$399 Oculus Quest Offers Premium Standalone VR

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By Sherri L. Smith
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SAN JOSE — Are you ready for a quest? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sure hopes you are. Just 10 minutes into the Oculus Connect 5 keynote, Zuckerberg announced Oculus Quest, a new standalone headset from Oculus.

Scheduled to ship next spring for $399, the headset is the company's first standalone headset to launch with Oculus Rift-level graphics. With this annoucement, Zuckerberg declared the end of Oculus' first-generation of VR headsets.

Typical of most Oculus headsets, Quest looks pretty slick. The standalone headset will feature that all-important six-degrees of freedom, which is vital for allowing wearers to move in a 360-degree space. Speaking of 360 degrees, Quest will feature 360-degree audio, which Zuckerberg promised will be better than Go.

Similar to the Rift, Quest will also ship with a pair of hand controllers, which if they're anything like the Touch Controllers, will greatly enhance the immersion experience. The use of the touch interface should make it easier for Oculus developers to bring their games to the new headset, and Zuckerberg promised that 50 games and apps will be available when Quest arrives in the spring.

And Oculus isn't just settling for virtual reality, we also learned about the company's early build of mixed reality. We saw a crude early demo where notifications and social interaction played out on the Quest.

I'm just hoping that at least half of the promised content will be original content instead of ports. Stay tuned for our hands-on demo write up later today.

This article originally appeared on Tom's Guide.

Sherri L. Smith
Sherri L. Smith
Sherri L. Smith is the assistant managing editor at Tom's Guide. When she's not reviewing the latest headphones or VR headsets, you'll find her conquering the interwebs with a random proliferation of gifs or gaming on her Xbox One X, PlayStation 4 Pro or PC. Follow Sherri at @misssmith11.
39 Comments Comment from the forums
  • -Fran-
    Oh, I had forgotten about the VR Headsets already!

    When are they making them cheaper and better? :D

    Cheers!
    Reply
  • Dyseman
    So, they are going away from PC driven super graphics and settling for Cellphone or Pi tech? I'd rather be tethered.

    Sure, things like Beat Saber can be done on a lesser GPU/CPU but wouldn't we be going backwards? Roborecall would have to be scaled back.
    Reply
  • computerguy72
    Too much like the Oculus Go, pretty much same everything +6DOF and a better CPU for double the Go price.
    Reply
  • Specter0420
    "Zuckerberg declared the end of Oculus' first-generation of VR headsets."
    "launch with Oculus Rift-level graphics"

    So what is he calling this then? Generation 1.1?
    Reply
  • ikaz
    Why don't they offer a pass through mode on the quest ? That would make it more appealing that way you could have game/apps but have a tether option to your PC to play more demanding games. Not sure what the specs are on the quest but I'm a mid tear PC could push better frame rates than a mobile processor. That would at least get my attention.
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    21354127 said:
    Why don't they offer a pass through mode on the quest ? That would make it more appealing that way you could have game/apps but have a tether option to your PC to play more demanding games. Not sure what the specs are on the quest but I'm a mid tear PC could push better frame rates than a mobile processor. That would at least get my attention.
    Yeah, that's something I would like to see in a VR headset. Being able to take it wherever you want, but also being able to run it tethered for experiences with more advanced visuals. I mean, why not? I doubt it would add much to the cost of one of these standalone headsets. Perhaps they figure that if you are limited to the onboard hardware, you'll be more inclined to upgrade to a new headset in a few years once the next generation of standalone VR games requires more processing power than what the headset can provide. It's probably also easier to keep people locked into your own ecosystem on a standalone device.
    Reply
  • ikaz
    Yeah it probably make more money not offering that but as far as I recall they aren't on top any more as far as VR goes I believe the HTC is currently. However if they had some sort of pass through cable attachment even if it was say and extra $30 I think that could set them apart. They could even have done some sort of per-order bonus. I think that would help with word of mouth so you can get more "causal" player and those that have mid tier PC that may want to get into VR but afraid their rig can't handle it. They would at least be able to play games that are optimized for the total mobile experience. Then again that could just be me I have an I5 8400 and 1070 gtx I should be able to run most VR games but it's more a curiosity and don't want to spend that cash then find out the games I want to play on PC in VR just aren't up to par with my setup.
    Reply
  • cerealkeller
    Damnit, I was hoping for a VR headset with higher resolution. I love the Rift, but it needs a wider field of view and a much higher resolution. I can get pretty damn nice looking graphics on the Rift using super sampling. But it's still blurry some times. Goddamn, Fallout 4 and Skyrim are epic in VR!!
    Reply
  • Rexer
    I like the graphics on my 144 monitor mucho plenty. I think I'll strap it to my head. I may have to get a robot dog to replace 'mindtrick'. I hate for him to be neglected while I play games.
    Reply
  • Specter0420
    Without a pass-through for PC they are really cutting out a sizable segment of enthusiasts that are willing to spend big money on their setups; Simulator people. We have expensive Rudder pedals, car pedals, HOTAS, steering wheels, etc. How do I plug those into this?
    Reply