Hey, everybody's no one from Testim, it's Jeremy from Testim
Welcome to projections our show about virtual reality and all the devices that's going to take you there today
We have our review of the oculus go
Face book oculus was able to send us an earlier review in and we've been using it for the past week
And we can say it's out today if it is out today in many stores, right?
You can actually go and buy them right now
Yeah, so you had it for a number of days and then I took it for the weekend on vacation
like I feel like I gave it a real good use case where I took it to a hotel and
That was the first time I ever got to use it
Well, did this one anyway was when I walked through the hotel room my family was unpacking
We finished everyone like finally crashed on the couch and I took it and put it on my head and I was somewhere else
It's not the promise of VR and that like I couldn't do that with a rift
I'm not taking my base stations, you know my computer and my you know, the cameras and the headset with me, but this
All-inclusive. Yeah, so for some of you out there you may have never put on a VR headset
We are champions of VR
We are sold on this technology
But I think this is Facebook and oculus is first product that they think can reach a mainstream audience
So it's important for you out there. If this may be your first VR device to know your terms define what this is exactly
so on the high end of your
We've been using on our guests tops or computers their headsets like the oculus rift and the HTC vive
That run off the processing power of your computer and they're tethered they're tethered for that reason
you have a cable that comes off of the back of your headset and it runs down across your floor and into your computer and
This generation of virtual reality offers. We call six degrees of freedom
Not only can you look around by rotating your head?
You can move your body around they're tracking your hands your controllers and it gives you a sense of presence in a virtual environment
Now to accomplish that you need a relatively strong computer for the processing power and you also need a way that detect the world
Well, you certainly need more technology than is incorporated into this unit. This is only three degrees of freedom. Yeah
Yeah, so you can basically look in any action
You just can't move in any direction and the same goes for the controller
it can point in any direction and you can you know aim and touch but
Moving it through space does nothing for all intents and purposes
It's very much like a gear VR or Google daydream device
Where you would put your phone in some type of shell with optics and access these type of mobile VR apps?
In the VR experience except the big difference being of course, this is an all-inclusive package
You don't need to put your phone in there, which is why that's $200 price point seems mightily attractive
I think that's the first time we've mentioned it. They set all about that 200 on the price point
I mean that is why it is three degrees of freedom
But it's also a lot for $200
Yeah
so what you have on the inside what's running this headset is the equivalent of a
Like a samsung phone from a year ago not in this generation of mobile processors, but last year's Qualcomm processors
but with pretty good display in optics which are a huge and part of the virtual reality experience the display here is a
2560 by 1440
Display which is higher resolution that you'd find in the oculus rift a little lower than you'd find in something like the vive pro
It's it lands somewhere in the middle
But uses oculus as latest optics leave the lenses that let you peer into that display
Which make it actually a pretty good VR experience
Yeah, it's actually when you put it on you notice the difference plus the screen itself is not a pentile display
The pixels are not arranged in triangles. They're arranged in a grid as you would expect on your computer. So it's a nice
Grid a nice even look to the screen and the pixel density has been improved
So the amount of what they call the screen door effect the space between the pixels which you can still see is
Minimized in this yeah the optics which is the lenses that let the image warp around your face
Give it about the same fueled of view as the oculus rough about a hundred degrees
but because this is using one panel in your
Phone turn sideways as opposed to two separate discreet panels like you find in the referee vive
You could see a little bit more the edges I think right of that pan
It's not a fully circular image in each eye. You see some hard edges to it. That does not distract me
I'm okay with that
I'm actually kind of happy that I see the whole panel in some respects, you know
Because I that means that I'm not losing those pixels. However, you did point out that you can't see the ones in the middle
Yeah, you may be losing a little bit from them. But but the overall the takeaway is the
Image is clear the new optics. Give it are you slightly wider in my opinion sweet spot for the focal for the focus?
where you get this image in the center, that's really nice and resolved and then it tends to
blur as it goes out towards the edges now you get that with any VR headset, but with the new optics
I feel like it's slightly improved. We also didn't notice any of the godrays effects this
Visual artifact where if you're looking at a really bright image white image you would see these God rays coming at you
It's very noticeable in the oculus rift here significantly diminish by thing as a trade-off
You actually notice more chromatic aberration
That's when you see the the color split between the red green and blue toward the edges of the lenses
This is something that they compensated for with the original rift using software
and I wonder if that isn't something that this will evolve as well would they'll
Learn how to tweak that in code where they actually push the red and the blue pixels out a little bit further on purpose
Knowing that they'll bend backwards one final technical point with the imagery is that this panel runs at 60 frames a second?
it's 60 Hertz or
Can go up to 72 Hertz as opposed to the 90 Hertz. We're used to on the desktop display
It doesn't sound like much as 12 frames a second, but it actually makes a difference. I mean, I I noticed the difference between
60 in
Katan where though
The white seemed to flicker a little bit to me and when we switched to a 72 Hertz game, it seems smoother to me
So maybe it's just that little bit more than I needed in order to sense a smooth image
They also pointed out oculus did that 72 is a multiple of 24 so that if you're watching a movie
You know app developers might choose that frame rate just to get a nice
Not drop any frames and and so while this may have some technical equivalents to some of the other mobile headsets one of the benefits
to
oculus making it all themselves is they could optimize the hardware and
The software and I think there are definitely a lot of optimizations going here in terms of the heating
It doesn't feel like it ever overheats for me and no active cooling. Yeah, no active cool
And also trying to that consistent frame rate, there's a lot of software tricks
Which you sometimes can see through when they're a little bit of visual artifacts to make it feel like a smooth experience
You're not dropping any frames
It's also worth pointing out that this headset unlike gear VR which I suppose they do have a speaker this headset has two speakers
So they have stereo speakers one on either side and it projects backwards along this band and reflects into your ear
Which is just handy if you don't have your headphones
You know
Right there with you it they always want you to be able to hear even the menu sounds it gives you a sense of feedback
And it's it's handy to have it's not private
Whatever you hear out of this
Everyone else around you can hear as well and certainly your ears aren't covered by any kind of headphone as it would be on one
Of the desktop HMDs, so it's not like you're isolated either. Luckily. There is a headphone jack on the side
Eight-inch right there
so if you want to plug in your buzz or whatever you do that it turns off the speakers and you're
Isolated and you also notice that the back is a floppy strap
It's not a rigid strap
Which I think you have pros and cons there the whole thing is light enough where if you just use this rubberized strap
Yeah, it will stay secure. Mm-hm for the type of easy movements. It's a throwback to the original developer kits. Yes
What that oculist made and those were all the same style and people use them and we're happy enough that they're cut their chief competitor
HTC
Came out with the HTC vive which used a similar strap and I think with this strap it also makes it a little more compact
Easier to throw in your bag as opposed to having a bigger headsets a good point that you can't collapse
However, having used it for the past weekend
And I'm watching an entire movie in there and trying to spend some real quality time in there. I would say that the strap is
one of the effects of having a $200 price point I think if it costs more we would
probably see a rigid strap because that semi oculus knows from making the rift is an important element to
removing that weight that's on the front of your face and
supporting it better by your skull or in some respects strapping it to your head so that it's not
resting on your forehead and in your nose
I found that this did that a little too much for my taste so that I
lost a sense of comfort
Unless I physically held on to the this part of the strap and pulled it backwards right that would lift it off my face
I can almost guarantee
That there will be rigid straps available for this
If not by oculus by someone on Kickstarter oculus is also not for lunch
But in the near future are gonna offer some lenses corrective lenses for the headset as well
So if you wear glasses, yeah, you won't need to put your glasses on to have clear vision, although with this facial interface
I was able to use my classes without any problem. Yeah, it seemed everyone I tested it with also who wore glasses
They also wore them and there wasn't a problem with that with some of the other VR headsets
It's just there's just not room for the glass frames, right?
just to be clear about the
Augmented lenses that oculus is going to sell they won't replace these lenses. They're gonna go on top of them
Yeah, so it's almost as if they're your glasses, but they will I would expect mesh with those lenses very very well
Yep, and then finally the controller in addition to the headset being just three degrees of freedom
And we'll talk about those experiences in just a bit. The controller is also just 3 degrees of freedom
It's very much
like, you know the Wiimote the very first gen antenna Wii controller well,
But the Wii mote could do positional because it was also tracked by the IR s sensor bar. Yeah
This has just rotation and but you know what people who tried this
They didn't know that and they didn't often care like if you're playing there's a ping-pong game in there
people are just swinging it around as if it matters it really doesn't you all this is all you have to do and
You're playing the game just as well
But it's up to the app developers to make assumptions based on what movements the players going to be doing
obviously a full six degree of freedom lends to a more flexible experience, but
$200 right and so those experiences that you can
Use on the go. This was it's it's binary compatible with all the applications made for the gear VR
so out of the gate there's a lot of
Applications that IR their Facebook and oculus have made or third-party developers have made that already work here
But they're also launching with some new experiences. There are some default programs
There's also a video player
They've what's called the the oculus and gallery and this is your ability to view photos
Whether there are 360 photos 180 photos
2d photos or 3d photos and also video in all their same kinds 360 or 3d formats
And it's pretty easy to drag and drop you can plug in via a micro USB cable
into the 32 gigs of internal storage a file a 4k video file and say this is a
180 degree 3 3d file play it that way and it works
Now you mentioned 32 gigabytes and I would like a little bit more
I'd pay 50 bucks for another 32 gigs or you know, 60/40 or expandable storage
Oh, absolutely
because right now
you have to store everything that's on the drive inside of of the device and you plug it in over USB and every time you
Do that on your computer?
You have to lift up the headset and approve the computer so that you're it's allowed to drop files on there
But that is how you get things on and off
So if you were to you can also record videos of what you're seeing on the headset itself
That's how you take them off and then in terms of the other experiences
You can also play with a gamepad of their gamepad games
We actually were not able to parallel your Bluetooth gamepad with the headset. I have a Mad Catz Bluetooth gamepad
Apparently I rode oculus they said it only supports the Xbox gamepad and the SteelSeries bluetooth gamepad
Both of which you set up using the app
Which is on your phone which you use to initially set up the device and that's how you get it paired
There's no way to pair within the headset itself without using the phone, but you played games on this
What do you think about the gaming experiences? Well, honestly, I I thought some of the games were alright
I
Particularly, like the coaster combat, which is a lot of fun. You're in a minecart and you're shooting things
I also thought the ping pong game was all right, and ultra wings was fun. They do this interesting flight simulator mechanic
Where the stick is a flight stick in here you're throttling up and looking around and using your instruments
But honestly Norma I feel like the games on this are as useful to me as the games are on my phone
Yeah, they're not the main event. No, the main event is media consumption. I agree
Yeah
and whether it's pedia that you Seidler locally by just plugging a USB or media where you're streaming from the
Netflix app or the Hulu app or Facebook video or things you've dropped on there where things drop down there?
That is the the main selling point for this device and that the Netflix app isn't really good experience
I think John Carmack helped develop it. He was really he wanted to bring that to the gear VR
Yeah, and it's the same, you know
Basically the same map here you get to use the full Netflix interface and you're in this room
and when you start a show the lights dim down and if you want you can actually
lie down and watch things by turning on this void theater and just moving the screen to the ceiling and you can lay down on
Your couch and watch it on them on the ceiling
They're a bunch of also third-party apps that lets you tap into media and all sorts of places
there's a plex app if you have a plex server and they have their own living room environment so you can grow and
Change the size of your screen
Notable exception is a native YouTube app, right?
Yeah, there is a web browser. But honestly, it's not a great web browsing experience. That must be why that's in there
They threw that in to get YouTube compatibility. Yep, but it's not it's not a good experience
I wouldn't browse the web and do much reading in this at all
it really feels like there's gonna be you know a content war right now between the mobile headsets between Google on their daydream applications and
oculus and for the Facebook applications
That's why they're pushing facebook video Facebook live videos so much is because they're not gonna let those apps cross-pollination
you have to kind of hack your way into YouTube and even then you can't even use a
YouTube TV on this device that's just blocked. Yeah, you mentioned plex. There's other apps
You can download that allow you to browse your local networks
But there's no way to do that by default in the device
You have to look at files and the internal storage only. I'm kind of surprised by that
I thought to be a network Explorer or something. Right right for any type of media server, right?
There's a Dropbox tie-in, but I found that not very good maybe for photos that's interesting there
Certainly, I wouldn't put videos on Dropbox is too expensive. Yeah, the user interface feels much like very much like a
Simplified version of the oculus home interface. Yeah on the rift and there's not a lot of depth there
You're really just launching apps there
They're hoping to launch the oculus TV app which feels more like an aggregator of other apps just like oh, right
Well there I think they were app. They want it to be like what Apple's done where they've a granade
Identity apps into a central spot where you can do global search and it will bring in what it thinks you'll want to watch next
I'm not sure
That's what we haven't spent too much time in it, but it's launching later in May with several partners
Including Showtime and some others so that'll be interesting to see but if it's just a folder filled with all of your apps
I'm not sure. It's that useful but in terms of using this
Completely agree. It is technically an inferior experience to a six degree of freedom
Headset well, except well except for the resolution
I mean you you have to admit that the clarity on this is
Better than the ocular but just experience of the type of experiences
You can't get room-scale games. I must have in hand presents when I use this on the flip side
I use this a lot because of how convenient it was to you. Once you know what it's good at. It is excellent
I was it for some people this is gonna be the best $200 they ever spent
I honestly think that because $200 you're getting a portable movie theater
You're getting Netflix wherever you are where you are isolated
Yeah
part of me going to that hotel room and sitting down and putting on that headset was a real sense of relief because I could
Be by myself in the same room with other people now, that's kind of a dystopian
Image as well because I'm now cut off from them. They have to get my attention
They have to invade my personal space and like shake me or something
but I also don't think that there's gonna be a heads that the people gonna go to cafes and Starbucks and you rise I mean
maybe some people but I think the vast majority people who buy this when you use this in their homes or my couches and their
Offices and and on hotel rooms. I think it will be a replacement for some people at home for maybe buying a TV
Maybe they're thinking below. Where am I going to mount this TV in my room?
I really have always wanted to do that and that TV was gonna cost a thousand dollars and I'm gonna have to put it on
The wall and run cables this the TV that you get inside. This is looks great it I think it looks very good
If not goes so far as look great
I think with all these headsets the the black levels are a little bit greyed out for me
No, you see a lot of the pixelization even with a with a 1080p video file
You can see the compression right all that is amplified because you're looking through a lens on a mobile display, right?
no, I I think if you're gonna go like hardcore like analyzing the
The black levels of this as you would like with the HDTV forms are over either
You're right. That that's not what this is, but from an experiential sample. It's $200
Yeah
You know
and and I think if you were to have this in your room and you put it on
You have head set
now if people in dorms are gonna love this kind of thing just because it's so affordable and you get a TV
You know you get a huge TV
The resolution is a nice little bump from the rift and it's not
Something you can't see every pixel on a 1080p your video you simply can't the entire
Field of view for each of your eyes is only 1280 pixels
That's 720p at best and that the movie screen is going to be a subset of that
I loaded up some test videos with like 17
720p and 1080p and
There's a difference in the resolution vertically, but the horizontal resolution there is no difference because there's just not the pixels to display it
I remember, you know five years ago
We were spending up to a thousand dollars with those Sony headsets that didn't have any tracking at
All right, but let you watch what was essentially a big-screen experience the hnz yes exactly
This is I think better than that Oh more comfortable far better and cheaper than that as well
That was almost a thousand dollars and it put this little screen in front of you that moved with your head
This is interesting
and as I said
The games are a nice little added that some of the some of the titles they have on the air particularly
This one's from oculus studios or our strong contenders. I understand
Big screen has a they're working on mobile and they're gonna allow you to display your desktop in here
That would be killer like steam box style play a desktop game using an Xbox controller
Right if the latency is low enough and if there's not too much compression, I could see myself doing that. Yeah, absolutely
I mean just to get the resolution bump it might be useful if you're doing any kind of reading
Even if it's icon names to use this at your desktop with your mouse and keyboard as you would a riff just to get that
Resolution bump and there's a lot of stuff to do right now, which I think is the important thing
This is doesn't feel like a product where you're waiting for people to put stuff out for it
You know if you buy it today
There's stuff to do because of that gear VR library exactly and the media purpose rising this device
You think we want to buy one or two of these for the home?
you know, it's
Until there's a really rich multiplayer experience. I'm not sure that people will be buying multiple to do things together, right?
So it's just gonna be like who wants one might like everyone in my family having tried it this weekend
They're all considering it you it's like it's it's the first giftable vr device at $200
You know you could do you could make an impulse buy and buy this or if your interview are in general
I
think you'll probably end up receiving one for your birthday or Christmas just because it is that price point and for people who already have
the desktop quality headsets
I think a big question will be why get this when I can wait for six degrees of freedom type experiences on mobile
Portable displays, we know how this is working exactly the Santa Cruz prototype
We've tried it multiple times and it's it's basically this with all this other stuff
We've mentioned this six degrees of freedom for headset and traction controllers. I think if you have no interest in watching movies, or
3d videos and a mobile headset you can wait you can wait for Santa Cruz
But if you've watched if you enjoy watching movies and watching Netflix, and you've experienced 3d movies on a mobile headset
I think this is pretty compelling so I watched all of
Star Trek beyond in 2d. Mm-hmm. And I I didn't care like the fact that it was a 2d movie
I
Could have taken advantage of the 3d abilities of this but the fact that I watched that on the screen it yet
It was like I was just in a movie theater and it was completely acceptable to me to watch even your 2d content
Which is most of all of Netflix. Yeah, so it's been really interesting in the coming months. How many people pick this up?
Yeah
I think it's a it's a really good complement to your desktop displays and for people who have never used VR
It's gonna be a nice first step into the VR world. Yeah, I agree with you
I agree with it the lack of six degrees of freedom. That's an interesting point. And I think that people who don't understand
How much more comfortable six degrees of freedom is and how much more enabling it is for an experiential standpoint?
that's it's there's gonna be a couple levels of mind blown like they're gonna put this on and say oh this is amazing and then
They can take that next step once they get to six degrees
But I do think six degrees is the future and I think this will be a short-lived
Moment in the history of VR where when we still had
Components or you know devices that didn't allow for six degrees of tracking nonetheless
It's 200 bucks and I'm not complaining it may be the boot strap that VR needs right now
I want to thank Facebook my oculus for setting us in this early review unit
We'll have more coverage on some pretty exciting other headsets coming out in the near future. So stay tuned for that until then
Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time
