Though Oculus touts the Rift S as its “most advanced, PC-powered gaming headset,” the headset is notably trailing other Oculus headsets (including the original Rift) in customer ratings on Amazon. Meanwhile, Quest has taken the lead as the most favorably rated Oculus headset, ranking as high (or higher) than major game consoles.

Rift S and Quest launched on May 21st, with the former being the company’s second PC VR headset, and the latter being the company’s first standalone headset with 6DOF tracking.

Though Rift S definitely brings a handful of improvements over its predecessor (like 360 room-scale tracking with no external sensors, higher resolution, less SDE, and improved lenses) it also comes with a handful of downgrades (like no IPD adjustment, weak audio, worse contrast, and a lower refresh rate).

While Oculus has made clear that Rift S is about drawing new users into the PC VR ecosystem, their current PC VR customers base seems largely comprised of early adopter enthusiast types, many of which have been waiting for a worthy upgrade to the original Rift which launched three years ago. Despite Oculus showing off some impressive headset R&D in the intervening years, the Rift S doesn’t feel like three years of progress over the original Rift.

SEE ALSO
Oculus Explains Why It Doesn't Think the Time is Right for 'Rift 2' or 'Rift Pro'

That may partly explain why the Rift S is the lowest rated Oculus headset on Amazon, currently sitting at 3.7 out of 5 stars against 187 reviews. That’s lower than the original Rift (which Oculus discontinued), which currently holds a 4.2 out of 5 star rating after some 1,400 reviews.

Surprisingly, even Oculus Go—the company’s least capable VR headset—is beating the Rift S on ratings at 4.1 out of 5 stars.

Oculus Quest, which launched on the same day as Rift S, has vaulted ahead of all other headsets (Oculus and non-Oculus alike), presently rated at 4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon after 170 reviews. That’s just under one full star higher than Rift S, but much more significant than it seems at first glance—anything above four stars is good, but it’s exponentially more difficult as a product approaches five stars.

Tellingly, a 4.6 out of 5 ranks Quest right up there with the world’s most popular gaming consoles: PS4 (4.6 out of 5), Switch (4.5 out of 5), and Xbox One S (4.2 out of 5). It also puts Quest just ahead of PSVR (which is, to our knowledge, the best selling VR headset so far) which ranges from 4.2–4.5 out of 5 stars, depending upon which one of the headset’s many bundles you look at.

To what extent Amazon reviews are truly representative of a product’s desirability or value is surely up for debate (fake reviews notwithstanding) but at a minimum we could surmise that it functions as a ‘first impression’ for potential buyers of the world’s leading online storefront, which makes it an important metric no matter how you slice it.

Despite being the lowest rated Oculus headset on Amazon, Rift S still appears to be selling well relative to other headsets, according to Amazon’s Best Sellers list for VR headsets (which is updated hourly, but appears to be holding a consistent order of Quest, Rift S, Vive, then Go among the top four headsets). It surely would be interesting to see where the original Rift would fall in the list—if Oculus hadn’t discontinued it.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Trenix

    Not surprised.

  • Alan Harrington

    Oculus can never say that enthusiasts didn’t give it a fair shout. I’m amazed at how many original Rift owners jumped on it, even when they knew its inherent short comings. They were willing to give Oculus the benefit of the doubt and have been let down badly by shoddy materials and badly compromised design choices.

    • callen

      Not to mention terrible software bugs, clearly the Quest has a huge benefit over S by targeting a single, known hardware and software stack.

    • Gerald Terveen

      The world is full of compromises and the Rift S vs. Original Rift is not a clear “this is the winner” scenario. But I can see a lot of those that made an uninformed purchase decision to now express anger through Amazon ratings …which could mean that the real newcomers might over time correct the score back up again.

      • Toothlover

        Indeed, I’ve been following the S reviews on amazon for a while now, the ratings have been juggling back and forth between 3.5 and 4 stars.

      • Tharny

        Guess i cant leave a review there as i did not buy it there.

        • DarkAvry

          No you can, amazon allows everyone to leave a review, if you have amazon account.

    • JT

      The Rift S is awesome. Have you tried one?

    • Tharny

      What shortcomings? I bought a Rift S and its replacing my OG Rift without doubt. Its awesome, have really great visuals, tracking is smooth, its comfortable. For me its a solid upgrade.

      • Alan Harrington

        I guess you’re one of the lucky ones with perfect IPD, don’t mind crappy audio, never play in a dark room and don’t play competitive FPS with a gunstock. Lucky you, I guess…

        • Tharny

          Yeah, my ipd is ok. Sound is not the best, but when i want better sound i just put on a better headset. I also play onward and pavlov without issues. Only light i need in my room is the light that emits from my monitor. Have you tried the Rift S?

          • Alan Harrington

            I never pre-order anything; I wait and weigh up all opinions to make an informed decision at a time when it is appropriate for me. For me,t IPD would be perfect, the visuals would be improved, I can live with a little light in my room. The gunstock issue is worrying but I don’t use it that often. I would not pay £400 for the small upgrade. I can live with my OG Rift for a long time to come until an upgrade worth the money comes along. I don’t need to try one to know it would be an improvement for me; my sympathies lie with those Rift S buyers who put their trust in Oculus and have been let down by design choices that exclude them from the benefits. And let’s face it; the audio solution benefits nobody.

  • Anthony Kenneth Steele

    Rift S is the best if you have a backpack pc.

  • Nadim Alam

    Rift S is a big improvement over the CV1, im glad i upgraded! Its soo much better, everyone who has actually upgraded has said the same thing also. So im not sure if those reviews are 100% accurate.

    • Your Face is Wrong

      Happy with my upgrade as well. Just waiting on usb 3.0 extender so I can use it without damaging the cord..from the little bit I did use it, I could tell it was a better experience

    • callen

      “Everyone” said the same thing? Well not me! Are you unaware of the many problems Rift S is giving people? Disconnects, Guardian drift, screen bugs, controller issues… I was trying to demo mine for a local group and it died (stopped tracking, requiring disconnect/reconnect) twice in 30 mins. Sometimes it lasts hours and “just works”, but other times its frustratingly bad. I’ll be adding my “100% accurate” bad review to the pile on amazon soon, and returning it until the bugs are worked out. Very sad, and I wish Oculus would give more info on these things – acknowledge the issues and give a timetable, and maybe I wouldn’t send it back.

      • Toothlover

        May I ask what are the specs of your PC build?

      • DarkAvry

        You are one of Those people. huh!

      • Nads

        I’ve never had any one of those issues so it must be something to do with your pc!

    • d0x360

      Happy with the upgrade too. Horror games aren’t as good because black levels but overall it’s a definite upgrade

    • ToreSon

      Agree its amazing!

    • Bob Smith

      Better screen, less FOV, worse tracking and sound doesn’t sound like a “big improvement” to me.

  • Ajn

    I understand you made reference to reviews importance being up for debate, but did you read some of those reviews? Several complain of no HDMI when it clearly indicates it’s display port. Others complain about no windows 7 support when it’s clearly listed as well. I’m no Oculus fanboy ( I despise Facebook ). However, to give the product a fair shot, it has its bonuses that some of us appreciate and it’s half the cost of the first rift indicative that it’s an incremental update. So basing an article on such a metric that begins as dubious, and in this case is even worse with people not paying attention to specs feels like this article was just to kill time at an airport gate

    • care package

      Bad reviews for ‘No Windows 7 support’ is a cheap shot IMO and does nothing to support the accuracy of the review system. If you were too stubborn to upgrade to 10 for free when you had the chance thats neither here nor there. I agree as well if the buyer bought the S ignorant to the fact it’s display port thats on their dumb ass.

      • jenniffer

        One year past I decided to abandon my earlier job and I am extremely thrilled at this point…. I began doing the job through the internet, for a corporation I located over the internet, for several hour or so on daily basis, and I earn more than I actually did on my office workplace job… My pay-check for prior 30 days was $9,000… The best thing on this is the additional spare time I managed to get for my children…and that the only requirement for this job is basic typing and having access to internet… I am also capable to devote quality time with my loved ones and buddies and also take good care of my kids and also going on holiday break with them very consistently. Don’t ignore this opportunity and try to take action fast. Test it out, what it’s about… revealedmudflow.will-dich.eu

        • Robbie Zeigler

          Go away….

    • Jistuce

      ” Several complain of no HDMI when it clearly indicates it’s display port.”
      If I may play Devil’s advocate… DisplayPort is a terrible and confusing name for a display port standard. HDMI is a display port, but not a DisplayPort port.

      I can readily see people thinking that DisplayPort means a video connection, not that a DisplayPort connection. Or that Facebook was just being weird, given that in the minds of many people the only kind of display port that exists is the HDMI port.

      It is still dumb, and not a legitimate reason to downvote the Rift S.

      (Incidentally, in my setup, requiring DP would actually be a plus. My video card has one HDMI connector, one DVI connector, and three DP connectors. My flatland display takes HDMI input, so to also connect a Rift I need an adapter of some flavor. A headset that requires a DP interface, on the other hand…)

      • Baldrickk

        You can also play the devil’s advocate the other way… first review I read on there was, paraphrased:

        “Just ordered my Rift-S. I’m looking forward to it and think it’s going to be great!”
        ☆☆☆☆☆

        • Jistuce

          Also true. I don’t place a lot of stock in storefront reviews, largely because of the extremes.

          • Baldrickk

            Yep. What’s more depressing is that 11 people had, at that time (there were only 5 reviews at that point) marked this review as helpful…

            So not only was the review bad, eleven people had then come along and called it a good review despite having nothing of any substance…

            Grr

        • Popin

          I agree on both sides. Useless reviews are super annoying. If you were too lazy, ignorant, or unwilling to read the “System Requirements” that is on you. I don’t care what the item is, if you give a negative review for something because you don’t have the minimum requirements to use it, you are a moron.

    • benz145

      This article is merely about the ratings of the products on Amazon, and as pointed out, I’m not saying the ratings are a good measurement of how desirable or good the product is. But the ratings are what they are, and people who go to shop for VR headsets on Amazon will see an consider them; it’s interesting to see that Rift S is rated worse than the original Rift and Go, and that Quest is rated very well so far. That’s all this article is about.

    • VR-Astro

      People who buy products and give bad reviews because they failed to read the description or used it in a way it wasn’t intended for are POS. This is why you have to dig deeper into the bad reviews, so you can weed out the morons. The best reviews are usually somewhere in the middle, giving their honest pros and cons.

    • Buddydudeguy

      Exactly. Morons whining about Windows 7…the metric is flawed from the get go. And no HDMO…why are they even allowed to review? Why aren’t these reviews removed? My Rift S works fine, MUCH better clarity than the OG Rift and no sensors to screw with. Pretty much awesome.

  • Toothlover

    Sees average 3.5 stars from 193 reviewers, immediately writes a clickbaity article
    “Rift S is the Lowest Rated Oculus Headset on Amazon, Quest Vaults Ahead”
    What a day to be journalist in VR! *rolls eyes*

    Actual ratings minus the BS:
    https://reviewmeta.com/amazon/B07PTMKYS7?utm_source=extension&utm_content=chrome_v2.4

    • Ajn

      Agreed.

    • Cl

      It says amazon rating is 3.7 and the adjusted is 3.6… so even lower. where does he even say the rating is 3.5? I’m confused.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    It is very smooth,easy and highly resolved in clarity.After you get vridge installed as a sideloaded app you can play steamvr cordless.Its not the simplest thing to install.

  • JT

    Get your facts right! Many of the 1 Star reviews are due to the Rift S not using HDMI.

    • SonjaSnowmist

      I was literally just about to comment on this. There’s nothing worse than people tanking a product in the reviews after they failed to do their due diligence researching said product before they purchased it.

      • jj

        well there was an off the books standard seeing as every other headset(nearly a dozen now) all use the same. So when they mix it up, its understandable people didnt know.

        You don’t know what you don’t know, so how could people have just known this change happened if something didnt put it right in their face?

        • Richard Wingard

          Bottom of any description will show video output is Displayport, this thing is 400 bucks, guarantee that if you are spending this much you are reading about the product. do your research.

        • swimfan2007

          Doesn’t Displayport have more thoughput than HDMI? It can push the same resolution at 60Hz vs 30Hz for HDMI, 17.28 vs 10.2-14.4 Gbps (depending on the standard they’re using?). I’m sure that’s why they chose Displayport but still, if you don’t do the research and determine that it uses DP vs HDMI, that’s your fault. You can also get adapters that push from one to the other, so who cares?

        • care package

          Not knowing is one thing. Leaving a bad review for not knowing is another.

    • care package

      Maybe the author wants to see Rift fail so they left that out.

    • Tharny

      And even bad review due to it not supporting win7.

      Weird things is that those kinda braindead reviews seem to get most “Helpful” clicks compared to positive and informative reviews.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    The dk2 for me was bigger than the dk1 or cv1.It brought realistic vr.Postional tracking where you could lean in and kneel down in a virtual game world and Praise Jesus!

    • MAGA Man

      Jesus loves Trump! Praise Trump! MAGA

      • benz145

        Lets stay on topic please.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    I still get caught wondering if its just a game when looking at all the details of a dash or cockpit or a car or plane in vr.

  • d0x360

    I have both and while I do miss the blacker blacks the overall image quality on the S is better. Even with my 2080ti I don’t see past 90hz…if I see 90hz in visually complex games so I understand the Lower refresh rate as a cost cutting measure and glad they went that route with the increased resolution.

    The tracking is shockingly good. I thought I’d have lots of issues coming from a 3 sensor setup on the Rift but… I have no issues and the setup is perfect.

    If it had cost as much as the new valve setup I might be angry but it’s half the price and essentially every bit as good.

    By the time we have gpus capable of 120hz with high quality visuals (we all know we use super sampling too) there will be better displays, hopefully OLED again thanks to some advancements by LG with persistence along with pixel density at high refresh rates.

    The rift 3 will likely be everything you want. The rift S isn’t really for people who already own the original but it’s not a downgrade by any appreciable means.

    Having had the option for 2 weeks now and my cv1 sensors are still setup…I haven’t used anything but the S since I got it.

    I would have bought the Vive but I didn’t want another device with sensors although the controllers almost swayed me all by themselves. If it was about $200 cheaper I probably would have bought it.

    • Alan Harrington

      Yes, 800 would have been the sweet spot for the Index. That extra 200 is just first adopter tax. Wait for the hype to die down and complaints about God Rays and we’ll get the 800.

    • Jordy

      Even with my 2080ti I don’t see past 90hz…

      There must be something wrong with your PC, I got a 2080ti too and I can SS to 200-300% on Rift CV1.

      • d0x360

        Wow cherry picked! I was talking about visually complex games and you kinda left that important part out of your quote.

        • Jordy

          … I did not find any game that does not work with at least 200% SS and I have played a lot.

          • d0x360

            You realize the point isn’t the ability to hit 90hz it’s the fact that 120 with today’s hardware in a visually complex AAA style game isn’t going to happen even with a new high end cpu and a 2080ti on a FRESH install of Win10 with the games running off an SSD.

            You can claim otherwise ALL you want but anyone can see their own frame data and see it’s a struggle to maintain 90hz with anti aliasing settings that make the image barrable and I’m talking high end here. The vast majority of gamers are running mid range setups.

            I’m not going to argue in circles with you. People can find out for themselves quite easily.

            But…I don’t know how to use a PC. SOMETHING must be wrong with my system. Yep…

            Enjoy beat saber at 120hz. That’s doable. Try again with something a little more taxing. Your frame time graph will be all over the place and the only thing keeping you from going insane is some form of warp.

            We are talking about rendering 2 images above 1080p with 2x super sampling on top.. think about it for 2 seconds.

          • Jordy

            You’re wrong… :)
            And if i will get the Index I don’t get it for the 120/144Hz refresh… I could not care less about that. I’ll get it for the controller and the tracking.

          • d0x360

            The controller is awesome, no doubt but the tracking on both the Rift and Rift S is just better.

            I’ve used them all quite a bit.

            Oh and…not wrong.

            Take care

          • Jordy

            the tracking on both the Rift and Rift S is just better.

            LoLs. You have no idea what are you talking about. The best tracking was all the time the one that uses base stations like vive/index and others, it never was the tracking on Rift.

          • d0x360

            If you say so bud. I’m sure you are talking from the experience of using all 3 in a home environment so I defer to your judgement…uh-yup

          • VR-Astro

            Having used the RIft S and Quest since launch day, saying the tracking is better, you’re out of your mind. Rift S/Quest tracking is good, not great. You are sacrificing tracking performance for convenience, PERIOD. I’m constantly losing tracking using these two hmds and it’s f’in annoying.

          • d0x360

            I’ve never lost tracking on the Rift S once. Not once. I had a 3 sensor setup on cv1 and I would have tracking errors about 25% of the time. None so far on the S EXCEPT when you are running the beta client, turn the right controller on then plug the HMD in then turn the left controller on.

          • Popin

            “I’ve never lost tracking on the Rift S once. Not once.”

            “In over 200(personal) hours of use I’ve lost tracking for a few seconds.”
            https://media3.giphy.com/media/d3mlE7uhX8KFgEmY/giphy.gif

          • VR-Astro

            It’s not hard to lose tracking. Those who say they never lost, are just lying Oculus fanboys.

          • Popin

            I can second his opinion and I am talking from the experience of using the Rift, a Vive, a Vive Pro, and Demoing a Quest & Rift S. While the tracking is good on the Quest and Rift S it does have its obvious limitations and is also no where near as precise as SteamVR Tracking. SteamVR Tracking is hands down the most accurate and responsive tracking system currently.

            Secondly, you are wrong about hitting 120Hz on “visually complex AAA style game” on a 2080Ti. VR Mark has three benchmarks Orang Room, Cyan Room, and Blue Room which scale scene complexity and detail. Blue Room is intended to be “The high bar for future hardware” and renders the scene at 5120×2880. I am just shy of averaging 144fps on that benchmark at 141fps average. My frame rate never dropped below 130fps and my frame time is very consistent

          • d0x360

            Not wrong, don’t care about a synthetic benchmark. Not wrong about the tracking either. When the rift controllers are not in view of the sensors they use their internal sensors and some good math to keep track of where they are. In over 200(personal) hours of use I’ve lost tracking for a few seconds. On cv1 I lost tracking more often and with the Vive tracking was lost more than botjh combined.

            I’m only working on a AAA VR game so what do I know…

            I’ve probably said it already but I don’t like arguing in circles. Believe whateveryou want about either topic, we are well beyond the point where I care so this is my last reply. I’ll keep using data we collected over 1000s of hours and you keep using your opinion.

            Take care.

          • Popin

            nice appeal to authority. your anecdotal facts are clearly more correct than my anecdotal opinion.

            “We’re done here”
            -Cave Jonson

          • d0x360

            You don’t wanna be done? You wanna argue in circles like a couple of people with way too much time on our hands?

            BTW your benchmark… Doesn’t include many things an actual game does, things that drastically lower performance..but I’m sure you know that.

      • care package

        I thought the SS only addressed resolution, not frame rate.

        • Jordy

          With higher resolution you need more GPU power and you get less FPS… I thought that every PC gamer knows that. :D

  • swimfan2007

    It’s interesting that nobody in these comments is talking about the Quest. I’ll be honest, it is my first VR headset (except for Google Daydream) and the roomscale 6DOF tracking is amazing, especially due to the tetherless nature of the headset itself. I played on a Vive at a VRcade, and it was fun, but the cables…The cables kept getting in the way, and the base stations had to keep getting reset…It was really obnoxious. The Quest, as I’ve heard on the internet before, is going to be the iPhone of VR. It’s going to be the thing that most people use to get into the VR realm, especially considering you can stream SteamVR to the Quest via a 5GHz wifi router.

  • Jordy

    Rift S is good if you have a low end PC and you want a cheap HMD, but if you want the best buy the Index for the best overall experience or HP reverb for best resolution.

    • care package

      ‘low end PC’ lol. Minimum spec of a 970 is not low end, and the S might be cheap in price, but it’s not a ‘cheap’ HMD. The S has pretty amazing clarity despite the lower rez, and with higher rez comes the need to your ‘high end’ PC. With the Index you’re still dealing with external devices for tracking, and with the HP reverb you’re dealing with WMR 2 camera tracking still.

      • Jordy

        I was not even thinking about 970… that’s a very low end PC, too low even for Rift CV1. If you want a good experience in VR you need to supersample a bit at least 130%, image clarity will improve A LOT.

        • care package

          “that’s a very low end PC”, stfu dude you are cracking me up lol. Too low for you does not equate to a ‘very low end PC’.

          • Jordy

            You’re free to believe what you want… you don’t have to agree with me.
            Going back to VR now… :)

          • care package

            videocardbenchmark.net/low_end_gpus.html
            Apparently I’m not the only one who would disagree

          • Jordy

            I was talking about low end PC for VR… not the low end PC to play games on monitor at 1080p or lower resolution.

        • Frank Oldale

          I agree a 970 is low end for sure now a days. I have had 2 new cards since my 970 days. OMG its 5 years old even just for gaming forget about VR!

  • gothicvillas

    Breaking News:
    Average product gets average ratings

  • Darrell

    Amazon ratings? really?
    I migrated from the Rift to the Rift S. So far I’m happy with the choice. I’d really like input from someone that has gone from Rift to Quest. I expect Quest will be more popular because of the appeal of not having the expense of a PC capable of driving the graphics.
    As for the S not being an upgrade, I disagree. No longer needing to deal with the clutter and cludge that comes with needing the sensors is huge. The display is also crisper. There is a trade off though. The tracking gets bonkers when the controllers are too close to the headset. This happens a lot with me when working on detailed illustrations. Outside of that, I’m team Rift S.

    • phlam

      seeing as you can stream pc games to the quest really well already, tells me the quest is inadvertently a whole new breed. the tracking issue u speak of is the same on the quest, too close to catch

      • Darrell

        hmm..now there’s an ingredient for the soup
        I’m thinking of getting the Quest as well for 2 reasons. Portability and sharing the experience with a guest. I was aware of VR and had minimal exposure some time ago. I took the dive into Rift just this January (had to buy another PC) and was blown away. I think there are a lot of people that fell into that same category (limited exposure) that aren’t aware of how intense the experience can be. There’s been a lot of focus on gaming and not so much on what the platform can do for education, art and social communication. Thanks for the input!

    • CURTROCK

      Hi Darrell. Im a long time Rift user, who now owns quest. I still love Rift, but the convenience factor and lack of connector cable leads to me reach for the Quest more and more. I also didn’t expect the screen and lenses to be as a good as they are. Quite frankly, im stunned at how good the Quest is. The power of the mobile graphics chipis quite surprising. I need the Rift for ECHO COMBAT, and i like the HOME environment and social interactions, but otherwise i could easily use Quest all the time. That damm cable connecting me to the PC has become intolerable to me, now that ive experienced freedom from it.

      • Darrell

        Hi Curt
        Good to know
        There’s no Home on the Quest?
        How is the battery life?

        • CURTROCK

          No HOME on Quest, yet. Battery life goes pretty fast. (2-2.5 hours) I bought the ANKER PowerCore 10000PD. Extends the life by about 4 hours, and acts as a great counter-weight when attached to the lower head-strap. Takes all the weight off of your face. Makes it WAY more comfortable for extended use.
          Cheers

    • Neilos Barros

      My quest not only occasionally loses controller tracking when too close to my face but it loses room tracking sometimes when I get too close to one of the walls in my play area. I still love the quest but it is frustrating when these 2 things occur

  • Phil

    Yeah the S is a big refinement, VERY glad I upgraded. Once you see a real GPU behind VR renders, mobile in headset renders SUCK.

    • ImakeManyTempAccounts

      or you know stream your pc to your quest with alvr and get the best of both worlds. its funny how many people compare and criticize over mobile v desktop computing. even if streaming software didnt exist that works very well we are on the brim of intense cloud and in home cloud computing and streaming.

      so saying mobile headset rendering sucks is like hearing that from a kid who has no idea whats to come.

      • Mr. Akill3s

        No….you want renders, not streaming. The priority in VR is latency…then graphics. ANY and even for a second or 2 here and there, any drop in latency induces motion sickness. I have owned the DK1, DK2, Rift and now the S and witnessed the Quest. Eventually the Quest will get there to look like a full GPU rendered game, just not yet.

        WiFi Routers can take a Gigabit connection and broadcast it. Yet anybody (major businesses, power users) all go wired. Why? Same reason, any drop…signal interference, disrupts. It will get there. But for the full experience with perfect latency. Rift S. Quest is still outstanding for those wanting to step into VR to get a taste of it at a huge level. But people who see say…Lone Echo on Wired Rift, jaws are all on the floor.

        • I make names

          well thats funny youd mention lone echo cause i just got done playing that on my quest with the same graphic fidelity that i get when i play on my pc…

          so its pretty funny any argument you make just strengthens my arguments because the quest has adopted all those feature just by being able to stream.

          I also have used the DK1, DK2, rift, s, vive, vPro, gear and demoed many headsets at conferences that never saw the light of day.

          You want one rendered(pc) and a good streaming, its the best of all worlds theres no arguing the benefits. And if u think its not here or not good enough, just blink your eyes and new tech will come out that makes is perfect.

  • oompah

    I would be happier if most of weight in quest was distributed evenly all around the head

  • Jonathan Winters III

    No surprise really. I think Oculus intentially borked Rift S, to force people to compare it to the vastly superior Quest, in order to popularize the Quest. Even if it wasn’t intentional, that’s the outcome.

    • VR-Astro

      Oculus clearly wants all the attention on the Quest, but I would never call the Quest superior to the RIft S. Untethered is it’s only ‘pro’ over the Rift S.

      • Lulu Vi Britannia

        The Quest has much more advantages compared to the Rift-S ^^’.

        – The camera positioning is way more clever. It allows for a much more consistent tracking in the FOV. For example, the Quest tracks below much better than the Rift-S. The Rift-S loses your hands if you just rest your arms. The Quest does not.

        – There’s also much more complaints about glitches with the Rift-S. I’ve read a ton of people threatening to refund the Rift-S. I haven’t seen anyone complaining about the Quest.

        – There is, of course, the OLED panels (at a better resolution) with manual IPD setting. And before anyone comes and says “LCD screens are clearer!” : yes, but a low resolution LCD screen is still a low resolution screen. The resolution in the Quest is better by definition, as it has more pixels than the Rift-S. The LCD screen has less SDE, but it’s still has blurry as if it was an OLED.

        – Finally, the overall design is much cleaner. The Rift-S looks like a mess, its front face is cut in half for no F reason, and the three-straps design of the Quest allows for the use of external headphones (this is also possible with the Rift-S, but the halo design makes it a bit more difficult).

        Long story short, the hardware of the Quest is much better than the Rift-S and it doesn’t seem to have much glitches.

        I’m not saying the Rift-S is bad though ^^. In fact, I find both those headsets great. The Quest is the very first great mobile VR (when you think about it, its only huge limitation is raw power, that’s a good sign when talking about technology), and the Rift-S definitely seems to be a worthy upgrade imo. But if I had a choice, I’d rather have a Quest connected to the PC instead of the Rift-S.

        • MeowMix

          Umm no. Oculus version 1.39 makes RIft S tracking superior to the Quest, vastly superior.

          Quest will also get the new tracking updates, but it was mentioned the tracking occlusion wasn’t due to “not being able to see the controllers”. But due to the controllers being too close to the cameras, making it difficult to discern the controller position.

          Now that’s been fixed.

          But ya, I guess go ahead and carry on with your Pro-Quest propaganda.

  • RationalThought

    Oculus needs to realize the SOUND was the big misstep. It’s so bad in comparison to the original rift that it’s MAJORLY takes away from the experience. Sound is such a major part of immersion that the S basically hamstrings itself…..
    On top of that the Touch controllers feel smaller and cheaper with less rumble force and many games require close to the face movements and that messes up the tracking.
    All of these wounds are self inflicted as Oculus had to know about them long prior to release. The unified pricing strategy was the issue. Make the Oculus S 50$ more and put that into better sound solution and maybe two more camera’s that could detect closer movements or better Touch design. People would have paid 449 for a proper S.

    • Lulu Vi Britannia

      I really don’t understand all those people complaining about sound. Don’t you have headphones? Even if you don’t, this is not really expensive and quite easy to get, they’re available everywhere ^^’.
      Honestly, I love my Rift, but I have 3 headphones, all better than the built-in one. I honestly don’t want built-in sound. They only make me buy stuff I already have.

      • RationalThought

        So you are saying you don’t understand it because a person can buy or use a DIFFERENT product then what was just purchased?
        I should be able to rest my case just on that. Surely you can understand why as a product it gets a lower review due to that. That’s why it’s reviewed poorly…….it provides a worse sound experience than it’s 3 year old discontinued predecessor.
        Workarounds do not make for positive reviews. Had it included a comparable sound solution the CV1 or Valve headset….reviews would be significantly better.

        • Lulu Vi Britannia

          Hopefully you’re not a lawyer, because if you rest your case after a single sentence, you’re not going to win a lot :) .

          It’s not about having different opinions, it’s about having a brain or not. The Rift-S has a port meant for external headphones, so it’s not a workaround, it’s MADE FOR IT for f*ck sake….

          Also, read the other comments. A lot of those bad reviews are just people complaining about stupid stuff (like “no W7 support”, “no HDMI”, …).

          Finally, if you give credit to reviews, Darwin would ask you not to breed :) (jk).

          • RationalThought

            No, you are having a fan based reaction to a rather logical issue.
            The device offered a sub par component and your excuse is don’t rate it lower in a product review but rather BUY another product or use another product. What? That’s what reviews are for, to evaluate the RECEIVED product. I bought X…the sound sucks on this product, X sucks on this product and my review is “X”

            Perhaps you should be in Marketing……. The “Nevermind the sub par component’s they included, just work around it and give them a great rating” I am sure would go over well.

            Include sub par components or performance in your product and get lower product reviews…..not really rocket science. Use somebody else’s product is NOT a good selling tactic on Amazon nor does it inspire confidence in the product.

      • Popin

        “Don’t you have headphones?”

        “Don’t you guys have phones?”

        Hmm you wouldn’t happen to be a Diablo Immortal developer would you?

        • Lulu Vi Britannia

          How did you know?
          Hum. I mean… maybe…

          More seriously, is it that hard to find headphones for you? If you bought a VR headset, you don’t have money issues I reckon…

          • Popin

            It is not about the added money. Putting a headset on and then putting headphones on is significantly more cumbersome. The deluxe audio strap for the Vive was a massive upgrade in user experience. Having used both the Rift and the Vive the integrated headphones and strap comfort were the only two things I preferred the Rift for, before the DAS.

            As @dexfx69:disqus noted, might seem like a small detail, but it is a hassle.

      • Jonathan Winters III

        But, built in headphones are so much easier than putting headphones on, and off. Small detail it seems, but “hassle” is not a term I associate with “fun”.

        • Lulu Vi Britannia

          I owned an Oculus DK2, it has no built-in headphone so I just strapped one of mine on it. I never had to put it on and off ^^. There’s a ton of solutions for that, and that makes it not that much of a hassle.

          • RationalThought

            I had a DK2 too. I bought a good pair of headphones for it also. It was required. Solutions are great but some solutions are supposed to be in the box and if you make buyers have to do work arounds or come up with their own solutions…..you are going to lose public favor. It’s one of the reasons the CV1 came with a best in it’s class audio solution at the time…….and one of the reasons it was so well reviewed. Product’s should remove workarounds and solutions not add to them or work around them.
            Some of the gripes I agree with you are nit picking (DP instead of HDMI for example) but the sound is not one of them.

  • Jarilo

    The Rift S is a pretty average headset, meant to lower the cost of production for Oculus while offering a slightly better experience over the previous CV1.

  • Thunk

    If you read a lot of the negative reviews, the gripes seem to mainly be with software related bugs and cable compatibility problems that eventually got fixed through driver and firmware updates. The negative reviews still seemed to like the hardware and inside out tracking system, etc.

    • Jonathan Winters III

      And lots of complaints about the sub-par audio, especially compared to the great CV1 headphones.

      • Thunk

        Even the audio falls under an early software related issue, as they’re releasing firmware updates to amplify the Rift S base:

        https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-s-audio-quality-update/

        Additionally, the audio is easily correctable through headphones and upcoming modular headstraps with Rift-style headphones – which technically could be inexpensive as it wouldn’t contain sensors.

    • dz11

      It’s rated 3.6 out of 5 on Amazon UK with most of the bad reviews being for legitimate reasons. People complaining about so many things such as tracking not being as good as Rift, screen going black, usb connection not working, random shut downs, lower FOV than the Rift.

      • Thunk

        Most of the complaints objectively relate to firmware related issues that are being addressed through software updates.

  • jamesgjt

    The release day of oculus S is collided with windows new update which make intel driver obsolete and require update in drivers and bio (for some computer) to make it work without lag. The USB has reduced to 1 instead of 4. This put strain on USB to the max to make it occasionally black out when it needs the power to display the passthrough and which most user has the suspend usb power ON in power management that cause the problem. This combine the fact that they think is running on mdp to HDMI adapter would ve work. Also the fact that they rush it into production without optimized many software and game support as well. These all combine make it got a bad rating but if you tackle one by one and you ll have a much better headset

  • rogueCortex

    There *is* an IPD adjustment (the same solution that PSVR uses), the audio is on-par with the PSVR, review sites continually praise the contrast and dark levels when taking in the Rift S without comparison, and the refresh rate difference is commonly concluded to not be noticable. I feel like the negative reviewers on sites like Amazon are battling over spec sheets instead of the actual experience. The reason that I keep comparing it to PSVR is because that system is received very highly, yet when a PC-powered headset with improved visuals and tracking in comparison comes along, it’s received poorly. Completely mind-boggling for me.

    • dz11

      It’s rated 3.6 out of 5 on Amazon UK and nearly all the negative reviews are for legitimate reasons. I don’t think i saw anyone mention HDMI there.

    • benz145

      You’re right, though software IPD does little compared to hardware IPD because only hardware IPD allows for ideal lens alignment. Software IPD only adjusts the rendered image as it appears on the display. Lots more details on IPD and Oculus’ headsets here:

      https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-s-supported-ipd-range-fov-quest-go/

  • dz11

    It’s rated 3.6 out of 5 on Amazon UK and nearly all the low ratings are for legitimate reasons. This headset looks like a genuine stinker for a lot of people who bought it.

  • Marc-André Désilets

    Who ordered you this article ? This is not in your standard to do this kind of crappy post.

  • safadsf

    Did you really just make an article on a 0.1 point rating difference on Amazon ratings? Really? Glad I use adblock here.