out-of-the-box it's a tad more comfortable.

OK, I can understand by hearing this you may feel like Oculus hasn't listened at all to the community in regards to comfort, but don't get mad yet because there's somegood news here.

As I mentioned before, Oculus will be selling official comfort accessories with the Quest 2.

For an additional $50 US dollars, you can get the Elite Strap. This is a more rigid strap with the familiar knob at the back to tighten the headset.
This offers more balance and improved ergonomics, and yes, this one is more comfortable than the straps out-of-the-box at least to me.

Comfort is personal so I do recommend trying it out first.

Battery Life

For those in need of more battery life, you can also get the Elite strap that includes an external battery inside for $129 US dollars, which will give you double the battery life.

Accessories

There will be a new carrying case for $49 dollars,a fit pack, which is a pack that will include a pair of light blockers. Light blockers are extra inserts that help with the light bleed. And this pack will also include two additional facial interfaces.

Oculus will also be working with third-party accessory companies, like VR Cover, which you may already know from their foam replacements.I like that Oculus has decided to not only sell their own stuff and has decided to work with a company within the VR community.

I haven't had the chance to try out all these accessories that I just named yet, except for the Elite strap that I have right here.

And I think it's a good idea that Oculus is bringing out official comfort mods as the whole community, us included, has been doing it already.
But seeing how comfort isn't a lot improved out-of-the-box, I think a lot of people will need to take the extra costs into account.

Display and lenses

First things first, it's a single fast-switch LCD.The same technology as the Rift S, except Oculus has said it is improved. The resolution is now 1832 x 1920 per eye, very nice, and I think it's beautiful so far.

It has noticeable greyer blacks than Quest 1, so the environments have different color contrasts.

On Quest 1, the color contrast seems a bit too high in comparison, actually, so the Quest 2 colors look more realistic to me. As for the screen door effect, which is the empty space between pixels that look like fine lines on the display if you look closely. That is not visible to me anymore; at least it's really tough to find it. On Quest 1, it is more noticeable.

However, a single display usually means no IPD adjustment. Correct IPD configuration is important for screen clarity.
Your IPD is the distance between the centers of your eyes. There is good news here, though, Oculus has thought of something new. There IS a manual IPD adjustment, thank goodness.However, this time it's fixed in 3 settings.

To set it, you move the lenses to one of the three settings.Setting 1 is 58mm, setting 2 is 63mm and setting 3 is 68mm. Oculus believes that this works for the majority of people. Whether that's true, we'll need to hear that from more people than just us. For us, yes, it does work.

My IPD is around 59, and setting number one is sharp to me and relaxing to my eyes. Chary has an IPD of 66.5, so she's in between setting 2 and 3, and she says that setting three works best for her sometimes.

But sometimes setting two and that seems better. This IPD system not the same as being able to set your IPD entirely correct to match your eyes. If your IPD is somewhere in between like Chary's, then your eyes might need a little bit more time getting used to it. And the sweet spot might also be smaller for you too; the sweet spot is the position of the headset on your face that looks the clearest to you.

But Chary does say that it's OK for her; it's not distracting while playing games. The field of view and this is a short section because it hasn't changed much.It's more of like the same.

Refresh rate

The Quest 2 can handle a 90Hz refresh rate.However, as of this time, this mode is not activated yet.This means that if you get the Quest 2 right now, everything still runs on 72Hz.

As soon as Quest 2 launches in October, you can use the system software such as Home and Browser at 90Hz by turning this on in Experimental Features in the settings.It will be turned on by default later this year.

And also, at launch date, developers will get the ability to ship apps running at 90Hz. So currently, I haven't been able to test 90Hz out. But it's good that this is coming and that it's possible; because the higher the refresh rate, the smoother the experience will be. And it may help some with motion sickness too.

Here's some important info if you are a Quest 1 owner, Oculus also said that they will require developers to support Quest 1 for a while. This means that upcoming games will still work on Quest 1.

The upside here is that if you have the Quest 1, you still have games to play, even in the future.And people who are getting the Quest 2, can play all existing games from the Quest 1 library as well.

But I guess if you get Quest 2 we have to wait a little while before we can make fully use of the power of that thing.

Tracking

As for tracking, that's seems improved as well. As for battery life, it's a little bit better.

On a full charge, I was getting approximately two and a half hours playtime, playing several random games, like Beat Saber, Pistol Whip and a new game called Falcon Age.This can be less, though, if you're playing a different game or when 90Hz mode is activated.

Getting the headset to a full charge also takes around two and a half hours.

Controllers

The controllers have a much longer battery life; I actually haven't emptied them yet. So battery life hasn't changed much when compared to Quest 1, except maybe for the controllers, but all does seem to be improved.

The controllers are redesigned. It has the same button layout as the first touch controllers.

A bigger resting area for your thumbs. They are a little heavier but feel more ergonomic, seems better for bigger hands now.

The battery cover position is also more like the first Touch controllers now, much tighter too, so the problem with the covers sliding off isn't a problem anymore.

As for those who wear glasses, medium-sized glasses like the one I have here still fit in the headset, even with the smaller form factor. It is recommended to use the provided glasses spacer, though, to make sure there is enough space, so that you don't damage the lenses.
So yes, while I couldn't test the headset's full potential like 90Hz mode, there is a lot that I could try already. And I think the specs are great as well as the headset's performance so far.

The specs are better than I expected, and I think the compromises Oculus did make are in the areas that matter less. Plus, the price is just hard to beat right now.So it's for sure a recommendation over the Quest 1 in case you were wondering that; I advise not to buy the first Quest anymore.

Of course, I have to mention this now, too, with this headset also comes with a requirement to login with Facebook. Not a big issue to me as I think we can find ways to protect ourselves, to protect our data.

Watch the full video here: