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The stand-alone VR headset market just got bigger with Facebook’s new Oculus Go

Kevin Parrish
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oculus go 199 is a stand alone vr headset running galaxy gear apps
Oculus Go
Oculus Go
Oculus Go
Oculus Go
Oculus Go
Oculus Go
Oculus Go
Oculus Go
Oculus Go
During the Oculus Connect 4 keynote on Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the company is currently working on a stand-alone VR headset called Oculus Go. Similar to the upcoming stand-alone “Daydream” headset initiative from Google and Qualcomm, you won’t need a smartphone to experience virtual reality. You also won’t need to tether the headset to a parent PC like Facebook’s premium VR headset, the Oculus Rift.

According to Zuckerberg, Oculus Go will ship in early 2018 for $199. He didn’t reveal anything else outside the brief tease, but Facebook’s head of VR Hugo Barro came out on stage to provide a few more details about the upcoming stand-alone VR product. He said it targets that sweet spot between high-end and mobile so you can get a tether-free, device-free full-motion VR experience without breaking the bank.

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Oculus Go

For starters, Oculus VR designed the headset to be super lightweight, and provide soft elastic straps with high adjustability, so you can forget about them once you dive into a virtual experience. The faceplate also consists of a new mesh fabric that’s breathable for an extremely comfortable fit. The remaining shell and front appear built from hard plastic to protect the components within.

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Oculus Go

On the hardware front, Barro wasn’t exactly forthcoming. But he did spend some time talking about the viewing experience, which relies on next-generation versions of the custom lenses used in the Oculus Rift. He said these lenses provide the same field-of-view and significantly-reduced glare as the Rift versions. They’re also backed by a “fast-switch LCD screen” packing a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution, and a higher pixel fill rate than an OLED screen can allegedly accomplish. This resolution promises a reduced screen-door effect for sharper text and cleaner images.

But that’s not all: Oculus Go will sport integrated spatial audio. That means if you see a virtual dog barking in the corner of your left eye, the sound will stem from the dog’s direction. Turn to look directly at the animal, and the barking source will move with the dog as it centers in your view. Barro said your friends and family will be able to hear the audio too, without wearing a headset.

Oculus Go

Finally, Barro said that Oculus Go is binary compatible with Samsung’s Gear VR. That means the Android-based apps you purchased for Samsung’s smartphone-based VR headset will work with Oculus Go right out of the box. That also gives us a clue as to what’s inside Oculus Go, considering Samsung’s Galaxy-class smartphones rely on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, or its own in-house Exynos chips.

Qualcomm actually provides a developer kit for stand-alone VR headsets based on its Snapdragon 835 processor. It includes dual front-facing cameras for tacking your position in the real world, which rely on a separate processor that handles the motion-tracking. This frees up the Qualcomm chip to deal with the processing and graphics rendering of the virtual experience.

Barro said that developer kits for Oculus Go will be made available in November. Given that it will be compatible with Gear VR apps, it will already have a large library of experiences right out of the box. A retail version of the Oculus Go will arrive in early 2018.

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Topics
Oculus Quest vs. Oculus Go
The Oculus Quest and Go both let you play without a PC, but which is better?
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Since the debut of its very first Oculus Rift prototype, Oculus VR has been making virtual reality more accessible. Following on from the Gear VR, it released the Oculus Go in mid-2018 and will follow it up with another standalone headset in 2019, called the Oculus Quest. Both require no additional hardware to operate and have much lower price tags than some of the VR competition, but which is better? We pitted the Oculus Quest vs. Oculus Go, to find out.
Design
VR headset development has improved in recent years and both the Oculus Go and Oculus Quest reflect that. They have different color schemes, but both offer a smooth exterior with no obvious sensor bumps or dips like the HTC Vive. We found both to be comfortable to wear over extended periods, with enough space for various face shapes and sizes. However, we did note some light bleed at the base of the Go's padding, which meant that it was often more immersive to use in a darkened room.

Although the head mounting mechanisms and cushioning of both headsets are pretty comparable, there is a noticeable difference in weight. Where the Oculus Go weighs the same as the Oculus Rift -- around 470 grams -- the Oculus Quest with its additional sensors and internal hardware, weighs in at 100 grams heavier. Oculus is reportedly still fine-tuning it, and it didn't cause any difficulties for us in terms of comfort, but it may become more of a factor for longer play sessions.

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Oculus ‘Santa Cruz’ VR headset may arrive in the first quarter of 2019
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Facebook and Oculus may formally introduce a mid-tier VR headset during the Oculus Connect 5 conference on September 26 and 27. This is an assumption based on a response regarding the “Santa Cruz” headset that sources now claim will arrive in the first quarter of 2019. An Oculus representative wouldn’t comment on the rumor, but instead said “OC5 will be really exciting.”

There’s really no big secret regarding the Santa Cruz headset, except for when it actually hits the market. Oculus confirmed with Digital Trends in March that the headset would serve as a mid-tier product nestled between the high-tier Oculus Rift and the low-tier Oculus Go. It won’t be tethered like the Oculus Rift nor will it be limited to head movements like the Oculus Go.

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Leaked docs show Google may be cooking up a stand-alone AR headset
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With Google's first stand-alone Daydream VR headset now available on the market via the Lenovo Mirage Solo, the company is now reportedly cooking up a design for a stand-alone augmented reality (AR) headset. That means the headset renders virtual objects, notifications, and more in your view of the real world, enabling services like visual directions as you walk through a city, product placement in your home prior to purchasing furniture, and more. 
According to leaked documents, the AR headset is internally known at Google as the A65. It may be powered by a custom Qualcomm QCS603 processor designed for Internet of Things devices packing two "gold" cores clocked at 1.6GHz (Cortex A-75), two "silver" cores clocked at 1.7GHz (Cortex-A55), and an Adreno 615 graphics component. It supports a maximum resolution of 2,560 x 1,440, up to 720p video capture at 60 frames per second and up to 1080p at 30fps. 
The specifications also show that Qualcomm's chip supports OpenGL, OpenCL, and Vulkan graphics. Neural processing is baked right in supporting artificial intelligence through Qualcomm's Neural Processing Engine and Google's Android Neural Networks application programming interfaces. Other components include Wireless AC connectivity at 867Mbps, Bluetooth 5.1, and GPS. What's missing is a 4G LTE or 5G cellular component. 
The documents also show that Google may opt for the Qualcomm QCS605 processor instead. This chip packs two "gold" cores clocked at 2.50GHz, six "silver" cores clocked at 1.7GHz, and the Adreno 615 graphics component. It supports up to 4K video capture at 60fps, up to 5.7K video capture at 30fps, and up to 1080p video capture at 60fps. Camera-wise, it can handle two 16MP cameras or a single 32MP camera whereas the QCS603 chip supports two 16MP cameras or a single 24MP camera. 
Google's AR headset is supposedly in its early stages. The documents show that the company began discussing the project with partners at the beginning of the year, including Taiwanese manufacturer Quanta. This latter company is said to be working on a project with AR headset provider Meta called the A66. Given that Meta's current $1,495 Meta 2 AR headset tethers to a PC, the company's A66 project could be a high-resolution PC-bound version of whatever Google is cooking up with its A65 project. Think Oculus Rift vs. Oculus Go, but in AR form. 
Google entered the AR market once before with the ill-fated Google Glass. Appearing as a pair of spectacles, it presented virtual information in your field of view via a small display mounted in front of your right eye. The device is still in use in the enterprise market, but Google pulled the product from mainstream availability due to privacy concerns over the embedded camera. 
Meanwhile, Microsoft is seemingly spearheading the AR headset market with HoloLens. It doesn't require a tethered PC, and thus relies on a battery lasting up to three hours of active use. Vuzix is a major AR headset player, too, and just introduced its Blade smart glasses to the mainstream market in January. Apple and Samsung are reportedly working on AR-based devices as well. 

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