Facebook’s first party 5 meter Oculus Link Cable is now available to purchase.
UPDATE Jan 8: The Link Cable is now ships to all 22 countries Facebook ships Oculus Quest to, including Europe.
Oculus Link is the feature (currently in beta) which lets the Oculus Quest act as a PC VR headset via any high quality USB 3.0 cable. This gives Quest owners who own a gaming PC access to the Oculus Rift library and SteamVR.
However, as far as we’re aware there are no compatible third party cables longer than 3 meters- unless you use extenders of course.
The official cable was announced alongside the feature itself at Oculus Connect 6, with Facebook stating that it would arrive later this year. Until now, Quest owners using Link have been using third party cables, such as the officially recommended Anker product.
Unlike most USB cables which are copper, the Link Cable is actually fiber optic. It’s apparently capable of carrying the full 5 Gbit/s of the USB 3.0 spec over 5 meters, as well as 3A of power so the Quest is charged while in use.
So why would you want this cable over regular USB cables with extenders? USB 3.0 extension cables tend to be relatively thick and heavy. Fiber is around half the weight of copper, and more flexible too. This makes it more suitable for a VR cable- especially for room scale gaming.
You also don’t need to worry about finding the right combination of cables and extenders, as some USB 3.0 products on Amazon simply don’t work.
Will you be purchasing the official Link Cable, or will you be using a third party solution? Let us know in the comments below!
This article was originally published December 23 2019.
