Oculus Go review: should you buy it?

The Oculus Go is one of the headsets of the moment: it is the first truly consumer-oriented VR-only device: it is easy to be used, it is cheap and it is (or will) available in the retail shops, so has all the potential to attract people that until now considered VR something too geek. For these reasons, according to market analysts, it should sell 1-2 million units before the end of 2018, and these are great numbers considering the current status of VR market. I’m very interested in this device, that’s why I dedicated various articles to it, like the tutorial on how to get started with Go on Unity, how to stream the headset content to an external screen and my comparison with the Vive Focus.

On the web, I’ve read reviews that praised the Oculus Go as the device that will make VR mainstream and other ones that described it as a useless cheap device. So, where is the truth? Let me express my opinion to help you in deciding if this headset is worth your money or not.

Unboxing

Oculus Go package is quite little: seeing its photos on the web, I thought it was big like the ones of all the tethered headsets that I bought until now, but I was wrong. The box is little, but also a bit heavier than I thought given its dimensions.

Inside the box, the objects are very carefully positioned: when you open it, you have the impression that someone took great care in delight your eyes as soon as you removed the lid. Oculus is the top VR company in doing this: I had the same delight sensation when I opened my Oculus Rift CV1 box. Inside the package, there is basically the headset, the controller, and some accessories: the controller’s battery, the spacer mask to help you in using the device with glasses, the cloth to clean the lenses and the super-duper-useless Health & Safety book.

I have to warn you that there is not the USB cable, nor a battery charger, so be sure to have one in your office: I use the battery charger and cable of my Samsung smartphone and they work like a charm.

The headset

The Oculus Go headset is made of a light gray color and has a refined design that makes it look very classy. In front of it, there is the Oculus logo, while on its left side there is the XiaoMi logo since this device is actually manufactured by Xiaomi in China (that also sells the device in China rebranded as Xiaomi Mi VR).

On top of the headset, you can find the button to turn it on, a status led and the two buttons to turn the volume up and down. On the left side, apart from the Mi logo, there is the USB-Micro port with which you can charge the device and also connect it to the PC. Below it there is the 3.5mm jack to connect your headphones to the headset. Most times you won’t use it, since the Go has integrated audio, that is you have some little speakers next to your ears that will let you hear spatialized audio of your experiences without wearing any earphones. This is damn comfortable since with the Gear VR I hated having to put on my earphones to be able to experience spatialized audio, it was annoying for me and for the people who I wanted to demo VR too. With the Go, you basically only use the headphones if you are in a noisy environment or if you want to watch porn. 😀

On the bottom of the headset, there is a mic, useful especially for social VR applications.

Inside the headset you have, well, you can imagine what: two lenses and the sensor to detect if you’re wearing it.

To secure the Go to your head you have some elastic straps: so the rear part of the headset is not rigid, nor it has the knob that is becoming popular in all VR devices: you have some elastic bands and some velcro straps on the left, right and top side that help you in fit the headset to your head. Someone has imagined that Oculus has chosen this setup because this way it is possible to comfortably lay down on a bed with your Go on, something that is not possible with the other headsets, due to the rigid part on the back.

The controller

The controller is bigger and heavier than the one of most other mobile VR headset, and the reason is that Oculus wanted it to be super-ergonomic. Of course, they managed in this intent: the controller fits perfectly in my hand and the index naturally goes on the trigger button and the thumb goes on the touchpad.

There are also two little buttons next to the touchpad: one is the back button (used for instance to return to a previous screen of an app) and the other one is the Oculus button, that makes you return to Home and also calibrate the controller. The controller works with a standard AA 1.5V battery.

I like a lot the Go controller, but it has some important drawbacks:

• It has 3 DOF. This means that the controller can only detect rotational movement and so when you use it, it appears as if it were rotating around an imaginary point somewhere next to the right part of your torso (left part, if you are left-handed). While this is perfectly fine for most of the interactions, this is terrible for some of them: it appears completely unnatural and breaks the presence;
• It has no volume buttons: I don’t know why Oculus made such a big usability mistake. Having the volume buttons on the controllers is very handy and I use them a lot on the Vive Focus controller, for instance. Having to move the hand to push the buttons on the top part of the headset every time I want to adjust the volume on the Go is a bit uncomfortable;
• It needs calibration every time you put the headset on: this means that you have to point the controller to look forward and hold the Oculus button for some seconds. This is quite annoying, but it is a necessary stage for all the standalone headsets because the system has to find a mapping between the rotation angles returned by the controller and the ones returned by the headset. After the calibration, there is a common reference system and you can use the controller. Sometimes it is also necessary to re-calibrate the controller because its tracking has drifted.

https://gfycat.com/HighlevelColossalKob

The advantage of the calibration stage is that you can actually point the controller towards any direction that you consider your “forward”. This means that if you point your controller upwards, all the system will initialize so that you look forward when you look towards the ceiling so that you can actually use VR comfortably while lying in your bed.

Comfort

The overall comfort of the Oculus Go is good: I like the fluffy sponge and the fabric of the face mask, the device fits well on my face. But there is a big problem: the damn straps that go around my nape are really awful. I’m ok with the fact that this mechanism can make you use VR while you are in the bed… but honestly, in my bed, I love sleeping and not using VR. And those horrible elastics worsen the whole comfort of the device. They get tangled, they can ruin your hairstyle, they never give the impression of stability and furthermore, they are terrible to adjust the headset to fit the size of the head of the user. It feels so Oculus DK2, I felt immediately 4 years younger when I wore the Go for the first time… I imagined to wear it and see the Oculus Share ecosystem inside the headset! I think that Oculus needs a Deluxe-strap like the Vive…

If you wear glasses, the Go will let you use them inside the headset, so there’s no need to buy contact lenses just for VR and that’s great.

The controller instead is super-comfortable and I love using it.

Graphics

The Oculus Go features next-generation Fresnel lenses, 110° (diagonal) FOV and a fast-switch 2,560 × 1,440 LCD display. The refresh rate is 60Hz, but some apps can run in 72Hz mode. Technical stuff apart, the graphical quality appears as “good enough”.

The screen resolution is surely bigger than the one of its bigger brother Rift CV1 (that has a 2160 x 1220 display), but the screen door effect is surely noticeable. It is even more annoying than one of other devices. As Ben Lang pointed out on Road To VR, the perfectly aligned grid of the LCD display’s pixels makes you notice the SDE more than on a OLED screen with pentile distribution. I have been really disappointed by the screen door effect on the Go.

The Fresnel lenses are dubbed as “next-generation”, but honestly I don’t see those awesome improvements. God rays are there anyway and the more you look next to the edges of the lenses, the more you will notice some evident chromatic aberration, with red, green and blue colors separating the one from the others. So, if you use the Go, look forward and don’t move your eyes too much.

The device is based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 VR reference design, and this means that surely it is not the most powerful device on the market. For this reason, the Go can’t showcase too complex VR scenes and is more suited for videos or low-poly apps. So, even the graphical quality of the running app can’t be too high.

Battery

The Go has a predicted battery life of 2-2.5 hours: of course, the more you see videos and the less you use computational-heavy VR apps, the more the battery will last. For casual use once in a while, the battery duration is great: I’ve been able to try 3-4 experiences and still have some charge left. This is possible because of all the optimizations made by Oculus in this VR-only device.

If you plan to use the Go during long travels or for long gaming sessions, 2 hours is surely too little and you had better take with you a battery pack.

To give you longer battery life, the device goes in standby mode automatically if you don’t use it, but it never turns off by itself and this means that if you forget to turn it off, the battery will drain completely.

Functionalities

I just want to point out one thing: the Oculus Go is a device with limited functionalities: I mean, it is just an improved version of the Gear VR, it offers a 3 DOF headset with a 3 DOF controller. It has no positional tracking, no mixed reality possibilities, no hands tracking, nothing. It offers the bare minimum functionalities for a VR headset to be enjoyable.

Anyway, they offer few functionalities but offer them very well: for instance, there are facilities to record video, stream them to Facebook, connect with your VR friends, etc…

First use

Being a device for non-tech-savvy users, the Oculus Go guides the user throughout the first use. As soon as you open the box, there’s a piece of paper saying that you have to download the companion app on your phone through Google Play or the iOS store. Once you’ve downloaded and launched it, the app starts a tutorial that guides you throughout all the setup of your new HMD. This tutorial follows you in all the steps and explains everything through simple sentences, images, animations, and videos.

That’s marvelous: I think that every person that knows even a little bit about technology can follow these instructions and set up an Oculus Go. Oculus did a great job at this stage, that really makes the Go a device usable by almost all the general consumers. I found the setup even too easy and that’s a good sign for usability.

As soon as you unbox the device, you have to put it on charge… and when all the setup is ready and the device is charged enough to be used, it will turn on by itself to notify you that you can use it… that’s another smart choice.

After that, when you put the headset on, the system will ask you what are your preferred experiences, so that it can customize your Home so that you immediately see what are the best experiences for you. That’s great: in my Home, I immediately saw 2-3 experiences that were awesome for my tastes and I started downloading them. The Oculus Store has thousands of app, so an initial guidance is necessary, especially for first-time VR users.

User interface

The internal interface is almost identical to the one of Gear VR. I think that we have still to design proper UX for virtual reality and the current ones are far from perfect… but anyway, the Go internal interface is usable and does its job pretty well. There are various tabs on the lower part of the VR space that let you select various functionalities of the device: explore and run the apps (on the store or in your library), manage your VR friends and meet them, record or stream videos and set the various settings. In front of you, you can see the content relative to the tab you chose.

I found the UI very neat and I immediately learned how to use it. I guess that a first-time VR user would need some time to get used to VR selection process, but in the end, he/she could understand that easily anyway.

Companion app

When I heard about the fact that to configure your Oculus Go you needed a companion app, I was like WTF: why using an external device, if you can use the VR headset to do that?

After having used that, I got it. It is actually a smart idea for various reasons:

• It lets first-time VR users initialize the VR headset using a device that they already know very well, that is the smartphone. Putting on a VR headset and select stuff inside that can be scary for them… install an app and let it guide them instead is very easy;
• Doing things inside a 2D app is far easier: I found super-handy installing the apps on the Go through my phone app. The 2D interfaces are faster to be used (just to say: you can use the “search” feature using a touch keyboard and then scroll the apps just by swiping) and this app doesn’t force me to put a headset on my face just to install an app and then remove it while I wait for the download to complete. I just use the smartphone to do configurations and put on the headset only when needed.

The only critic is that maybe I would have left the app as an optional choice and let nerdy techie like us choose to use only the headset to do all the initializations.

Apps ecosystem

Oculus claims that there are 1000+ apps already available for the Go. This has been possible because all the apps developed for the Gear VR are effortlessly exported for the Go.

While we know that surely a lot of those “thousands of apps” will be crappy ones, there are also a good number of interesting experiences. After having put on my Go, I started downloading and trying various apps and I actually had fun: I scared myself while playing Face Your Fears, I went on a roller coaster, I went to the space (wow!), I’ve been in the Blade Runner world, I’ve seen some 3D videos about the WWE from Next VR (Joooohn Ceeeena!), I relaxed fishing a bit.

No experience was jaw-dropping (I mean, we have not the Robo Recall of Oculus Go), but most of them were enjoyable and I loved spending my time with the Go on my face. The great side of those experiences is that being them designed for a 3 DOF headset, they didn’t require any movement by me. What I want to say, is that I sat on my chair and played a bit and rarely I felt the absence of the positional tracking. If an app is made to be played by just rotating your head, you won’t feel the need to stand up and move inside your room. In the end, I had fun: nothing extraordinary, but I spent my time happily in VR. I can imagine that for someone that has never tried VR, these experiences are really “WOW”.

Unity development

Developing for the Go on Unity is the same thing as developing for Gear VR and has various points in common with developing for the Rift (the plugin is the same). After having used the Oculus Utilities for a lot of years, I find developing with them very easy… Oculus really offers an easy to be used SDK.

Furthermore, on the Go, they removed the hassle of having the Osig file of the device when testing apps on the Go. The only nuisance is that there is not an instant preview feature, so you had better develop with a Rift attached with your PC, otherwise everytime you want to try something, you have to wait for it to be deployed on the device. HTC has announced that will implement an Instant Play on its Focus device (maybe following my advice) and I hope that Oculus will do something similar in the future.

Cost

Oculus Go costs only $199 (€219 here in Italy, because of VAT) for the 32 GB version and $249 for the 64 GB version. The business license requires $100 more. For an all-in-one high-quality VR headset that’s a ridiculously low price. Really affordable for everyone.

Final impressions

Let’s return to the initial question: is this a terrible device with few features or the device that will make VR mainstream?

In my opinion, none of them. It is not terrible nor fantastic: it is a headset designed with a purpose, that is the one of setting the stage to make VR become mainstream by offering a device that is:

• Super easy to be used;
• Very cheap;
• That offers few functionalities but offers them very well.

For us techies, the Go may seem crap, because it has not what we want from VR, that is the possibility of moving and interacting in a VR space like in real life. But we are not the target market of this device: the target is tech-interested average consumers, not us. We can continue enjoying our tethered headsets, or our full-fledged standalone like the Vive Focus (if you are interested in a comparison between these two devices, read this article), while other less-VR-savvy people can enjoy the Go.

Personally, I think that Oculus has made a great job in reaching that purpose: the Go is a device that can appeal to a broader audience than the VR-enthusiasts niche and can let more people enter VR with an entry-level device that makes you understand the potentialities of virtual reality. Of course, this is not the future of VR (if it is, please shoot me in my head), but it is something can make people understand what VR is and let people become passionate about it. As I’ve said, it offers just enough functionalities to make people understand why VR is cool and offers them in a neat way. You may say that is exactly like the Cardboard, but honestly, most Cardboard experiences were really low-quality ones, while the Go can show you high-quality VR.

I myself prefer the Vive Focus because of its more functionalities, but I sometimes like to put my Go on and relax by trying some of its experiences. I think that “enjoyable” is the world that best describes this device.

I don’t think that the Go will make VR mainstream: I agree with analysts (and Oculus itself) with the fact that it will sell some million units. The reason? It is the same that I expressed when the Go was announced: people won’t get what it is for. Yes, you can play a bit with it at home and enjoy your time in VR by playing little games, watching 360 videos and trying social VR experiences… but nothing more. You can’t carry it with you everywhere easily as a smartphone. There are not useful apps, just entertainment experiences. The functionalities are limited so there is no experience that can make people go crazy (maybe only porn :D). I find it a nice gadget that some people would want to have, but not a must-have device. Anyway, it will be sold in supermarkets and lots of people will buy it, so people will start to understand that VR is here and now it is usable and enjoyable… and with time it will become mainstream, but not now. It is an important step, but not the destination

Should you buy it?

Buy the Go if:

• You offer consultancies in VR, like me: for companies that want to make a showcase of their products in VR during exhibitions, the Go is fantastic. The customer has to pay only $300 for VR station, while with Gear VR it would have been $800 for a station, considering also the price of the phone. So you must have this device to be able to offer these solutions. In any case, if you are a professional, you should own at least a Go to show your customers;
• You want to start developing for VR, but don’t have the money to buy other more expensive devices. In this case, I would tell you to consider the Go or Windows Mixed Reality tethered headsets, that are often discounted at ridiculous prices (like $200 for Lenovo or Acer headsets). Consider that WMR have the advantage that you can develop on a PC, that is much easier than developing for a standalone;
• You believe in the Oculus Store platform and so want to target the Go with your products;
• You are intrigued by VR and want a device that lets you try what it is without hassles;
• You want to try VR, but you have very little technical knowledge;
• You had this idea of buying a Gear VR: in that case, buy a Go: it is much better and most probably will substitute it on the long run;
• You want just to immerse in VR once in a while and spend your time with casual gaming, social experiences, and 360 videos.

Don’t buy the Go, instead, if for you the more features the better.

I hope you liked this review and that it will help you in deciding if buying an Oculus Go or not: if it is the case, subscribe this newsletter to have even more articles like this straight in your mailbox!