New Oculus VR Headsets Coming In Spring For $400: Rift S And Quest Details

Oculus has revealed its next PC-based VR headset called the Rift S as part of GDC 2019. The most notable improvement is the inclusion of built-in sensors for inside-out tracking; this means you'll no longer need to set up external sensors if you use a Rift S. Additional details on Oculus Quest have also been announced as well, which is the company's upcoming standalone headset. Both packages will include two Oculus Touch controllers as well.

The built-in sensors make up what's called Oculus Insight and it's capable of free-roaming room scale VR gaming. The Rift S features five separate sensors on the headset while the Quest has four. Rift S also comes with a bump in visual quality--it'll have a total resolution of 2560x1440 (1280x1440 per eye) on a fast-switch LCD display. However, refresh rate has been slightly dropped down, going from 90 Hz to 80 Hz. Oculus stated that this was done to offset the increase in resolution in order to maintain the same required PC hardware specifications to run Oculus games properly.

As for the Quest's specs, it's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with storage options starting at 64 GB. Oculus states that the headset's resolution is 1600x1440 per eye on an OLED display with an overall refresh rate of 72 Hz.

Other notable improvements that come with the Oculus Rift S include the new head strap. It takes on a similar design to the PlayStation VR with a ring-like headband that's simply adjusted with a dial on the back. There is integrated audio on the headset so separate audio devices aren't necessary, but a 3.5mm audio jack still allows you to use your own headphones.

Oculus made it clear that the Rift S is not a "Rift 2" and instead a much better version of the original since it'll play all of the same games and live on the same ecosystem. The Quest's game library will differ due to the lower specs of the standalone headset; however, all Quest games will be playable on the Rift. More than 50 games will be available for Quest on launch day.

The Rift S and Quest headsets will launch sometime in Spring 2019 for $400.