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Oculus GO User Reviews

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Please post your review score for the Oculus GO based on a number of things including value for money, overall experience, ease of use, intended usage etc. Please rate out of 5 stars and try to be as objective as possible. Please do not post a review score if you have not properly tried the GO. 

5 Stars - Awesome Must Buy
4 Stars - Very Good
3 Stars - Good 
2 Stars - Not Bad
1 Star  - Poor/ Avoid


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.
35 REPLIES 35

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
So let me kick off with this. I see others have posted various reviews around the forums so let us collectively put that into a scoring system.  I think most people have conveyed my thoughts on the GO (@Zenbane and @Rob_In_Phoenix)
so I won't repeat them here in detail, but in my view GO is a great entry level VR system but could be improved in some areas.  My biggest complaints are the Battery level. Setting up using a phone being unnecessary. Diminished scale in VR and lesser 3D depth. Chromatic aberration is an issue. Black levels are not as good as one would hope. However, the overall positives outweigh the negatives making it a worthy investment which I am happy with - low SDE, increased sweet spot, overall sharpness of image, reduced god rays and decent functionality/interface. However, as a rift owner I see GO more as a personal movie viewer rather than something I would use extensively for VR content but perhaps that is rather obvious.

(posted 4 stars btw).


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

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
There are factors that Rift owners end up 'accepting' as first gen adopters. When rating something like this, I like to keep those types of things in perspective.

Here are the items that Rift owners accept, which GO improves upon:
  • Screen Door effect
  • Glare
  • God Rays
  • Tethered to a PC
  • Single-Room use due to Sensor Setup
  • Black Levels


GO improves slightly in some of these areas (e.g. Glare, God Rays, Black Levels) and drastically in so many others (no screen Door Effect, Tetherless, Multi-Room Use).


I am already using GO for VR experiences just as much as my Rift on a daily basis. For example: The first Rift game that gained my dedication was Farlands. With GO, I have something similar, Pet Lab. I love it! Not to mention that I was dedicated to beating Dead Secret Circle using GO the moment it arrived.


I see these devices more as companions. If Santa Cruz improves upon the lenses even more, while bringing full motion tracking and hand-controllers closer to that of the Rift... then the future of VR is going to be insanely wonderful.

Rob_In_Phoenix
Rising Star
I'll give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars.  Battery life and chromatic aberration are my sticking points, though it's possible chromatic aberration can be compensated for in the device config files but I haven't tried it yet (Thanks @kojack ).

For me the it's going to be a media viewer and hopefully a webVR device as well.  The Go could make my TV obsolete.

Failrunner
Heroic Explorer
I'm giving it a 4/5 unless they remove the need to set up the device with a cell phone which alienates some of the people who want to use this. Not only do you need a phone but it is not mentioned that if it's on Android it has to be on Marshmallow or later or you're sol. Outside of that for the price besides a few bugs that require updates the headset is damn perfect! It's better than I expected! For $200. I'll keep a battery bank nearby if I want more time. This is a headset that comes with a computer and better optics then a headset that is $800. without factoring in the $1,000.+ Computer and seperate hmd bundle needed to use it! For this price price I actually feel bad that i'm not paying more! Lol. A gateway that allows you to hang out with your childhood friends that moved away?! Screw gaming i'm more impressed with shit like that. Love vr gaming on pc but what this headset lets you do is priceless and sends chills down my spine!!! 

mosbey
Honored Guest
I went with three stars. It's a tricky balance for me, between 4 and 3 stars. 

There's a reasonable library. Otherwise, this feels like three days into a new product. If you bought into an early iPhone, you'd have seen the experience expand during your ownership. Right now, the UI is a little bit of a mix of features, kinda labryinthine. It's a minimal viable product. It's plenty good enough to have shipped, but development needs to continue. 

The browser features need to be expanded.
Bringing notifications from my phone (like a smartwatch does) would be appreciated. 
Improving friend discovery would be nice - you have my phone contacts and my Facebook friends.
Connecting Rooms to Facebook messenger would improve the product.
The home environment seems to only allow Oculus' 360 backgrounds. I should be able to use what I like. 
Having support for at least some arbitrary Android apps would be useful. 
The keyboard is good, but lacks some basic features like caps lock. 
Having the Oculus app on the phone represent a non-immersive alternative way of joining a room would be grand. 
Rooms should also have a web browser for shared web sessions. 
The experience of using Facebook within the Go is weak. The mobile web experience is okay, but, among other things, it spits you out to an Android market link (that doesn't work) if you try to Facebook chat - it seems unfinished when Facebook owns the device design and the site. 
Some of the A-Frame demos I tried didn't work particularly well. Not sure if that's an Oculus thing, but I'm concerned. 
The browser video player full screen 2d/3d controls probably need a first use demo. 
The forced health and safety presentation should be either landscape or should move partially into the headset. I got nothing out of the tiny video. 
The settings app needs to be expanded. For example, these doesn't seem to be a way to manage app permissions. You set them at first use, and then, never get to see them again. 

I don't need you to do exactly what I say to make me happy, but if, in six months, it's the same product it is today, plus maybe a bug fix, I will be disappointed. If all new features are held for the 2.0 product, I'll be disappointed and probably won't buy 2.0.

Accessories would be appreciated. I bought the 64GB model, and would have bought at least a case at the same time. Maybe some short-cord wired headphones with little Oculus logos. Maybe a little protective cover for the remote. Maybe an Oculus-branded controller. I dunno. I like accessories, particularly first-party accessories. They allow for customization and add to the sense of ownership.  

If instead, Oculus treats this as the Go Platform, and sells progressively powerful equipment to access this experience, then investing continually in R&D for the software and experiences will make sense. That's what I hope for. 

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
@Shadowmask72  - I really wish someone would say how much improvement it has over the Rift for watching movies. Like on a scale of 1 to 10 how much better is it please?

Rob_In_Phoenix
Rising Star

RedRizla said:

@Shadowmask72  - I really wish someone would say how much improvement it has over the Rift for watching movies. Like on a scale of 1 to 10 how much better is it please?

Not sure how to scale this from 1-10 on how much better it is for movies.  But if 1 = Go is way worse than Rift, 5= Go and the Rift are about the same, 10 = Go is way better than Rift.

I'd say it's 8.5 - 9.0.

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
@Rob_In_Phoenix - Would that be because of less Godrays then the Rift, or because the movies on the Go look much sharper and less blurry?

Rob_In_Phoenix
Rising Star

RedRizla said:

@Rob_In_Phoenix - Would that be because of less Godrays then the Rift, or because the movies on the Go look much sharper and less blurry?


@RedRizla , for me it's both.  Godrays are an important consideration for movie watching in headsets with the screen being bright against a dark background.

Godrays exist on Go but they are diminished noticeably.  They don't bother me at all on the Go.  The screen sharpness is definitely better on the Go (in the sweet spot) than Rift.

I won't watch movies on the Rift now that I have a Go.