We’ve tested a new USB 3.1 cable from PartyLink that’s almost as long as the official 5 meter Oculus Link cable but priced less than half as much.
PartyLink sent us a pair of the sample cables to test and we were able to get both working with the Oculus Link Beta. We should note, however, the PartyLink cables only worked on a PC we tested via the USB-C port on an RTX 2080 graphics card. The PartyLink cable would not launch Rift apps with the other USB-C port on the PC. That’s a bummer because the official Oculus Link cable works connected to either USB-C port on the same PC. In addition, the port on the graphics card doesn’t seem to pass along power to the Quest when the PC is in sleep mode while that is possible from the other USB-C port. In other words, I won’t be able to charge my Quest in sleep mode with the PartyLink cable from the same port I use to play Oculus Rift apps.
Reviews on Amazon from verified buyers are also reporting some issues getting the PartyLink cord to work with their PCs. A PartyLink representative said it does not work in some PCI-E cards. So we urge some caution if considering the PartyLink cable, and be ready to send it back if it doesn’t work for you. The cable is priced at $30 at the time of this writing, though it launched at around $38. The official 5 meter cable is priced at $79 and unavailable through the official website at the time of this writing. Amazon is listing a 1 to 2 month backorder for the official cable from Facebook. Given the lack of availability of the official cord, we thought we should pass along our experience testing this new PartyLink cable. It is in stock as of this writing and, in November, we successfully tested a 3 meter cable from the same company paired with an extender.
Also, although the PartyLink cable is advertised as 5 meters long we measured it against the official cable from Facebook and found the PartyLink cable measures around 0.13 meters (5 inches) shorter than the more expensive option. Although we didn’t weigh both cords, the Facebook cable also appears to be slightly lighter.
