Anyone who has always been interested in VR (Virtual Reality) and wanted to buy a VR headset for themselves, but was scared of the price tag, will find what they are looking for with the Oculus Rift S. I have it for youprobeers.

The starting price is 450 euros, which almost halves the price of the other providers (HTC Vive etc.) and that without losing any really big features. This makes the Rift S very attractive for beginners and for those who want to test out their PC Battelstation in VR. I myself was very surprised by the price and really tried to find the points where Oculus had to save on the Rift S in order to achieve the given price. My test.

Unboxing

The Oculus Rift S comes in a nice box that itself attracts attention. The box itself contains the VR glasses and the corresponding 5 meter long cable. And of course the touch controllers, which are each supplied with an AA battery. Those who have or know the predecessor are of course wondering where the sensors are.

Here, Oculus relies on Insight, which, according to Oculus, can transmit movements in VR without external sensors through so-called “roomscale tracking”. So what does that mean? The sensors are located in the glasses and therefore the glasses do not require any external sensors. As a result, you don't need your own VR room for the glasses (2 x 2 meters of space behind the PC setup is sufficient) and you don't have to set up and wire annoying sensors. A "plug and play" experience. So all you have to do now is connect the display port and USB cable to your notebook or desktop, the OculusProgram to start and get started.

Tutorial

Whoever puts on the glasses for the first time will be guided through the tutorial. There you set the height of the room, the playing area and, of course, familiarize yourself with the functions of the glasses. Here you meet a cute little robot who reveals the world of VR and the associated possibilities in a playful way. Then it is up to you which games you want to play in VR and of course the Oculus Rift S is also compatible with Steam VR.

Specs

The screen

With the Rift S, Oculus uses an LCD display, whereas the previous model used OLED technology. Means that black doesn't look as good anymore, but still doesn't turn gray (little to hardly any backlight bleed). In return, the resolution increases to 1280 x 1440 pixels per eye, but in return the refresh rate drops to 80 Hz, although the previous model had 90 Hz. To be honest, you hardly notice the difference from 90 to 80, but the fact that the image is sharper is very noticeable, as it makes it easier to read texts in particular. Those who suffered from VIMS (Visually Induced Motion Sickness) from the predecessor and could only have a very short stay in VR, probenefit from the higher resolution too, as you can now have longer fun in the VR world.

Audio

The sound comes from two small speakers that are located on the headband. They are okay, but would rather use on-ear headphones for “Beatsaber” and other VR titles, which is even easy to implement, as there is a 3,5 mm jack plug on the left side.

Comfort

In itself, the headset sits quite well and compared to the first generation of the Rift, it is no longer that heavy at the front. The cable hangs over the left shoulder by default, which doesn't really bother you in “Beatsaber”, but in games that require a lot of turning (such as “Stormland”), the cable can get in the way. So I recommend attaching the cable further back so it hangs down on the back and does not interfere in the VR world.

Oculus Rift S: The PC VR headset from the side. (Image: TechnikNews)

The controllers

The controllers are very easy to hold, are relatively light, compact and you can reach all buttons and the joystick easily and comfortably. As a fixation on the hands, a very thin band is used here, which holds, but loses hold over time. But you can easily swap the tapes or buy another third-party tape. Changing batteries is also very easy, you just have to pull down the lower cover, which is held by a magnet.

The Oculus Rift S Touch Controller (Image: TechnikNews)

Tracking

If you think that Oculus may have saved on the sensors, I have to tell you the opposite. The tracking on the Rift S is very stable, and it rarely comes to a standstill. There is one drawback to tracking, however. The controllers can only be tracked from the glasses, which is understandable since there are only sensors on the glasses. So if you try to track the controllers behind your back, it is quite unsuccessful. If the controllers are only briefly out of the track area, calculations (last measured position and speed) are used to determine the direction in which the movement was to be carried out.

Gaming

I was able to use the Oculus Rift S with a system designed as Proprocessor includes an i5-8600k from Intel and a 1070 Ti from Nvidia. The performance in "Beatsaber" was very solid, I was able to turn almost all settings to maximum, but there were still occasional stutters. So I tested it again with an RTX 2070 SUPER and found that it ran much more smoothly (the settings were also back to maximum) and that I was able to make full use of the 80 Hz (this can of course also be due to an update). Other titles such as "Stormland" also ran much more smoothly and with higher graphic settings.

So my recommendation would be at least a GTX 1070 or RTX 2060, it already works with a 1050, but then you have to set all settings to the minimum. But if you don't have a powerful PC, I recommend the Oculus Quest, which is a stand-alone headset (no PC required, is already integrated and no cable). However, the quest comes with a catch: Of course, it doesn't perform as well as the Rift S, but you don't need a PC for 1.500 euros.

Conclusion

The Oculus Rift S is one of the best VR headsets for just under 450 euros (on Black Friday for 400 euros). It is easy to set up and is therefore also very suitable for beginners. If you already have the previous model (Oculus Rift), I would not necessarily advise you to replace it with this one. The Rift S offers more pixels and built-in sensors, but its predecessor is still a pretty good performer even in 2020.

It should not be forgotten that the Rift S starts for 200 euros less than its predecessor. I believe that Oculus didn't want to try to bring a high-end device to market with this VR headset, but rather to lower the price of VR in general. It does not have a 120 Hz display, such as the Valve Index, which weighs almost 1000 euros on your wallet, but you get at least two glasses from Oculus for the same money.

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