Today’s market only offers two levels of virtual reality: budget-minded introductory devices and expensive, premium VR devices. As of right now, there’s no in-between (although that will change on October 31, 2016 when Sony releases PlayStation VR).
On the introductory side, you have options like Google Cardboard*, Samsung Gear VR*, and a bunch of similar devices* that work with compatible smartphones. These offer the cheapest route to VR, but leave a lot to be desired regarding visual quality, immersion, and anything else you can think of that makes virtual reality attractive. They’re bare bones, basic, and should only be used to give you a rough idea of what virtual reality is like. After all, it is just a cell phone strapped to your face.
Samsung Gear VR
Google Cardboard for iPhone 6 Plus
On the other end of the spectrum, you have expensive devices such as the Oculus Rift* and the HTC Vive*. These devices launched at $599 and $799 respectively.
Oculus Rift CV1
HTC Vive
Although there’s inarguably room for growth, these devices produce incredibly immersive virtual reality experiences, and that quality is the reason people believe VR is finally here to stay.
Technical Limitations
You may see people complaining about SDE, god rays, or glare issues, but the vast majority of reasonable customers admit that, although occasionally visible, these concerns rarely disrupt their experience when immersed in the virtual environment. This has been my observation as well – there’s room for improvement, but these premium VR devices are finally delivering incredibly immersive virtual experiences.
Another artifact of today’s technological limitations is the cord you’re tethered to when using either of these premium headsets. Admittedly, this is one advantage that the mobile VR solutions have over premium VR.
These technical limitations shouldn’t scare anyone truly interested in virtual reality away from purchasing right now. There’s plenty to enjoy, and the industry is buzzing with energy and excitement – something that won’t be as tangible when the masses start catching on.
Keeping up so far? Let’s talk generally about the prerequisites of adopting virtual reality >>
About Ian, the Virtual Reality Ginger
Creator of this Virtual Reality Buying Guide
Ian a.k.a. the Virtual Reality Ginger constantly puts out high quality resources to keep consumers up-to-date with all major virtual reality technology. The mission that drives him to create and regularly update this virtual reality buying guide is to give newcomers all of the information they need to make the best VR purchase decision for their needs.
Just wanted to let you know it’s not possible to read the first row of text because it’s on top of the featured image. I don’t know what’s causing it but the same error seems to be repeating on many of your other pages as well.
Hey Matthew – are you on a mobile device? And what browser are you using? I’m not getting any display issues on my side so I want to try and replicate the conditions as closely as possible to see if that makes a difference.
I am using Chrome on laptop. I tried also with FireFox and Internet Explorer and it shows it the same way on them as well. This is what I see:
https://s10.postimg.org/wb47m1z8p/upload.png
I tried with my mobile device and it showed it correctly unlike my laptop.
That’s a weird thing if it’s displaying correctly for you and not me, not sure if it’s just my laptop displaying it incorrectly or this website. I tested with another computer and to my surprise it showed it as should. Maybe it’s just my pc messing then if it shows correctly to others though I have to admit I’m baffled since I haven’t encountered the same issue on other sites.