The HTC Vive Cosmos and the Oculus Quest have a closer price range compared to the Oculus Rift S.
The Vive Cosmos and the Oculus Quest have their similarities and differences as well, but they can give you one of the best virtual reality experiences.
They can easily compete with other headsets in the market.
The Vive Cosmos is a PC-powered headset owned by HTC and has is a developed and a more improved version of the original HTC Vive.
The Oculus Quest, on the other hand, is a standalone VR headset and is owned under Facebook Inc.
These two headsets both enable you to move freely and on the full scale because of their wireless features- you can crawl around, duck, spin, whatever you have got to do to succeed with your A-game.
Putting these two headsets head-to-head will be a difficult one, especially if you want to choose which is better.
However, I think that there are features of one headset that are better than that of the other and vice versa.
Let us narrow it down by starting with their design and build quality.
Table of Contents
Design and Build Quality
The Vive Cosmos comes with a headset and two controllers.
The controllers are upgraded with a knuckle design and have better performance as it has been standardized and has adapted the capabilities of the Oculus Touch controller.
When it comes to the hardware of the headset itself, there is an adjustable strap positioned on top of the head for a comfortable fit.
It comes with a halo band that wraps your head for comfort and stability when moving your head.
The headset also features a built-in headphone, so there is no need for wired headphones to be plugged in and risk the wires getting in your way during action in games.
The Vive Cosmos is PC-powered, although according to HTC, you can get rid of the wires and go entirely wireless with upgrades that come as another package.
The Vive Cosmos uses the new and improved Intel WiGig technology that transmits audio and video up to 60GHz for games to run as smoothly as the wired versions of the headset.
The Oculus Quest comes with a sleek headset and two touch controllers.
The design of the Quest is impressive because although the Oculus Quest weighs 100 grams heavier than the Rift and HTC Vive, it is designed to fit on your head and has little to no unnecessary designs.
The extra weight might add a little pressure on your face when you are sitting or lying down to watch Netflix, but if you stand up and play your games, then you would not feel any difference compared to the Cosmos.
The Quest is made up of high-quality plastic in its front and a soft fabric on the sides with just the word “OCULUS” embossed in the front part of the headset.
Just like the Oculus Rift, it has three adjustable velcro straps that can be adjusted from the left, the right, and the top of your head to suit your comfort.
It also has a thick strap on the sides that gives a little bit of cushioning effect, adding to the comfort of the headset.
The headset has built-in headphones that do not cover your ears so you can hear your surroundings outside of virtual reality.
They provide loud and clear sounds; however, if you prefer smooth gaming and would rather have your ears covered with a headphone, then that is also applicable as it has a headphone jack on both left and right side of the headset.
The Oculus Quest is a standalone headset, which means you do not need to power it with any other devices such as a PC or a smartphone.
In this category, I am leaning more towards the Oculus Quest as it offers more comfort than the Vive Cosmos.
Although, when it comes to freedom of movement, I do not think that they are different because of the wireless feature of the Vive Cosmos that almost equals the standalone wireless functionality of the Oculus Quest.
Display and Resolution
The Oculus Quest has 1440 by 1600 pixels display, which is so much better than the Oculus Rift S and Oculus Go that both have 1280 by 1400 pixels.
With this higher pixel density, this is the closest to a 4K quality video in the realm of virtual reality, aside from the Vive Cosmos.
It uses two diamond Pentile OLED displays and features the same “next-generation” lenses that were introduced in the Oculus Go.
The Oculus Go has a passthrough feature which you can use to step outside VR and see the real-time view of the world around you.
The Oculus Quest also includes an Interpupillary Distance (IDP) adjustment feature to adjust where your eyes are centered.
It also has extra foam that you can use if you are using your glasses so that they would not scratch the lenses. The headset has ample space, so you can wear glasses with it.
The Vive Cosmos, on the other hand, has a better display as it offers 1440 by 1700 pixels.
This kind of density, along with the size of the screen (3.4-inch RGB LCD) allows players to see what they are watching or playing in detail.
You have a passthrough feature with the Vive Cosmos as well, so you cannot go wrong in this.
The basic features on the Cosmos and the Quest headsets are pretty similar.
Both the screen and display have a feature of their own that has an advantage over the other. But I still prefer the Vive Cosmos when it comes to this as it has a better pixel density than the Oculus Quest.
Refresh Rate and Field of View
The refresh rate of the VR headset is its ability to make the transitions smoother to avoid motion sickness.
In simple words, the refresh rate is the number of times that the headset refreshes images in a second.
The Vive Cosmos has a refresh rate of 90Hz, which is an average compared to most of the VR headsets in the market right now.
It gives you a smooth transition that lessens glitches and moves as free as your movement with the controller.
The Oculus Quest has an undeniable screen display. However, it is relatively slow when it comes to its refresh rate as it only has 72Hz, or it refreshes the display 72 times in one second.
Field of View or Field of Vision is where the display gives you its maximum display and stays like that no matter what angle you choose to look into it.
The higher the Field of View, the better it is as it widens your perspective in seeing the display.
The Oculus Quest has a lower 90 degrees Field of View compared to the 110-degree Field of View of the Vive Cosmos, which is better for you to concentrate on a larger vision.
This larger FOV allows you to see some angles that the Oculus Quest does not have.
The Vive Cosmos wins in this round as it has a better refresh rate and a wider Field of Vision, allowing you to have a wider vision and a smoother transition, especially in gameplay.
Tracking and Controllers
In this category, you will see which is better in determining the functions of the controller and how well the sensors or trackers of each headset determine the placement of the controllers.
Both the Oculus Quest and the Vive Cosmos has a 6 degree of freedom and use an inside-out tracking system.
This means that both of the headsets do not require a long set up of sensors around your room as they include mounted cameras in the headset that allows it to track the controllers.
Despite the six cameras mounted in it, there are slight issues about the sensors of the Vive Cosmos that it sometimes has a hard time tracking the controllers when your hands are placed behind your back. However, it still allows you to have a wide range of motion.
The Vive Cosmos is making updates so that you have better tracking, and using the controllers feels like a dream.
As for the Oculus Quest, its four cameras are placed strategically in the corners of the headset with a specific angle to track your controllers in a wide variety of angles.
Both of these headsets use AA batteries and adopt the Oculus Touch controller system.
The Oculus Quest has a perfect tracking system that wherever you put your controllers, it simultaneously displays your virtual hands right where the controllers are.
It uses a AA battery for each controller. The Vive Cosmos uses more batter with two AA batteries for each controller as the controllers also use light, which is made for the cameras to track them better.
However, they are not solely compatible with the Oculus Touch controller because you can still use the Vive remote and the Index controller.
Both come in with an adjustable lace to wrap around your hand so you can avoid dropping them.
The Oculus Quest has a more advanced tracking system with its inside-out tracker. This headset is better in following your hands when controlling them in the virtual reality.
Gaming on the Headsets
Just like the Oculus Rift S, the Oculus Quest has a wide array of games that comes with the VR headset.
The Oculus store has many games that they install to the Oculus Quest along with its collaboration with Valve.
Valve made the Oculus Quest compatible with their games, and once you have a Steam account, you can play the SteamVR games with your Oculus Quest.
The same issues with the Oculus Rift S appeared where some games were marked as “incompatible” with the headset.
Although the Vive Cosmos has its games, it does not always come free. They have a store called Viveport where you can buy and download their games.
They also offer many games in their store, but you are also not restricted to the games in that store. The Vive Cosmos is also compatible with StreamVR, and you can play the games there as well with this VR headset.
Conclusion
These two amazing headsets certainly have advantages as well as disadvantages of their own.
They are both wireless headsets(the Vive Cosmos can be both wired and wireless), which give you the freedom to do as much movement as you need when playing a game.
They are easier to set up as they do not motion sensors to be set up separately.
You have all the games that you want to play in the Oculus Quest that comes free and compatible with SteamVR.
It goes the same with the Vive Cosmos with the Viveport full of fun games and is compatible with SteamVR as well.
I had difficulty in choosing which VR headset is better because of the fantastic features that each headset has.
They do have a higher price compared to other VR headsets, but they make up for their high price with their features that you can rarely find in other headsets.
The price of these headsets varied initially by $300 with the Vive Cosmos priced at $699 and the Oculus Quest at $399.
This is a huge price gap, and considering that you do not need a PC for the Quest, most of you are going to incline towards the Oculus Quest.
You can choose the Oculus Quest if you do not want to invest in a PC with specifications that are needed by the COsmos.
But if you want a headset that could work both as a wireless and wired headset, then you cannot go wrong with the Vive Cosmos.
Whatever you choose among the two, let us know in the comments below!
If you have any experiences with the headset, then you might want to share that with our users in the comments section.
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