At Facebook’s annual developer conference, F8, the company announced that the Oculus Go is finally available for purchase. This is the company’s first mobile VR solution – besides the co-branded Samsung Gear VR – and was announced last year. The Oculus Go was manufactured by Xiaomi, and has a Snapdragon 821 processor inside, and while it might seem like a somewhat older processor, it has been designed for VR options like the Oculus Go.
Oculus is touting that there are thousands of apps and games available for the Go currently, and there will be more coming as developers create them. Some of the more popular apps available currently, include Netflix, Hulu, Jurassic World, Redbull TV, CNN VR and more. With these media apps, you’ll be able to watch 360-degree video in the Oculus Go, and for those that aren’t natively in VR or 360-degrees, you will be able to sit in a virtual living room setup and watch videos on a virtual TV. It’s a rather interesting approach, but one that other platforms like Google’s Daydream have also used.
The Oculus Go is actually fairly similar to the HTC Vive Focus and the Google Daydream View. All three of these are lightweight VR options, that don’t require a high-end PC to send media to the headset. The Google Daydream View uses your existing smartphone, while the Vive Focus and Oculus Go actually use a built-in screen, and there is a SD card slot for adding content to the headsets. It’s not as great of an experience as the Oculus Rift or Vive Pro, but it is a good option for those that want to jump into virtual reality, but don’t want to spend nearly $500 (depending on the headset you choose) and even more on a PC that is powerful enough for those VR headsets. Oculus says that the Go is available now on its website for $199. Currently, there are no plans to sell it at other retailers, but that could change. Seeing as the Oculus Rift is available at other retailers like Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, B&H Photo and many others.
Buy the Oculus Go (oculus.com)