If you want something in everyone’s hands, the best and sometimes only way to do it is to make it affordable. Unless you’re Apple, of course. And to realise Facebook CEO and Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of getting one billion people in VR, Oculus has done just that with their brand new standalone headset, the Oculus Go.
Standalone virtual reality headsets are perhaps an inevitability when it comes to this immersive technology. Although, you shouldn’t confuse the Oculus Go with the company’s more advanced prototype Santa Cruz because the Oculus Go doesn’t have inside out tracking or fully tracked motion controllers.
It’s a lot more similar to something like the Oculus Gear VR, only you don’t need a smartphone as everything is self-contained. It even has spatial audio built into the headset and a pair of new lenses in front of a 2560×1440 fast-switch LCD screen. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can use this device with headphones if you want.
Remember how we said it was similar to the Gear VR? It’s actually really similar to the Gear VR because their apps are binary compatible and they share the same controller input set. Oculus says that this means that the developers who are building for Gear VR are already building for Oculus Go.
Beyond that, there aren’t too many details surrounding this headset as Oculus is set to reveal more about it next year. One thing the Facebook-owned company has revealed, though, is its price and that’s set for USD199 (around RM840).