This is the headset that changes everything. The Oculus Quest ships this week at $399, and it is the first standalone VR headset to offer full 6DoF tracking: you can look around and walk around, no PC, no cables, no external sensors. Powered by the Snapdragon 835, with inside-out tracking cameras that map your room in real time. It just works.
The cord is cut, for real
The Rift and Vive proved VR works. The Quest proves it can be easy. You pick it up, put it on, draw a guardian boundary with your controller, and you are in. No gaming PC, no lighthouse boxes on the walls, no cable to trip over during a boss fight. The resolution is lower than the best PC headsets and the graphics are not what a tethered GPU can do, but the freedom more than compensates. This is what VR needed to be before it could reach normal people.
The trend for the year ahead
Standalone 6DoF is the new baseline, and Qualcomm has already announced the Snapdragon XR2, the first 5G-capable XR platform, which means the next Quest will be dramatically more powerful. The SoC arms race for headsets is officially on.
The Quest is the headset I have been waiting for since the Kickstarter. Not the most powerful, definitely the most important. It removes every barrier between a person and a VR experience except the $399 price tag. Standalone wins.
Part of Two Decades of XR, my running diary of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality.