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Day 1 Review: GO is a welcome addition to the Rift Family

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
I just spent 2 hours in my Oculus GO headset, and so far I must admit that I am more impressed than I anticipated. The biggest breakthrough for me with this product is the amazingly seamless integration with WebVR. I will cover that and more below.

I'll start my review with a general note to Rift owners:
  • This is Mobile-VR, so the Rift experience is still the best overall VR experience. Not just because of the Touch controllers, but the Rift CV1 HMD is notably superior.
  • While the GO lenses are better in terms of Godrays, sweetspot, VR-media, and reading Text... there is something about them that still isn't quite as good as the Rift lenses. I can't quite put my finger on it yet (I'm sure a videophile will cover this on YouTube soon), but there's something about those Rift lenses that simply feels better than GO's lenses; speaking strictly on how my eyes felt looking at the lenses themselves, not the immersiveness of the apps.
  • I found that for the first hour of using GO, my body went through an "adjustment period" as it tried to acclimate to the VR experience GO provides in contrast to what my body is accustomed to after 2 years of VR in the Rift.


Now... the first thing I did with GO is, naturally, lay on my couch and enjoy VR away from my computer room. But everyone is doing that. So I decided to simply... walk outside. I was playing Dead Secret Circle on my backyard patio. It's a nice windy evening, and it felt awesome.


More importantly, I walked around my house a lot without ever taking the HMD off! I can peak under the GO headset, just as with the Rift, so walking around was easy. A fun thing to do as you walk to the kitchen to get a snack while in a VR Theater watching your favorite show.


Side Note: I am now incredibly excited about Santa Cruz.


Setup

Getting up and running was quicker and easier then setting up Alexa. I've set up 3 Alexa's so far and setting up GO was a very similar process, only with fewer steps and a much better outcome (har har). I will say that there was an issue where the accompanying Phone App on my Android had trouble syncing with the GO headset. But the problem lasted less than 30 seconds (I just kept clicking Retry).


Comfort

Oculus GO feels like it is making sweet love to your face. This is easily the most comfortable VR HMD anyone can wear today. Granted, it is a bit 'front-heavy' - as some users initially reported. But your body adjusts rather quickly and you no longer feel it. All that is left is what feels like a damn pillow wrapped around your face. The HMD's facial cushion and strap are very soft and well constructed.


Stability

Everything seems to run very smoothly. I was in VR with GO for 2 hours straight and more than 90% of my experience was effortless and seamless. There are a few times where I notice a lag between my button press and the response from the Oculus Home menu. However, I have a feeling that this is caused by the number of users logged on today (the product did just mass release). Any lag time I experienced was centered around the Store, which is loading from Oculus' servers - and this issue was very minimal.


At one point during Dead Secret Circle, the game did "crash" and cause my GO to lock up. However, the Reboot happens incredibly fast and I was back in the game in less than 60 seconds.


Regarding battery life: You get just over 2 hours but this thing recharges quickly!


Home

I'm happy to report that GO has brought me back to the original Oculus Loft; wrinkled carpet n' all. The Home interface is very much the classic Rift Home from 2016, but you can choose from a variety of custom options. There is also a Social aspect that you can experience immediately after setting up your Avatar. It's called Oculus Rooms, although I haven't tried it yet. Lastly, there is a built-in Web Browser (with a Keyboard that uses your remote control to operate).


Audio

There are no ear-pieces this time, but I found the audio to be surprisingly adequate. And the Audio does respond based on your position. You can hear things to the left, right, up, down, and behind you. I found the audio during movie watching (e.g. Netflix) to also provide acceptable quality. Nothing can really compare to high-end audio gear, but honestly... I can keep my GO in its current form for years and be perfectly content with its built-in Audio.


WebVR

This is HUGE for me. WebVR integration is now incredibly painless for the first time! I loaded the Browser inside GO, and then navigated to a Business VR App I'm working on. The page loaded and I clicked the "VR" symbol... then boom! I was immersed in my own App, quickly and easily. This is exactly what I was hoping to get from this product; and I have every intent to get my moneys worth (and then some).


If you are a business app/system developer, and are considering using WebVR to extend your portfolio... then GO is the hardware to own. It is a very sleek and stylish headset that can be taken to any professional business setting, where you can showcase your work to VP's, CIO's, CEO's, and business owners.


Immersion

This is Mobile-VR in the end, so immersion only goes so far. What I will say is that the "scale" isn't as realistic as with the Rift. The environment around you looks great, but it doesn't have life-like scale compared to your current height or position in relation to objects around you. That's to be expected because you don't have sensors tracking you.


If a Rift owner wants to get an idea of what the scale is like in GO, then simply load this Amazon Sumerian VR scene in to your Rift (it takes awhile to Load):

https://d1tsyd7599mesx.cloudfront.net/3e72731dd59b4b08ac1240bfd4afce5d.scene/


The scale in GO is better than that Sumerian experience, but it is comparable enough to give you an idea of what you should expect if 'scale' is important to you.


Overall

At $200 this is an absolute great buy for any VR enthusiast today. It is a top-notch Mobile-VR experience that really extends what Rift owners have enjoyed the past 2 years. It frees up your damn phone and integrates beautifully in to the Oculus Home platform. I logged in with my Rift Account and it recognized everything. It knew that I already owned "Face Your Fears," so all I had to do was install the Stranger Things add-on. The Account was automatically integrated in to my existing billing data.


I have 2 primary forces driving my purchase of Oculus GO:

  1. WebVR application development for business use.
  2. Secondary VR entertainment for the family.


I have regular family gatherings but only one Rift. Most of my family loves either Space or Horror experiences. Oculus GO is a great option for those preferences, as well as a great VR product for non-gamers. I have family and friends who experienced the Rift... and while they thought the tech was amazing they weren't blown away enough to plan their own purchase of a VR product due to the fact that they are not gamers. But when I would show them Virtual Desktop and launch them in to a Virtual Theater playing their favorite Netflix show, they are very much enticed! Of course, the cost of PCVR for a non-gamer is still a bit high just to acquire an immersive Theater. Well... in comes Oculus GO for something affordable and downright badass when it comes to VR Theater experiences.  Oculus GO doesn't provide as many options for a VR Theater (yet) as one may find with the Rift, however, the video quality is notably better with GO and you can enjoy it while lying in bed. 


If you already own a Rift, then the 32GB version ($199) is a good choice. I went with 64GB because I plan to download Apps for multiple family members.


All-in-all, this is a very well made VR Product for a great price. It's value for VR-Media and WebVR alone is well worth the price of admission.

87 REPLIES 87

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
No words just gif.



System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

NeloDiavolo
Protege
Thanks Zenebane for the review! It's settled, buying the 32GB to supplement my Rift. 

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Question: can you sideload apps from outside the Oculus store?


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

LZoltowski
Champion

Atmos73 said:

No YouTube support?


It has full 3d and 360 youtube support. 4K too.
Core i7-7700k @ 4.9 Ghz | 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance @ 3000Mhz | 2x 1TB Samsung Evo | 2x 4GB WD Black
ASUS MAXIMUS IX HERO | MSI AERO GTX 1080 OC @ 2000Mhz | Corsair Carbide Series 400C White (RGB FTW!) 

Be kind to one another 🙂

Wildt
Consultant
@Zenbane  - are you sure you're not blaming the lenses for the lack of software compensation for chromatic aberration?
PCVR: CV1 || 4 sensors || TPcast wireless adapter || MamutVR Gun stock V3
PSVR: PS4 Pro || Move Controllers || Aim controller
WMR: HP Reverb

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
I'm interested in knowing what watching films is like on the Oculus GO, is it a big step up from the Rift with it's better resolution and the new lenses?

Iblysi
Heroic Explorer
@Zenbane Do you need your phone with you at all times, or once the stuff is installed and activated you can put it away?

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
@ShiftyInc . I can answer that from someone else. You do not need the phone near you after the initial set up and can even be in different country from what I gather. Once the GO is paired you can then do everything on the GO. 


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

LZoltowski
Champion


@ShiftyInc . I can answer that from someone else. You do not need the phone near you after the initial set up and can even be in different country from what I gather. Once the GO is paired you can then do everything on the GO. 


 What is handy tho you can see your GO charge level on the app, so if you are in another room you can see what it's up to remotely using your phone!
Core i7-7700k @ 4.9 Ghz | 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance @ 3000Mhz | 2x 1TB Samsung Evo | 2x 4GB WD Black
ASUS MAXIMUS IX HERO | MSI AERO GTX 1080 OC @ 2000Mhz | Corsair Carbide Series 400C White (RGB FTW!) 

Be kind to one another 🙂