Welcome to producthunterds.com, and today I’m doing a review of the elite strap for the oculus quest 2, and I’m going to be covering four main points. I’ll be discussing the breakage issues that have been plaguing this since its launch, going through a quick ‘how-to’ install guide, the pros and cons of the original strap that came with this, and the pros and cons of the elite strap itself.
So by the end of the article, I’ll be giving you my recommendation of whether I think this is worth the upgrade. Let’s get into it! Before we go any further if this is the first time you’re reading one of my posts and you enjoy it, don’t forget to share it.
So let’s get the elephant in the room out the way first, and that’s the breakage issues that have been plaguing this since it was launched. Enough people complained about the straps on either side of this snapping and breaking that Oculus themselves pulled it from the market and stopped selling it whilst they investigated the issue. What they came back with was that they said there was a manufacturing fault with a small batch of units which was the cause of this, and since then have started reselling these again, which is really good!
The huge benefit of this though is that Oculus now offers a two-year warranty with this! So if you do buy it, and it breaks, within two years, you’ve got a warranty to fall back on to get a replacement, which is awesome. However, I will say that the Quest strap here that I’ve got, I’ve had since it’s launched. I’ve played it every day and I’ve had absolutely no issues with it, and there’s plenty of other people reporting the same thing.
So now let me take you through a quick install guide of how to get the elite strap set up on the Quest 2. To get the original strap off the Quest 2, you first need to take the facial interface off. Once that’s out the way you need to unthread the top strap through that hole. Now you’ve got the two side straps left, take those off. You need to push them out, and then twist. They will then just pop off. They will bend a little bit so don’t be worried too much about breaking them.
To now install the Elite strap you do the same but in reverse. So you take the two sides to clip them on at the front and then push them in at the back, and they will clip over that frame. Once that’s done thread the top strap back through the hole over the top, and then the last thing you need to do is put the facial interface on, and that just clips into place. You are now all ready to go and start using it.
Now if we focus on the original strap that came with the Quest 2 for a minute, there are actually some pros to it. Now it is incredibly lightweight and compact. You can basically compact this down to next to nothing and shove it in a bag.
So if that’s the type of thing you’re going to be using it for it’s actually really good to use it. Also, it’s really easy to put on and off because it’s an elasticated strap, once you’ve got it set up for your head. However, how you set it up is also a little bit of a con as well. You’ve got these plastic sliders at the back which you have to adjust, which if you’re just using it for yourself is fine.
However, if you’re trying to pass this unit around your family and everybody’s got lots of different-sized heads then constantly changing those sliders all the time is a bit of a pain. Because it’s an elasticated strap, I found if you move your head around a lot in the more active games that you might play it doesn’t keep the Quest 2 in place as much as I would like. I find the Quest 2 wobbles around quite a bit, and that doesn’t help with the long-term comfort fit. I find that I can probably wear the original strap for maybe 15-20 minutes before it starts to hurt my head. I find the strap itself, on the sides, also touches my ears.
So again, extended periods of gameplay, it gets uncomfortable pretty quickly. Some of those cons start to become pros when we look at the Elite strap. So those solid plastic arms on either side help to keep it firm on your head, as does that plastic rubber mold that really cups the back of your head quite nicely. Once you’ve got that firmly adjusted and fixed onto your face you can certainly move around a lot and there’s hardly any movement in the Quest. That also comes due to the adjustability as well.
That dial at the back makes it really easy for adjusting the tightness or looseness of your VR headset so not only can you get it adjusted to your head really easily, if you’re passing it around people and family or friends, and again they’ve got different size heads, it’s really quick and easy to adjust. So that’s a definite win over the default strap. All of this does make it significantly more comfortable for long periods of gameplay which, as the games get more and more immersive, you are going to find yourself playing games for a lot longer.
If I did have to pick some cons for your elite strap, one would be that it’s not as compact as the elasticated strap because it’s a fixed rigid frame. Another is that you can’t really lie back in a high back chair or lie down and watch any kind of experience lying down because the strap itself juts out from the back of your head mainly due to that molded back. So it’s not comfortable for that kind of thing. However, I think the pros by far outweigh this because that extended period of gameplay, the comfort of fit, and the ease by which you can easily resize it outweigh those cons.
So, at the end of the day, do I think you should upgrade and buy the elite strap? Well, I think it depends, and I’ll tell you why. If you play short periods of gameplay, like maybe 15-20 minutes max, or you pick those more sedentary type games to play where you’re not moving around much, then the elastic strap might be enough for you. If however you seek extended gameplay periods, and you play more active games, then the elite strap is a significant upgrade from the default strap. It is also super easy to adjust if you’re passing it around to friends and family.
At $50 there are certainly cheaper alternatives on the market, however, they don’t come with a two-year warranty, so I would still recommend getting the elite strap. So that’s it! I hope it helped you decide whether to get the elite strap or not. If you enjoyed the post, don’t forget to like and share it. See you in the next one!
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