ocuLUS RIFT
PROS
- Incredible, new experience
- Light and robust
- Simple setup
- Strong launch lineup
CONS
- Images could be sharper
- VR sickness an issue with some games
- No motion controls
- 1,200 x 1,080 resolution AMOLED screen for each eye
- Requires a powerful gaming PC
- XbThe future is here. You’ll hear that frequently from those discussing virtual reality – and in particular the Oculus Rift.
They’re not wrong. The Oculus Rift is undoubtedly the start of something truly special, a new form of machine interaction that sows the seeds for not only a gaming revolution, but a technological and social one too.
For more than two weeks using the Oculus Rift, I've immersed myself in awe-inspiring worlds and devoured every possible VR experience going. I've used it with a top-end PC as well as one that meets only the minimum specs, and I've compared the Rift against its main rival: the HTC Vive. I've lived in VR, and on the whole I've loved it.
The problems that remain shouldn't really put off any serious early adopters. If you have, or can afford, the hardware to run VR and have a desire to be at the cutting-edge of tech then the Oculus Rift certainly delivers; all others can afford to wait. This is a great start to the VR revolution.
Video: Watch our in-depth Oculus Rift vs HTC Vive comparison
GETTING STARTED IN VR
Oculus is aware that first impressions count, and this shows in the clever design of the carry case. Securely slotted in is the Oculus Remote, a head-tracking sensor on a slender stem, an Xbox One controller and, of course, the Rift headset itself.
Setting up the Oculus Rift is a breeze, but you'll need a reasonable amount of space to use the device – I found a swivel chair and a 1.5m x 1.5m space about right. Provided your PC is ready to go, you can be up and running within minutes of unpacking the box. Setting up the Vive, by comparison, is a more involved process – it took me well over an hour.
Oculus has done everything right when it comes to design, too. It's built a headset that's light yet robust, including decent integrated headphones that won't weigh you down. It’s good-looking, if a little austere, but it doesn't look or feel like a work in progress. It's ready.
The Oculus Remote is a nice addition, too. A lanyard keeps it on your wrist and you can easily control volume and move around menus. It’s not for gaming, but it's great for just sitting back and watching videos or trying out some of the many non-gaming VR experiences.
Its lightness and the remote may well be the biggest benefits the Oculus Rift has over its main competitor – the HTC Vive – which is a good 200 grams heavier. Spend a few hours using any VR headset and you'll quickly appreciate how being light and comfortable is high on the 'must-have' list of features. The Rift ticks both boxes.
It manages to keep external light out well too, thanks in part to my big head and nose. Some colleagues with smaller features found that light leaks in from the nose arch. It could do with an additional bit of foam for some users.
Since the Oculus Rift doesn’t weigh much, I’ve worn it for hours at a time without any discomfort – although that might change in warm weather when my head gets hot and sticky. On some occasions I donned the headset during the day and took it off after the sun had gone down. I had no idea how much time had passed.
Virtual reality is that entrancing. It isolates you entirely from the real world and envelops you in an imaginary one. At its best, VR is everything the hype claims it to be.
LIVING WITH OCULUS RIFT
The best place to start your Oculus Rift experience is not with a game but with Oculus DreamDeck – eight demos which give you a feel of what virtual reality is all about, two of which really stand out.
The first is a steampunk inspired cityscape. You stand at the top of a huge skyscraper and look around you to see the stunning vista – an impressive sight in its own right. Look down, though, and you experience the first way your mind can be tricked by virtual reality. Hundreds of feet below you are cars and tiny people going about their daily lives. The effect makes you take a step back so you don’t tumble into the abyss. Vertigo can feel very real in VR.
The second places you in a museum of natural history. A noise brings your attention to a long corridor from which a huge T-Rex comes hurtling towards you, stopping just in time to deliver a bellow, complete with globules of saliva, right in your face. You can almost feel the warm breath.
It’s brilliant to watch from the outside as well. One of the TrustedReviews team was physically cringing and shaking during his experience with the colossal carnivore.
Oculus Home, your portal into all the VR games and experiences available on the Rift, is full of nuggets like these. I particularly enjoyed the David Attenborough documentary accessed via Oculus Video, once again showing off the grandeur of dinosaurs in a way a TV never could. Ok, maybe I've got a thing for the extinct giants.
But gaming has always been the primary focus of the Oculus Rift and thankfully it doesn’t disappoint. There are 30 launch titles – that’s more than the Xbox One and PS4 started with – some of which are excellent.
Two come bundled with the Oculus Rifts: Lucky’s Tale and Eve: Valkyrie. Lucky’s Tale is a beautiful platformer that shows traditional games don’t just play well on the Oculus Rift, they’re enhanced by it.
The visuals are great and moving Lucky around his colourful surroundings and dispatching the cute bad guys with whips of his fluffy tail works brilliantly in real 3D.
The standout game for most, though, will be Eve: Valkyrie. This dogfighting sim in space has been in the works for years and the effort has paid off. I find myself spending hours at a time spinning through space, firing missiles and avoiding them – it is a perfect use of virtual reality, even though it took my brain a little while to get used to it.
This sort of immersive virtual reality isn’t like anything else I’ve experienced and it’s impossible to give anyone a realistic interpretation with words or even videos. It’s something that needs to be experienced first hand.
And if you think you know what the Oculus Rift can do because you’ve tried Google Cardboard or even Gear VR then you’re wrong. The Rift is on an entirely different planet to those fun, but predominantly passive experiences.
Related: Best Oculus Rift Games and Apps
As seminal and progressive as some moments with the Rift are, I was sometimes left wishing it was a little slicker, a bit more advanced.
It starts with the screens. A combined resolution of 2,160 x 1,200 looks good on paper, but you can’t help but notice the pixels when they're stretched just a few inches from your eyes and magnified by lenses. It’s worse on big swathes of a single, light, colour than during busy games, but there is a lack of sharpness to graphics, a hazy, diagonal, array that is particularly noticeable during more intense gaming experiences.
How much of an issue you find this depends on how much you value having such a huge field of view and, therefore, level of immersion. I can forgive the fuzzy edges for the all-round experience, others may not.
Attempting to take a picture through the lens makes it looks a lot worse than it is, but this image gives you an idea of the issue
Oculus Home is a little tricky to navigate, too. There’s no search, for example, so you have to try and find an engaging video or sort through your games library by flicking through menu after menu. It’s not too bad now, but the more content that becomes available the more difficult finding what you want will get.
The fact that every interaction you can have with the Rift is managed through Oculus Home via the remote or controller feels limiting. Within a few hours I was wishing there was another way to get things done. If there was ever a perfect use-case for voice control, like Siri or Cortana offers, then it’s for virtual reality, when your senses are otherwise engaged. The Rift does have an integrated mic so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that voice interaction is in the pipeline and the mic isn't just there for swearing at useless teammates.
You can’t use the Rift like a monitor, either, something you could do on developer versions using third-party apps.
It’s early days yet, though, and Oculus Home is a very solid start when you compare it to Steam, which was full of holes when it first launched. Steam is a powerhouse these days, but SteamVR does not properly support the Rift. I managed to get some applications to start but there's no way to control them. With Valve partnering with HTC to produce the Vive I don't see this changing any time soon. Unfortunately, the software isn’t the only thing that needs development.
Virtual Desktop is not yet available for the Rift
Virtual reality is best experienced with an input device suited to the task and an Xbox One controller isn’t ideal. It works brilliantly for Eve: Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale, but these are games that can also be played on a monitor or TV.
The HTC Vive comes bundled with a controller for each hand that lets you express yourself better in a virtual environment. You’re able to to see your hands and reach and grasp. More importantly you can aim and shoot, in different directions and at the same time if you want, as if you’re in a John Woo movie.
The Oculus Rift is already lagging a little as its vision of a VR specific controller, called Oculus Touch, won’t launch until the latter half of the year and we still don’t know how much it’ll cost.
Oculus Touch isn't launching for a few months yet
That doesn’t make the Vive better, just different. It’s heavier and a lot more complicated to set up – both headsets have their own strengths and weaknesses – but VR really needs a dedicated controller to unlock its full potential.
Related: Oculus Rift vs HTC Vive
The biggest issue with the Oculus Rift, though, isn’t one it suffers in isolation. Virtual reality sickness, a feeling of queasiness and disorientation, rears its nauseating head in spite of the huge strides Oculus has already taken to eliminate it.
Adr1ft, a game that put me in a similar predicament to Sandra Bullock’s in Gravity, made me feel physically sick. Moving around in zero-g made my head feel strange right away and after less than 20 minutes I had to remove the Rift and lie down for an hour.
My experience with Project Cars was even worse, Just five minutes of racing around a track and I had to stop, cold sweat on my brow and a waves of nausea pounding my stomach.
There are only a few games that seem to affect me adversely. They’re invariably first person and involve both forward and side-to-side motion combined with the ability to look around – anything with a fixed camera or where the player is in a stationary position is absolutely fine and I have also find myself becoming less easily affected the more I use the Rift.
This is a problem game developers and Oculus are aware of. There are three “Comfort” ratings given to games. A green square denotes a “Comfortable” experience, a yellow square a “Moderate” one and an orange diamond “Intense”. Intense denotes anything with complex movement and in my experience means you are more likely to feel a little off kilter.
Bottom line: you can thoroughly enjoy the Oculus Rift without playing intense games. Not one of my friends or colleagues who played Comfortable or Moderate games felt any ill effects at all. If this is still a worry for you then try and experience the Rift first hand before you buy it. Of course if you’re anything like me you’ll be hooked as soon as you give it a go.
HOW GOOD DOES YOUR PC NEED TO BE FOR VR?
You’ll need a PC that can handle the extreme demands of the Rift to help minimise some of its bigger issues.
The Rift has dual 1,080 x 1,200 pixel AMOLED screens, one for each eye, with a refresh rate of 90Hz. On top of that Oculus insists that games should run at a constant 90 frames per second (fps) to match the screens’ refresh rate.
Eve: Gunjack is the highest tech version of Space Invaders yet
Let’s just put that in a little context. 60fps is arguably the frame rate to aim for in multiplayer first-person shooters and you need a solid PC to run those on a Full HD monitor. You'll need roughly three times the GPU power for VR while retaining the same graphical fidelity, which is a big ask. Any gaming rig more than a year or so old probably needs an upgrade, and you can't simply add another card as the Rift doesn't support SLI or Crossfire configurations.
Related: Get your PC Oculus Rift ready
I used a couple of VR-ready PCs during testing and found that a minimum spec machine barely cut it. On top of frame drops that strained my eyes and made my brain fizz, I had to run some games at lower graphic settings. For that reason, I recommend going above the minimum system requirements, particularly in the GPU department. The Overclockers Titan Virtual Force PC I used is a great partner since it packs a powerful Nvidia GeForce GT X980 Ti graphics card, but make sure you go for a larger capacity SSD than comes as standard since, at the moment, all installations are forced onto the primary C: drive.
Video – Trusted Explains: What is VR?
SHOULD I BUY THE OCULUS RIFT?
For most people the cost of a top-notch PC and the price of the Oculus Rift will make it a hard sell. At $599 it’s not cheap, but to my mind it’s not expensive for a first-generation product either. And there’s one other small matter to consider – you can be one of the first to invest in what will become a tech revolution. It’s the ultimate product for the adventurous early adopter.
Deciding between the Rift and its competitors is tricky. Having spent several days with the HTC Vive Pre (that’s not quite the final version of the HTC Vive, but pretty close), I think the Oculus is the better experience if you're mainly interested in gaming. It's easier to setup and lighter, which lends itself to long sessions. The Vive offers more interesting and interactive casual experiences, but demands more space to get the most from it.
Even when the Rift feels awkward, like a teenager trying to get to grips with an ungainly growth spurt, its potential shines through. Once developers get to grips with VR, and Oculus releases its VR controllers, it could become an absolute must-have.
VERDICT
The Oculus Rift is a triumph for every tech head – this isn’t just a step towards the future, it is an almighty leap. It's by no means perfect, but it's already fulfilling a healthy fraction of its ultimate potential.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/oculus-rift-review#YDPDhjMy4eEPqwkp.99
SAMSUNG GEAR VR
One of the first things I tell people who try the Gear VR is to sit down, preferably in a swivel chair. Competing VR devices like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive need to be wired to a PC, offering up a glorious trek into imaginary virtual spaces, but limiting your movement in the physical world. There's no such limitation when a smartphone is powering the experience, so there's a temptation to stretch your legs and meander. This can prove comical for onlookers, but embarrassing for you. You'd think I'd learn by now that a rolling chair is just as dangerous as stumbling about in the dark, but when you're solving puzzles on far-flung islands, racing a go kart down colorful tracks or just blowing up spaceships that are charging from all sides...well, mistakes are made.
This year, we'll see at least three major new VR devices: the aforementioned HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, as well as PlayStation VR. I've tried them all, and -- yes -- they all offer a more powerful illusion, as you'd expect from something that's powered by a PC or PlayStation 4. But the Gear VR is the only one of the bunch you can take with you. And while it's not going to make me switch to a Samsung phone, it's an inexpensive, must-have purchase for existing owners of compatible Galaxy phones who are gamers itching for a glimpse at the future.
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Unless you've got a guide, I recommend sitting down.
Nate Ralph/CNET
The mobile VR experience
I'm of two minds about this whole mobile virtual reality thing. You'll look silly with a headset and smartphone strapped to your face, but it's far more approachable than devices like the Oculus Rift or the Vive, which require you to be tethered to a PC. And your smartphone is always with you: toss the Gear VR into a backpack, and your virtual escapades will follow you wherever you go. The Gear VR experience is tied to the hardware that's powering the experience, which is a nod in Oculus and Samsung's favor here. The new Gear VR is light and compact, which lends itself well to extended sessions spent strapped to your face. The original Gear VR only worked with the Galaxy Note 4. The Innovator Edition for the Galaxy S6 worked with the S6, and the S6 Edge. This time, you've got more options. The phones tuck into a docking port cryptically labeled "A" or "B" -- the 5.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ fit into A, and you'll need to slide the port over to B to fit the 5.1-inch Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. The Gear VR will also support the new Samsung Galaxy S7, and Galaxy S7 Edge.
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The Gear VR is only compatible with select new Samsung phones.
Nate Ralph/CNET
Once your phone is docked, the spring-loaded clasp on the opposite end of the headset will lock your phone into place and the Oculus app will fire up, dropping you into a virtual world. There's a TV set off to the side, some couches, and what looks like an infinity pool. You can look around in 360 degrees, but you can't actually interact with any of the stuff around you: you're just at the Oculus menu, where you'll pick the apps and games you want to check out.
The Oculus app on your phone is rendering a pair of images, side by side; when you look through the Gear VR's biconvex lenses, your brain is tricked into merging them into a single image. There's a focus wheel up on top of the headset that'll let you adjust the image until it's just right. I don't wear glasses, but my CNET colleague Scott Stein found that while the Gear VR Innovator Edition for the S6 didn't fit with glasses, it worked just fine once he'd adjusted the focus to his liking. The new Gear VR offers a far better fit for specs, but he found the goggles didn't fit as tightly, which led to fogging. And the focus wheel doesn't accommodate his "horrible vision" (-9) without glasses anymore, though it suited others well.
Pair the optical illusion with the motion sensors in the phone that track your head's movements, and you've got the fairly convincing illusion that you've been transported to an entirely new space -- the best games and apps will give you a compelling reason to stay there.
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The headset's lenses merge two images into one.
Nate Ralph/CNET
The phone you choose makes a difference, too: the Gear VR's latch mechanism means they'll all fit snugly, but the phones with a smaller display will have a slightly lower field of view. Conversely, the smaller devices have screens with a greater pixel density (577 pixels per inch versus 518 pixels per inch, on the larger phones), so you're going to find a slightly crisper experience there.
I spent most of my time trying Gear VR on the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+, and I didn't find the slightly lower pixel density problematic. The hardware was also well equipped to handle all of the experiences I threw at it, from fast-paced games to sedentary video experiences.
Most of the action in games and apps is handled by the touchpad on the right side of the device and looking around, and it works well enough. On the Gear VR the touchpad gets a few grooves, so it's shaped like the directional pad you'd find on a gamepad -- this makes it much easier to swipe in the direction you're looking for. There's also a little flat nub in the center so your fingers can always find their place while you're fumbling about in the dark.
A back button sits above the touchpad; it's been moved to the right just a smidgen, so it's easier to find than it was on the Innovator Edition. The simple, ski-goggle-like elastic bands on the side remain easy to adjust, and the vertical strap found on the Innovator Edition loses its plastic guard, which makes for a much more comfortable fit. It's also optional, so you can get rid of it if you don't want to mess up your hair.
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The touchpad and back button are your primary controls.
Nate Ralph/CNET
Developing all new experiences that rely on gaze and one hand will definitely be a challenge for developers, but some of the best games available in the Oculus Store are already doing a great job. You can always grab a Bluetooth controller for a more traditional approach -- I've been using the SteelSeries Stratus XL. The Gear VR doesn't support the sort of motion controls you'd find on more robust platforms, like the Oculus Rift's Touch controller, or the HTC Vive's wands, which is a bummer -- virtual reality feels far more immersive when you're going hands-on, but the mobile experience simply isn't there yet.
Gaming in VR is also obviously a bit different than your standard PC- or console-based fare, doubly so when you're gaming with a smartphone. A bluetooth headset is a must: the audio pumping out of your phone's speakers isn't nearly as engrossing as having the enclosed aural experience you'll get from a good set ofheadphones. I definitely recommend sitting in a swivel chair. The Gear VR doesn't offer support for the sort of head-tracking you'll find on the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, so you aren't going to be peering under or around anything.
You also won't be able to lean back or forward either, which can make certain experiences feel disjointed. Oculus Arcade is one example: it emulates the feeling of strolling into an arcade and playing classic games like Pac-Man or Sonic the Hedgehog, but you can't lean in to get closer to the arcade cabinets. And while the lack of wires technically means you're free to move, you'll probably just bump into things or people around you -- I have enough trouble figuring out where I am after spinning in circles on a chair.
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Ditch the vertical strap, if you'd like.
Nate Ralph/CNET
You'll want to make sure that the Gear VR is strapped firmly to your head: Samsung says it has improved the venting, but if the headset is at all loose things start to fog up rather quickly. Keep a microfiber cloth handy, too. The fingerprints and stray gunk that usually sits on our smartphone screens looks downright unsettling when magnified by the Gear VR's lenses. And do yourself a favor: turn on your phone's Do Not Disturb mode. I can't count the number of times I was fully immersed in a video or game, only to be ripped out into the real world by an instant message or text from a coworker or friend. Oh, keep a charger nearby too: VR will devastate your phone's battery life.
Playing in virtual worlds
Developers are still experimenting with VR's possibilities, which can lead to a lot of fun little experiences to discover. There are gems like Temple Gates Games' Bazaar, a simple magic carpet ride simulator that sees you coasting along a colorful world, exploring and picking up trinkets. But it quickly devolves into a nerve-wracking, item-juggling fiasco: fill your chest with gold and snacks, and you'll have no room to carry the shield you need to block projectiles, or a crossbow and arrows to fend off snakes. But now that you're armed to the teeth, your belly's rumbling because you're out of food, or you don't have a med kit to patch yourself up after that alligator got the drop on you. And you still need to save a spot for the key you need to unlock the exit.
Specifications
Processor: Octa-core 1.6GHz Samsung Exynos 7580, Screen Size: 5.1in, Screen resolution: 1,920x1,080, Rear camera: 16 megapixels, Storage (free): 16GB (11GB), Wireless data: 3G, 4G, Size: 142x73x8.1mm,Weight: 145g, Operating system: Android 5.1.1
There was much complaint in some quarters when Samsung moved its Galaxy range of phones to a sealed-body design. So rejoice lovers of removable storage and user-replaceable batteries for the company has launched a new Galaxy phone with both features. Well not quite, it would be fairer to say that Samsung has relaunched a phone with both those features, for this is the second-coming of the Galaxy S5, the Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo.
Now the S5 wasn't really the messiah of smartphones and we're not making any Matrix references here either. Instead it was a well received handset but largely unremarkable update in the popular flagship series and one that many are still using to this day.
The Galaxy S3 received the Neo treatment back in 2014. It's not exactly the same phone, and if you can find one it's not hugely cheaper than the original handset either. What Samsung is really doing here is extending the life of its S5 with this minor remix.
The Galaxy S5 Neo is still reasonably priced, though, costing just £300 SIM-free or £22-per-month on contract. However, at a time when the Nexus 5X costs exactly the same amount, not to mention the Galaxy S6's current price of £380 SIM-free or £28-per-month, the S5 Neo faces some pretty tough competition.
Design
What's more, now that Samsung's made a more or less complete transition to metal chassis for its Galaxy smartphones, it's astonishing how badly the S5's plastic frame, and textured plastic rear pane, have aged. The Neo admittedly drops the original S5's grooved design for a plainer, more pleasingly uniform look, but it's a long way short of its S6 cousins in terms of in-hand appeal.
Even Samsung's mid-range Galaxy A3 and A5 phones look smarter than the S5 Neo, but it still feels reasonably well-built, and the removable back cover and microSD card slot will no doubt be a big draw to those who felt snubbed by the S6's fixed storage and sealed-in battery. The microSD card is a particular boon for the S5 Neo, as the phone's default 16GB of storage only provides around 11GB to the user.
However, the S5 Neo isn't simply a re-skinned S5, as it's missing both the original's fingerprint scanner and a fast Micro USB3 port, instead opting for a conventional dedicated home button and Micro USB2 port. The fingerprint scanner isn't that much of a loss in my book, as it never worked particularly well in the first place, while I can't imagine many will bemoan the loss of faster, cabled data transfers either. It still has a heart rate scanner on the back, though, and its front-facing camera has been upgraded from 2 megapixels to 5.
Performance and Battery Life
Samsung released different versions of the S5 around the world, using both Exynos and Qualcomm chipsets; but from our point of view in the UK it's ditched Qualcomm's quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 chipset for one of its own octa-core 1.6GHz Exynos 7580 processors. The new chipset is 64-bit and uses a more up-to-date core design but it's still made using the older 28nm process, rather than the new, more energy efficient 14nm.
Perforamance is largely the same from this chipset as from the 2014 Snapdragon one, as its respective Geekbench 3 results of 724 and 3,547 in the single and multicore tests weren't too dissimilar from more recent Snapdragon 801 handsets I've tested such as the OnePlus X. The S5 Neo was around 200 points slower than the OnePlus X in the single core test, but nearly 1,000 points faster in the multicore, putting it on a level playing field with the newer Snapdragon 810-equipped Nexus 5X.
Its Peacekeeper score of 865 was also ahead of the OnePlus X, but web browsing could still occasionally be a little jerky when scrolling at speed. It's perfectly fine for leisurely browsing, but the Nexus 5X definitely pulls ahead in this instance.
The Exynos 7580's GPU isn't nearly as proficient as its Qualcomm rivals either, as it only managed a pitiful 287 frames (around 4.6fps) in the offscreen Manhattan 3.0 test in GFX Bench GL. The Nexus 5X, on the other hand, can produce a far more respectable 986 frames (or 16fps), leaving the S5 Neo feeling rather sluggish by comparison. 3D games such as Hearthstone were particularly jerky at times, but it never got to the point where it was completely unplayable, and simpler games like Threes played absolutely fine.
One thing that has been kept intact is its predecessor's incredible battery life. Its battery may only have a 2,800mAh capacity, but it lasted a massive 16h 27m in our continuous video playback test with the screen brightness set to 170cd/m2, making it the most enduring smartphone I've tested in the last year. It puts the Nexus 5X's ten hour battery life to shame, and it even overshadows the S6 and S6 Edge.
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