The Silicone Cover from VR Cover feels great, costs little, it’s simple to install, and it protects and enhances the immersion of your Oculus Quest.
The VR Cover Facial Interface, the Slim Foam Replacement front and rear Headstrap PU leather padded covers have been permanent accessories that have been attached to my Quest over the last year, yet there have been many other competitors that have continued to evolve and release similar competing products. The one accessory that has seen lots of adoption on the Quest has been silicone covers. So it was to my surprise to hear VR Cover break their production silence and release a brand-new product, their very own Silicone Cover for the Oculus Quest.
Seeing VR Cover release a silicone cover, almost a year after nailing the facial interface covers, just shows how much of a market there still is for a simple rubber cover. Their Facial Interface and foam covers perform and feel just great, yet not everyone might find its price tag as pleasing as their new silicone cover offering. For $14.00 you get one single VR Cover silicone cover, compared to $29.00 of their facial interface with two foam pads, and $19.00 for their two cotton covers. The last two almost go hand in hand with each other, so that’s a total $48.00 for them both, combined. So at the low entry price of $14.00 it seems much easier for your wallet swallow.
The VR Cover Silicone Cover for Oculus Quest isn’t like the typical silicone covers that you can pick up on the cheap from Amazon. VR Cover has chosen to use a medical-grade silicone instead of the cheaper alternatives that are made from oiled silicone. Oiled silicone can cause unwanted skin irritations, while medical-grade silicone is unoiled and hypoallergenic, so its safer for your skin. Either way though, the look and the feel is pretty much the same.
Being made of strong rubber silicone, this VR Cover is strong enough to withstand the usual wear and tear of general use from your VR headset, and because it simply slips over the stock facial foam interface, VR Cover Silicone Cover helps block the stock foam from getting sweaty, and it can be easily wiped down to remove the beads of sweat left from your heavy VR exercise workout.
Installing the cover is really simple. You just remove the faceplate from your Quest, grab the VR Cover Silicone Cover and place it over each left and right side of the stock foam padding. Then finally, you lift the cover over the top and nose-piece of the stock facial interface. When everything is in place you then put the facial interface back onto the Quest until it clicks into place. It’s very easy and once installed it does look the part as it fits so snugly over the stock foam interface.
Being made of rubber, any silicone cover does have its pros and cons. First is that it can be a total dust and fluff magnet. If you leave it on a rug or carpet, or if you even have pets, the next time you put it on your face you’ll notice all the small fibres and hairs attached to it. A simple brush down or wipe will remove these particles, but you have to do this regularly if this bothers you, and you have to be sure to leave your Quest away from anything with fibres or hair.
Second, wearing the Quest with the silicone cover on starts off feeling cool, but can end up becoming sticky and hot, from sweat. I’ve been so used to the cotton covers over my VR Cover Slim Foam pads, I first found it odd to feel a much cooler sensation of the rubber touching my face. This will be great for the summer, I thought. The rubber sticky nature of this cover over your skin also helps reduce movement of the headset, which might improve immersion a little bit. But it is the additional nose flaps on this silicone cover that really helps to improve immersion over the stock cover and many other covers that are available that don’t feature a nose flap.
Covering over your nose seems like a simple feature, but it really does help reduce light bleed from underneath your nose area and it creates a darker view inside your Quest. For me though, being able to see where I am in the room can be super important, so with the VR Cover Silicone Cover installed, I found myself struggling to peek through the nose area, forcing me to take the headset off more often than I would do. I also found that, after some time in the Quest, the nose flap would overlap the other and create some added pressure to the ridge of my nose, causing a new addition to the usual ‘Quest Face’ imprint I regularly get after a long session.
Speaking of ‘Quest Face’: the VR Cover Silicone Cover does reduce ‘Quest Face’ a little bit more than some of their foam pads and cotton covers. But this is at the cost of a more sweaty and grippy feeling of the silicone cover, over the fabric of cotton covers or the PU leather of some foam pad covers. I tried putting a VR Cover cotton cover over the top of the silicone cover, but I couldn’t get it to stay on well enough then when it was wrapped around my Slim foam cover.
Coming from using the Slim Foam Cover of the Quest I also noticed that my field of view (FOV) reduced slightly, whereas previously, my Kiwi Design facial interface and Slim VR Cover combo gave a much greater FOV. So for that reason, as much as I liked the simplicity and comfort of the VR Cover Silicone Cover, I may find myself returning back to my old setup for that extra FOV in games.
Retailing for $14.00 from VR Cover, the Silicone Cover is a great accessory for anyone wishing to spend little, yet get something that is simple to install, that protects and enhances the immersion of your Oculus Quest and feels great on your face. If price and simplicity is your thing, then you can’t do wrong by picking up a VR Cover Silicone Cover for your Oculus Quest.
