When Quest first launched in 2019, we called it the "first great standalone VR headset," owing to it being a truly complete package between hardware, software, and content. And over the course of its life, we saw Quest improve over time with software updates that added new features and improved existing ones. And now we have Quest 2, which is pretty much the same headset, just better in (almost) every way. Quest 2 is (just about) here! Facebook announced the headset and opened pre-orders today starting at $300. Oculus Quest 2 has a release date of October 13th. But before owners of the original Quest look at their old headset with disdain, consider this. Quest 2 might be better in (almost) every way, but it really doesn't do anything new. Quest 2 has effectively zero new features compared to the original, and Oculus says both headsets will share the same game library. A quandary then... would Quest 2 have been better called 'Quest S'? Well yes, but also... no. As you'll find throughout our review, a good chunk of Quest 2's potential has not yet been unlocked. Similar to the original, Quest 2 will see improvements over time. In that sense, I think it would be fair to call it Quest S on day one, but once Oculus delivers some promised post-launch improvements, it'll earn the name Quest 2. Oculus Quest 2 vs. Quest Specs [caption id="attachment_97941" align="alignright" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] Before we dive into the full review, here's a breakdown of Quest 2 compared to Quest official specs: Quest 2 Quest Resolution (per-eye) 1,832 × 1,920 (LCD) 1,440 × 1,600 (OLED) Refresh Rate 90Hz 72Hz Processor Snapdragon XR2 Snapdragon 835 RAM 6GB 4GB Battery Life 2–3 hours 2–3 hours Controller Battery Life 4x original – Field of View Equal Equal IPD Adjust 58mm, 63mm, 68mm 58–72mm Weight 503g 571g Storage 64GB or 256GB 64GB or 128GB Strap Soft (rigid sold separately) Rigid Now onto the full review... if you want to summary without the detail, skip to the very end for our conclusion. Hardware [caption id="attachment_97923" align="alignright" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] One of the most exciting but as of yet untapped bits of hardware in Quest 2 is the processor. While the original Quest launched with a dated (even at the time) Snapdragon 835, Oculus effectively picked the highest-end processor they could for Quest 2, the Snapdragon XR2. Not only is it significantly more powerful, it's also a made-for-VR chip which includes some additional features that make it even better for use in a VR headset. But it's going to take some time until we see the XR2 really shining in Quest 2. On day one, Oculus says that Quest 2 will run have an 'experimental' 90Hz option which will run the headset's main menu at that refresh rate. Games, however, will continue to run at 72Hz. "Soon" after launch, according to Oculus, the company will make the 90Hz mode default for the main menu and also allow developers to take advantage of the extra refresh rate, but that may well require per-app updates. [irp posts="97437" name="New Oculus Users Required to Use Facebook Account Starting in October, Existing Users by 2023"] The same thing applies to Oculus Link. On day one, if you plug Quest 2 into your PC to use Link, your PC VR content will run at 72Hz and have the same encoding quality as original Quest. "Soon" after launch, Oculus says, Quest 2 will be able to use Link at 90Hz and higher quality. So it's going to take some time before we see the full power of Quest 2. The good news is that most games can automatically take advantage of Quest 2's higher resolution, so that's one benefit that you'll see right out of the gate, and it's a big one. Display & Lenses [caption id="attachment_97928" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] The leap in resolution and framerate are among Quest 2's most meaningful improvements. Quest 2 has a per-eye resolution of 1,832 × 1,920 (3.5 megapixels) compared to the original's 1,440 × 1,600 (2.3 megapixels). That's a nice jump already, but there's a bit of an extra boost because Quest 2's LCD display has more sub-pixels—which fill in the 'screen door effect' even more—than Quest's OLED display. On Quest 2, the screen door effect is basically invisible. Pixels are too small to be seen individually; you can still see evidence of the underlying pixel structure against flat colors, but it fades away against anything textured. The resolution difference is noticeable right away. Between the extra sharpness and the smoother motion of the 90Hz display, stepping up to the menu in Quest 2 feels a bit more real than with the original Quest. As some know, the move from OLED to LCD comes with some downsides too. Most notably that LCD can't get close to the deep blacks that OLED can. Although it doesn't have those deep blacks of the original, it also has massively reduced smearing which is arguably a worthwhile tradeoff because higher resolution doesn't mean much if you can't keep pixels from smearing often. Quest 2's lenses are effectively the same as the original. They're fresnel as before, and have the same issues with 'god rays' as any modern fresnel lens (that is: annoying god rays on high contrast elements, but generally not to bothersome in most scenes). Oculus declined to share Quest 2's official field of view, but said it is equivalent to the original Quest (that is: enough to be immersive, but more would still be nice). The 'sweet spot' or clarity across the lens, is roughly the same as the original Quest. Quest 2's lenses and display are tuned well. Chromatic aberration, pupil swim, and smearing are effectively invisible. Mura is almost invisible as well, but it'll show up faintly against certain flat colors if you go looking for it. IPD [caption id="attachment_97929" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] Quest 2's IPD can be physically adjusted between three positions: 58mm, 63mm, and 68mm. Rather than a slider on the bottom of the headset which allows you to adjust the IPD while looking through the lenses, to change the IPD on Quest 2 you need to remove the headset and grasp both lenses and tug them into one of the other positions. Because of the delineated IPD adjustment, even if you're within the minimum and maximum range, you could be up to 2.5mm out of the 'ideal' lens alignment (if you were to fall exactly between the available positions). We can infer that if Oculus felt being up to 2.5mm out of alignment was ok in the middle of the range, it would also be ok on the ends of the range—giving Quest 2 a 'maximum recommended' IPD range from 55.5mm to 70.5mm, which is pretty close to the original Quest's 'maximum recommended' range of 56 to 74mm. [irp posts="95607" name="How to Measure Your IPD and Why It's Important for VR & AR Headsets"] Since my IPD is roughly 63mm, I wouldn't be able to see what the image looks like if it were 2.5mm off center (not with any reasonable precision, anyway). We'll have to wait for more widespread feedback to know if falling between the three positions hampers the visual experience much, or if Quest 2's eye-box is large enough to accommodate (clearly, Oculus felt this to be the case). However, if you use the widest IPD setting you may see a bit of clipping of the field of view (this is a result of the single display design in which the lenses move closer to the edges of the display when adjusting for IPD). Audio Quest 2, like its predecessor, has hidden integrated speakers that allow audio to emanate from the headband. Even though the speaker openings are a bit closer, they're still miles away from being centrally aligned with the ear, which makes them sub-par for accurate spatial audio. In terms of sound quality and volume, Quest 2's speakers feel right in line with Quest. Meaning the audio is passable, but a far cry from from the quality you'd hear from something like Index or even the original Rift CV1. For anyone coming from a Rift S at least, you'll be happy to know that Quest 2's audio is louder and of better quality. Many games will do fine with Quest 2's build in audio, but for games with especially good sound tech and design, you'll miss out on a lot of added immersion without a better audio solution. Although it's a bummer to have to fumble with headphones to get that maximum immersion from Quest, at least the option to add your own audio is available thanks to the single 3.5mm audio input on the side (unlike original Quest, there's only one 3.5mm audio input on Quest 2). Design & Ergonomics [caption id="attachment_97927" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] Quest 2's design isn't fundamentally different than its predecessor, but it does bring a number of refinements. In terms of size and weight, it's a bit smaller and a bit lighter. Quest 2 manages to look slightly less bulbous, if a bit less premium due to the all-plastic finish versus the fabric finish of the original. The minimal button and port layous are all effectively identical: a volume rocker on the bottom, USB-C charging & data port on the left next to a 3.5mm audio input, and a power button and LED power indicator on the right. Soft Strap & Elite Strap [caption id="attachment_97926" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] The biggest change to the design is the head strap. Out of the box you'll get a soft strap which is, at least for my head, a bit of a downgrade over the original Quest's rigid strap. Rigid straps have the benefit of gripping the back of your head and lifting weight off the front of your head via support from the top and side straps. Soft straps without any structure can't do this nearly as well because they can only really support the front of the headset via the top strap and can't grip the back of the head as well without a vice-like tightness. When I use the soft strap I find that there's more pressure than I'd like on my forehead. Now, this would be a bummer if not for the fact that Oculus is, finally, offering first-party ergonomic accessories, including an Elite Strap and an Elite Battery Strap, both of which are rigid and specifically designed with a counterweight (fingers crossed for an an Elite Audio Strap in the future). [caption id="attachment_97948" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Quest 2 with Elite Strap | Photo by Road to VR[/caption] The good news is that the Elite Strap design is excellent—I'd say Oculus' best headstrap yet—which makes me really wish they just included it by default. It seems pretty clear that not doing so was largely a cost-saving decision. For most serious VR users, I'm just going to go ahead and recommend you get the Elite Strap or the Elite Battery Strap on day one. Yes, it's at least another $50 on top of the $300 base price, but it's worth it. Fit Pack On top of the Elite Strap options, Oculus is also going to be selling a 'Fit Pack' ($40) which will include light blockers that fit around the lenses (to cover any light coming from the nose cavity) as well as two different face pads to accommodate wider or narrower faces. I haven't had my hands on the Fit Pack, but found that the included face pad worked fine for me and I wasn't bothered by any light leakage. It's great that these accessories will be available though so a wider range of people can find an ergonomic fit that works for them. Quest 2 also comes with a glasses spacer which holds the lenses a little further from your eyes so that there's room for glasses in between. The face pad is slightly less wide than the original Quest, so especially wide frames might be problematic. Controllers [caption id="attachment_97932" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] At first glance, Quest 2's controllers might not look much different than the original Quest controllers, but they've actually seen a significant ergonomic redesign—or perhaps more of an ergonomic throwback. The 'new' controller design is very close to the Touch controllers of the original Rift CV1 headset. And that's a great thing because they arguably had the best ergonomics of any VR controller to date. [caption id="attachment_97937" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Quest 2 controller (left), Quest controller (right) | Photo by Road to VR[/caption] Compared to the Quest controllers, Quest 2's controllers are larger and feature a much larger, and offset 'face' which provides a natural area to rest your thumb without resting them on a button. The handle shape seems to fit into the hand a bit more purposefully too. The Quest 2 controllers are actually a bit larger than the original Rift CV1 controllers as well. For me that makes them slightly larger than ideal (but those with larger hands will surely feel the opposite). Even still, I think the ergonomic shift back toward the Rift CV1 controllers is a nice improvement. [caption id="attachment_97938" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Rift CV1 controller (left), Quest 2 controller (right) | Photo by Road to VR[/caption] And there's another benefit hiding inside. The Quest 2 haptics are notably more powerful than their predecessors. We don't yet know if they're capable of some of the advanced haptic effects seen on the Rift CV1 controllers, but we expect to learn more about this soon. Quest 2's controllers are also now more power efficient and last up to four times longer than the original Quest controllers, according to Oculus. We'll need to follow up on that claim because our controller batteries have yet to run out! Unfortunately Oculus has confirmed that Quest 2 controllers are not compatible with Quest or Rift S. IPD Adjustment I already talked about the IPD adjustment up in the hardware section, but there's a design element that needs to be talked about as well. I'm glad Quest 2 has an IPD adjustment, even if it can only be moved between three discrete settings (58mm, 63mm, and 68mm). However, the approach is a bit baffling. Rather than a slider on the bottom of the headset which allows you to look at the image as you adjust the IPD, on Quest 2 you need to remove the headset, grab the lenses, push them into one of the other positions, and then put the headset back on. Given that the different settings are simply labeled 1, 2, and 3—and that there's seemingly no guidance for the user about which position they should select—I don't see how users are expected to set their IPD correctly. Even if you could do it by sight, the need to remove the headset, change the lens position, then put it back on means you can't look at the image as you adjust it, which makes it far harder to set by sight. And even if you're a VR enthusiast and actually know your own IPD measurement, you have to remember which numbered setting corresponds with which measurement. Unless I'm missing something, this is a strange approach to IPD adjustment and one which I doubt will result in the majority of users using the correct setting. Continue on Page 2: Tracking & Experience » Tracking [caption id="attachment_97925" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] Just like its predecessor, Quest 2 uses four cameras for inside-out tracking, controller tracking, and hand-tracking. Oculus tells us that Quest 2 is using the same IR sensors (same resolution, same refresh rate, etc) but they have "slightly" better low-light performance. As such, it's not surprising that Quest 2 seems to track just as well as the original Quest (which has improved over time). That means it has leading inside-out tracking in a VR headset in both performance and controller tracking coverage. It's not the most accurate tracking system out there overall—and it still has some blind spots based on what the cameras can see—but it's more than sufficient for the vast majority of games. And while inside-out tracking can often be prone to varying quality depending upon environmental conditions (light, moving objects, etc), we've found Quest 2's tracking to continue to be remarkably robust even in especially challenging scenarios like with a ceiling fan, holiday lights, and swinging blinds. Across all of our testing, Quest 2's head and controller-tracking feels like something you just don't really need to think about. Controller-less hand-tracking is also available on Quest 2, but it isn't as responsive or accurate as controller-tracking. It seems to work just as well as hand-tracking does on the original Quest, though Oculus says they expect that might be able to eek some more improvements out over time thanks to the increased power of Quest 2. Experience [caption id="attachment_97954" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image courtesy Facebook[/caption] The Quest 2's day-one experience is the pinnacle of what Oculus has been honing over more than a year on the original Quest. With pass-through boundary setup and a near instant wake-from-sleep, it's far and away the easiest way to jump into room-scale VR. Out of Beta Over the course of Quest's lifetime, Oculus has significantly revamped and streamlined its software experience. Now that Facebook is more deeply woven into the core Quest operating system, you're required to log into Quest 2 with a Facebook account. The system interface is far snappier than it was at the outset. The system menu now appears inside of games instead of taking you out of them. There's a host of new 'home' environments to choose from, including being able to set the pass-through view as your 'background'. That last part is really nice for two reasons: 1) you can always see your controllers to pick them up rather than blindly feeling around for them, and 2) the transition into and out of VR is much less jarring since you still have a view of the real world around you, even when you first put the headset on. One of the biggest improvements that Quest 2 gets out of the box (original Quest had to wait for) is hand-tracking. While there's still no 'must-have' hand-tracking games out there, it's really nice just to be able to control the entire Quest 2 menu system without needing to pick up your controllers every time. Sometimes you just want to pop in to check something quickly; being able to do so without picking up the controllers just makes the headset that much more accessible. While menus are definitely more responsive than they once were, I still find the Quest 2 (and Quest) interface to be poorly designed. Don't get me wrong, it's taken a strong step forward since the launch of the original Quest, but there's still some serious room for improvement in layout, hierarchy, and affordances. [irp posts="97811" name="Facebook Accounts Using Fake Names, Among Other Violations, Risk Losing Access to Oculus Content"] As an apparent (and convenient) crutch, Quest 2 now has Voice Commands out of the gate which are really quite handy. When you double-tap the Oculus button you'll be prompted for a command. The headset can understand many basic actions like "search for Beat Saber" or "launch Phantom: Covert Ops." It'll also tell you what time it is, how much battery life you have left, or search Google for you via the Oculus Browser. Speaking of the Browser, it's quite nice to use these days, which is thanks to feature improvements and to Quest 2's higher resolution display. With its increased resolution, the browser lets you see more of a website's real estate. Using controllers (or especially hands) to navigate the browser is still a bit painfully slow (and there's no basic copy+paste or 'Save Link As' functionality), but you can at least now use voice input in the keyboard to dictate a Google search more quickly than typing it. A Trove of VR Classics Curiously, Quest 2 content lineup is looking a lot like what happened with Quest. The headset originally launched with essentially no 'killer app' to launch alongside it; most of the best content were games ported from other platforms. Quest 2 is in the same boat. Not only have we not been able to see any games at 90Hz yet, but there aren't any we're particularly excited about that will be available at launch. That said, if Quest 2 is your first VR headset, there's a solid number of good games to enjoy. The Quest library recently eclipsed 200 titles, and you'll be able to play a bunch of VR favorites on day one—like Beat Saber, Moss, I Expect You to Die!, Superhot VR, Pistol Whip, Job Simulator, Vader Immortal, Onward, and more. But for anyone who isn't new to VR, you've likely played these games before. To be fair, Oculus has confirmed some exciting content on the horizon, but most of it won't be available until sometime after Quest 2 launches. [irp posts="97991" name="Every Oculus Quest Game Announced at Facebook Connect 2020"] Some of the games we are looking forward to playing on Quest 2 are the upcoming Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell VR games, The Climb 2, Jurassic World Aftermath, Myst, Pistol Whip's '2089' update, and Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister. But alas, none will be available on launch day. Oculus Link With Oculus Link you can plug your Quest 2 into a VR ready PC and use it just like a Rift. That means you can play games from the Oculus PC library or play from other VR libraries like SteamVR. That makes Quest 2 a very versatile headset, but unfortunately we haven't seen the full potential of Link on Quest 2 just yet. The USB cable included with Quest 2 isn't really long enough for Link, so you'll need to buy a separate one. I would say it's surprising that Oculus hasn't optimized Link for Quest 2 yet, but then again its upcoming discontinuation of the entire Rift product line shows they don't have much interest in PC-based VR any longer. [irp posts="98042" name="Oculus Link Upgrades Will Bring 90Hz & Full Resolution to Quest 2, Native Interface Integration"] Right now the Link experience isn't much different than what you'd get with the original Quest. At present, Quest 2 with Link is still running at 72Hz rather than 90Hz, and its video encoding hasn't been optimized for Quest 2's resolution. Oculus says it plans to make those updates "soon" after the launch of the headset. Our experience with Link has been fine, but if Oculus is now pitching Quest as both its standalone headset and its PC VR headset, it's going to have to do more than fine with Link if it has any interest in serving the enthusiast crowd. Summary Although it's going to take more time until its true potential is fully unlocked through various post-launch software updates—and there's no escaping Facebook's tendrils—Quest 2 is the best standalone headset you can buy, and amazingly the most affordable in its class at $300. You'll need to tack on another $50 for the Elite Strap to get the best version of Quest 2, but otherwise it's an improvement over the original Quest in almost every way: more power, higher resolution, better refresh rate, improved controllers. It doesn't do anything new—and we'll be waiting a while for content that truly makes it shine—but it can clearly be called the best version of Quest yet. - - — - - Got more questions? We've got more answers! Drop us a comment below and tells us what you want to know about Quest 2. Disclosure: Oculus provided Road to VR with a Quest 2 headset.