Oculus Quest and Rift S VR headsets launch on May 21

Christmas is coming in May!
 By 
Raymond Wong
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Get your credit cards ready because Oculus is celebrating Christmas in May.

At Facebook's annual F8 developer conference, Oculus announced its standalone and wireless Quest and second-generation Rift S VR headsets will launch on May 21. Pre-orders for both headsets begin immediately.

Both headsets are priced at $399, and while the two headsets share some similarities, there are plenty of differences.

Whereas the new Rift S is a direct successor to the Oculus Rift, meaning it needs to connect to a PC with a powerful graphics card to operate, the Oculus Quest is powered by a mobile chip and completely standalone and wireless.

Both VR headsets make use of Oculus' Insight "inside-out" camera system to track Touch hand controllers without the need for external sensors.

We tried Quest at CES and walked away mighty impressed with how easy it was to set up and immediately jump into a VR game. The Touch controller tracking was also spot on with no perceivable lag.

And although the Rift S isn't wireless, it's a lot less complicated to set up compared to the original Rift because it requires fewer USB ports.

With their shared tracking system and software platforms, many games made for Rift will work with Oculus Quest and vice versa. Oculus Quest will launch with over 50 titles.

VR has had a rocky couple of years — it initially launched to great fanfare but has slowly faded as attention has turned to AR — but these two new headsets could expand the platform and broaden its appeal to new audiences.

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Raymond Wong

Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.

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