Novelty wear off?
The Meta Quest 2, formally known as the Oculus Quest 2, is the most popular wireless VR headset
on the market today and one of the most affordable at $299 US dollars. But what exactly do you do
with the Quest 2? Once you get one, what are its best features? Are there any downsides
to getting a Quest 2? And then does the novelty of the Quest 2's VR experience…does wear off
after six months enough to make it so getting one in the first place isn’t worth it?
Well, I'm gonna answer all of those questions and more. And first, let's start with that last
one. While the novelty of the Quest 2 for me has worn off a bit over the past 6 Months,
I’m surprised to say that I’ve been using it about 2-3 times a week
over 6 months simply because the Quest 2 offers an immersive experience
like no other device I currently own and has a fitness component to it as well which
makes playing a game on it a great way to take a break and get that heart rate up.
So yes, I do think the Quest 2 has been worth it. Now what exactly do I mean by an immersive
How immersive is it?
experience? Well for those who are unfamiliar with VR, which stands for virtual reality, when
you put on a VR headset, like the Quest 2, its screens will take up your entire field of view.
You can look around, down, up, anywhere you want, and you’re entirely immersed in whatever
the Oculus display is showing you. So game characters are now in their true-to-life height,
so when Darth Vader for example started walking towards me in Vader Immortals, I got this
feeling of “Holy S**t, this guy is tall” that I haven’t had in a Star Wars video game before. And
picking up a lightsaber in VR, and wielding it like a Jedi,
it’s as close as I’ve ever felt to what being a Jedi would feel like.
Now the Quest records videos by default in a 1:1 ratio and not in 4k,
this footage will often look a bit more shaky because it’s capturing slight
hand and head movements, which isn’t how it looks with the headset is on, everything is
pretty smooth most of the time, so just keep that in mind as look at this footage I’ve captured.
Now visuals are only half the story with Quest 2,
Quest 2 speakers
sound and their controllers make up the other part of the VR experience.
The Quest has speakers built into the headset that emit sound just outside of your ears,
so they're not noise canceling or anything like that,
but for what they are, they're pretty decent. Decent enough to the point
where I haven't felt the need to rush out and go buy a dedicated set of headphones,
which a few companies like Logitech make for the Oculus. The sound on the Oculus isn’t going
to produce a ton of bass, but it's clear and crisp, and most importantly, it's 3D sound.
So just like spatial audio with Apple devices
and 3D sound for Sony's headsets for the PlayStation 5. By the way,
we have also done a long-term review. So if you want to see videos like that, make sure
you subscribe to the channel and check out the link in the description below for that review.
The Quest’s 3D audio can make it sound like something is coming up behind you and that
specific ability helps keep you even more immersed in what you’re doing on the Quest.
The Quest’s controllers are what allows you to interact with the 3D
Quest controllers
virtual world you’re immersed in. Whether that's wielding a lightsaber or picking up objects,
with the multiple triggers, buttons, and joycons found on each controller,
they allow you to do quite a bit. Each controller is powered by a single AA battery
And the battery life has lasted me throughout the six-month testing period. And I've only just
now started to see notifications in the Quest to replace the batteries for the controllers.
And I like that when you have the headset on, it's easy to check the battery level
of your controllers either in settings or looking down
at your controllers with the headset on. The Quest will generate a virtual version
of your physical controller with the battery level of each controller displayed on top of it.
Creaking controller issue fix
Now I did run into an issue with my right controller over the past 6 months after
it accidentally slid off my couch onto a hardwood floor and I noticed the battery
compartment door developed this creaking noise, which is super annoying when you’re playing.
Luckily there’s an easy fix for that, I just folded up a piece of paper multiple
times and wedged it into the battery compartment and that limited my issue.
Battery life
And speaking of battery life for the Quest 2 headset, it's rated for two to
three hours of battery life. And typically, in my testing, I've seen closer to two hours. And
for a gaming device whose battery life may seem a bit short and when I first used the Quest,
I did run out of battery one or two times, but that was mainly because the headset was new,
and VR is one of the coolest experiences I've ever had with a piece of technology.
So, when I first got this headset, I was using it a ton, but as the weeks went on,
I found I was using the Quest 2 in short 30 to 45-minute bursts. Because by that point,
I'll likely be at risk of breaking a sweat or I'm tired or just want to give my eyes a rest.
Sweat & headband
Depending on what you're doing with your headset, like if you enable the 120 Hertz option,
the headset can run a bit warm which is going to cause you to sweat faster. And speaking of sweat,
if you’re planning to share your headset with others in your home, make sure you install the
rubber standard facial interface on the headset to prevent sweat from seeping into the foam cousins.
Now, you can develop motion sickness with this headset and again it all depends on what you're
Motion sickness
doing with Quest 2, a bit of advice here though, if you do develop any
motion sickness or you feel nauseous with the headset on, immediately take it off.
Trust me, you do not want to try to push through, it'll only get worse and it's gonna
make you feel nauseous for the rest of the day if you don’t take the headset off immediately,
and this is why I will typically stick to experiences with Quest 2 where I
am just standing up, I'm stationary and things like Beat Saber are just moving at me,
I find with those experiences I don't develop motion sickness versus other experiences where
you're on a virtual plane or roller coaster or you're having to turn your head and move
around a space a lot, those are the experiences where I've found I get more motion sick.
Overall, I'd say the Quest’s headset in terms of comfort is pretty okay, I can put this
Headset comfort
on for 30 to 45 minutes easily and it's perfectly comfortable. Even though this thing actually
doesn't weigh that much, there's still probably some room to take some of the weight out of it,
that would help with overall comfort, especially if you're playing for a long time.
And another thing that they did to make it even more comfortable for players is they
Glasses spacer installation
include a glasses spacer that you can insert into the headset. It’s pretty easy to install,
you just pull off the headset's black plastic part,
then insert the glasses spacer and then put the black plastic headband piece back in.
Meta did a really good job making Quest 2 easy to set up. I was surprised by how smooth the tracking of
Setup
the controllers and 3D effects were when I first put the headset on. The joys of the controllers
were intuitive to use to set up WiFi on the headset & the controllers overall are very responsive.
Alright, now the next question I had when I got this headset and yes, I know it still looks goofy.
Guardian boundary & Passthrough
That's why I put it back on for your entertainment. The next question I had was,
okay. I'm ready to play VR…how do I keep myself from crashing into the TV?
Well Meta of course thought of this and developed the guardian boundary system,
which allows you to tell the headset where the floor is, and paint the space you want
to play in on your floor, and boom, you’re good to go. Meta also has recently released a feature that
allows you to mark the walls and furniture in your room But I found when you do this,
it'll cause the Quest 2 to be a bit more laggy than you want. So, I've turned that feature off
and I just use the room-scale Guardian boundary, which allows you to just move around the space
that you select. You also have the option to choose a stationary boundary as well,
and you can even mark your real couch to be a part of your Guardian play area,
so you’ll be able to find your couch in VR and sit down on it with the headset on, which is
pretty useful if you want to do things like browse the game store or watch a YouTube video in VR.
I was also surprised to find out that not only will Quest 2 save your guardian boundary,
but let's say you walk into another room where you have one
saved. it’ll bring that one up as well which is pretty impressive.
And it's easy to get your bearings in your room with passthrough mode, you just double
tap the right part of the headset to turn on the Move’s cameras so you can see around your room.
Quest 2 fitness games
So that's a little bit about how the Quest works but what exactly have I been using it
for over the past six months? Well, I've used it mainly for gaming. I found the Quest 2 to be a
great device to get my heart rate up, playing a game like Beat Saber where your controllers
become light sabers that you use to slash through boxes timed to music. It gets my heart rate up,
is fun, and keeps me coming back to the quest every week. Or even the lightsaber dojo mode
of Vader Immortals is something I’ll get back into from time to time to test my Jedi skills.
Oculus even has a calorie burn overlay that you can turn on and when you look up in VR,
it’ll tell you how many calories you’ve burned you can set calorie burn goals in the Oculus Move
app & enable notifications to get notified in-game when you’ve hit that goal. There are a lot of
fitness games that allow you to do even more like Super Natural, one of the most popular,
which allows you to do boxing, meditation, and a similar saber game to beat saber, but it
costs $20 a month. This is why I've stuck with a game like Beat Saber, which still gets my heart
rate up. You do have to pay to unlock songs with Beat Saber but there's no monthly subscription.
Casting to a TV
The Quest can also be quite fun when you have people over as well. It’s easy to cast what the
person is seeing on the Quest headset to a Chromecast-enabled TV right from within
the Quest’s share menu. Plus when I’ve been told it’s hilarious to watch me flail my arms around
with the headset on. What do you think? Let me know in the comments how ridiculous this looks.
Now, to share to an Apple TV, or another display using Apple's Airplay. That's a bit more involved.
you’ll have to cast to your iPhone and then screen mirror the iPhone through AirPlay to
stream the footage on an AirPlay display like my Apple TV. However, I've noticed the performance you
get on the TV is significantly worse compared to casting directly from the headset to the TV.
If you're interested in upgrading your own TV streaming experience, check out the links in the
description below to reviews we've done on the Chromecast with Google TV and the Apple TV 4K.
So those are the killer apps that have kept me coming back to the Quest over the past 6 Months,
Free trials & refunds
but what about downsides? I've found quite a few. First, I was kind of
surprised there aren't that many free trials of games. So to try a game, you're
typically going to need to purchase it. And then for whatever reason, if you don't like it, you
can return that game There are quite a few free games and experiences on the Quest thankfully,
Quest store & side-loading
but there are a lot of games that I want to try out but not sure if I want to plunk down $30
dollars right away. All games are purchased through the Quest’s store but because the Quest
2’s OS is a forked version of Android, you can sideload apps onto it through apps like SideQuest.
I'm also surprised Meta hasn't released any sort of Wii sports bundle-like game with a
bunch of different cool sports games to try out in VR, I think that would be smart.
Another downside with the Quest 2 is you currently still need a Facebook login to use the device,
Facebook logins & Meta accounts
however, the company has recently announced this will no longer be the cast come August 2022,
when you’ll be able to sign up for Meta accounts,
bypassing Facebook accounts altogether and you’ll be able to create Meta accounts,
something very difficult to do with these devices being linked to Facebook accounts.
Now, the last downside I found with the Quest 2 is a downside for
Space requirements
all of VR and that's why you're going to need space to be in VR,
which often will involve moving furniture if you're in a semi-cramp apartment. So,
depending on how much space you have, this could be a huge deal or no issue at all.
So, that's been my experience with the Quest 2 over the past six months, and what I've used it
for. And overall, I think this is a pretty good product for the money, even for me,
Overall thoughts
where I only play a couple of games, Which I should point out isn't outside the norm for me,
I do the same thing with my PlayStation 5 and heck, I've even spent about $1,300
on a gaming PC just for a single game: Cities Skylines. So, I may be a bit atypical when it
comes to the way I game, But the Quest 2 over the past six months, it's kept me coming back
time and time again because of the immersive experiences it can give you and no other
product on the market today can deliver the experiences the Quest 2 can at this price.
All right, so who do I think this device is for? The Quest 2 is kinda of the next-generation
The Quest 2 is for
the Nintendo Wii, Playstation Move, and Xbox Connect. The Quest 2 is the
next generation of that type of experience, but way more immersive. Now yes, it's not as good
for multiplayer with all of the players physically in the same room. Maybe we'll get
there one day, but with VR right now since each headset costs $299 US dollars,
it's a bit cost-prohibitive to try and do that.
The Quest 2 is also a great preview of future VR tech & experience. After spending 6 months with
Future of VR
the Meta Quest 2, I'm more enthusiastic about VR and its potential than I was before I got
the headset. I think VR will eventually just be great at these four categories:
Gaming Fitness, Entertainment, and Social. In the short term today,
I think the two killer applications of the Quest are gaming and fitness. And this
is likely the area where you're going to see competing headsets from Apple and Sony come in.
Sony’s Playstation VR 2 will likely just be gaming-focused, but Apple’s is the one to watch
Sony & Apple VR headsets
and see if they can do what the Quest 2 does, but better. The only caveat with that headset is it’s
likely going to be 3-4x as expensive as the Quest 2. As for social experiences, there's the Horizons
Social & Entertainment VR experiences
World app that’s free and allows you to hang out with people from all around the world and play
games, but overall I’d say it’s still very early days for that type of experience.
As for entertainment, you can download the YouTube VR app onto the Quest,
sit down on your couch, and watch YouTube on a virtual big screen, and this was honestly the
most surprising thing I found with the Quest 2 and VR in general. This technology isn't actually
VR can replicate a movie theater?
that far off from being able to supplant the big screen experience you get in a movie theater,
minus the audience of course. Watching footage from the Top Gun Maverick trailer on the big
screen, it feels so similar to how the movie felt on the big screen. I think Meta or Apple or
whoever else out there is making a headset just needs to make a headset that's a bit lighter,
and more comfortable to wear for long periods, like the duration of a movie or a binge watch
and then they need to make the headset have a retina display. So the resolution is better
and it actually looks like you're looking at a 4K screen or better, and then be able to pair
that headset with noise canceling over-the-ear headphones that are comfortable and have
spatial audio, and boom, you've got a big screen experience in VR with fantastic surround sound.
Now if you've used a VR headset like the Quest 2 or another headset, or you own a VR headset like
the Quest 2. Let me know down in the comments, what you think the future of VR is going to be.
Buy now or wait for Quest Pro?
Now as we release this video in mid-2022, if you’re looking at getting a Quest 2,
you can use the purchase links here in this video to learn more. The next generation Quest
3 isn’t expected for at least another year Meta is supposed to announce a high-end headset by
the end of 2022 that might be called the Quest Pro, with new AR and face-tracking capabilities,
new controllers, graphics, and a higher resolution display, but it’ll likely cost more than $1,000 US
dollars. If you've got the money to spend and want better VR hardware, it might be worth it to wait
for this headset to come out, But for the average user I think that's just looking to get into VR,
I think you're still better off going with a Quest 2. Now, if you have any further questions about
Quest 2, leave them in the comments below and we'll answer them there. And while you're
down there, hit that thumbs-up button if you like this video and found it helpful, and subscribe to
the channel for more long-term reviews of tech products and gaming products, like this one.
And if you're looking for what to watch next, check out some of our other long-term reviews
of gaming hardware, like our review of the Sony PlayStation 5, which you can get to
by clicking on the video to my right. 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder. Thanks for watching.CLICK NOW
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