Honorable Mention: Oculus Rift
As the first of three VR headsets to release in 2016, the Oculus Rift is a great piece of tech. Boasting an OLED screen with 2160 x 1200 resolution, a slick 90Hz refresh rate, built-in audio, and built-in mic, the Rift offers a smooth and enjoyable VR experience. What’s more, Oculus has made significant moves to reduce the minimum specifications required to run a Rift. Lower specs mean that the cost of the rig you’ll need to run the Rift is quite heavily reduced.
Even better, both the Rift and its PC competitor, the HTC Vive, have had a solid lineup of games release over the course of 2016. Unfortunately, the Rift has struggled to find its strength in the VR market this year, largely because when it launched in April, the Touch controllers weren’t yet released. Now that they are, they’ll set you back an additional $200, bumping the price of the Rift up to that of the HTC Vive. Even with the additional Rift sensor that comes with the controllers, the Rift still doesn’t have the same potential tracking area range as that of the HTC Vive.
Despite all this, the Rift is a solid VR headset and one that will likely grow over the next year as it partners up with Disney to bring exclusive experiences. Unfortunately, it just didn’t make as much of a splash as its VR competition.
