Oculus - Rift S PC-Powered VR Gaming Headset - Black

=== Summary === The Oculus Rift S virtual reality system BLEW me away with its immersion, fun games, excellent controllers, superb motion tracking, and its ability to transport me away into wonderful & engrossing virtual worlds. The headset is very comfortable and weighted in a balanced way. I can game for hours and not feel head or neck fatigue. The audio is just so-so but a pair of good headphones or speakers can take care of that. There aren't a lot of triple-A games but there are some really fun ones out there and the library is continually growing. All in all, the Rift S is a FANTASTIC piece of VR kit that is highly entertaining & fun to use. Even better, setup is fast and simple thanks to no external sensors, the Passthrough camera, and great Inside-Out tracking. Highly recommended. _____ *Pros: -Simple, quick, & easy installation and setup. -Only one cable connection needed to PC (the end of the cable neatly splits up into a USB Type A & Display Port). -Display Port to mini-Display Port adapter included. -3.5mm audio jack included for connecting your own headphones. -The Halo-style headset is very comfortable & weight is well-balanced. Doesn't put pressure on the nose. -Easy to adjust for different head sizes with top velcro strap & back adjustment knob. -The Touch controllers are light and very intuitive & easy to use. -Inside-Out Tracking worked precisely to detect my head, arm, and hand movements. Also makes setup easier & quicker compared to using external room sensors. -"Passthrough mode" is cool & enables one to see his or her surroundings even with the headset on. -The "Guardian" feature is very helpful by setting up a "safe zone" in the room to play and move around in. -Worked flawlessly with my gaming desktop (RTX 2080) & gaming laptop (Alienware m17, RTX 2070 Max Q). -Depends on the game or video but the graphics are very nice & immersive. -The pricing is right. -Thanks to the cord, no batteries to recharge or heavy powerpacks to carry around. -If you have a laptop that meets the requirements, the Rift S can become a portable VR gaming system. Good for family & friend gatherings. -The Oculus Store app is easy to navigate, make purchases from, and adjust Rift S settings. -Worked well with the "SteamVR" and "HTC Viveport Infinity" game store apps. -The future of VR seems bright & there is a consistent influx of games including triple-A, Oculus exclusives. _____ *Neutral: -No physical mechanism to adjust for IPD (only software). -Not a lot of triple-A titles at the moment. -Audio quality could be better. I wish Oculus would make some snap-on headphones for the Rift S. -Performing bow and arrow movements are awkward. The tracking "loses" my hand position when I pull the arrow back too far behind my head. -Although MUCH better than Samsung Gear VR level of VR headsets, I wish the resolution was higher & denser. I can see pixels and jaggies often times. Still, it's good enough for most. _____ *Cons: -The cord becomes tangled up severely pretty easily. It's very annoying & time consuming to untangle. -No demo modes to try out games before purchase inside Oculus Store. Use the free trial of the HTC Viveport Infinity game service to try out games before buying. === My VR Background === The Rift S is my first "real" VR headset and I LOVE this thing. It has made me into a "believer" in VR and I like how my gaming spectrum has been expanded as a result. Having used a Samsung Gear VR before when I used to own a Galaxy S7 Edge, I feel like I am being taken to the next, higher level with the Rift S. With superior optics, "inside-out" motion tracking from its five sensors, and precise Touch controllers, there is simply no comparison. Whereas the Gear VR got used less than a handful of times from me, the Rift S has been used daily ever since I got my hands on one. My wife and 4-year-old daughter also LOVE it~! :D === Design: Ergonomics & Handling === Almost all of the hardware aspects of the Rift S are excellent. It looks cool, it's well-weighted & comfortable to wear for extended periods of time, headset adjustments are quick & simple to perform, the controllers are light & intuitive in operation, the single cord makes setup fast & easy, and the lens provide crisp & immersive visuals (my IPD is ~65mm). I like the Touch controllers a lot for their light weight, great button layout, and precise movements in the VR environment. The "Inside-Out Tracking" from the five sensors located on the headset worked very well in all the games I played except for when using the bow & arrow in some games. My arrow hand would get "lost" sometimes when I pulled the arrow back too far behind my head. Otherwise, everything just worked very well when grabbing objects, picking up & throwing things, slashing objects & foes, and shooting guns, etc. The Inside-Out Tracking feature also brings in other benefits such as the super convenient & helpful "Passthrough Mode" and "Guardian system." Passthrough Mode allows one to see and view their real-life surroundings even with the headset over their face so you can avoid bumping & tripping into things inside the room. The Guardian system allows you to "draw" a Safe Zone inside your room and helps you stay inside of it so that, again, you are protected from bumping into things. They are both very slick and well executed. The audio was the only aspect that was underwhelming. With no ear muffs physically covering over your ears, there is a lot of sound leakage in and out. The volume doesn't get very loud either. On the other hand, however, this is good because you can easily hear and respond to people talking to you. In order to improve my audio experience, I played games & viewed content using my in-ear earphones, over-the-head headphones, or my 5.1-channel soundbar system connected to my PC. It made a HUGE difference & increased sense of immersion and engagement. Besides the audio, I only have one other complaint - the cord. I don't mind that there is a cord connection to the PC. I do mind, however, the tendency of the cord to easily become tangled upon itself. Although it's not hard, it is very time-consuming to untangle each time. I wish Oculus would've used some sort of braided design to prevent the cord from tangling up in the first place, kind of like how HP includes a nicely braided power cord for their Spectre x360 laptops. With that said, I'm nevertheless tremendously satisfied and happy with the overall Rift S package. It is such marvelous engineering that makes access to virtual worlds so easy and fun. === Game Library & VR Experience === Compared to other gaming systems (consoles, PC), the amount of games out there are relatively small which makes finding quality games kind of hard. Each respective VR game store that I used - the Oculus store, SteamVR, and HTC Viveport Infinity - hosted many games from different genres that was easy to sort through and read reviews on. None of the stores, however, allowed me to download a Demo version of the game to try out before making a purchase. I heavily relied on YouTube reviews before making a purchase decision. Each game store, however, did a pretty good job making recommendations. During my search, I discovered some really fun games such as Beat Saber, Racket NX, Lucky's Tale, Superhot VR, Robo Recall, Lone Echo, and Sairento. My current FAVORITE VR game is Beat Saber and it is tremendous fun. Although the game comes with a decent selection of music to dance/play to, my Beat Saber experience shot up exponentially after I installed some mods and enabled custom music tracks. To install custom tracks, I used two apps - Mod Assistant and BeatDrop 2. Both apps are free and I used them to import and play tens of custom soundtracks. If you want a good workout, I recommend Psy's "Daddy" and "Gangnam Style." Black Pink also has many catchy and fast-paced songs. Mod Assistant for Beat Saber can be downloaded here: https://github.com/Assistant/ModAssistant/releases/ Link to BeatDrop 2: https://bsaber.com/beatdrop/ Another game I had lots of fun with was Sairento. Using super ninja skills with guns and swords, I shot & sliced through enemies feeling like an action hero. After experiencing VR gaming through the Rift S, I can say that I'm now a fan of VR gaming and I'm super stoked for its future. The immersiveness and experience are so cool and fun, I currently put on hold playing "traditional" games such as Resident Evil 2 Remake, Rage 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. With no motion sickness and vertigo, I'm having a blast with the Rift S. I highly recommend that everyone try it out. === Verdict === Being my first true VR system, the Rift S has opened my eyes and heart to the wonderful world of VR gaming. With a well-designed and comfortable headset, superb motion tracking, great clarity, excellent controllers, and fun selection of games and other media, the Rift S has brought me joy, wonder, and much fun. Thank you, Oculus, for such an awesome experience~!

The inside out tracking is perfect for beginners to VR because it eliminates the need to install sensors in your room. The controllers are lightweight and the tracking is great. Only issues I've had so far with the tracking is it gets spotty if you reach behind you where the cameras can't see the controllers or you put the controllers too close to the headset. Something to note though is sometimes I'll start the Oculus app and it won't detect the headset, prompting me to run a file via win key+R which can be a foreign concept to some. Another issue is when you close the oculus app to use your PC normally, the headset goes into standby mode, but my controllers still drained their batteries, which can be a pain unless you invest in rechargable double AA's like I did. In the end, for $400, this is a perfect startup for VR enthusiasts and I will stand by this headset firmly

I have an Index reserved for August 31st. I have sold my Vive and bought a Rift S for playing VR in the meantime, but now I am in love with it, I`ll probably going to pass the Index. I have a narrow IPD (60) but the carity and sweet spot is so much better that the original Vive. The blacks are surprisingly good and even, not to mention the screendoor reduction, and glare control. The lightness and the halo design really beats the Vive with the Deluxe Audio Strap in confort. About the cables, just pass them trough the strap headband, it will feel in the right place behind your head. Try the Mamut Grips on the Touch, to emulate the Knuckles controllers hand holding design. I also recommend buying the Plantronics RIG 500HX headphone, it is very light, great sounding, fits perfectly over the halo strap and it is cheap. Passtrough + makes easy to get and put it over. The tracking is great with the new 1.39 firmware upgrade, I actually had more ocasional jitters and hiccups with my gen 1 Vive Lighhouses. The only real downside comparing to my Vive is the horizontal field of view, it feels narrower and more squared, in the Vive it looks to me a bit larger and rounded.

If you are looking to get into VR, now has become one of the largest changes in VR for years. There are now multiple options for VR and it really all comes down to what you are willing to invest and what you are looking for. I personally have several VR systems and I have had the original Oculus Rift for over 2 years. So, I have been desiring an upgrade. However, the Rift S isn’t a complete upgrade from the original Rift, as some things have been somewhat downgraded in my opinion, but that is not to say this is a bad choice. I personally feel that the increased resolution, the reduced screen door effect, the reduced glare on the lenses and the simplicity of set-up have justified changing to the Rift S. The lack of on-ear headphones, the LCD screen and the inside out tracking have been what I feel are the slight downgrade. The major reason I moved to the Rift S is because of my current room set-up, I can’t stretch USB cameras to ideal positions. Where the original Rift recommended 3 cameras for room-scale and needed 4 USB ports, the Rift S only needs one USB. Though the tracking is not as good with 3 external cameras, it’s not too bad and with their recent updates it is getting better. The room setup of the Rift S is the easiest of any VR system I have used and with a recent update it even became one step less. I also really enjoy taking my VR to parties and gatherings to share the experience and even compared to a Windows Mixed Reality headset I am up and running quicker. As for the LCD screen, in normal colorful well lit experiences, I notice the increase in resolution but not the fact it is an LCD over OLED. However, in very dim lit games, ones where darkness is a key element, I can’t help but to notice the back lit panel washing out the experience. The contrast between black and grey areas is near impossible to distinguish in some experiences. I feel the biggest let down for me has been the audio. One thing I used to rave about the Rift over the Vive was that it came with headphones built in. All you had to do is grab the controllers and put the headset on and you are good to go. The Rift S has audio built in, and I was surprised at the quality, however it is so open that I feel I lose the immersion. One thing I enjoy about VR is that I am in a completely different place, taken away from actual reality. With the open audio concept of the Rift S I can now hear everything else around me, pulling me out of that immersion. The good thing is that it has a 3.5mm jack on the headset, however with the halo head brace, it’s hard to use just any headset and is best suited for in-ear headphones. There are other options that users have come up with and I am using one of them now, but wish there was a better manufacturer option. Also to note is that you must have a Display Port or a mini-DP, as the Rift S comes with the adapter. I have an ASUS G752 laptop that has a mini-DP and it works perfectly. Overall, I really enjoy the Rift S and if it was my first VR system I probably wouldn’t have any of these minor gripes. I still prefer the Rift S for the clarity and simplicity and it will be traveling with me every time I want to share VR.

---- Summary ---- Pros: - Simple setup - Comfortable headband design - Accurate motion tracking - Intuitive controllers Cons: - Tethered to a PC ---- Review ---- Setup: In the box, you will find the Oculus Rift S headset, two Oculus Touch controllers (one for the left hand and one for the right), two AA batteries (one for each controller), a Mini DisplayPort adapter and the owner’s manual. After plugging into a DisplayPort (or Mini DisplayPort with the included adapter) and a USB 3.0 port, the headset is quickly set up and ready to go. There is just a software install and a guided setup process to get the headset up and running. With the help of the passthrough feature that allows you to see the space around you, the virtual boundary can be configured with ease by using the controllers to draw your boundaries. Since I play in the same area each time, I have not had to perform the boundary configuration again. As excited as I was to start using this VR headset, I was thankful for a quick and painless setup process. Design: The Oculus Rift S is ergonomically designed, and I am impressed with its comfort. There is soft padding around the headband and face pad, and the size of the headband can be adjusted by a sizing wheel on the back of the headband, as well as an adjustable strap across the top for additional stabilization. It is not a light headset, but the combination of soft padding, weight distribution and headband sizing wheel allow for comfortable gaming sessions. I have also found the Oculus Touch controllers to be comfortable to hold, and after playing several games/experiences, I became familiar with the button, trigger, and thumbstick layout. I appreciate that the controllers are intuitive to use. Features: The display is colorful, bright and impressively clear. It is easy to get lost in the virtual environment while playing one of the many great games and experiences compatible with the Oculus Rift S headset. I occasionally notice a slight glare or screen-door effect, but it is not significant enough to distract from a great VR experience. The sound is integrated into the headset, which I personally like for convenience and comfort. The sound quality is not on par with the quality that headphones can provide, but I was surprised by how loud and spatially accurate the sound produced by the headset was. You can plug in headphones if you choose to. As I briefly mentioned, there are numerous games and experiences to download and play. I am only just beginning my VR journey, but I have already discovered some phenomenal games and apps on the Oculus store. I would recommend searching for game reviews online to help you decide which ones to try. All the games and even your desktop can be accessed in VR. Performance: My PC meets the minimum suggested specifications, and I have not experienced any lag. Sometimes loading apps or different levels within a game can take a while, but the in-game experience is smooth. The Oculus touch controllers are tracked extremely well, and I have not experienced any lag with the controllers either. The only performance related hiccup that I have encountered was an issue where the virtual hands were stuck at eye level no matter where I moved the Oculus touch controllers. The solution was using the “Restart Oculus” button in the Oculus software on my PC, which rebooted all the Oculus software. Since then, I have not experienced any issues. I had some worries about my PC just meeting the minimum specifications, but those worries quickly went away once I started playing games. If you have a PC that is above the minimum specifications, my guess is that the performance and experience will be even better. Verdict: If you are new to VR and want the power of a PC to enhance gameplay and open the doors to top VR games that can only be run on PCs, then the Oculus Rift S is for you. The simple setup and user-friendly design make it easy to pick up this headset and start playing without much to learn. The Oculus Touch controllers are intuitive, sound integration in the headset enhances comfort and provides surprising clarity and spatial accuracy, display quality is colorful and clear, and everything performs well, even on a PC that meets the minimum specifications. I am impressed and beyond happy with the Oculus Rift S.

Improved optics, less noticeable screen door effect, higher resolution, display port & 1 USB 3.0 port, more comfortable headsets design, digital ipd adjustment and inside out tracking sensors on headset. The only real con, is the audio channels, compared to the Rift's(CV1) headphones. The previous model has better audio. Luckily they still provide a headphone jack.

This product was sold out everywhere! I was able to order online UPS delivered on Christmas Eve! My son was so excited! Thank you Best Buy!

Virtual Reality is definitely the next boundary for gaming but I'm still skeptical if it will ever truly replace normal gaming. This Oculus Rift S headset is a really nice step in the right direction but still shows it's limitations. PROS: - The device has a really nice design and is very comfortable as well. I really enjoy the controllers as well, very futuristic! - Set up was mostly easy (see below) because you just plug it into the computer and the application does the rest. Then put on the headset and get going! - Overall it's a lot of fun to play with! There is a lot of game selection from simple games to epic space battles. - You can get really creative in what you do and especially with the movement and the world immersion, it really is unreal. CONS: - Set up was frustrating until I found out these two things: make sure you update the dedicated graphics driver on your computer and it's USB powered so make sure you turn off the USB Power Saving setting in your computer power settings. - The wired connection just feels outdated, especially since you have to be right next to the computer to do so. It's just not my favorite set up. - Its an expensive overall investment. You need a Monitor, a desktop that's compatible (or laptop), and then the headset. - The graphics still are underwhelming to me. A lot of gaming devices are 4K HDR graphics and this still seems like a step back. BOTTOM LINE: If you want to take the dive into the VR world and don't mind the wired connection, then you'll have a lot of fun with this!