A lot has happened since we first reviewed the Metaquest 2, and we are not just referring to the fact that it is now known as the Facebook game.
The Meta Quest 2 is a wireless virtual reality headset that can be used without a computer. Do you want to take control of a rickety space capsule, or do you want to mow down the zombies? You can be away if you have enough space and battery life.
You can wire it to a PC if you want to experience Meta or Steam's vast library of PC-VR titles. Thanks to the Meta Quest 2's Air-Link feature, you don't need a wire to do that.
The Metaquest 2 is facing more competition than it did a year ago. The Meta Quest 2 and the Vive Flow are both portable and wire-free virtual reality headsets. Sony has finally given us a glimpse of the impressive-specced PSVR2, which will be released in early 2023.
Meta, and also? It seems like a strange decision to raise the price of the Meta Quest 2 by $100/£ 100 in the midst of the upcoming competition. The company's virtual reality division lost $10 billion last year and has lost $3 billion in the first quarter of 2020.
We have updated our review to take these factors into account. Is the Meta Quest 2 still the best virtual reality headset on the market? Find out what happened in our revised review.
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When you take it out of the box, it's just so portable. The headset is 13 x 12 x 9 cm and has a weight of 500 grams. It can be taken to a friend's house or stashed in a cupboard if you don't need a PC. The Quest 2 is sturdy and has survived being knocked off the table a few times.
There are key specifications.
Platforms: Standalone, PC via wired Meta Link and wireless Air Link (experimental).
Price: $399.99/£399.99 for 128 GB, $499.99/£499.99 for 256 GB
Resolution: 1832 × 1920 per eye
Field of view: 89 degrees
Refresh rate: 60, 72, 90 Hz (120 Hz experimental)
Controllers: Touch Controllers (included)
The strap was loose but the Quest 2 was still in place and comfortable. After a year or so of use, our strap has become an unattractive off-white and we have reservations about its color.
The Touch Controllers are built to the same standards as the headset, each with a fingertrigger, thumbtrigger, menu button, X and Y buttons, and thumbstick. You can't look down at the buttons, but your digits come to rest on the Touch's Trigger
It might take some time to get used to the thumbsticks. We were expecting to find the thumbstick in the middle of the controller when it was on the left or right. You will get used to it after a few days. The thumbsticks are smaller than the consoles, but we never lost our fingers.
Meta could do a better job of controlling the headset's volume. You have to reach for the buttons at the bottom of the headset in order to raise or decrease the volume. It would have made sense to have the volume control mounted on either side of the headset.
It takes just over two hours to charge the Meta Quest 2 from empty, thanks to the included wall andusb-C cable. It used to be that you needed a Facebook account to set the headset up, even if you didn't use the social networking site. You can now create a Meta account which will give you more control over the data you do or don't share.
You don't have to run the Meta app on a PC if you run it on a mobile device. You need to pair the Meta Quest 2 with your phone even though it has wi-fi. The first phone we tried did not work. We were able to run the app on an old iPad but it wasn't a good introduction to the device.
The rest of the Meta Quest 2 setup is easier to understand once you clear the hurdle. Setting up the Touch Controllers, tweaking visual clarity, and setting up a guardian boundary are all part of the process. If you change rooms it will warn you if you stray. There is an insert between the foam eyepiece and the headset body.
This headset has an excellent performance. We were impressed with the Meta native games and apps we tried, and it has a major step up from the first quest.
Beat Saber, a rhythm game that can be more than a little frenetic, works perfectly and its four cameras were able to track our controller movements even when we changed the difficulty. You can use the headset's hand- tracking feature with some apps, but it's not a patch on using the controllers, and pinching to activated an on-screen object feels unnaturally clunky.
On native apps, the graphics are sharp and there is no stutter or slowdown. The headset handles fast turns and it's easy to turn around without getting tangled. We got between two and three hours of battery life out of it, which was about when we wanted to take a break. If you have a longer cable, you can charge it while wearing it.
The Quest 2 can be attached to a PC with either a Meta Link compatible cable or the experimental Air Link feature. Your PC will be doing most of the heavy lifting so you will need to check your machine can run whatever you want.
While playing Beat Saber, we found a small hint of lag while wearing the Quest 2 headset. When we used a cable, we got six hours of play out of it, as the PC was charging the headset.
There are hundreds of native titles that can be played on the 2nd game in the series. These include games like The Oblivion - Afterlife, as well as experiences like Apollo 11, which recreates the moon landing, and virtual reality chat. There are a number of new games released each month, including some high profile titles, as well as the AppLab, which lets you play at your own risk, titles which haven't gone through the approval process.
It is harrowing to barricade a small house against angry villagers in a survival horror game, and it is even more harrowing in a virtual reality game.
Vader Immortal doesn't have you playing as the notorious Sith Lord, but it is a fun entry into the Star Wars universe. Beat Saber is a great work-out.
If you like science fiction and horror, you will find a lot of Quest outings to check out. It's possible to climb a skyscraper thanks to The Climb 2. Interkosmos 2000 is a space-based outing that puts you in charge of a semi- realistic spaceship on a mission to save the International Space Station. The illusion of being in space, just a few equipment failures from a lonely demise, is what it sells.
You can chat in virtual reality, but you can also watch paid movies with other people and share your games with others. None of them kept us interested once the novelty wore off.
If you connect your headset to your PC, you can choose from Steam's library of over 5,000 virtual reality and virtual reality compatible games, as well as any other Oculus compatible titles. We would choose the PC version of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners if we had the choice.
The Meta Quest 2 is still cheaper than the competition even though we have not been able to fill the 128 GB model. It is not the steal it used to be due to the recent $100/£ 100 price increase.
The Vive Flow is more portable than the Meta Quest 2 because it is geared towards experiences. The wired PS4 is expected to offer true 4K virtual reality gaming when it launches early next year. It could be worth waiting for if Sony can match the original PSVR price.
The cable used to connect the headset to a PC is very expensive. It's five meters long and costs $799.99. We have had no problems with this cable, it was suggested by the website that it was a good substitute.
If you are a newcomer to the world of virtual reality, you should buy the Metaquest 2. It is a bonus to be able to play PCVR games, but it is the support of the game that makes it stand out.
Beat Saber is free until the end of the year but unless you want to fill it with movies, the 128GB Metaquest 2 should suffice.
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Good value for money can be found in the HP G2 Reverb. HP tends to discount it every now and then because it's a little higher in price than the other one. There is a weekly special that makes it $500. The HP Reverb G2 review can be found here.
The Vive Pro 2 is a top-end headset and a top-end PC. If you want a high-resolution headset with a wide field of view, great sound and excellent tracking, this is the one for you. Our review of the Vive Pro 2 can be found here.
Are you talking about the PS4 virtual reality 2? Sony hasn't said if it will support original PSVR titles. Early Adopters could find themselves with a limited selection of games to play if it doesn't happen. We wouldn't purchase until we knew for certain.
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