Valve; 2 · Oculus Quest 2.The index works with external headlight boxes similar to those of the HTC Vive, which means that you must first set them up in a room. It's not as self-contained as the Quest 2 or the HP Reverb G2, which can crawl the room with the cameras built into the headphones. It's definitely not wireless either, but if you already have some older HTC Vive hardware, you can add parts of the Index to mix and match. While we were a little disappointed to find that the Oculus Quest 2 looked a little cheaper than its predecessor in the hands, we found it more comfortable in our tests overall.
That's thanks to its lighter form factor (503g vs the original 571g) and the wider area of the controller's thumb rest. We were also impressed by how sharp the resolution is once we put on these headphones. You're free to roam around with no tracking area limits and with an overall super flexible setup. It's an all-in-one standalone unit with a fast processor and lots of RAM to get today's games started.
This means you won't have to invest in a high-end gaming PC to keep everything running smoothly here: you're all set to go out of the box. And it's hard to underestimate how important it is to the value of Oculus Quest 2.The main attraction here is that incredible resolution, combined with the 120° field of view and the refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. If you're going to bet on a future-proof setup and want your games to look as good as possible while doing it, this is where the piggy bank should go. We noticed that the quality of the HTC Vive Pro 2 is revealed over time.
It took us a couple of days to fully adopt the correct settings for our eyes, so it's worth noting that you'll need a little extra time to retouch for the best result. However, once you're there, the investment you've made is worth it. There are some features of the Valve Index that we need to stop getting in the way right from the start. The first thing is that finger tracking system.
Instead of relying on controller tracking, the Valve Index has advanced where no virtual reality headset has gone before, adding sensors for each individual finger through a touch-sensitive panel. The second is a 120 Hz refresh rate that will cover a slightly lower resolution by allowing games to glide across the screen without a hint of flickering. If the HTC Vive Pro 2 seemed a little pricey, the Vive Cosmos Elite system might be the best VR headset for those looking to spend a little less on some of the sleeker features and focus on room-scale tracking. HTC launched its Cosmos headphones with very little fanfare a few years ago, and on their own, the headphones sit as a fully modular system that you can upgrade with a different SteamVR faceplate and tracking bases to your liking.
However, its final form is the Vive Cosmos Elite, which makes this version the best virtual reality headset in its line. You won't need any external tracking sensors here, the HP Reverb G2 takes care of all that on its own with cameras. Plus, there's too little setup to get out of the way. This is a Windows headset from start to finish, so connecting to your PC is as simple as plugging it in and letting Windows 10 or 11 complete your software installations and settings.
While it lags slightly behind Oculus in its value offering, the HP Reverb G2 is a solid purchase for any PC enthusiast who doesn't want to have to equip their home to enter a virtual world. The average field of view among the best VR headsets is around 100 degrees, with variations of around 10 degrees in either direction. The higher the field of view, the more you can see around you and the better the headphones recreate natural human vision. If you're looking to use your VR headset for gaming, it's worth making sure you're reaching at least 100-110°.
However, if you go for something a little more luxurious, you'll likely need a PC with at least an Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics card, 8GB of RAM and an Intel i5 processor; of course, better specs will produce a much better result. Oculus focuses its efforts on a standalone virtual reality headset, the Quest 2, but offers the option of connecting it to a PC. On Android, Google has even made its entire YouTube library visible through 360-degree Cardboard videos that play in full virtual reality, and the normal ones are played in a virtual reality simulation of a large screen TV. Generally speaking, you get an app on your phone that displays VR content, and then you place the phone inside a mobile VR headset.
The redesigned HP Reverb G2 VR headset offers a more comfortable fit and a more reliable experience than its predecessors, while maintaining the same sharp image and a reasonable price. Whether you're looking for a standalone model or one that connects to your PC or console, enter another dimension with the best virtual reality headsets and platforms we've tested. The standard way of doing this used by Oculus and Sony is to put LEDs or some other set of markers on the headphones and then track them with an external camera. We have continued its growth to become a conventional option and have been reviewing and testing the headphones all the time, creating a bank of comparisons and judgments to draw on.
However, wired headphones offer the best graphics and refresh rates, so if you're looking for maximum performance, they'll be the best for you, if you have the PC to power them and the budget to afford them, of course. Considering that each headset costs several thousand dollars, you shouldn't expect a large library of AR experiences for a while. I've tried to keep my VR headset connected next to my PC, but that usually means I forget about it and never use it. However, it's still inexpensive for a VR platform, and you don't need any additional hardware attached or cables to come out of the headset.
The Oculus Quest 2 is another contender for the title of the best VR headsets, and that's not just because it's one of the most affordable VR headsets on the market. The Quest 2 remains the best value for money and most complete helmet, even at its highest price, but a real Quest 3 update could arrive next year, and competition is likely to increase. That said, virtual reality software libraries have a lot of overlap between devices, and some wireless headsets can be optionally connected to a PC via a cable to expand the titles they have access to. .
.
