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Comment by augstein | Hacker News Reader

Which standalone VR headset would you recommend, if one can‘t use a Facebook login?

I personaly use an HTC Vive and haven't had any trouble with it.

Having owned both the original Rift and a Rift-S, and having also tested the original Vive a few times, I wouldn't recommend any headset with such a low resolution.

The difference between 1st- and 2nd-gen headsets (Valve Index, Vive Pro, Rift S) feels like the difference between a 800x600 display and a 1080p display.

"Standalone" is a nice feature but not a separate product category. Facebook rightly considers Sony, Microsoft, HTC as competing with Oculus.

Standalone absolutely is a separate product cateogory. It's the difference between a computer monitor and an iPad: even though they both have screens, they are different in kind. They target different market segments, have completely different software ecosystems both for end-users and developers, orders of magnitude more R&D requirements, higher switching costs, etc.

It's the difference between a smart TV and a dumb TV. They have different guts but the market is the same.

Major titles like Beat Saber or Half Life Alyx can be played on either standalone or tethered headsets. Facebook offers both under the Oculus brand and positions them together: https://www.oculus.com/compare/

Rift S is discontinued, their marketing materials notwitstanding. Half Life Alyx can only be played by a standalone headset if you let a computer run the all the graphics and game logic, similar to how an iPad can be used as a second monitor for Apple devices. It's really quite different from smart/dumb TV.

It's the same. The market is VR gaming. People who want to play VR games choose what headset to buy. Simple as that.

The TV/iPad comparison doesn't work. It's very common to have both a TV and an iPad, but I have yet to meet anyone who has both tethered and untethered VR headsets, and thinks of them as distinct.

The VR market is small and may differentiate in time, like how "mobile" has grown so it's common to have a phone and tablet and laptop. Bringing down the antitrust hammer today seems so premature.

You can make a TV smart for $30. The difference between standalone and tethered headsets is a wide gulf.

But you bought "a TV". Likewise you buy "a VR headset."

TVs all have basically the same capabilities, or you can fix that for a very small amount of money.

VR Headsets don't share that quality, with wired vs. standalone.

An analogy would be having exactly one manufacturer that makes 3D TVs. They have market dominance there; it's not just "a TV".

It's the difference between buying a display and a portable VR console.

That's like saying laptops are not a separate product category from desktops... Whatever Sony, Microsoft or HTC are providing is just a display. Oculus Quest is a portable VR console.

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