The Quest 2 is the best bang for the buck by far. Unfortunately made by facebook, but designed by John Carmack while he was still working there, and if I'm not mistaken sold at a loss. For the money it's the clear choice.

Another option if you don't mind over paying is the valve index. You'll get higher resolution and finger tracking. It's also said to be quite comfortable. At $1000 it's more like a sports car. By that I mean it breaks down all the time. When it's working it's great but if you use it a lot there are problems with the controllers. Lots of RMA stories. Many people turn to dissembling them and fixing things themselves. I've turned to that with my Vive.

The soon to be released PSVR 2 on PS5 is also worth an honorable mention but leaves out some of the experimental VR stuff you can hack around at on PC VR.

Edit:

I should note as well with the Quest 2. There isn't even a tradeoff between PCVR and standalone mode. You can get the link cable and use it as a PCVR headset to play steam games etc.

> You'll get higher resolution and fov

Index only has higher FOV, although if you’re not connecting your Quest to a computer you probably won’t be using the full resolution anyway.

> designed by John Carmack while he was still working there

When did he leave? And what is he doing now?

The last I heard he was doing AI research on his own time but googling it looks like he may still work with Facebook in some capacity too.

Looking some more I found this video. Sounds like he is quite heavily involved after all. Interesting video too.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BnSUk0je6oo

What about the HTC Vive & similar?

I have the original HTC Vive, It's been great! Hardware wise it's right around the quest 2, maybe slightly better. After a few years of heavy use the controller trackpads started breaking down and I thought I would have to buy new ones. But if you search online you find it's a common problem and possible to fix.

Taking the controllers apart feels exactly like dissembling laptops if you've ever done that. Even the screws are similar. Anyway I have to do that like once every 6 months now but other than that it's still good. I'm about due for an upgrade and debating getting an Index now or waiting to see if headset comes out around the 1-3k Price point this year.

There are other HTC headsets. The Vive Pro and the Vive Cosmos both came out after the original Vive but it sounds like the Pro isn't quite as good as the Index and the Cosmos is just outright bad. It would be great to see HTC to release something to beat the Index.

There is also the HP Reverb G2 at $500. I don't know as much about this one but I've heard the video quality is similar to the Index but with worse tracking.

Great tips, thanks

I tried ALOT of headsets over the years. Sadly there is nothing close to the quest 2. It is not only the price but the ease of use. Want to game on a huge field? The quests has no problem with that and is setup within seconds not minutes. Portable and lightweight yet comfortable with an elite strap. Tracking is superb aslong as the lighting conditions are good. Get the vive if you have a powerful PC, money to spend, a big room with no obstacles, something to fix the cable to the ceiling, a nerdy wife/friends and never think about playing somewhere else but in this one room.

Oculus quest 2 no doubt about it.

Unless you are super rich and don't care about money or just hate Facebook - I don't think anything beats the hardware quality of q2.

Ok I’m on the last camp there - which other VR product should I get?

There really isn't anything for you yet, just a lot of bad solutions that don't work very well. You might want to wait for Apple's rumored VR system coming out soon, but that assumes that (a) its actually a reliable rumor and (b) you don't hate Apple as much as Facebook.

An RTX 3070 and a Valve Index.

If you've got a capable Windows machine, maybe check out Virtual Desktop

That’s not a VR headset, right? What am I missing?

It's software that lets you stream PCVR to your headset. You're right that it's not a headset or hardware, but getting to play Half Life: Alyx completely wireless made it absolutely worth the $20 I paid for it. YMMV, but if you've got a Quest, a decent router and beefy PC hardware, I consider it a no-brainer. Plus, the PC versions of a lot of these games are just better. VRChat doesn't have as many arbitrary restrictions, Beat Saber lets you load in arbitrary maps/songs to play with, and your game purchases aren't locked in to Facebook if you decide to switch to a better headset (ie. Valve Index) later down the line.

If you are planning on using your phone, I suggest getting an official Google Cardboard unit.

https://arvr.google.com/cardboard/get-cardboard/

There are plenty of other phone holder style units but they may not work with the cardboard app(Which has a large amount demos/apps)

If you are looking for something more advanced and can wait a bit, I would do that. I would expect the console gamming systems will be pushing out some new offerings soon.

Occulus is an option but from my understanding it is married to FaceBook/Meta and that is a risky proposition IMHO.

This is good enough to play around with on the cheap, but I don't think it holds a candle to dedicated devices. It's all I have right now, but I'm planning to upgrade soon.

this is equivalent to suggesting plugging a keyboard and mouse into your phone when asking for laptop recommendations.

I don't think the Quest 2 has any decent competition on price and capability. Unless you want to consider a wired setup for some reason, take Meta's incredibly subsidized headset and have fun!