The Oculus Quest has been a success since launching in May. A lot of buzz, positive reviews, and strong sales to date. According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, they’re “selling them as fast as we can make them.”

We’ve seen first-hand the excitement among InstaVR Enterprise clients, as the headset combines powerful graphics, mobility, and 6 Degrees of Freedom, all at a relatively affordable price point – $399 for a 64 GB headset, $499 for 128 GB.

Some of our InstaVR Pro clients currently using the Oculus Go — or new InstaVR users not currently using a headset –are very interested in the possibilities of the Oculus Quest. They want to know if the headset is the right fit for their business needs. Now that we’ve had a few months of clients building and deploying Oculus Quest apps, we have a good understanding of where the headset’s main strengths lie.

Here are the top reasons your business should be investing in the Oculus Quest:

If you have complex visualizations using file types such as FBX or STL, the Quest is likely for you.

Traditionally, InstaVR users with these file types have gravitated towards the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. The high powered computers connected to these headsets allow for quick and clear visualization of images or videos. But given the mobile nature of Oculus Quest, and the price point, there’s generally not too many reasons to not migrate to or start using the Quest over those legacy headsets.

The Snapdragon 835 chip from Qualcomm makes the visual experience really strong and seamless. You don’t have to worry about latency or glitches, even with fairly large complex files.

So whether you’re building a wholly virtual training environment or viewing 3D body scans or creating complex building renderings, you can have confidence the Quest can handle the media you’re creating with InstaVR. The Quest isn’t quite up to the performance standards of say the Varjo headset, but you’re looking at a price that’s basically 1/20 the cost of the Varjo– so much easier to purchase for larger scale deployments.

A CGI apartment packaged from InstaVR for the Quest

2. Your VR Experience Requires 6 Degrees of Freedom Movement

The biggest differentiator between the Oculus Go and the Oculus Rift is the ability to move within the virtual space, and have the Rift recognize that movement within the VR experience (what’s known as 6 Degrees of Freedom). It’s the difference being able to look at the front of the car, then move to the side of the car, then move to the back of the car… versus being able to slowly walk around the car and see it from all angles. Obviously the latter approach is preferred, and that is what is possible if apps are built to utilize 6 Degrees of Freedom motion.

6 DoF, as it’s known, is much easier on the Quest than legacy systems like the Rift and Vive. Why?

You don’t have to carry the camera units with you and set them up in a specified location with the Quest. The positional tracking is built into the headset.

You can just pack up the headset, which is only slightly bigger than a Go, and take it with you. This means to client meetings, to employee trainings at other offices, to offsites with business partners, etc. The set up time is also greatly lowered, making the process of showing someone your VR experiences more natural. Plus no one really likes the cords attached to the Vive/Rift, as they’re often an impediment to movement.

Our Head of Sales, Andrew Woodberry, showing off a new Quest before a recent trade show

3. You Want Two Hand Controllers and Interactivity

The Oculus Go hand controller is pretty nice. But it’s a single one, and it’s generally just used for pointing and clicking. It can’t mimic hand motions, and by only having one controller, it limits the realism for interactivity.

The Quest Touch hand controllers are much more powerful. As seen in the screenshot below, our default mode is to make them visually into hands  in front of you. The controllers are obviously great for things like playing games (see: Beat Saber), but if you’re doing something like employee training, they are also valuable as they more closely approximate hand motions.

Interactivity leads to greater memory recall, which leads to better trained employees.

We’re very shortly rolling out interaction with scenes to our InstaVR Enterprise users. This allows you to move specific 3D objects around in a scene. If you’re hypothetically creating a VR safety training experience, you can for instance ask a user to place 3D objects in safer positions than their current locations.

4. Conclusion

The Oculus Quest headset is a huge step forward in combining the power of previously tethered headsets with the mobility of newer all-in-one headsets like the Oculus Go. It’s the best of both worlds.

It may be a bit overkill for simple 360 images, but if you’re serious about Enterprise use cases of VR at your company, the Quest is definitely worth your attention.

So if you’re building 3D CGI files, or you have the ability to create scenes that can incorporate 6 Degrees of Freedom, or you have the need to mimic real hands in your VR environment — you’re going to want to invest in the Quest.

And at a sub-$500 price point, it’s not a stretch to think you can roll the headset out division or even company wide. The investment on a per user or per VR experience basis is really really good, given the ROI.

Any questions on the Quest? Let our Support Team know. We’re very encouraged by what our serious InstaVR Enterprise users are doing with the technology, and look forward to its continued expansion for B2B use cases.