Virtual Reality

Nreal hopes to bring AR to the masses with its Light AR Smart Glasses, but the price is still on the high side, and using a smartphone as a controller has limitations.

The Varjo Aero delivers a winning combination of solid build quality, excellent visual fidelity in VR, and a highly adjustable design.

The Pimax Vision 8K X is the highest-end headset that Pimax offers and is best suited for extreme VR fans with an excessive budget.

The HTC Vive Pro 2 is a good VR headset but not a great value.

The HTC Vive Focus 3 is the best standalone VR headset that we've tested.

But at what cost?

The Pimax Vision 8K Plus is a high resolution VR headset that’s also light and reasonably comfortable. It's good for enthusiasts but not the average Joe.

The Oculus Quest2 VR headset has excellent performance, striking visuals and is lighter than the old version.

Half-Life: Alyx is a downright, great experience. From the story to graphics to mechanics, this game has all the trappings of a proper AAA title, which is a rare combination in VR games.

The HTC Vive Cosmos is a great VR headset held back by bad controller ergonomics. It's comfort and lack of base stations makes it a good upgrade from the Vive.

The HTC Vive Cosmos Elite with the External Tracking Faceplate gives you everything you need in a VR headset, but the price makes it a tough buy against the current competition.

The Valve Index VR headset and controllers offers an excellent visual experience and best-in-class tracking, and the Index controllers are the best out there.

Welcome to the beginning of the next era of virtual reality hardware, where host devices aren’t needed, and cables are just for charging.

The Lenovo Mirage AR headset is more tempting with Marvel Dimension of Heroes and new controllers.

The Rift S isn’t a second-gen headset, but more like a do-over of the original, with improvements and compromises. If you have a headset, you can skip this one.

The Insta360 Evo 5.7K VR camera with 360-degree mono and 180-degree stereo captures clear images and video, but could use an improved stitching algorithm.

HP Reverb is the best Windows Mixed Reality headset, but that may be its biggest downfall. It's impressive, but the included controllers ruin the experience.

The Oculus Quest could be the device that turns the VR market around and attracts the masses. It’s basically a game console built into a headset, done right.

The Pimax 5K Plus VR headset isn't perfect. We wouldn’t trade it for a Vive Pro, but we'd consider it if we were upgrading from the original Vive.