Oculus Quest 2 first impressions

A month ago, the next generation Oculus Quest 2 headset premiered during the Facebook Connect 7 conference. As an active user of the first generation headset, I placed the order without hesitation. After a period of impatient waiting, the courier delivered the package and today I can share with you my first impressions of the new Quest. I invite you to read it!

Recognize Oculus Quest 2 immediately

The VR headset looks very similar to its predecessor. You immediately know that you are dealing with a product from Oculus. The most striking difference is, of course, their white color. It is definitely less practical and more susceptible to dirt, unfortunately. According to the official specification, the headset is slightly smaller. The difference isn’t huge, but it visible when compared directly. The headband is the so-called “soft strap”, that is, a soft rubber band. The solution is quite convenient and certainly more compact. Additionally, it increases the feeling of lightness of the device. The weight itself, however, has not decreased too much compared to the first version of Quests. It went down from 571g to 503g. After a while, you feel that it is on your face.

One jack port and a slider to adjust the spacing of the lenses have disappeared, comparing to the original Quest. To change this spacing, you move the lenses themselves. I don’t really like the solution. It is quite easy to get the lenses dirty during this operation. We usually do this once, fortunately. The power button and the USB-C port are also arranged slightly differently. In my opinion, these modifications do not make a big difference in everyday use.

More power on board

Oculus Quest 2 is based on the Snapdragon™ XR2 platform from Qualcomm. The XR2 processor is based on its mobile counterpart marked 865, which has been expanded with dedicated VR and Mixed Reality elements. Replacing help, even built-in, Inside-Out tracking, support fast video upload, or WiFi 6 support.

Comparing to its predecessor, based on the Snapdragon 835 processor, the manufacturer declares a significant increase in performance. We get 46% more CPU computing power and 33% more GPU computing power. In addition, peripheral handling has also improved. If you are interested in a more detailed comparison of the performance of both versions, I invite you to the extended test here.

I tested the headset using applications such as Immersed VR, Spatial.io, Oculus Venues, or Beat Saber. With all the above-mentioned applications and games the device worked very smoothly despite the higher resolution of the screens.

50% more pixels

One of the main differences from its predecessor is the image quality. The new headset has two screens with a resolution of 1832 × 1920 pixels. This is a significant leap compared to the first generation Oculus Quest with screens with a resolution of 1440 × 1600 pixels. Despite the greater number of pixels, the processor update meant that we lost absolutely nothing in the smooth operation of applications available to users.

Numbers are numbers but the image quality is really noticeable. It’s still possible to see a single pixel of course, but the graphics have reached a whole new dimension. This is of great importance, above all, when working with utility applications. Personally, I have been using the ImmersedVR for some time now. It allows displaying virtual screens based on an image cloned from a Mac. With the first generation of Oculus Quest, reading text during eg. programming was very cumbersome and required a large scale of the desktop size in VR space. In the case of the second generation of the device, the problem is much smaller and the work is much more pleasant. The proof of this may be the fact that I wrote the entire text of this article using Oculus Quest 2 instead of the physical monitor of my MacBook!

Brand new controllers

The headset comes with a set of two controllers. The refreshed version of the device brought some changes also in this area. The new controller from Oculus is slightly larger than the original version. This is due to the fact that an additional touch-field has been added to the top surface, next to the joystick and 3 buttons. It has been shaped a bit differently, which does not change the fact that it is still very comfortable in the hand. Moreover, the new design significantly reduces the risk of confusing the right controller with the left one. Controllers are still powered by AA batteries, i.e. popular sticks. It’s a pity that Oculus has not decided to use rechargeable batteries and lead charging outside.

Facebook and Oculus, however, focus on hand-tracking in the future, i.e. using hands instead of the controllers. In the first generation of Oculus Quest, this option was available in experimental mode. The second generation of equipment already offers it as standard. Hand detection itself is quite responsive. However, it is still based on cameras placed on the headset, which has its problems. While using the hand tracking mode, I had problems with it many times. Mainly boiled down to the appearance of false clicks which led to randomly moving objects in the VR experience. In addition, the precision of such an interface leaves much to be desired. I couldn’t use the hand-tracking mode at all, for example in ImmersedVR, where I use the Mac keyboard with my touch. While typing on the keyboard, my hands were still being tracked, which totally made it impossible to use the computer.

In the future, a dedicated Logitech keyboard will appear as one of the accessories. which is also to be mapped in the VR environment. It is definitely an interesting move. I hope it will develop into a program similar to Apple’s MFI. One keyboard won’t meet the expectations of all users for sure. Adding the keyboard itself assumes that the headset software already provides a set of utility applications that we need in our daily work. Unfortunately, in the case of Oculus, it will not be possible for some time.

Refreshed and more compact OS version

Not only the hardware offered by Oculus has changed. The new headset also has a slightly refreshed operating system. We could see its trailer already during the official presentation of the device. The interface is definitely more compact. We have a single-level menu based on icons instead of the “tab” version available in the first version of Oculus Quest. After selecting a specific menu item, a “panel” above it will open. Information about the time or the battery level has been moved to the left side.

The daily work with the new interface was presented, for example, during the announcement of the “Infinite office” project. Some of the functionalities visible in the trailer are not available yet, but the appearance of the menu itself is very similar. There is already the “Quick actions” menu where we can easily change the WiFi or Guardian System settings. However, there is no option to seamlessly switch between the physical and the virtual environment. XR related features are expected to show up in the coming months.

The XR environment is an element that appears during Oculus’ cooperation with external developers. During the September conference, they presented the effects of cooperation, for example, with the communicator Spatial.io, which displayed the content over the image from the cameras.

Summary

Oculus Quest 2 is a great deal for all VR fans. At a very affordable price, we get a good quality headset with controllers and an application ecosystem from Oculus. My first impressions are very positive. There is a clear improvement over the first generation of the product, which gives hope that soon such devices will replace laptops in everyday work. In my opinion, it is worth using the goggles for some tasks today, thus building new habits and adapting to the changes that come with the new era of Spatial Computing.