Facebook is currently selling the Oculus Rift S for $100 less than its usual price, taking the headset to $299. Maybe don’t jump straight at that offer.
This promotion is live now across Facebook’s official store and Newegg and is available in the UK Amazon store for £299 too. It’s a big discount for the PC VR headset, but there are several reasons you should consider holding off.
Oculus Rift S Sale Isn’t Such A Great Deal
For starters, while we do like the Rift S overall, the headset does have some key issues. It doesn’t have a way to physically adjust the lenses to suit your interpupillary distance (IPD), instead relying on a digital solution that limits how clear and comfortable the kit is for some people visually. The built-in audio solution is also pretty weak and the headset basically needs headphones or earphones for immersive sound.
Secondly, Facebook will soon stop selling the Rift S itself, so there’s not likely to be much platform support for the device moving forward. Facebook will continue to let developers release new titles on the Rift store (including the highly anticipated Facebook-published Lone Echo 2 and today’s launch of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond), but new platform updates are likely to be thin on the ground.
What’s more, $299 is the same price as the 64GB model of the Oculus Quest 2, Facebook’s new standalone/PC VR hybrid headset. Not only does Quest 2 let you play a library of games without any other hardware but, with the right USB-C cable, you can also plug it into a PC and play Rift and SteamVR content too with Oculus Link. Image compression is an issue, but Facebook continues to improve upon it. Quest 2’s screen resolution is also better than Rift S’s so, while the PC VR headset is more comfortable to wear, Quest 2 is otherwise the far superior device.
It is possible that we see further price reductions of the Rift S as stock continues to go, but even then we’d have to see the device fall significantly lower than Quest 2’s price for any deal to get our recommendation.
Will you be taking advantage of the Oculus Rift S sale or giving it a miss? Let us know in the comments below.
