Our Journey Through Time with VR

As one of the pioneers in VR, we've seen a lot of changes in the VR landscape over the years. Here is a collection of headsets we've had the pleasure of owning.

Hover over the images to learn more about each headset.

Oculus Rift Development Kit 1

Oculus Rift DK1

March 2013

This headset started it all. Rift Developer Kit was made available to developers and enthusiasts in 2013, thus marking the start of a new era in virtual reality. Aside from that, it was really terrible.

Oculus Rift HD Prototype

Oculus HD Prototype

Summer 2013

One of the really terrible features of the DK1 was its small resolution. This prototype added a Full HD panel, making it a bit less terrible.

Oculus Rift Development Kit 2

Oculus Rift DK2

June 2014

DK2 introduced positional tracking, which allowed us to move our head in VR. Its low-persistence mode eliminated a lot of motion blur and its higher refresh rate of 75Hz made for smoother viewing. Simply put, made VR a bit better.

Oculus Rift Crescent Bay Prototype

Oculus Crescent Bay

September 2014

CB upped Rift's resolution to 1200x1080, refresh rate to 90Hz and added a 360° tracking. CB was the first headset to achieve a convincing feeling of presence in the virtual world.

Vive Development Kit

HTC Vive Prototype

Spring 2015

Made by HTC in cooperation with Valve, HTC Vive offered the exact same resolution and refresh rate as Oculus CB, plus roomscale tracking and motion controllers.

Razer Hacker Dev Kit

Razer OSVR HDK

Spring 2015

Razer tried to enter VR with it's own Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) initiave and a headset with specs akin to Oculus DK2. It failed to gain traction.

Samsung GearVR

Samsung GearVR

November 2015

Samsung was first to deliver a consumer VR product. GearVR was a VR holder for the Galaxy S and Note phones.

Oculus Rift Consumer Version 1

Oculus Rift CV1

28th March 2016

The launch of Oculus CV1 (Consumer Version 1), directly evolved from the Crescent Bay prototype, marked the start of a new era of VR.

HTC Vive

HTC Vive

5th April 2016

HTC and Valve's joint effort entered the market just week after Oculus, offering nearly identical specs, but with addition of roomscale tracking and motion controllers.

Microsoft HoloLens

Microsoft Hololens

Spring 2016

The first AR headset on the market, making 2016 the year of not only VR but AR as well. Hololens was fully self-contained and targeted mainly at business.

Razer HDK2

Razer HDK2

June 2016

Razer updated it's original HDK to match the specs of Rift and Vive, but in many ways the product was inferior. Still failed to gain traction and was never heard of again.

PlayStation VR

PlayStation VR

October 2016

Sony joined the party in autumn 2016 with PSVR headset, which would go on to become the most successful headset of the first generation trio.

Google DayDream View

Google Daydream View

November 2016

Google's answer to GearVR, a premium holder for high-end Android phones with 3DoF controller. Failed to gain traction, discontinued in 2019.

Fove 0

Fove 0

January 2017

First headset with eye-tracking capability available to both professionals and consumers. Having failed to gain traction on its own or get acquired by another company, it slowly faded into obscurity.

Acer WMR Headset

Acer WMR "Dev Edition"

Summer 2017

Microsoft's goal with the Windows Mixed Reality platform was to prepare unified specs for a base device which could be produced and improved upon by different manufacturers. This specific piece was made by Acer and is terrible.

Samsung Oddysey HMD

Samsung Oddysey HMD

November 2017

Odyssey targeted the WMR platform but added many missing features - such as a microphone, headphones or IPD slider - providing a decent and competitive headset

HTC Vive Pro

HTC Vive Pro

April 2018

HTC upgraded it's original Vive by adding new displays so it's resolution matched the one of Samsung Oddysey. Integrated audio and SteamVR tracking 2.0 was also introduces in this iteration of Vive.

Oculus Go

Oculus Go

May 2018

Go provided a standalone alternative to GearVR, combining existing software library with numerous technical upgrades.

Magic Leap One

Magic Leap One

Summer 2018

Eating through more than 2 billion USD in funding, the first AR headset from Magic Leap was mostly just dissapointment and failed to gain traction.

Pimax 5K+ / 8K

Pimax 5K+ / 8K

Autumn 2018

This Chinese company advertised an impressive 200 degrees diagonal FoV and managed to deliver a solid headset. Definitely a surprise and a pleasant one at that.

Oculus Quest

Oculus Quest

May 2019

Standalone headset from Oculus which offered positional tracking and tracked controllers, bringing mobile VR up to par with PC VR.

Oculus Rift S

Oculus Rift S

May 2019

New Rift made by Lenovo was an evolution of Rift CV1, offering new optics, better resolution, but at the cost of worse comfort, audio and missing IPD slider.

Valve Index

Valve Index

June 2019

Index took VR to the next level in many ways - delivering new optics, wider FoV, new audio solution, revolutionary controllers and 144Hz refresh rate.

HP Reverb

HP Reverb

Autumn 2019

New HP headset for the WMR platform. Its 2Kx2K resolution per eye makes it one of the best headsets in terms of image quality. Its design closely resembles that of Rift CV1

Vive Cosmos Elite

Vive Cosmos Elite

Spring 2020

Variant of Vive Cosmos that uses SteamVR tracking and original Vive controller.

StarVR One

StarVR One

June 2020

Ultra-wide FOV headset StarVR achieved 170deg horizontal FOV, no lens distortion and correct optics calibration. But after 7 years of development, the rest of headset was a bit outdated.

Pimax8KX

Pimax 8KX

July 2020

Pimax release it's 'native 8K' headset in 2020, offering best picture seen to date, wide FOV with 150deg horizontal and copied Vive Pro headstrap.

Quest 2

Meta Quest 2

October 2020

As Quest 1 hardware was finalized early in development cycle to allow for software development, in Quest 2 Oculus focused on improving the existing hardware, resulting in a much better performance.

HP Reverb G2

HP Reverb G2

November 2020

A crossover between original Reverb and Valve Index, with new lenses, audio and controllers. Didn't gain much traction.

Quest Pro

Meta Quest Pro

October 2022

Mixed Reality dev kit that was released a year later than planned due to Covid delays. New optics, new self tracking controllers, eye tracking and mixed reality features, however failed to gain traction.

PSVR2

Sony PSVR2

February 2023

Second generation of PSVR2, targeting PS5. New VR controllers and inside-out tracking. Later made available on PC as well using adapter or virtualink port.

Pimax Crystal

Pimax Crystal

May 2023

Oferring massive 6K resolution and quite wide FoV, Pimax Crystak was a solid headset for PCVR and especially simulation fans. As all Pimax products, didn't gain much of a traction.

Bigsreen Beyond

Bigsreen Beyond

September 2023

PCVR headset pushing comfort to the limit, weighting just 127g and custom facial interface for each owner. Being the headset that finally achieved comfort required for longer periods in VR.

Quest 3

Meta Quest 3

October 2023

True Mixed Reality with new controllers, depth camera replacing the outdated Quest Pro in than a year after it's release.

Vision Pro

Apple Vision Pro

January 2024

Apple big entry into the VR market, offering a prosumer headset with a hefty price tag. The first generation devices didn't gain much traction and faded out after initial few weeks in the spotlight