At the two-day F8 conference hosted by Facebook, Oculus unveiled a new virtual reality headset. The Oculus Go is priced at an astonishing $199, a lot lesser than its predecessors. (Oculus Rift headset costs around $399). Here’s a quick rundown of all the key features.
Self-contained headset
The Oculus Go is completely self- contained and stand alone. Everything including the hardware, screen, and processor, is contained within the headset. The functional pistol-grip Oculus controller is also included in the box. Developers don’t need a special computer, graphics card, game console or even a phone to operate the VR device as it is completely autonomous.
Rich Display
Oculus is equipped with a 5.5-inch, 2,560×1,440-pixel LCD display that looks particularly crisp when reading text or watching videos. It uses optimized 3D graphics which reduced the screen-door effect typically encountered on most VR headsets. It uses fixed foveated rendering, rendering the area at the center of the display more sharply than the edges, to make many apps look even better.
Powerful Sound
Spatial audio drivers are built into the headset which provides direct, immersive, surround sound, without the need for earphones. Alternatively, it also has a 3.5mm audio jack.
Lightweight and Comfortable
The Oculus Go is comfortable and well designed. The Go goggles have breathable fabrics, injection foam molding, and other advances in wearable materials for better comfort. It is also lightweight and portable.
For all the great features, the product is not without its limitations.
- The screen has a narrower field of view (FOV) than Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. It also does not include a slider or scalar to adjust “interpupillary distance”, i.e. how images line up with your own face.
- Oculus Go only recognizes three degrees of freedom (3DOF). So, realistic VR effects remain when you rotate or tilt your head. However, the effect is broken as you lean in any direction.
- Go does not offer positional tracking while seated or while walking.
Nevertheless, Oculus currently supports over 1,000 existing apps, and pairs with both iPhones and Android phones, making it one of the best iPhone VR headsets around right now. The pricing is set to be $199 USD for the 32GB model and $249 for the 64GB version. Consumers can now purchase the headset via the Oculus website in 23 countries.
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