Guide: Best VR headset in 2024 - Comparing specs for the best DeoVR experience
There are many excellent VR headsets available for viewing content on DeoVR in 2024. We've looked at the specs of all main devices on the VR headset market and arrived at some useful conclusions, including information about new headsets coming out soon.
Recommended headsets for watching VR
2023 and early 2024 brought forth an impressive array of VR headsets, covering a diverse range of needs and budgets. You can see a table of the full specifications at the end of this blog.
Our top picks:
Meta Quest 3: For price, features and quality, it's the front-runner in the VR headset market. Boasting remarkable mixed reality passthrough capabilities, this headset provides an unparalleled level of immersion. Alongside its impressive visuals and comfort, the Meta Quest 3 comes at an affordable price, making it the most enticing option for VR enthusiasts.
Vision Pro: The image quality of the Vision Pro is the highest out there, with its OLED display and 23 million pixels, plus incredible passthrough/mixed-reality capabilities. However, the price is high when compared to the Quest 3, and there are some access issues but we have a WebXR workaround (via Safari) plus an app solution coming soon!
Pimax Crystal: Features many of the most advanced features currently available in VR, including: 35PPD, glass aspheric lenses, 2880x2880 pixels per eye, local dimming, true to life colors, up to 120hrz refresh rate, eyetracking, PCVR and AIO and much more. [Full review coming soon]
Other great options:
Meta Quest Pro: A great but expensive option, overtaken by the Meta Quest 3. Released in 2022, it's still at the high-end of wireless VR performance. It's an expensive option, priced at $1500, but offers exceptional visuals and color passthrough, setting it apart from its predecessor, the Quest 2. It's even capable of displaying 10-bit color video.
PICO 4: Another highly-regarded standalone HMD. Great specs and a competitive price point. It is considerably cheaper than the Meta Quest Pro while offering better graphics than the Quest 2, thanks to excellent pancake lenses. However, color passthrough on the Pico 4 is limited to mono. The DeoVR app is available in the Pico store.
Other suitable options:
Meta Quest 2 is an affordable all-in-one headset that supports 8K video, but has been outmoded by the Quest 3. Get the DeoVR app from Oculus Home and start browsing with one-click streaming.
Valve Index is known for its 144/122Hz display.
For a desktop set-up, consider getting an Xbox controller to control videos like a pro with extended controller mapping offered by the DeoVR app. If you’re already a gamer, navigating with a controller will feel like second nature.
Upcoming VR headsets?
Discover more about the next generation of VR headsets at our dedicated blog covering all the upcoming VR headsets.
Not Recommended:
- Oculus Go
- PSVR
- Quest 1 (this has now been deprecated by Meta too)
- Daydream
- Mobile phone based devices (e.g. Google Cardboard, GearVR)
Specs for all major VR headsets:
| Headset | Type | FOV | Decoding resolution | Codecs | Screen resolution (per eye) |
PPI* | PPD (60 max) | Color | Display rate, Hz | Passthrough | Release date | Price (initial) | Optics | Chipset |
| Meta Quest 3 | Standalone | 110°x96° | 8192x4096@60FPs | AV1, h265 | 2064x2208 | 1218 | 25 | 8 bit | 120 | improved color, stereo | 10/10/2023 | $500 | pancake | Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 |
| Vision Pro | Standalone (battery) | 100-110 | TBC | MV-HEVC, h265 | 2160x3840 | 3,386 | 34 | 10 bit | 100 | Full color, high-resolution | 02/02/2024 | $3,499 | pancake | Apple M2 (5nm) + 10-core GPU |
| Meta Quest Pro | Standalone | 106°x96° | 8192x4096@60FPs | h265 | 1800x1920 | 1050 | 22 | 10 bit | 90 | color, stereo | 10/25/2022 | $1,500 | pancake | Snapdragon XR2 Plus |
| Meta Quest 2 | Standalone | 97°x96° | 8192x4096@60FPs | h265 | 1832x1920 | 773 | 20.5 | 8 bit | 120 | black and white, stereo | 10/13/2020 | $399 | fresnel | Snapdragon XR2 |
| Pico 4 | Standalone | 104°x104° | 8192x4096@60FPs | h265 | 2160x2160 | 1200 | 20.5 | 8 bit | 90 | color, mono | 10/18/2022 | $450 | pancake | Snapdragon XR2 |
| Valve Index | Wired | 108°x105° | GPU and CPU specs | AV1, h265 (GPU and CPU specs) | 1440x1600 | 598 | 19.5 | 8 bit | 144 | black and white, stereo | 06/28/2019 | $999 | fresnel | None |
*4K*180 one eye video projected on Headset FOV screen resolution per eye
Decoding VR video
The output of VR footage recorded using the Canon R5C RF52 is 190º 8192x4096@60FPS, h265, 125 Mbps in Constant Bitrate. Using fish-eye footage keeps the camera's entire FOV, whereas converting to equirectangular cuts it to 180º.
A video gets re-encoded into h265 using the "best quality" setting at 30Mpbs max (for streaming). At DeoVR, we do special high-quality encoding that takes much longer than regular encoding. Increasing this bitrate does not provide notable visual improvements, but would impact on bandwidth and decoding.
The maximum decoding of most headsets is 8192x8192px@30fps, which equates to 8192x4096px@60fps, which is 6688x3344px@90fps. However, the max supported resolution of 120FPS video is 5792x2896 px (using this same formula). The goal for us is to match the headset screen refresh rate with the FPS of the video, so you get 60FPS on a 60Hz screen, 90FPS on 90Hz and 120FPS on 120Hz headsets like the Quest 3. The video must be recorded in this FPS at source, or interpolated using the best modern techniques.
110ºx96º 2208x2064 part of 190ºx190º 4096x4096 60FPS video is shown on the Quest 3 display at 120Hz.
Stay tuned for more updates and join the discussion on the DeoVR forum.
