Oculus Quest vs. Oculus Rift S

Oculus Quest vs. Oculus Rift S

The rivalry in the filed of Virtual Reality has long been strong, but the Facebook’s owned Oculus is definitely one of the major winners. The Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S headsets strike a fine balance by incorporating mid-range price points with high-quality hardware. Yet , which one of them is better? We are here to give you some details that can help you make the choice.

From the comparison above, it is visible that the Quest specs have a higher resolution than the Rift S. When you play native Quest games, however you won’t take much advantage of it. In fact, the built-in Snapdragon 835 CPU processing power of Quest will be a limitation, meaning that Quest games will run smoothly at 75Hz and retain battery life in lower resolution.The refresh rate for the Rift specs is up to 8Hz higher, but that still isn’t a significant improvement that can be noticed by the average user.

As a matter of fact, a game running on the Rift S would definitely look better compared to the same game running on a Quest as the Rift S is connected to your PC and powered by your CPU.Of course, there are ways of increasing the resolution in Quest too, but you basically have to do that every time you turn on your headset. Besides, the whole tinkering with the settings can be a bit tedious.

However, if we have to be realistic, VR’s immersions are not just about graphics – the freedom of movement also plays a great role and enhances the experience. And in that sense, the Quest’s headset is  a step ahead. Let’s admit it – it is incredibly freeing feeling to be able to play a boxing game like Thrill of the War, for example, in an environment about the size of an actual boxing ring, or move around in the Slow-mo shooter Superhot without worrying that cables will get tangled or ripped away.

Another good feature of the Quest specs that is worth mentioning is the OLED display which shows darker and richer blacks than the Rift S’s older LCD display.

Oculus Link

The Oculus Link, a feature declared to kill off the Oculus Rift S in favor of the Quest specs, also makes things interesting. With this feature, you basically can link Oculus Quest to your PC and play computer VR games just like you do with Rift S simply by using an update that was released at the beginning of 2019. All that is needed is an Oculus Link cable or any USB 3.1 cable carrying data.

Some people say the image isn’t as clear as on the Rift S but, as a matter of fact, with a feature like Oculus Link, the Oculus Quest headset can effectively do the same task as the Rift S, while remaining a relatively powerful cable-free VR headset with its own collection of apps and games.

And the winner is…?

Both, Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift currently sell at the same price. So, if we exclude that factor and take only the features and the functionality into consideration, the Quest seems to be gaining in the mid-range class of VR headsets. Of course, there might be keen VR players who  might claim that the Rift S fits better for PC games but, in our view,  the Quest specs with their superior resolution and wireless capabilities (as well as the Oculus Link functionality) are a far more flexible choice.