The Ars VR headset showdown—Oculus Rift vs. HTC Vive
Our tale of the tape comparison makes a first-generation recommendation.
by Kyle Orland - Apr 11, 2016 5:00am PDT
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Just wait...
As impressed as we are with the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift, we’d still recommend you wait on a VR headset unless you have a rabid interest in VR. As the first generation of a largely unproven technology, both headsets have some major problems that need to be ironed out before they can appeal beyond early adopters.
For the Rift, the lack of hand-tracking is a major strike. It’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend a VR platform that currently can’t run killer apps like Audioshield, Job Simulator, Hover Junkers, Tilt Brush, and many others that use your hands to create an entirely new experience. The Touch controllers will eventually help Oculus on this score, but right now their quality and functionality (not to mention their release date and price) are big question marks. Add in the current issues with the Oculus platform itself, and there are clear reasons to wait at this early date.
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For the Vive, the clunky, downright uncomfortable design of the headset itself is a major issue. Being uncomfortable makes it hard to get lost in a VR experience for hours at a time. Like it or not, Oculus’ commitment to securing exclusive games could also cause some regret for Vive owners, even if none of the Oculus exclusives currently feel like must-have system sellers that we simply couldn’t live without.
Box designed by Apple in California (not really, but come on...).
To further complicate this decision, there’s PlayStation VR, a major competitor launching in October. If you don’t already have a powerful gaming PC, PSVR’s roughly $850 “all-in” price (which includes a PS4) will be hundreds of dollars cheaper than either the Rift or the Vive (if you’re already locked in on the idea of virtual reality on the PC, just ignore this paragraph). Sony’s platform will have its own hand-tracking controllers, its own set of exclusive games, and the support of developers big and small that Sony has been courting for years. We’ve been very impressed with Sony’s VR solution in multiple trade show demos over the years, and it’s hard to recommend jumping into the VR format wars before one major competitor is even available.
Right now, there are too many questions about how the VR platform wars will shake out to be fully comfortable locking in to any one system. You don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on what amounts to the Betamax of VR. Even if neither headset is a complete market failure, it's hard to know at this early date which one will attract the best exclusive software going forward.
More than that, both headsets are clearly first-generation products that will likely be surpassed by cheaper, higher-quality models relatively soon (and the underlying PC required to power these headsets will only get cheaper). Oculus told Ars in 2014 that the second consumer version of the Rift would be coming a year or two after the first. More recently, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said the hardware refresh cycle would be "somewhere between a phone and console.” Updated SteamVR headsets are no doubt in the pipeline as well from HTC or other manufacturers.
Investing in either the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift today is like buying a first-generation iPhone in the summer of 2007. On the plus side, you got to enjoy the iPhone and its many advancements over previous feature phones well before anyone else. On the downside, you had to buy the iPhone 3G a year later if you wanted features as basic as GPS and, um, the App Store (and you were locked out of the Android ecosystem). Who knows what we’ll see as lacking on these expensive first-generation headsets a year or two from today.
Put a virtual gun to our heads
The massive retail box is a hybrid between a glossy and matte black finish.
If you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably eager enough about VR to ignore our “just wait” advice (though remember, deliveries are currently backordered for months). If forced to pick one today, we’d have to go with the Vive. Comfort issues aside, the Vive’s handheld controllers just open up too many compelling and unique experiences that aren’t possible on the Rift. Plus, sit-down, traditional controller-style games available on the Rift can usually be enjoyed perfectly well on the Vive (even if specific exclusive games are and will be stuck on Oculus’ platform).
Yes, Oculus will have its own hand-tracking controllers relatively soon, but if you’re ignoring our advice and buying now, you obviously want the most interesting and all-encompassing VR experience available today. That’s what the Vive and its crucial controllers provide. It’s also worth remembering that those Oculus Touch controllers (and the extra tracking camera packaged with them) could easily cost $100 or more on their own, cutting into the Rift’s current $200 price advantage over the Vive.
If we could combine the Vive's platform and controller scheme with the paid-for exclusives and headset design of the Rift, we might have the perfect virtual reality headset for 2016. But as it stands, the Vive's positives outweigh its negatives slightly more than the Rift's.
