As soon as Facebook revealed the Oculus Quest 2 during their Facebook Connect stream on Wednesday, their embargo dropped for the many VR/tech blogs, YouTube streamers and influencers that were lucky to have had the Oculus Quest 2 given to them for around two weeks prior.
Sadly, little us didn’t get in on this juicy VR action, so we have decided to sit through hours of YouTube videos and round-up those lucky few that did manage to bring their impressions of the Oculus Quest 2 headset, along with a summary of their Likes and Dislikes. It is also clear that Oculus supplied the headset and the Elite Strap to these individuals, but not the Face Pack and Elite Battery Strap for comparison. Maybe we will see these drop-in ahead of the Oculus Quest 2’s public release on October 13, 2020.
First up we have Nathie, who is one of the key major YouTubers for VR, so her was a clear target for Oculus to share his impressions of the new standalone headset.
Likes
- Tracking of headset and controllers is ‘top-notch’
- The display is amazing and sharp with good colour accuracy
- Field of view (FOV) is wide enough for emersion with a good sweet spot
- Loads fast with fast framerate without too much heat
- 2hrs for gaming or 3hrs for apps/movie watching
- Long Touch controller battery life with strong haptics
Dislikes
- Default soft strap is its biggest weakness
- Limited IPD range may offer limited FOV
- Glare from lenses in dark scenes
- Charge cable too short
- Audio no improvement over Quest
- The white soft strap can get dirty very fast
Mike from Virtual Reality Oasis was also given a Quest 2 from Oculus. Mike’s video of the Quest 2 was also one of the most trending videos on YouTube around the time of the Quest 2 reveal. What he has to say is always thorough and informative.
Likes
- Price – Most affordable VR solution
- Significant upgrade of the Quest
- Recharge battery in 2.5 hours
- Very nice display with possibly a wider FOV
- No screendoor effect and Fixed Foveated Rending removed in games
- Controllers feel much better, battery slide issue is also fixed
- The controllers have four-times longer battery-life
Dislikes
- Facebook account required
- Controllers not backward compatible
- Haptics power can appear too strong and loud in SteamVR titles
- Headstrap is step down in quality and performance
- Audio the same as Quest and no improvement
- Cable being 1m long is too short for Oculus Link use
With over 5million subscribers, Tested didn’t miss out on a preview of the Oculus Quest 2 headset. Norman Chan took the opportunity to review the Quest 2 and gave us his thorough Tested impressions.
Likes
- The sound felt better than Quest, more present
- Prescription lenses from Quest will fit Quest 2 lenses
- Lenses have edge-to-edge clarity, easier to read text
- Minimal screen-door effect, quality is clearer in vector-like games
- Firm battery spring inside controllers help reduce disconnections
- Crazy aggressive pricing
Dislikes
- Soft cloth strap more of a regression and pressed against ears
- Low light scenes can display ‘god rays’ from lenses
- There is still some front weight felt during quick motion
- Short charging cable, not useable for Link
- Not wide enough to fit some glasses, so Fit Pack might improve things
- More Quest Pro than Quest 2
VR girl power duo, Can and Chary VR, is another popular YouTube channel covering VR and Quest games and platforms. Their channel contains well presented and friendly natured videos that are both informative as well as fun. This video isn’t a review, but more of a first-impression overview.
Likes
- Performance is noticeably faster, especially the start-up time
- The new colour but may show dirt easier
- More comfortable out of the box than Quest
- Beautiful display with more realistic colours than Quest
- Screendoor effect is not noticeable
- Better battery life – 2.5 hours playtime with games (2.5hrs recharge)
Dislikes
- Face cover feels lower quality compared to Quest
- Light bleeds still around the nose area
- The strain on the face can be felt after 45mins (longer than Quest)
- IPD control is not the best system, can take some adjustment
- Controllers feel heavier and are thicker for bigger hands
UploadVR is one of the biggest VR websites online today. So it made sense for them to have a Quest 2 land at their HQ. UploadVR have a strong pedigree of VR knowledge, so their feedback is warranted.
Likes
- Similar platform-leading quality of tracking to the Quest
- Feels immediately lighter on the face
- The sound feels closer to the ear – deeper richer sound overall
- Its higher resolution is quite striking with less screendoor effect
- Hand tracking felt faster and more responsive
- Controller battery life is crazy long
Dislikes
- Still feels font heavy on the face after 15mins – leading to “Quest Face”
- Hard to find a perfect fit, especially when sharing
- Elite Strap is pretty much essential
- Less dark scenes when compared to Quest OLED display
- Wide or narrow IPD users might want to test the Quest 2 before buying
- Controllers although comfortable can feels quite bigger
- Facebook account required and info it’s consuming from you
Tyriel Wood, aka VR Tech, has been using the Quest 2 for two weeks and brings us his uncensored and honest review of the Oculus Quest 2. Cheeky, fun-loving Tyriel really knows his stuff when it comes to VR and it is worth a watch to understand his view on the Quest 2.
Likes
- Eco-friendly direction with its packaging
- Much smaller and lighter than you expect – it’s tiny!
- Materials and textures feel nice to the touch
- Easy to apply soft strap design
- Still the same best-in-class lenses
- Better controller design and battery life (still 100% after 2 weeks)
- Better premium-feeling haptics
- Menus much smoother and faster thanks to XR2 chip
Dislikes
- Controllers not compatible with older headsets
- Cable not long enough for Oculus Link
- Facebook account required
- The cost-cutting strap is a disappointment
- Strap gets dirty pretty fast
- IPD adjustment can cause some glaring by not being in the sweet spot
So there you have it, a quick overview summary of the upcoming Oculus Quest 2 from the top VR experts on YouTube. Now, from reading over a few of their Likes and Dislikes, you can already tell there is a mutual agreement on a number of disappointing features that the Quest Quest 2 brings. Let’s go over these…
The first is its cost-cutting strap. To get its base model down to $299 for the 64GB version there had to be some savings and the strap has been one of them. Its weight is still not light enough for the soft strap to support it for any long length of time, so if you are ordering the Quest 2 prior to launch I recommend that you dig a little deeper and purchase the Elite Strap too. There will no doubt be a number of mods and third-party accessory makers also making straps for the Quest 2, some with counterbalance and battery mods attached to them. So in short, you might even want to wait until the end of the year for when they should be readily available.
Next is its manual IPD adjustment. Oculus has taken a step backwards in my view about this, but it looks like this is another cost-cutting move by its owners, Facebook. Although I am not sure how much extra cost a slider would have been here, I certainly think this may return on the Quest 3 with the amount of flak this feature has been receiving already by VR enthusiasts – and that’s before the public has jumped on-board! Adjusting your view by taking the headset OFF, it really feels like the joke is on us here.
Then there is the short charging cable being too short for use with Oculus Link. This is another cost-cutting feature from Facebook here and a means to capitalise on upselling its own $80 Oculus Link cable.
For a device that will be replacing the (now discontinued in 2021) Rift/Rift S as Oculus’ only VR device going forward, not bundling the same or similar length cable with the Quest 2 seems a little unforgiving to me. Sure not everyone will be using Oculus Link, and they now have no reason to up-sell to another PCVR platform. It just seems odd to not bundle a similar length cable, other than to save on cost here.
Finally, there is the big elephant in the room, in that you need a Facebook account to use the Quest 2. Personally, to me, I am not too phased by this, and yes I have seen ‘the social dilemma‘ and ‘Screens Out‘ movies on Netflix. As much as the info from each of these documentaries were quite scary to learn about, you have to remember that we are all evolving into a more digital age, where our very own digital footprint is living constantly alongside us. You would be very naive not to think many other large corporations are already doing pretty much the same as what Facebook is already doing. After all, you need an Apple or Google account to use their own devices, so how much different is Facebook asking to have an account for their device?
The cost cuttings Facebook has been making, and the price that the Quest 2 is selling for, just shows that from October if you choose to pick up and log into your Quest 2, YOU are now the product. Facebook is clearly selling this headset at a loss and must recover this loss by gaining wide adoption and use the data captured from your signed in Facebook profile. To me, if it makes VR more widely-adopted and it is offered at a cheaper price point, I am ok with that. But it is a very personal viewpoint, each individual will have their view on any privacy concerns with using their personal account.
So if this bothers you, then maybe read up into it more or just avoid it completely. Sadly, there isn’t much similarly-priced competition out there against the Oculus Quest 2 and its software library. So for me, I’ll be having a wild time in VR. What Facebook can take and use from your VR experiences is yet to be known, but I am sure if enough people restrict their profiles, their grasp my become looser. Power to the people and all that. We shall see.
One thing is for sure, the Oculus Quest 2 is looking like a great step forward in VR and I hope its lower price and great VR foundations help VR get more widely adopted and helps it grow into bigger and better things.
If you’ve yet to pre-order, please consider pre-ordering your Queset 2 through our Amazon links found on this website. Whether you go for the 64GB Oculus Quest 2 or 256GB Oculus Quest 2 It really helps us out and it keeps us doing what we love doing here at OQPlay.
