IFA 2016: Examining the Malaise of Bargain Basement Virtual Reality
by Dr. Ian Cutress on September 9, 2016 9:00 AM ESTBargain Basement, 4 + 5 + 6
#4: Shenzhen Winbest Company Limited, VR102 + VR106
The only company to offer two SKUs, even with different designs, was the Shenzhen Winbest Company Limited. The lower end model, the VR102, uses a full 720x1280 5-inch IPS display with Android 5.1 powered by an RK3126 quard (sic) core SoC. This is a Rockchip design, built on a 40nm process, featuring quad ARM Cortex-A7 cores up to 1.3 GHz and a Mali-400 MP2 GPU. The AIO-VR has 1 GB of DDR3L memory and 8GB of storage which can be supplanted with a microSD card. To top it off, there’s a 2600 mAh battery.
The design for the VR102 is a white chassis with a black face plate, with the system using a directional pad on the top with a separate four buttons for power, menu, and plus/minus. The headset uses a breathable foam/leather mix, and suffers the same face as the other headsets so far.
The upgraded model uses the same Rockchip RK3288 as the first AIO-VR in this list, but the screen is listed as a 2560x1440 display at 5.5-inches combined with a 2GB/16GB memory and storage configuration. The Nibiru OS makes another showing here, and the battery is updated to 4000 mAh. The design is aimed to be a little bit more polished than the lower grade headset, with an integrated HDMI input (or is that output?).
The VR106 had separate IPD adjustments on the bottom of the headset, along with what seems to be the usual array of outputs.
#5: EyeSun Technology Company Limited
No basic details or specifications on this one, aside from the 2600 mAh battery and a 4 hour rated lifespan. It only had one image around the booth about the hardware and the representative couldn’t tell me anything apart from ‘it’s still a prototype’. The look was interesting, so I snapped a few images.
This is no IPD adjustment on these, as we have the same foam/breathable padding around the face with a big gap for the nose. Button placement was on the bottom, showing a directional pad, buttons to switch from 2D to 3D, a microSD card slot, a USB port, a 3.5mm jack, and what looks like a micro-HDMI port.
#6: Hena Digital Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited VR501
Another device that in many ways mirrors the first one on this list. Under the hood is a Rockchip RK3288, meaning quad-core A7s up to 1.8 GHz and Mali T760MP4 graphics, which is combined with a 1920x1080 IPS screen, Android 5.1, and a WiFi module capable of 802.11n at 2.4 GHz.
Also similar to the first, we got a sense of pricing. I was told that a single sample is $102, with price scaling based on order quantities.
However, there is no IPD adjustment on this headset, but at least the nose area is semi-sealed from the light. This one was actually working and had the Nibiru OS preloaded. The screen was very laggy, and it was clear from even basic motion it was going to cause a large deal of discomfort. These AIO-VRs are clearly for base content consumption, and anything moving is just a bad experience.
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msweeney - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
This is an important observation, thank you.I personally decided to take the plunge on a Vive+GTX 1080 and my cost all in was just less than $1600. Granted my base system is an older i5-2500K but it seems to work well enough with the incredibly potent Pascal added to the mix.
I found my GTX 970 to be respectable but clearly lacking in terms of VR capabilities, but others might not have the same needs as I do.
msweeney - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
Oh I forgot to add this for those who do happen to be on the fence:I have never been a religious person, but I will say that Elite Dangerous on a VIVE/1080 is positively *divine*.
Mugur - Monday, September 12, 2016 - link
What's the status for the Vive issues in ED? I've contemplating myself buying a headset for Elite next year...Badelhas - Monday, September 12, 2016 - link
I have a 1070 and the Vive. Installed that game but haven't tried it yet. Is it that good?!Cheers
xthetenth - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
Being a geek is a lifestyle thing, not an income bracket.mkozakewich - Monday, September 12, 2016 - link
Also, not usually about having gaming computers, anecdotally speaking.(I personally spent $700 in 2010 to get a 6" netbook that fit in my pocket. That seems like the more usual kind of thing.)
theduckofdeath - Monday, September 12, 2016 - link
A PC that can power a Rift does not cost 2,000. A Radeon RX 480 is fully capable of the high frame rates VR requires, and a PC with that GPU is far less than a thousand <insert €,$ or £ here>.That's the price of a flagship phone, for a very capable PC.
edzieba - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
The Chinese market already has plenty of clones available. For example, the Deepoon E2, which is a DK2 clone lacking position tracking (along with hacked 'compatibility' with the Oculus SDK 0.8 version). There was a lot of furore a few months back over Oculus adding a device check to their software, with the accusation flying that it was intended to lock out a Vive emulation layer, with little mention of the clones already on sale that declare compatibility with games using the Rift SDK without actually meeting the same quality standards (e.g. lack of position tracking, lack of low persistence, etc).hyno111 - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
There are actually a lot more Chinese cheap vr clones, but none of them have hacked the Oculus SDK 1.0...as of yet. Some actually choose to be compatible with SteamVR, and also requires some messy hacking..edzieba - Saturday, September 10, 2016 - link
Oh certainly, that was just the one that immediately came to mind. Oculus' 'entitlement check' was easily bypassed, but it seems it is sufficient to do its job, making 'access' to content on Oculus Home not worth the sustained cat & mouse effort to work around for the cash-in clones, for the moment at least.