Oculus Go Standalone Virtual Reality Headset - 64GB

My interested in VR started when I walked past a local electronics store and noticed the Samsung Gear VR headset on display. When I put it on I was blown away! But being in the Apple ecosystem I didn’t have a Samsung smartphone, and the idea of buying one just for this purpose was surplus to requirements. Also, the idea of buying a VR headset that has cables connected to a PC or Playstation has never appealed to me. So instead, I opted to use my iPhone 6s in a rather cheap headset - even though I was fully aware this wasn’t the best VR experience available. Even still, I found the VR experience reasonably impressive, or so I thought.Then along comes the Oculus Go.Finally… a VR headset that is self-contained, comfortable to wear, and doesn’t require cable connections to any fancy graphic cards and PCs. This ticked all the boxes and was what I’d been waiting for! So after reading a number of product reviews, I decided to get it. I tried to kept my expectations low (even though I was excited inside!) as this sometimes doesn’t help me when I’m eagerly awaiting for a snazzy new product to arrive. My main wish, however, was that I wanted it to be a noticeable step up from my iPhone VR experience.So when it arrived I excitedly unboxed it and set it up. I decided to give myself a few days to use it, as a fair assessment, before writing this review.My first impressions is that it is solidly built and well made. It feels very comfortable to put on. The weight of the headset is about right, as expected. Of course, it would be nice if it was lighter, but it’s comfortable enough to wear. After turning it on and seeing the display screen for the first time I immediate thought a number of things. The resolution is good, although didn’t appear quite as sharp as I anticipated, but more on that later. The sense of emersion, however, what a real improvement! For the first time, I actually felt like I was there… rather than feeling like a distant spectator with narrow vision as per my smartphone-based system. This is because it has a wide field of view of approx 100 degrees (although not published) vs 60 degrees with my smartphone-based headset. Combined with the 72Hz refresh rate which adds to the clarity of movement this also undoubtedly contributes to the sense of emersion.The Oculus Go comes with it’s own controller. I initially thought having to use a controller would detract from the VR experience, but I was wrong. It makes menu selection, system navigation and video scrubbing, etc, so much easier than the “move your head to the selection on the screen, and wait to confirm” concept. And using it throughout the VR experience feels quite natural, and surprisingly didn't require any learning curve to use it.Now, on the resolution side of things. When I read the specs on the Oculus Go has a screen resolution of 2560 x 1440 (1280 x 1440 per eye) I was excited! Comparing this to the screen resolution of 1334 x 750 (667 x 750 per eye) on my iPhone 6s - I calculated the Oculus Go has 4 times the amount of pixels. So when I first turned on the Oculus Go I was expecting to see a visually crisp sharp 4k display. But it didn’t seem like this. It’s a great image, very clear and detailed, and better than the resolution on my iPhone 6s… but it’s not like watching the display on a 4k television. It’s hard to describe, but the pixel edges are not as crisp as I imagined they would be. Now I do understand resolution is a subjective thing. And there are other factors involved, as in the so-called “screen door” effect which is caused by the distance between the pixel elements. With the built-in optical lenses precisely tuned to allow our eyes to focus on visual content which is physically very close to the display panel, this is a co-incidental effect. (Although the Oculus Go has been reported as having the least noticeable screen-door effect across the range of VR headset devices on the market). But does this detract from my immersive VR experience? Usually no, but it depends on the quality of content being shown. Low resolution picture and video content on the VR headset looks horrible! However, high resolution pictures and 4k video content looks amazing!The built-in speakers are reasonably good. Before it arrived I did pre-anticipate the built-in speakers would be low quality, but I’m pleasantly surprised with the sound quality. They are suitable for general occasions - but obviously not for privacy! There were a number of occasions I did forget that the sound was leaking to the outside world for all to hear. Slightly embarrassing, to say the least. But of course it is best to plug in a quality set of headphones for optimised sound quality. The downside is that is doesn’t support bluetooth headphones so it won’t connect to my Apple AirPods. I could use a bluetooth audio transmitter with a 3.5mm headphone jack, but it would ideally need to be mounted onto the headset, and can’t guarantee the audio quality it would transmit.On the con side, the limited amount of onboard memory means it’s very easy to fill up particularly when transferring a number of 4k video files across onto the device, and I’m speaking from experience here. But using a video player that streams content from the PC (over the wifi network) or cloud storage avoids this limitation. The supported software on the Mac that allow file transfers is sometimes buggy, but it works. It’s a real shame that the device doesn’t have a built-in SD card reader.Also, I find the battery runs down quite quickly, although I have been spending a fair amount of time on it since it arrived. I’m like a boy with a new toy, as they say. I probably get 2.5 hours of play from a full charge, which annoyingly takes the same amount of time to charge it.I haven’t got too much into the Oculus Store software yet, but there seems to be a reasonable amount of apps and content available. And no doubt the number of apps will grow over time.All in all - I love it! Which is why I give it a 5 star rating, otherwise it would be a more accurate 4.5 stars (if this was possible to do on Amazon). The pure simplicity of switching it on and it’s ready to go… no cables and no smartphone to worry about, and the share experience of emersion it gives - it’s totally worth it in my opinion.The main question I had - is the Oculus Go a definite improvement over from my previous smartphone-based VR experience? Most definitely yes! But even more so, it’s vastly superior!Now that I've experienced VR this good, there's no turning back! (unless you're watching a 360 degree video of course!)Important Note: As mentioned in the Oculus Go care page it’s important to keep the lenses away from direct sunlight when the device is not in use as it can cause sun damage on the inside screen panel. You can cover it accordingly, but what I do is place the card that tells you where to download the app over the lenses. It’s provided in the original box and fits perfectly over the lenses. I nearly threw it away. So glad I didn’t.

Outlined Review: Best VR first experienceWho are these for:Anyone wanting to try VR with a quick, portable, easy setup solution.The Plan:Impulse buy really. I wasn’t looking for this, just browsing. When I ran across it and saw how easy it seemed to use, I figured how’s my chance to try VR and what the hype is all about.First Impressions:Very well packaged, smooth, easy, and organized. I figured this needed to charge first. Once it was done, I put it on my head and turned it on. I went through the setup process easily and was right into the Oculus home screen. This is not like seeing a commercial on tv or anything I’ve tried. It truly felt like I was standing right in front of a big virtual menu and inside a “real virtual” room. Right then, I knew this was going to be something I was glad I purchased.For Media:Music, movies, tv shows, documentaries, sports... you name it, this can play it completely unlike anything I’ve tried before. The experience of standing in front of a band playing live in a concert completely on the other side of earth is crazy, in a good way. I mean, I couldn’t understand a word of it or recognize the language, but I liked it. And watching a movie or show on this, takes you out of your physical location and into VR unknowingly. Next thing I know, the battery was about dead as it had been almost 3 hours of me using it. I couldn’t wait to charge it for more.For Games:At first, it’s easy to think that there aren’t many good games since many of the ones on here, or close to all, are games you may not have heard of before. But don’t let that fool you. Start exploring and you’ll soon find that there are tons of games and they are worth trying out... My mind... blown. I never thought I would have as much fun riding a roller coaster that I wasn’t actually riding. Yes, I know it isn’t the real thing. But you can’t help to feel that you’re a part of it, that you’re there. Anyways, there are fantastic games for this. Take a moment and try some free ones out. You won’t be disappointed.Tips:- I put clear Velcro on the side of the controller that comes with it. That way I can attach the controller to the side of the headset on the straps while I’m watching a movie or show and don’t need to use the controller for a while and not lose it.- If your cheeks start to hurt after a while, try tilting the sides where the straps are on the hard plastic pieces up while keeping the headset level. This will make the headset tilt slightly up and off your cheeks, something I wish I had known when I first got mine.- When not in use, put a microfiber cloth on top of your lenses in the headset. It will help keep them clean or from getting smudges.In conclusion:I know not much was said here concerning the Oculus GO itself. But it was, all of it. Because if a VR headset can make you feel the way this one does and you forget most of the time that you’re even wearing it, then I think that’s what makes a great VR headset. I’m excited to see the next step in VR.Pros:- Comfort level while wearing is good in my opinion.- Fast and easy to use and learn.- Comes with glasses insert that you can install easily to help keep it comfortable for people wearing glasses.- Quality materials used.Cons:- Short battery life.- Would like to see a visor version to swap out straps.- Not Bluetooth- Keyboard typing on it isn’t very user friendly. (Would like to see this resolved by being compatible with real keyboards.I would highly recommend this to anyone. Wether you’re new to VR like I was or you’ve been in the VR world for a while now, there’s no downside to having the Oculus GO.Thank you