Enjoy my VR Cover Premium 5M Fiber Optic Oculus Link Cable for Oculus Quest 2 review. You can buy the 5M cable from VR Cover directly here → https://bit.ly/vrcover5mcable and the cheaper copper 2M cable here → https://bit.ly/vrcover2mcable.
Overview
In this video we will be looking at the 5 meters or 16feet, long optical cable from VR Cover that offers a premium built USB-C cable, that offers the same optical performance for Oculus Link, whilst also offering better build quality, at a cheaper price.
At each end, there are some chunky metal premium USB-C connectors. The straight end is meant to go into your PCVR machine, whilst the elbow connector is best suited for plugging into the Quest headset. Each USB-C connector is extruded rather than the cheaper looking folded type on the Official cable, although performance-wise, this really doesn’t make any difference, other than it is less likely to warp under any force.
Attached to the cable is a velcro strap. This helps keep the cable bundled together when it isn’t being used, and it also helps you to attach the cable to the side of the headset, or at the back, if you wish to channel the cable to a better spot on the headset before it falls down your side and to the floor.
The cable itself is made from a strong tangle-free nylon braided material. This helps avoid kinks from forming along the cable. Personally, I found the cable to feel a little heavy around me as I played via Oculus Link. This wouldn’t be a problem for more stationary VR games, but for any game with a lot of movement, the cable can feel like it’s not flowing with you as well as a lighter and less rigid cable would do. It supports up to 10 Gigabits per second of data bandwidth and up to 20 volts / 3 Amps of charging output to your Quest.
Speed Test
I connected the VR Cover optical cable to both my front and rear USB 3.0 and 3.1 ports, and I fired up the Oculus cable test to check on its overall speed. On both ports, this cable gave a bandwidth speed of 2.3 Gigabits per second. A result that was a surprise to me, because the 2m copper cable gave me a higher result of 2.8 Gigabits per second. But that cable was less than half the length of this optical cable.
Right now, the Quest will only decode at a rate of 150 Mega Bits Per Second, with anything over 250Mbps being discouraged by Facebook engineers, so you can max out the Oculus Link settings and still get by using a much cheaper USB 2.0 cable with its max speed of 480Mbps. However, should Facebook enhance its Oculus Link software and release future headsets to really capitalise on the USB 3.0 bandwidth, then this is when this type of cable will start to shine.
Unlike the official Oculus Link fibre optic cable, most USB-C 3.0+ cables will not have the ability to also charge your Quest whilst you play. This VR Cover 5 meter cable was able to charge my almost dead battery back up during my time in PCVR. So this is one advantage of using an optical cable over a cheaper copper one.
My Impressions
The VR Cover Premium Oculus Link Cable retails for €59 or $59 from VR Cover directly, and you can check out my links above to learn more about it and to buy one.
Its cost is around $20 cheaper than the official 5-meter fiber optic cable from Oculus. So in that regard, I recommend it over the official cable, especially if charging your Quest as you play is a priority. But the same question applies for this cable, as it does for the cable from Oculus, and that is: is it worth buying a cable such as this one when a much cheaper USB 3.0 cable costing a third of the price performs just as well.
Right now, if you don’t have the network bandwidth to stream your PCVR gaming over Oculus AirLink or Virtual Desktop, I would save your money and consider buying a cheaper USB 3.0 copper cable of a similar length instead. Whether you buy an Official Oculus Link cable, or one like this cable from VR Cover, paying around $30-$40 extra seems far too much to ask when the cable really isn’t going to deliver you its full potential over Oculus Link, at least right now anyway.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Intro
0:18 – Brief overview
0:53 – Unboxing & features
2:24 – Install and performance
3:50 – My impressions
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