Meta Quest 2 Review - 6 Months Later

The meta Quest two , formerly known as the Oculus Quest Two is the most popular wireless V R headset on the market today and one of the most affordable at $299 .

But what exactly do you do with the Quest Two ?

Once you get one , what are its best features ?

Are there any downsides with getting a Quest two ?

And then does the novelty of the Quest Two S V R experience ?

Does that wear off after six months enough to make it ?

So getting one in the first place isn't really worth it .

Well , I'm going to answer all of those questions and more .

And first , let's start with that last one while the novelty with the Quest Two for me has worn off a bit over the past six months .

I'm surprised to say that I've actually been using it about 2 to 3 times a week over the course of six months .

Simply because the Quest Two offers an immersive experience like no other device I currently own and it has a fitness component to it as well , which makes playing a game on it a great way to take a break .

And get my heart rate up .

So , yes , I do think the Quest Two has been worth it .

Now , what exactly do I mean by an immersive experience ?

Well , for those who are unfamiliar with V R , which stands for virtual reality , when you put on a V R headset , like the Quest Two , its screens will take up your entire field of view .

You can look around down , up anywhere you want and you're entirely immersed in whatever the display is showing you .

So game characters are now in their true to life height .

So when Darth Vader , for example , started walking towards me in the Vader Immortals game , I got this feeling of holy .

This guy is tall and picking up a light saber in V R and wielding it like a Jedi .

It's , it's as close as I've ever felt to what being a Jedi would actually feel like now the Quest Records videos by default in a 1 to 1 ratio and not in four K plus the footage you see of V R games is going to look a little bit more shaky because it's capturing these slight hand and head movements as you play the game , which is not really how it looks when you have the headset on .

Everything is pretty smooth most of the time .

So just keep that in mind as you look at this footage I've captured .

Now , visuals are only half the story with the quest too sound and their controllers make up the other part of the V R experience .

The Quest is speakers built into the headset that emit sound just outside of your ears .

So they're obviously not noise canceling or anything like that .

But for what they are , they're actually pretty decent , decent enough to the point where I haven't felt the need to rush out and go buy a dedicated set of headphones which a few companies like logit make for the quest too .

The sound on the Quests headset isn't going to produce a ton of bass , but it's clear and crisp .

And most importantly , it's 3D sound .

So just like spatial audio with Apple device and 3D sound for Sony's headsets for the playstation five , which by the way , we have also done a long term review of .

So if you want to see videos like that , make sure you subscribe to the channel and check out the link in the description below .

For that review .

The quests 3D audio can make it sound like something is coming up behind you .

And that specific ability helps keep you even more immersed in what you're doing on the quest .

The controllers for the quest are what allows you to interact with the 3D virtual world that you're immersed in .

Whether that's wielding a light saber or picking up objects with the multiple triggers , buttons and joy cons found on each controller .

They allow you to do quite a bit and each controller is powered by a single AA battery and the battery life has lasted me throughout the six month testing period and I've only just now started to see notifications in the quest to replace the batteries for the controllers .

And I like that when you have the headset on , it's easy to the battery level of the controllers either in settings or just by looking down at your controllers .

The quest will generate a virtual version of your physical controller with the battery level of each controller displayed on top of them .

Now , I did run into an issue with my right controller over the past six months after it accidentally slid off my couch onto the hardwood floor .

And I noticed that the battery compartment door developed this creaky noise which is super annoying when you're playing .

Luckily , there is an easy fix for that .

I just folded up a piece of paper multiple times , wedged it into the battery compartment and that eliminated the issue .

And speaking of battery life for the Quest two headset , it's rated for 2 to 3 hours of battery life .

And typically in my testing , I've seen closer to two hours and for gaming device that battery life may seem a bit short .

And when I first used the quest , I did run out of battery one or two times , but that was mainly because the headset was new and V R is one of the coolest experiences I've ever had with a piece of technology .

So when I first got this headset , I was using it a ton .

But as the weeks went on , I found I was using the quest in more short 30 to 45 minute bursts .

Because by that point , I'll likely be at risk of breaking a sweat or I'm tired or just want to give my eyes a rest depending on what you're doing with your headset .

Like if you enable the 120 Hertz option , the headset can run a bit warm , which is going to cause you sweat faster and speaking of sweat , if you're planning to share your headset with others in your home or just in general , I think it's worth it to install the rubber standard facial interface on the headset to prevent sweat from seeping into the foam cushion .

Now , you can develop motion sickness with this headset .

And again , it all depends on what you're actually doing with the quest too .

A bit of advice here though , if you do develop any motion sickness or you feel nauseous with the headset on immediately , take it off .

Trust me , you do not want to try to push through , it will only get worse and it's going to make you feel nauseous for the rest of the day if you don't take the headset off immediately .

And this is why I will typically stick to experiences with the quest to where I am just standing up .

I'm stationary and things like in Beat Saber are just moving at me .

I find those experiences I don't develop motion sickness with versus other experiences where you're on like a virtual plane or roller coaster or you're having to turn your head and really move around a space a lot .

Those are the experiences where I've found I get more emotion sick .

Overall , I'd say the Quests headset is in terms of comfort , uh pretty OK , like I can put this on 30 45 minutes easily and it's perfectly comfortable even though this thing actually doesn't weigh that much .

Uh There's still probably some room to take some of the weight out of it that would help with overall comfort , especially if you're playing uh for a long time .

And another thing that they did to make it even more comfortable for players is they include a glasses spacer that you can insert into the headset .

It's pretty easy to install .

You just pull off the black plastic headset part , then insert the glasses spacer and then put the black plastic headband piece back in meta .

Did a really good job making the quest too easy to set up .

I was surprised at how smooth the tracking of the controllers and the 3D effects were .

The joy cons on the controllers were intuitive to use to set up Wi Fi on the headset and the controllers overall are very responsive right .

Now .

The next question I had when I got this headset and Yes , I know .

It still looks goofy .

That's why I put it back on for your entertainment .

The next question I had is OK .

I'm ready to play V R .

How do I keep myself from crashing into the TV ?

Well , Meta , of course , thought of this and developed the guardian boundary system which basically allows you to tell the headset where the floor is and paint the space where you want to play in on your floor and boom , you're good to go .

Meta has also released a recent feature that allows you to mark the walls and furniture in your room .

But I found when you do this , it will cause the quest to , to be a bit more laggy than you want .

So I've turned that feature off and I just use the room skill guardian boundary , which allows you to just move around the space that you select .

You also have the option to choose a stationary boundary as well .

And you can even mark your real couch to be part of your guardian play area .

So you'll be able to find your couch in V R with the headset still on and sit down on it , which is pretty useful if you want to do things like browse the game store or watch a youtube video in V R .

I was also surprised to find out that not only will the quest to save your guardian boundary , but let's say you walk into another room where you have one saved , it'll bring up that one as well , which is pretty impressive and it's easy to get your bearings in your room with pass through mode .

You just double tap the right part of the headset to turn on the moves cameras so you can see around your room .

So that's a little bit about how the quest works .

But what exactly can I've been using it for over the past six months .

Well , I've used it mainly for gaming .

I found the quest to , to be a great device to get my heart rate up playing a game like beat Saber where your controllers will become light sabers that you use to slash through boxes , time to music .

It gets my heart rate up .

It's fun and it keeps me coming back to the quest every week .

The quest even has a calorie burn overlay which you can turn on and when you look up in V R , it'll tell you how many calories you've burned .

And you can see a calorie burn goal in the Oculus Move app and enable notifications to get notified in game when you've hit that goal .

And there are a lot of fitness games that allow you to do even more like supernatural .

For example , one of the most popular which allows you to do boxing meditation and a similar saber game to beat saber , but it costs $20 a month , which is why I've stuck with a game like Beat Saver , which still gets my heart rate up .

You do have to pay to unlock songs with Beat Saber , but there's no monthly subscription .

The quest can also be quite fun when you have people over as well .

It's easy to cast footage of what the person is seen on the quest headset to a chrome cast enabled TV , right from within the share menu on the quest .

Plus I've been told it's hilarious to watch me flail around my arms with the headset on .

So what do you think ?

Let me know the comments , how ridiculous you think it looks having the quest headset on now to share to an Apple TV or another display using Apple's airplay .

That's a bit more involved .

You'll have to cast your iphone and then screen mirror the iphone through airplay to stream the footage on an airplay display like my Apple TV .

Though I've noticed the performance you get on the TV is significantly worse compared to casting directly from the headset to the TV .

And if you are interested in upgrading your own TV , streaming experience , check out the links in the description below to reviews we've done on the chrome cast with Google TV , and the Apple TV , four K .

So those are the killer apps that have kept me coming back to the quest over the past six months .

But what about downsides ?

I've actually found quite a few first .

I was kind of surprised there aren't that many free trials of games .

So in order to try a game , you're typically gonna need to purchase it .

And then for whatever reason , if you don't like it , you can return that game within a three day return window .

As long as you've played less than 30 minutes of that game , there are quite a few free games and experiences on the quest thankfully , but there are a lot of games that I want to try out , but I'm not sure I would want to plunk down 30 dollars on right away .

All games are purchased through the Quest store .

But because the Quest Two S OS is a forked version of Android , you can side load apps onto it through apps like side quest .

I'm also surprised meta hasn't released any sort of Wiss bundle like game with a bunch of different cool sports games to try out in V R I .

I think that would be really smart .

Another downside with the Quest Two is you currently still need a Facebook login to use the device .

However , the company has announced this will no longer be the case come August 2022 when you'll be able to sign up for meta accounts , bypassing Facebook accounts altogether , and you'll be able to create multiple meta accounts , which historically has been something that's been very difficult to do with the Facebook account requirement .

Now , the last downside I found with the Quest two is actually a downside for all of V R and that you're going to need space to be in V R , which often will involve moving furniture if you're in a semi cramped department apartment .

So depending on how much space you have , this could be a huge deal or no issue at all .

So that's been my experience with the quest to over the past six months and what I've used it for .

And overall , I think this is a pretty good product for the money , even for me where I only play a couple of games on it , which I should point out isn't outside the norm for me .

I do the exact same thing with my playstation five .

And heck , I've even spent like $1300 on a gaming PC just for a single game City Skyline .

So I may be a bit atypical when it comes to the way I game .

But the Quest two over the past six months , it's kept me coming back time and time again because of the immersive experiences it can give you and no other product on the market today can deliver the experiences the Quest two can at this price .

All right .

So who do I think this device is for ?

The Quest two is kind of the next generation of the Nintendo Wii playstation move and xbox connect the quest two is basically the next generation of that type of experience , but way more immersive now .

Yes , it's not as good for multiplayer when all of the players are physically in the same room , maybe we'll get there one day with V R .

But right now , since each headset costs 2 $99 it's a bit cost prohibitive to try to do that .

The quest two is also a great preview of future V R technology and experiences .

And after spending six months with the meta Quest two , I'm more enthusiastic about V R and its potential than I was before .

I got the headset .

I think V R will eventually just be great at these four categories , gaming , fitness , entertainment , and social .

In the short term .

Today , I think there are two killer applications for the quest and those are gaming and fitness .

And this is likely the area where you're going to see competing headsets from Apple and Sony come in .

Sony's playstation V R two will likely just be gaming focused , but Apple is the one to watch and see if they can do what the quest two does .

But better .

The only caveat with that headset is it's likely going to cost 3 to 4 times as much as the quest two as for social experiences .

There's the horizons world app that's free and allows you to hang out with people from all around the world and play games .

But overall , I'd say it's still very early days for that type of experience .

As for entertainment , you can download the youtube V R app onto the quest , sit down on your couch and watch youtube on a virtual big screen .

And this was honestly the most surprising thing I found with the Quest Two and V R in general .

This technology isn't actually that far off from being able to supplant the big screen experience you get in a movie theater , minus the audience .

Of course , watching footage from Top Gun Mavericks trailer on the big screen .

It felt so similar to how watching the actual movie felt when I was watching it in a theater , I think Meta or Apple or whoever else out there is making a headset just needs some a headset that's a bit lighter , more comfortable to wear for long periods of time , like the duration of a movie or a binge watch and then they need to make the headset have a retina display .

So the resolution is better and it actually looks like you're looking at a four K screen or better and then be able to pair that headset with noise , canceling over the air headphones that are comfortable and have spatial audio and boom , you've got a big screen experience in V R with fantastic surround sound .

Now , if you've used a V R headset like the Quest Two or another headset or you own a V R headset like the Quest two , let me know down in the comments , what you think the future of V R is going to be .

Now as we release this video in mid 2022 .

If you're looking at getting a Quest Two , you can use the purchase links here in this video to learn more .

The next generation Quest Three isn't expected for at least another year .

Now , meta is supposed to announce a high end headset by the end of 2022 that might be called the Quest Pro and that's supposed to feature new A R and face tracking capabilities , new controllers , improved graphics and come with a higher resolution display .

But it's likely going to cost more than $1000 .

If you've got the money to spend and want better V R hardware , it might be worth it to wait for this headset to come out .

But for the average user , I think that's just looking to get into V R .

I think you're still better off going with a quest too .

Now , if you have any further questions about the quest to leave them in the comments below and we'll answer them there and while you're down there , hit that thumbs up button .

If you liked this video and found it helpful and subscribe to the channel for more long term reviews of tech products and gaming products like this one .

And if you're looking for what to watch next , check out some of our other long term reviews of gaming hardware , like our review of the Sony playstation five , which you can get to by clicking on the video to my right for six months later , I'm Josh Tedder .

Thanks for watching .