Popular Quest VR headset available again from Oculus

Oculus Quest (Image courtesy Oculus VR.)

The Oculus Quest headset has been sold out almost everywhere since the start of the epidemic, but it’s available now from the company itself., for $400 for the 64GB version and $500 for the 128GB version.

Once it runs out, however, there are still second-hand versions available on Amazon starting at $540 (affiliate link).

The Oculus Quest has three main advantages over other virtual reality headsets.

First, it’s all-in-one. You put it on and it works. You don’t need to install any software on your computer. And there are no cables for you to trip over.

Second, it’s six degrees of motion. That means that it knows that you’re moving not only when you turn your head — all VR headsets do that, even the ones made out of cardboard that you drop your phone into — but when you move your head sideways or front to back or up and down. That means that the VR feels a lot more realistic. In my experience, six degrees of motion are the difference between getting motion-sickness after five minutes, and not getting motion sickness at all. And it does the six-degrees thing without using external cameras — the sensors are on the headset itself.

Third, it comes with nice hand-held controllers that know where your hands are, adding another degree of immersion for games and anything else you might want to do in VR.

I’ve recently tested out a very similar product from the Vive, called the Vive Focus, and love the technology. But the Oculus has a lot more games, so I feel that it’s a better value overall for gamers and social VR users.

Maria Korolov