Oculus Rift S and Quest Now Available for Pre-Order at $400

Virtual reality hasn’t taken off as many had hoped, but Facebook is still forging ahead with its Oculus lineup. The previously announced Oculus Rift S (above right) and Oculus Quest (above left) are now available for pre-order, and they’ll ship next month. Fans of VR will have their choice of a PC-based headset or a standalone VR device that works without a PC. In both cases, pricing starts at an aggressive $399.

The Rift S is the successor to the classic Oculus VR headsets. It plugs into your computer via a DisplayPort and USB 3.0 — it’s basically a fancy monitor that you strap to your face. You’ll need a relatively beefy gaming system to run the Rift S, too. The company suggests at least a GTX 1050Ti or AMD RX 470. You’ll want to be a notch higher for optimal performance, though.

The Oculus Quest starts at $399 with two controllers and a charger. That version has 64GB of storage for games and other content. A 128GB upgrade is yours for another $100.

Pre-orders for both devices are live on the Oculus site right now. The company expects to ship both devices starting May 21st. For more details, read our sister site PCMag’s full Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest reviews.

Continue reading

Review: The Oculus Quest 2 Could Be the Tipping Point for VR Mass Adoption

The Oculus Quest 2 is now available, and it's an improvement over the original in every way that matters. And yet, it's $100 less expensive than the last release. Having spent some time with the Quest 2, I believe we might look back on it as the headset that finally made VR accessible to mainstream consumers.

Intel Hits Back at Apple M1 with Questionable Benchmarks

Early benchmarks showed the Apple M1 clobbering the competition in most ways that matter, but now Intel has regrouped and has released a slideshow (because of course it has) that compares the M1 to Intel's latest Core laptop processor.

DARPA Chooses Intel, Microsoft to Quest for Cryptography’s Holy Grail

Microsoft and Intel have been tapped by DARPA to develop a useable implementation of fully homomorphic encryption (FHE). If the companies succeed, it'll be a watershed moment for cybersecurity researchers.

Boutique PC Builder Launches ‘No GPU’ Boxes to Cope With Video Card Shortage

At least one boutique vendor is now shipping gaming PCs without GPUs as a way of moving hardware in the midst of the ongoing shortage.