Notice: The Quest 2 has made all current VR headsets obsolete! Apple, Valve, HTC all follow the king; great news for us!

Ah, virtual reality. It’s so amazing to see what we dreamed of and romanticized about in the 90s finally picking up again, not to mention becoming more affordable than ever.

Whether you want to play some of the best VR games out there, or maybe just explore vast, fantastic open worlds in VR you can now!

Just choose one of best VR headsets available in 2023, and fire up a VR game on your powerful gaming PC, with the cool LED lights inside!

You don’t have this one? It’s good, the Meta Quest 2 is completely standalone, so indeed, virtual reality is cheaper than ever.

Speaking of price, it has always been the main obstacle between users and VR headsets, not to mention the complicated process of setting up a VR headset system, corresponding games and selling a kidney for this PC. ultra-powerful game. needed to run the average VR game

These are common problems for any VR enthusiast. Or shall we say “were” common problems.

Meta does a lot of things right, at least when it comes to VR

Say what you will about Meta (formerly “Facebook”, although we can probably guess why the name changed from the stigma), but the Oculus team at Meta (now the “Meta Quest” team, sigh) is a bunch of champions!

As someone who has stayed in touch with what the team has been up to over the past few years, and even had the honor of exchanging a few messages with ex-Oculus CTO John Carmack, I the impression that more people are genuinely interested in creating the best, most user-friendly and accessible VR headset.

And it shows. Especially when comparing the Quest 2 (and possibly the next Quest 3) against any other contemporary VR headset

Let’s talk about what Meta’s Quest 2 has done for virtual reality as a whole, and why the gold standard it managed to set is great news for all of us current and future VR tech enthusiasts!

The Quest 2 is so cheap, yet so good, that paying $1,000 or more for VR now feels like a major rip-off

I recently bought the Valve Index, because I never got to try it, and its price of $999 was a bit shocking, especially since the VR headset has now been pushing for 5 years on the market. Not even a discount, Valve? Like it’s Apple from you. “Well, that’s a lot more expensive than a $399 Meta Quest 2,” I thought, “but it’s a high-end PC VR headset after all, so it should be worth the price!”

Was it? Well, I used both VR headsets for our Comparing Meta Quest 2 and Valve Index side by side, and it quickly became clear that the answer is no. There’s simply no reason to pay $999 or more for a VR headset these days.

The Meta Quest 2 beats the Valve Index in just about every important spec, including resolution and display clarity, but it also costs a lot less.

But before you can even appreciate how much better the Quest 2 feels to use, unlike the low-resolution display of the Valve Index with its archaic screen door effect, you must first configure and run the Valve Index. And it’s a nightmare.

The Quest 2 is the easiest to set up and start playing; all other VR headsets seem archaic in comparison

The Valve Index, like many other headsets (eg the HTC Vive) comes in a huge retail box. And I mean massive.

And as soon as you unbox it and start setting up the Index, especially after getting used to the Quest 2, you start to feel like you’re performing an unnecessarily complex mad scientist experiment.

Cables, cables everywhere. The Valve Index headset alone, like many of its kind, needs to be plugged into two ports on your PC, in addition to the mains. In addition to this, two base stations must also be plugged into their own outlets.

Base stations are square-shaped devices that the Index (and the HTC Vive, for that matter) uses for head tracking.

I always thought it was good at first. I mean, yeah, it’s a much more complex setup, compared to just turning on the Quest 2 and having it ready, but hey, let’s give it a shot.

Well, my willingness to compromise quickly evaporated when I realized that these required base station devices were emitting high frequency noise all the time.

Here, I thought they just contained infrared lights or something, to help guide the Valve Index tracking, but lo and behold, apparently it’s more (seemingly unnecessarily) complex than that.

If it’s not obvious now, it’s all very archaic. Every headset should now follow the Quest 2’s lead, and the good news is that it probably will.

Want a standalone headset because you don’t own an expensive gaming PC? You got it. Want a PC VR headset? You have it too!

We live in difficult times. Many people want to experience the coolest things technology has made possible, but not everyone can afford the kind of gaming computer an average VR headset needs.

That’s why Meta in its infinite wisdom (and I’m not being sarcastic here, I know it sounds like it) made a bold choice to make its headsets all-in-one. Autonomous. Make them run an Android-based operating system, so the user doesn’t need a computer and can play countless VR titles with the headset alone. Completely wireless!

It’s genius. Obviously, this has some limitations, as Android can’t exactly run triple-A VR PC games like Skyrim VR or Half-Life: Alyx, nor can the Quest 2 pack the powerful hardware needed for those games of any kind. way.

It’s a little box attached to your face, after all. You can’t really strap a giant gaming PC with a 12-inch graphics card to your face. So compromises had to be made.

But if you really want to play PC VR games, and if you have a good PC capable of running them, the Quest 2 can also be used as a PC VR headset, and not just as a standalone headset!

It’s the Transformers type stuff that I like to see. Devices that can do more than average in their respective fields are usually incredibly versatile and well worth the money. That’s why I like it Galaxy Z Fold 4, which is both a phone and a tablet.

Likewise, the Quest 2 is both a standalone headset and PC VR headset in one, and wireless to boot. Meanwhile, every other major VR headset on the market (at least for now and this is an important distinction), requires you to own an expensive computer, in addition to a thicker wallet for the headset alone.

Here’s what all of this means for us consumers. It’s very good news! Valve Index 2, Vive XR Elite, Apple’s AR/VR headset, they will all follow the leader, which means better VR headsets for all of us!

By now it is no longer a secret that there is a Apple’s AR/VR headset is coming soon, and what we’ve heard from it suggests it won’t just be standalone, like the Quest 2, but run iPad apps with little modification. So again, like the Quest 2, it will be powered by what is technically a smartphone operating system, meaning it will be as compact as possible and simple to use too! All in one!

But Apple isn’t the only one entering or re-entering the VR headset market this year. Fans think Valve is about to release a new one The Valve Index 2 VR headset, which could also be wireless and standalone, likely to run Android as well.

And what about the 2023 VR headsets that have already hit the market? The HTC Vive XR Elite just made its debut, and it’s also gone completely wireless and standalone.

This was not the norm until recently. All of this wasn’t the case before Meta set the precedent for simple, self-contained, affordable headsets.

Well, to be fair, no one seems to be copying the “affordable” part just yet, because the HTC headset and the Valve Index 2 cost (or probably will cost) over $1,000, and it’s worth mentioning that Meta him -even has to raise the price of its next Quest 3 with around $100

But even so, the Quest 3 will be the most affordable VR headset to release this year. And its affordability is the one and only thing every other VR headset maker doesn’t seem to want to copy. But in all other cases, it is enabled. And that’s fantastic for us.

VR headsets are going wireless and standalone in droves this year, so experiencing VR will be easier than ever.

Stay tuned to our dedicated AR/VR page for the latest AR and VR news, reviews and comparisons!

Learn more: