Oculus Go VR Headset Review!

The Future of Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Review of Oculus Air

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) technology has undergone significant advancements, and one device that has caught our attention is the Oculus Air. As we spend more time exploring the world of VR, it's essential to understand what makes this device unique and how it compares to its predecessors.

One of the most notable features of the Oculus Air is its display resolution. Compared to traditional mobile headsets, the Air offers a significant improvement in vertical resolution, which provides a sharper and more immersive viewing experience. However, the horizontal resolution remains unchanged due to the limited number of pixels available on the device's screen. This compromise allows for better performance and reduced lag, making it an ideal choice for most VR applications.

The Oculus Air is also notable for its comfort factor. Unlike some high-end headsets that can be bulky and heavy, the Air is designed to be more comfortable and accessible. Its lightweight design and ergonomically crafted headset make it suitable for extended wear sessions, allowing users to fully immerse themselves in VR experiences without fatigue.

Another significant aspect of the Oculus Air is its price point. At $200, it's an affordable entry-point into the world of VR, making it an attractive option for those who want to try out virtual reality without breaking the bank. This price tag also makes it a great gift idea for friends and family members who might be interested in exploring VR.

The Oculus Air is also notable for its game library, which includes several popular titles from Oculus Studios. These games offer a more engaging experience than some of the other options available on mobile headsets, providing users with an immersive and entertaining way to enjoy their favorite VR content.

One aspect that sets the Oculus Air apart from other VR devices is its ability to display desktop content. This feature allows users to stream their desktop experience onto the headset, providing a more comprehensive VR solution. The device's compatibility with Steam and the potential for streaming desktop content make it an attractive option for those who want to enjoy high-end gaming experiences on a lower-end PC.

The Oculus Air is also notable for its limitations in terms of six degrees of freedom tracking. While this feature offers unparalleled immersion and interactivity, it comes at a higher price point and requires more complex hardware components. The Air's lack of six degrees of freedom means that users will need to be content with a more limited VR experience.

Despite these limitations, the Oculus Air is an excellent choice for those who want to dip their toes into VR without breaking the bank. Its affordability, comfort factor, and impressive display resolution make it a compelling option for those looking to try out virtual reality.

One thing that sets the Oculus Air apart from other VR devices is its potential as a gateway device. With a rich library of games and media content available, users can explore VR without feeling overwhelmed or frustrated by lack of options. The device's affordability also makes it an attractive option for families who want to share in the VR experience.

However, there remains one major question: why choose the Oculus Air when you can wait for more advanced six degrees of freedom tracking devices like those from Santa Cruz? For those who don't understand the benefits of six degrees of freedom tracking, they may not appreciate the immersive and interactive nature of VR experiences. Nevertheless, this is an aspect that will become increasingly important as VR technology continues to evolve.

The Oculus Air's success serves as a reminder that VR needs to be approachable and accessible to a wider audience. By offering a more affordable entry point into the world of VR, manufacturers can encourage people to try out virtual reality without feeling overwhelmed or intimidated. As we move forward in the VR landscape, it will be essential for companies like Oculus to continue innovating and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with virtual reality.

In conclusion, the Oculus Air is an excellent choice for those looking to explore virtual reality on a budget. Its impressive display resolution, comfort factor, and affordable price point make it an attractive option for those who want to try out VR without breaking the bank. While its lack of six degrees of freedom tracking may be a drawback for some users, it's essential to remember that this is a gateway device designed to introduce people to the world of VR. As VR technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see more advanced devices emerge, but for now, the Oculus Air remains an excellent choice for those looking to dip their toes into virtual reality.

The Oculus Air has been a game-changer in the world of VR, offering users a unique and immersive experience that's more accessible than ever. With its impressive display resolution, comfort factor, and affordability, it's an attractive option for those who want to try out virtual reality without breaking the bank. As we move forward in the VR landscape, it will be essential for companies like Oculus to continue innovating and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with virtual reality.

As we look to the future of VR, there are several exciting developments on the horizon that promise to revolutionize the way we experience virtual reality. Portable displays, like the Santa Cruz prototype, have shown incredible potential in providing high-quality VR experiences without the need for bulky headsets. These devices offer a more accessible and affordable option for those who want to try out virtual reality on the go.

In conclusion, the Oculus Air is an excellent choice for those looking to explore virtual reality on a budget. Its impressive display resolution, comfort factor, and affordability make it an attractive option for those who want to try out VR without breaking the bank. As VR technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see more advanced devices emerge, but for now, the Oculus Air remains an excellent choice for those looking to dip their toes into virtual reality.

The Oculus Air has opened up a new world of possibilities for VR enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Its impressive display resolution, comfort factor, and affordability make it an attractive option for those who want to try out virtual reality without breaking the bank. As we move forward in the VR landscape, it will be essential for companies like Oculus to continue innovating and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with virtual reality.

In conclusion, the Oculus Air is a remarkable device that has opened up new possibilities for VR enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Its impressive display resolution, comfort factor, and affordability make it an attractive option for those who want to try out virtual reality without breaking the bank. As we move forward in the VR landscape, it will be essential for companies like Oculus to continue innovating and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with virtual reality.

The future of virtual reality is bright, and devices like the Oculus Air are paving the way for a more accessible and affordable experience. With its impressive display resolution, comfort factor, and affordability, it's an attractive option for those who want to try out virtual reality without breaking the bank. As VR technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see more advanced devices emerge that will continue to push the boundaries of what's possible with virtual reality.

The Oculus Air is a game-changer in the world of VR, offering users a unique and immersive experience that's more accessible than ever. With its impressive display resolution, comfort factor, and affordability, it's an attractive option for those who want to try out virtual reality without breaking the bank. As we move forward in the VR landscape, it will be essential for companies like Oculus to continue innovating and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with virtual reality.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey, everybody's no one from Testim, it's Jeremy from TestimWelcome to projections our show about virtual reality and all the devices that's going to take you there todayWe have our review of the oculus goFace book oculus was able to send us an earlier review in and we've been using it for the past weekAnd we can say it's out today if it is out today in many stores, right?You can actually go and buy them right nowYeah, so you had it for a number of days and then I took it for the weekend on vacationlike I feel like I gave it a real good use case where I took it to a hotel andThat was the first time I ever got to use itWell, did this one anyway was when I walked through the hotel room my family was unpackingWe finished everyone like finally crashed on the couch and I took it and put it on my head and I was somewhere elseIt's not the promise of VR and that like I couldn't do that with a riftI'm not taking my base stations, you know my computer and my you know, the cameras and the headset with me, but thisAll-inclusive. Yeah, so for some of you out there you may have never put on a VR headsetWe are champions of VRWe are sold on this technologyBut I think this is Facebook and oculus is first product that they think can reach a mainstream audienceSo it's important for you out there. If this may be your first VR device to know your terms define what this is exactlyso on the high end of yourWe've been using on our guests tops or computers their headsets like the oculus rift and the HTC viveThat run off the processing power of your computer and they're tethered they're tethered for that reasonyou have a cable that comes off of the back of your headset and it runs down across your floor and into your computer andThis generation of virtual reality offers. We call six degrees of freedomNot only can you look around by rotating your head?You can move your body around they're tracking your hands your controllers and it gives you a sense of presence in a virtual environmentNow to accomplish that you need a relatively strong computer for the processing power and you also need a way that detect the worldWell, you certainly need more technology than is incorporated into this unit. This is only three degrees of freedom. YeahYeah, so you can basically look in any actionYou just can't move in any direction and the same goes for the controllerit can point in any direction and you can you know aim and touch butMoving it through space does nothing for all intents and purposesIt's very much like a gear VR or Google daydream deviceWhere you would put your phone in some type of shell with optics and access these type of mobile VR apps?In the VR experience except the big difference being of course, this is an all-inclusive packageYou don't need to put your phone in there, which is why that's $200 price point seems mightily attractiveI think that's the first time we've mentioned it. They set all about that 200 on the price pointI mean that is why it is three degrees of freedomBut it's also a lot for $200Yeahso what you have on the inside what's running this headset is the equivalent of aLike a samsung phone from a year ago not in this generation of mobile processors, but last year's Qualcomm processorsbut with pretty good display in optics which are a huge and part of the virtual reality experience the display here is a2560 by 1440Display which is higher resolution that you'd find in the oculus rift a little lower than you'd find in something like the vive proIt's it lands somewhere in the middleBut uses oculus as latest optics leave the lenses that let you peer into that displayWhich make it actually a pretty good VR experienceYeah, it's actually when you put it on you notice the difference plus the screen itself is not a pentile displayThe pixels are not arranged in triangles. They're arranged in a grid as you would expect on your computer. So it's a niceGrid a nice even look to the screen and the pixel density has been improvedSo the amount of what they call the screen door effect the space between the pixels which you can still see isMinimized in this yeah the optics which is the lenses that let the image warp around your faceGive it about the same fueled of view as the oculus rough about a hundred degreesbut because this is using one panel in yourPhone turn sideways as opposed to two separate discreet panels like you find in the referee viveYou could see a little bit more the edges I think right of that panIt's not a fully circular image in each eye. You see some hard edges to it. That does not distract meI'm okay with thatI'm actually kind of happy that I see the whole panel in some respects, you knowBecause I that means that I'm not losing those pixels. However, you did point out that you can't see the ones in the middleYeah, you may be losing a little bit from them. But but the overall the takeaway is theImage is clear the new optics. Give it are you slightly wider in my opinion sweet spot for the focal for the focus?where you get this image in the center, that's really nice and resolved and then it tends toblur as it goes out towards the edges now you get that with any VR headset, but with the new opticsI feel like it's slightly improved. We also didn't notice any of the godrays effects thisVisual artifact where if you're looking at a really bright image white image you would see these God rays coming at youIt's very noticeable in the oculus rift here significantly diminish by thing as a trade-offYou actually notice more chromatic aberrationThat's when you see the the color split between the red green and blue toward the edges of the lensesThis is something that they compensated for with the original rift using softwareand I wonder if that isn't something that this will evolve as well would they'llLearn how to tweak that in code where they actually push the red and the blue pixels out a little bit further on purposeKnowing that they'll bend backwards one final technical point with the imagery is that this panel runs at 60 frames a second?it's 60 Hertz orCan go up to 72 Hertz as opposed to the 90 Hertz. We're used to on the desktop displayIt doesn't sound like much as 12 frames a second, but it actually makes a difference. I mean, I I noticed the difference between60 inKatan where thoughThe white seemed to flicker a little bit to me and when we switched to a 72 Hertz game, it seems smoother to meSo maybe it's just that little bit more than I needed in order to sense a smooth imageThey also pointed out oculus did that 72 is a multiple of 24 so that if you're watching a movieYou know app developers might choose that frame rate just to get a niceNot drop any frames and and so while this may have some technical equivalents to some of the other mobile headsets one of the benefitstooculus making it all themselves is they could optimize the hardware andThe software and I think there are definitely a lot of optimizations going here in terms of the heatingIt doesn't feel like it ever overheats for me and no active cooling. Yeah, no active coolAnd also trying to that consistent frame rate, there's a lot of software tricksWhich you sometimes can see through when they're a little bit of visual artifacts to make it feel like a smooth experienceYou're not dropping any framesIt's also worth pointing out that this headset unlike gear VR which I suppose they do have a speaker this headset has two speakersSo they have stereo speakers one on either side and it projects backwards along this band and reflects into your earWhich is just handy if you don't have your headphonesYou knowRight there with you it they always want you to be able to hear even the menu sounds it gives you a sense of feedbackAnd it's it's handy to have it's not privateWhatever you hear out of thisEveryone else around you can hear as well and certainly your ears aren't covered by any kind of headphone as it would be on oneOf the desktop HMDs, so it's not like you're isolated either. Luckily. There is a headphone jack on the sideEight-inch right thereso if you want to plug in your buzz or whatever you do that it turns off the speakers and you'reIsolated and you also notice that the back is a floppy strapIt's not a rigid strapWhich I think you have pros and cons there the whole thing is light enough where if you just use this rubberized strapYeah, it will stay secure. Mm-hm for the type of easy movements. It's a throwback to the original developer kits. YesWhat that oculist made and those were all the same style and people use them and we're happy enough that they're cut their chief competitorHTCCame out with the HTC vive which used a similar strap and I think with this strap it also makes it a little more compactEasier to throw in your bag as opposed to having a bigger headsets a good point that you can't collapseHowever, having used it for the past weekendAnd I'm watching an entire movie in there and trying to spend some real quality time in there. I would say that the strap isone of the effects of having a $200 price point I think if it costs more we wouldprobably see a rigid strap because that semi oculus knows from making the rift is an important element toremoving that weight that's on the front of your face andsupporting it better by your skull or in some respects strapping it to your head so that it's notresting on your forehead and in your noseI found that this did that a little too much for my taste so that Ilost a sense of comfortUnless I physically held on to the this part of the strap and pulled it backwards right that would lift it off my faceI can almost guaranteeThat there will be rigid straps available for thisIf not by oculus by someone on Kickstarter oculus is also not for lunchBut in the near future are gonna offer some lenses corrective lenses for the headset as wellSo if you wear glasses, yeah, you won't need to put your glasses on to have clear vision, although with this facial interfaceI was able to use my classes without any problem. Yeah, it seemed everyone I tested it with also who wore glassesThey also wore them and there wasn't a problem with that with some of the other VR headsetsIt's just there's just not room for the glass frames, right?just to be clear about theAugmented lenses that oculus is going to sell they won't replace these lenses. They're gonna go on top of themYeah, so it's almost as if they're your glasses, but they will I would expect mesh with those lenses very very wellYep, and then finally the controller in addition to the headset being just three degrees of freedomAnd we'll talk about those experiences in just a bit. The controller is also just 3 degrees of freedomIt's very muchlike, you know the Wiimote the very first gen antenna Wii controller well,But the Wii mote could do positional because it was also tracked by the IR s sensor bar. YeahThis has just rotation and but you know what people who tried thisThey didn't know that and they didn't often care like if you're playing there's a ping-pong game in therepeople are just swinging it around as if it matters it really doesn't you all this is all you have to do andYou're playing the game just as wellBut it's up to the app developers to make assumptions based on what movements the players going to be doingobviously a full six degree of freedom lends to a more flexible experience, but$200 right and so those experiences that you canUse on the go. This was it's it's binary compatible with all the applications made for the gear VRso out of the gate there's a lot ofApplications that IR their Facebook and oculus have made or third-party developers have made that already work hereBut they're also launching with some new experiences. There are some default programsThere's also a video playerThey've what's called the the oculus and gallery and this is your ability to view photosWhether there are 360 photos 180 photos2d photos or 3d photos and also video in all their same kinds 360 or 3d formatsAnd it's pretty easy to drag and drop you can plug in via a micro USB cableinto the 32 gigs of internal storage a file a 4k video file and say this is a180 degree 3 3d file play it that way and it worksNow you mentioned 32 gigabytes and I would like a little bit moreI'd pay 50 bucks for another 32 gigs or you know, 60/40 or expandable storageOh, absolutelybecause right nowyou have to store everything that's on the drive inside of of the device and you plug it in over USB and every time youDo that on your computer?You have to lift up the headset and approve the computer so that you're it's allowed to drop files on thereBut that is how you get things on and offSo if you were to you can also record videos of what you're seeing on the headset itselfThat's how you take them off and then in terms of the other experiencesYou can also play with a gamepad of their gamepad gamesWe actually were not able to parallel your Bluetooth gamepad with the headset. I have a Mad Catz Bluetooth gamepadApparently I rode oculus they said it only supports the Xbox gamepad and the SteelSeries bluetooth gamepadBoth of which you set up using the appWhich is on your phone which you use to initially set up the device and that's how you get it pairedThere's no way to pair within the headset itself without using the phone, but you played games on thisWhat do you think about the gaming experiences? Well, honestly, I I thought some of the games were alrightIParticularly, like the coaster combat, which is a lot of fun. You're in a minecart and you're shooting thingsI also thought the ping pong game was all right, and ultra wings was fun. They do this interesting flight simulator mechanicWhere the stick is a flight stick in here you're throttling up and looking around and using your instrumentsBut honestly Norma I feel like the games on this are as useful to me as the games are on my phoneYeah, they're not the main event. No, the main event is media consumption. I agreeYeahand whether it's pedia that you Seidler locally by just plugging a USB or media where you're streaming from theNetflix app or the Hulu app or Facebook video or things you've dropped on there where things drop down there?That is the the main selling point for this device and that the Netflix app isn't really good experienceI think John Carmack helped develop it. He was really he wanted to bring that to the gear VRYeah, and it's the same, you knowBasically the same map here you get to use the full Netflix interface and you're in this roomand when you start a show the lights dim down and if you want you can actuallylie down and watch things by turning on this void theater and just moving the screen to the ceiling and you can lay down onYour couch and watch it on them on the ceilingThey're a bunch of also third-party apps that lets you tap into media and all sorts of placesthere's a plex app if you have a plex server and they have their own living room environment so you can grow andChange the size of your screenNotable exception is a native YouTube app, right?Yeah, there is a web browser. But honestly, it's not a great web browsing experience. That must be why that's in thereThey threw that in to get YouTube compatibility. Yep, but it's not it's not a good experienceI wouldn't browse the web and do much reading in this at allit really feels like there's gonna be you know a content war right now between the mobile headsets between Google on their daydream applications andoculus and for the Facebook applicationsThat's why they're pushing facebook video Facebook live videos so much is because they're not gonna let those apps cross-pollinationyou have to kind of hack your way into YouTube and even then you can't even use aYouTube TV on this device that's just blocked. Yeah, you mentioned plex. There's other appsYou can download that allow you to browse your local networksBut there's no way to do that by default in the deviceYou have to look at files and the internal storage only. I'm kind of surprised by thatI thought to be a network Explorer or something. Right right for any type of media server, right?There's a Dropbox tie-in, but I found that not very good maybe for photos that's interesting thereCertainly, I wouldn't put videos on Dropbox is too expensive. Yeah, the user interface feels much like very much like aSimplified version of the oculus home interface. Yeah on the rift and there's not a lot of depth thereYou're really just launching apps thereThey're hoping to launch the oculus TV app which feels more like an aggregator of other apps just like oh, rightWell there I think they were app. They want it to be like what Apple's done where they've a granadeIdentity apps into a central spot where you can do global search and it will bring in what it thinks you'll want to watch nextI'm not sureThat's what we haven't spent too much time in it, but it's launching later in May with several partnersIncluding Showtime and some others so that'll be interesting to see but if it's just a folder filled with all of your appsI'm not sure. It's that useful but in terms of using thisCompletely agree. It is technically an inferior experience to a six degree of freedomHeadset well, except well except for the resolutionI mean you you have to admit that the clarity on this isBetter than the ocular but just experience of the type of experiencesYou can't get room-scale games. I must have in hand presents when I use this on the flip sideI use this a lot because of how convenient it was to you. Once you know what it's good at. It is excellentI was it for some people this is gonna be the best $200 they ever spentI honestly think that because $200 you're getting a portable movie theaterYou're getting Netflix wherever you are where you are isolatedYeahpart of me going to that hotel room and sitting down and putting on that headset was a real sense of relief because I couldBe by myself in the same room with other people now, that's kind of a dystopianImage as well because I'm now cut off from them. They have to get my attentionThey have to invade my personal space and like shake me or somethingbut I also don't think that there's gonna be a heads that the people gonna go to cafes and Starbucks and you rise I meanmaybe some people but I think the vast majority people who buy this when you use this in their homes or my couches and theirOffices and and on hotel rooms. I think it will be a replacement for some people at home for maybe buying a TVMaybe they're thinking below. Where am I going to mount this TV in my room?I really have always wanted to do that and that TV was gonna cost a thousand dollars and I'm gonna have to put it onThe wall and run cables this the TV that you get inside. This is looks great it I think it looks very goodIf not goes so far as look greatI think with all these headsets the the black levels are a little bit greyed out for meNo, you see a lot of the pixelization even with a with a 1080p video fileYou can see the compression right all that is amplified because you're looking through a lens on a mobile display, right?no, I I think if you're gonna go like hardcore like analyzing theThe black levels of this as you would like with the HDTV forms are over eitherYou're right. That that's not what this is, but from an experiential sample. It's $200YeahYou knowand and I think if you were to have this in your room and you put it onYou have head setnow if people in dorms are gonna love this kind of thing just because it's so affordable and you get a TVYou know you get a huge TVThe resolution is a nice little bump from the rift and it's notSomething you can't see every pixel on a 1080p your video you simply can't the entireField of view for each of your eyes is only 1280 pixelsThat's 720p at best and that the movie screen is going to be a subset of thatI loaded up some test videos with like 17720p and 1080p andThere's a difference in the resolution vertically, but the horizontal resolution there is no difference because there's just not the pixels to display itI remember, you know five years agoWe were spending up to a thousand dollars with those Sony headsets that didn't have any tracking atAll right, but let you watch what was essentially a big-screen experience the hnz yes exactlyThis is I think better than that Oh more comfortable far better and cheaper than that as wellThat was almost a thousand dollars and it put this little screen in front of you that moved with your headThis is interestingand as I saidThe games are a nice little added that some of the some of the titles they have on the air particularlyThis one's from oculus studios or our strong contenders. I understandBig screen has a they're working on mobile and they're gonna allow you to display your desktop in hereThat would be killer like steam box style play a desktop game using an Xbox controllerRight if the latency is low enough and if there's not too much compression, I could see myself doing that. Yeah, absolutelyI mean just to get the resolution bump it might be useful if you're doing any kind of readingEven if it's icon names to use this at your desktop with your mouse and keyboard as you would a riff just to get thatResolution bump and there's a lot of stuff to do right now, which I think is the important thingThis is doesn't feel like a product where you're waiting for people to put stuff out for itYou know if you buy it todayThere's stuff to do because of that gear VR library exactly and the media purpose rising this deviceYou think we want to buy one or two of these for the home?you know, it'sUntil there's a really rich multiplayer experience. I'm not sure that people will be buying multiple to do things together, right?So it's just gonna be like who wants one might like everyone in my family having tried it this weekendThey're all considering it you it's like it's it's the first giftable vr device at $200You know you could do you could make an impulse buy and buy this or if your interview are in generalIthink you'll probably end up receiving one for your birthday or Christmas just because it is that price point and for people who already havethe desktop quality headsetsI think a big question will be why get this when I can wait for six degrees of freedom type experiences on mobilePortable displays, we know how this is working exactly the Santa Cruz prototypeWe've tried it multiple times and it's it's basically this with all this other stuffWe've mentioned this six degrees of freedom for headset and traction controllers. I think if you have no interest in watching movies, or3d videos and a mobile headset you can wait you can wait for Santa CruzBut if you've watched if you enjoy watching movies and watching Netflix, and you've experienced 3d movies on a mobile headsetI think this is pretty compelling so I watched all ofStar Trek beyond in 2d. Mm-hmm. And I I didn't care like the fact that it was a 2d movieICould have taken advantage of the 3d abilities of this but the fact that I watched that on the screen it yetIt was like I was just in a movie theater and it was completely acceptable to me to watch even your 2d contentWhich is most of all of Netflix. Yeah, so it's been really interesting in the coming months. How many people pick this up?YeahI think it's a it's a really good complement to your desktop displays and for people who have never used VRIt's gonna be a nice first step into the VR world. Yeah, I agree with youI agree with it the lack of six degrees of freedom. That's an interesting point. And I think that people who don't understandHow much more comfortable six degrees of freedom is and how much more enabling it is for an experiential standpoint?that's it's there's gonna be a couple levels of mind blown like they're gonna put this on and say oh this is amazing and thenThey can take that next step once they get to six degreesBut I do think six degrees is the future and I think this will be a short-livedMoment in the history of VR where when we still hadComponents or you know devices that didn't allow for six degrees of tracking nonethelessIt's 200 bucks and I'm not complaining it may be the boot strap that VR needs right nowI want to thank Facebook my oculus for setting us in this early review unitWe'll have more coverage on some pretty exciting other headsets coming out in the near future. So stay tuned for that until thenThanks for watching and we'll see you next time\n"

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