considering the open-air nature of the
speakers, and I appreciated being able
to tell when my roommate walked into
the room. The headset also has a
3.5mm jack if you want to use your own
earbuds or headphones for a more
isolated audio experience.
The Rift S is positioned to be Oculus’
new “gold-standard” VR experience. In
other words, it’s meant for PC gaming,
as the lower-priced Oculus Go and the
aforementioned Oculus Quest are both
standalone headsets—no PC tether
required. As such, the Rift S offers the
best visual fidelity of the three Oculus
offerings, though it’s a step down from
the more expensive Valve Index.
Which brings us back to that
crossroads. The Rift S does offer better
visuals than the original Rift, but not to
the degree you’d expect from an
offering coming three years after its
predecessor. Part of that is due to the
PC hardware requirements. To avoid
fragmentation, the Rift S has the same
required PC specs—a GTX 1060/RX
480 GPU, primarily—as the original Rift.
This makes the new headset accessible
for more potential users, but means
folks with the best graphics cards won’t
get to take as much advantage of their
high-end hardware. Despite being
Oculus’ most high-end offering, the Rift
S still feels like a mid-range VR headset.Inside-out tracking
Attractive price point
Includes touch controllers
Lower fidelity than other sets82
VERDICTEASY ENTRY TO VR
The actual high-end space is owned by
the HTC Vive Pro and new Valve Index.
Those are going to offer a higher-fidelity
experience, but also come with
high-end price tags. Are you missing out
on so much with this mid-range option
that it’s not worth it? I don’t think so.
Lots of people have gotten great use out
of the now-aging original Rift headset,
proving you don’t need to be on the
absolute cutting edge to enjoy VR. In
terms of both cost and ease of setup,
the Rift S offers the easiest way to get
into VR gaming on PC, especially if you
don’t have a high-end PC that can
handle 144Hz VR in the first place.FIVE CAMERAS POSITIONED ON THE
HEADSET ITSELF TRACK THE
CONTROLLERS AND HEADSET
TOP: Each eye now
features a 1280x1440
resolution display.ABOVE: New trackers
eliminate the need for
base stations.