Product rating for Meta Rift S

andybaecher

6 years ago • purchased this product

+7

10

3

purchased this product

Clear buy recommendation - Despite some compromises

For the price, you get a really successful product, that's for sure.

I was sceptical about the inside-out tracking, whether the controller's tracking is really precise and fast...and yes, it is. Compared to the HTC Vive and its Lighthouse tracking, this one is perhaps not quite on a par with it, in games like Beat Saber, for example, it can happen that you miss one or two nodes, but otherwise it's really great! The only disadvantage is, of course, that tracking behind the back doesn't work, even if the position can be calculated for about 2 seconds in advance, so a quick reach to the back and back to the front is no problem... But of course lighthouses have a clear advantage here.

The headset itself sits very comfortably and can be optimally adjusted, making it very comfortable to wear. A positive feature is the distance sensor in the headset, which is responsible for switching off the display as soon as you take off the glasses, and the image on the screen / TV also goes black until you put them back on. The IPD setting, which can only be made via software, is nice, but I didn't notice any real difference. This is better solved with a mechanical IPD setting, as is the case with the Vive. As a wearer of glasses, wearing the Rift-S is also possible without any problems, but you should be careful not to scratch the lenses! The length of the cable (5m DisplayPort & USB3.0 combo) is sufficient.

The controllers also feel good in the hand, compared to the controllers of the Vive they are a flyweight and therefore a bit strange for me at first. In my opinion, they could have been a bit bigger and heavier. The arrangement of the buttons is ergonomically designed and I find it perfect. The magnetic lid of the battery compartment could, however, slip back from time to time when the controller is used intensively, but so far I haven't had any problems with it.

I don't find the step backwards from OLED (Vive) to LCD in the Rift-S tragic, the higher resolution and precisely because of the LCD (subpixel), the screen door effect is massively smaller, so everything seems much sharper. The black level is of course not on par with an OLED panel, but still very good. I hardly noticed that the Rift-S "only" has an 80Hz display, everything feels smooth as butter.

You can forget about the speakers in the Rift-S, they really aren't that great...but still better than not having any at all. However, I recommend using either a stereo system or headphones / headset to output the sound.

All in all, a clear buy recommendation, especially at this price a really solid product, where I can overlook the slightly worse tracking, the poor speakers and the controllers that are a bit too small for my taste. more