In our original reviews of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, we tried very hard to examine these virtual reality systems on their own merits without constant comparisons to the competition. But no product exists in a vacuum. After years of buildup, we’re now faced with two competitive, PC-tethered VR headsets hitting the market right next to each other. Unless you have a spare $1,400 to spend to buy both headsets (or more if you need to outfit a gaming PC, too), you’ll have to pick one or the other if you want virtual reality in your home as soon as possible.
Today, we’ll lay out the major pros and cons of both Oculus and HTC’s VR systems as we see them in order to (hopefully) guide you to the headset that’s right for you. If you’re just planning on scrolling to the bottom for our final verdict, though, here’s a spoiler—we’re not entirely sure you should buy either one just yet.
| Headset specs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Oculus Rift | HTC Vive | |
| Headset weight | 470 grams (~1 lbs) | 555 grams (~1.2 lbs) without cables |
| Display | 2160x1200 (1080x1200 per eye) OLED panels | 2160x1200 (1080x1200 per eye) AMOLED panels |
| Refresh rate | 90 Hz | 90 Hz |
| Field of view | 110 degrees | 110 degrees |
| Lens spacing | 58-72mm (adjustable) | 60.2-74.5mm (adjustable) |
| Packaged Controllers | Xbox One gamepad and Oculus Remote | Two wireless motion-tracked controllers with rechargeable 960mAh batteries |
| Tracking | 3-axis gyroscope, accelerometer, and external "Constellation" IR camera tracking system | SteamVR 1.0 tracking system with two "Lighthouse" IR laser tracking boxes (up to 5m diagonal tracking volume) |
| Audio | Integrated over-ear headphones with 3D directional audio support and built-in microphone | Audio extension dongle to plug generic headphones to headset. Built-in microphone |
| PC connection | 4m custom cable (integrates HDMI and USB connections) | Three-part multi-cable (HDMI, USB, and power) with junction box for PC connection. |
| Included games | Lucky's Tale (and Eve Valkyrie with pre-order) | Job Simulator, Fantastic Contraption, and Tilt Brush |
| Price | $600 | $800 |
| Recommended PC specs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Oculus Rift | HTC Vive | |
| GPU | NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater | |
| CPU | Intel i5-4590 / AMD FX 8350 equivalent or greater | |
| RAM | 8GB | 4GB |
| OS | Windows 7 SP1 or newer | Windows 7 SP1 or newer |
| Inputs | 3 USB 3.0 ports (for headset, tracking camera, wireless controller dongle), one HDMI 1.3 port | 1x HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2; 1x USB 2.0 |
| Other | At least 1.5m x 2m of open space for "room-scale" experiences. | |
Visual similarities
On a pure baseline of technical specs, there’s remarkably little difference in the Rift and Vive. Both sport two 1080x1200 pixel OLED displays (one for each eye) that provide an utterly convincing 3D effect. Both headsets have 90 Hz refresh rates, low-persistence pixel switching, and accurate, low latency head-tracking that quickly updates your apparent VR view as you move and tilt your head in space.
You can still pick out the pixels and a slight “screen door effect” between those pixels if you really try. Staring at the panels at close range means each individual pixel appears a little blurrier and fuzzier than it might on a hi-res monitor or TV, but those problems are practically identical on the Rift and the Vive. At this point, it’s hard to say one looks noticeably better than the other for the same software.
Both the Rift and the Vive let you adjust the interpupillary distance enough to allow easy focus for a wide range of face shapes. Both officially sport a 110-degree field of view, enough to fill most of your vision while still leaving noticeable black bars on the edge of your periphery. (While there are some claims that one headset or the other has a bigger functional field of view in practice, we can’t notice a difference.)
If we were to go looking for visual differences, we could argue that the Rift’s lenses suffer a bit more from the crepuscular “god ray” effect, which causes some apparent lens flare when bright pixels are displayed on a dark background. You could also say that the Vive’s image sometimes looks blurrier at the periphery if you move your eyes off center.
Neither puts much of a thumb on the balance between the two, though. The Rift and the Vive each provide a highly convincing, nearly indistinguishable visual sense of virtual reality. These systems meet the minimum baseline for an enjoyable sense of presence.
Get comfortable
If there’s one area where the Rift unquestionably bests the Vive, it’s in the design of the physical headset. I was comfortable wearing the Rift for hours at a time without breaks and without any desire to take it off. With the Vive, on the other hand, I found myself needing to take frequent breaks and constantly fiddle with the fit to get comfortable.
Not only is the Rift 80 grams lighter than the Vive (about 15 percent), but that lighter weight is balanced much better on the head. This is primarily thanks to the Rift’s pair of rigid arms, which extend from the side of the headset past the ears, coming together in a firm triangle that fits snugly under the back of the skull.
These arms sit on a pivot, which lets you tilt the headset easily up and down on your face for comfort (and focus adjustment). The arms also sit inside a sheath that gives them about an inch of springy give. This makes the headset relatively easy to take off and put on like a baseball cap, even with one hand (though users with glasses may run into some trouble).
By contrast, the Vive uses thick, hard-to-adjust vinyl velcro straps that never feel totally secure on my head no matter how much I adjust things. This design means you have to clamp the Vive to your face like a pair of ski goggles, pushing the heavy headset directly into some sensitive parts of the face with nothing but a layer of soft foam padding separating you from the hard plastic. That’s noticeably tougher than the Rift, which almost floats on top of your nose thanks to plastic and vinyl spacers and solid, supportive foam around the eyes.
Besides the constant pressure on the sinuses, the Vive’s design also forms a tight seal around the eyes, trapping heat and locking out air. This can lead to a lot of unnecessary sweat and noticeable facial redness after prolonged use. The Rift's design is much more airy and breathable in this regard.
The Rift has a few other design touches that just make it more enjoyable to wear, such as squishy, over-the-ear headphones that flip right down into place from their (removable) mounts on the support arms. The Vive, on the other hand, has a headphone extension cable that dangles annoyingly from the top of your head, and it comes with short-corded earbuds that have a tendency to get tangled and pulled out of your ears while playing.
The Rift’s single, light tethering wire flows smoothly behind the left ear and down the computer, while the Vive’s coiling, three-part cord sits heavily over the center of the head and back behind the base of the skull. And the Rift has a handy built-in sensor that automatically turns the headset off when you take it off. When it comes to comfort, it’s not even a contest.
Platform wars
If headset design is the Rift’s biggest triumph over the Vive, the underlying software platform is the Vive’s biggest triumph over the Rift. The Oculus Store and Library management tools work OK, but they’re horribly bare bones compared to the fuller features of SteamVR.
On the Vive, you can see your friends’ activity and chat with them from inside the headset over audio or text (through an awkward hunt-and-peck VR keyboard). On the Rift, friends lists seem almost ornamental; there are no real ways to interact with online buddies from the menu. We also had trouble getting voice chat to work in Rift games that ostensibly supported the feature.
On the Vive, you can bring up a quick view of the Windows desktop from the SteamVR menu at any time, and soon you’ll be able to connect a Bluetooth smartphone to pass text messages, phone calls, and calendar alerts to VR. The Rift doesn’t support either of these multitasking-friendly features.
On the Vive, you can also play 2D Steam games in a vision-filling “theater mode,” download one game while playing another, and download new 3D backgrounds for your default VR menu. None of these features is yet available on the Rift.
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The twilit view that greets you when you first put on the Vive.
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With the tap of a button, a full Steam menu appears like a floating screen.
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Valve makes it as easy as possible to spend money without leaving virtual reality.
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Yet another Web browser that you can use to view this fine website.
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If you've ever wanted to chat with your friends using an awkward virtual reality hunt-and-peck keyboard, now's your chance!
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Click the "desktop" button and you can look at your windows desktop without having to take off the headset (check out the cool "infinite reflection" effect from the headset mirroring here, too).
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If you launch a "non-VR" game while inside VR, you can play it in "theater mode" with a huge 2D screen dominating your VR view.
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Double-tap the Steam menu button and you get this squiggle-vision view of the outlines of your surroundings.
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You can also bring up a full-color view of your surroundings as a miniature handheld screen.
Then there’s the Vive’s handy front-facing camera, which can give users a quick view of the outside world (either as squiggly outlines or a small full-color live video) without the need to take off the headset.
Oculus may well add many of these features through downloadable platform updates in the near future (though the camera and Bluetooth connection seem like secure Vive advantages). For now, though, the Vive enjoys a significant advantage in terms of its software platform.
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