Oculus Rift and Touch Bundle

This is an absolute steal at £399!! I paid £800 for mine (bought Rift and Touch seperate at release) and I don't feel like I was ripped off!!

If you're even considering this, jump in now! You won't regret it!! Just make sure you're PC can run Rift first (there is an app on their site that will test your PC config to see if it is capable/compatible for running Rift).

*I am a verified purchaser but it has me listed as such on the two separate product pages, rift and touch skus, rather than here for some reason even though I bought this bundle deal - see links to those at end of review*

I've owned them all. I had DK2 first (Oculus) way back when things were still early. Then I bought Vive at launch, was one of the first to get it in the UK in fact. I sold it a month later as it wasn't good enough for the very high price. Had terrible ergonomics and lousy sweet spot. In some ways it was an upgrade from DK2 (of course esp the great tracking and the motion controls) but in other ways it felt like just another dev kit.

Then to fill the gap while waiting for Gen 2 (initially ignoring rift at the high price and lack of touch controls) I bought PSVR (I can also leave a 'verified purchase review' there if anyone doubts) which was actually really cool in some ways. Nice ergonomics (mostly), cheap, decent lenses, good screens (if not a little low res) but overall I wasn't happy with it because the tracking was really bad, the controls (move wands) weren't that good and the software was limited to whatever Sony allowed.

Now comes the Rift, bought while on offer at £399 but even £499 (which it will be going up to soon) is a bargain when taken in context of ALL the competition. I had pretty much sworn off Gen 1 VR after the others and was going to wait for gen 2 (which may be some time now it turns out) but at this price I knew what utter value it was, even if I treated it as an imperfect Gen 1 'dev kit'. The controllers and two sensors alone are 'worth' £300 of anyone's money vs the competition's prices, which leaves the HMD for just £100? WOW!.

So I wasn't expecting rift to be as good as it is, after Vive and PSVR had tainted me. I was wrong. It is extremely comfortable when adjust right (and left set - no need to readjust each time as you can pull it free using the spring loaded sides not the straps), it's the lightest of the 3, it's the comfiest of the 3 (even over PSVR which had head weight issues though was comfy on the face). Best of all with rift is the sheer quality of the product, including the controllers, and even the (old sku) packaging (the separate boxes which puts the rift in a lush high quality case - note new orders will get the all in one cardboard box with touch packed into the same box but don't let that you put you off). The feel, the fit and finish, the built in headphones, the touch controls, even the cable itself are all much nicer, higher quality and feel better to use than either Vive or PSVR.

To be more technical for a moment, the actual 'in game' view on the rift is by far the best quality out there yet. It is the sharpest, the least SDE, the highest 'sweet spot' (my eyes never leave the focus area unlike Vive where they were constantly seeing blurred edges), it has the best blacks, the fastest performance (ASW helps on low end systems), and by far the best software. Oculus home may be basic vs steam but it is slick and works every time. I've had a ton of issues and crashes with Steam VR (both in Vive and now Rift).

The god rays in rift are there but I find them far less annoying than the rings that would light up on the lenses of the Vive (PSVR has no god rays but doesn't compete elsewhere with the PC stuff).

FOV is pretty comparable between all 3, even though it's technically vive > rift > psvr. Its such small differences that its more about 'feel' of FOV at this point rather than numbers, and to me the rift is great here. It FEELS natural when I put it on. I forget about the sides/FOV and focus on the VR world. In Vive, while it does allow a little more top and bottom it's like a giant circle which I always found off putting and 'fake'. Give me the rift FOV shape any day. Also because it has a slight reduction on FOV this is why Rift is so much sharper than Vive even at the same res, because Rift has cleverly packed more pixels into the centre where your eyes look most of the time. It gives the impression the rift is running on higher res than the vive! The SDE is far reduced on Rift and feels smooth and uniform, not overly pixely. On Vive it was quite obvious little thought had gone into combatting SDE.

Note this is not a 'fanboy' review so I'll appreciate it if there are no fanboy comments. It's an honest review on the differences between systems, I've put my money where my mouth is and bought and used each one before finding these things out. I'm not just repeating this from others on the net. Bear than in mind. Hopefully this may help anyone on the fence.

Oh and one last thing, you may hear how Vive is worth double the amount because it's so called 'premium system' but believe me it's not. When it was the only one with proper controls and great tracking? sure, but rift has those too now and way more besides and actually feels premium quality inside and out (and in game). Don't be fooled by that price difference. HTC Vive doesn't have the financial clout to sell as cheaply as rift, the low price of rift is NO reflection on its quality. It's at least twice as good as Vive objectively in all ways that count for VR (except tracking where Vive is king of the hill but rift is no slouch).

And remember, to enjoy VR you'll want to actually put it on daily without dreading it, Rift allows that. Vive didn't. I would avoid wearing Vive as it was very clunky (even with the new DAS strap it still can't match Rift + that strap costs another £100 on top of the Vive's already high price).

This price is great, believe me you are getting the best of the best for half the price of the rival.

Links to my separate product page reviews (Rift and touch) showing my links back to this main review as 'verified purchaser':

Rift: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R2MYE3PWO1N6MI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00ZFOGHRG
Touch: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2TL90WGRA1P9S/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Had a Rift for over a year, and touch since it was released. This is by far the best gaming related purchase I have ever made. About 80% of my gaming time in the last year has been spent in VR. Can't recommend enough

The ease of use and content store will make this bundle worth the price. Not to mention access to all the Steam VR content. It's not the high specs you need but what content available and Oculus have delivered that. I had Gear VR, then Rift money well spent.

Warning!!!! This product is the nuts and a steal at £399 but be aware, if your pc only meets the minimum requirements, forget it as most of the games, especially Elite Dangerous will fry your machine like a crispy piece of bacon! ;)

Id recommend the following for an excellent experience,

GTX 1060 gpu
Intel i7 7720 Quad core CPU