Oculus claims Oculus Go’s battery will last between 1.5 – 2 hours when running games. Watching videos should do a little better, lasting between 2 – 2.5 hours, according to a fact sheet Oculus sent along with a Go review unit.
The motion controller that comes with the headset uses one AA battery (included in the box), though we don’t know how long it takes to get through that just yet. David Jagneaux noted in his testing for the Oculus Go review that nearly half of Go’s battery was depleted after an hour of switching between apps like Rooms and Bigscreen.
Oculus also estimates that it takes around three hours to charge Go back up fully, and the company doesn’t recommend charging and using the headset at the same time.
“Using Oculus Go while it’s charging is not an ideal experience as it prevents you from moving your head and fully engaging in VR,” an Oculus spokesperson wrote in an email.
That makes sense, but on long-haul flights you could be guaranteed not to move around too much in your seat. In that case, would a battery pack sitting on your tray table be your ticket to a private video binge that lasts the whole flight?
Regardless, we still say the Go is an “excellent” VR headset in our review, perfect for anyone that doesn’t already own a Gear VR or a more powerful device.
