Back in March, Oculus announced the Rift S, the successor to its two-year-old flagship VR headset, the Rift. Developed in partnership with Lenovo, the Rift S promises a number of enhancements over its predecessor, while starting at a significantly lower price of $399 when compared to the $599 launch price of the Rift.
Now, the Oculus Rift S is available for pre-order from the Microsoft Store, as spotted by Twitter user WalkingCat. Not only is Microsoft selling the headset through its own channels, the listing on the store also reveals a purported release date for the Rift S: May 21. At the time of its announcement, the VR headset was only promised for this spring, without a specific date being given.
The Rift S improves upon the resolution of its predecessor, though not by a huge margin. Instead of 2160 x 1200, the resolution is now 2560 x 1400, the same as what's found on the cheaper Oculus Go. Unfortunately, the increased resolution comes with a downgrade in refresh rate, from 90Hz to 80Hz. The headset also features near-ear speakers built into the head strap instead of on-ear headphones.
Additionally, the updated headset now has inside-out tracking, removing the need for external sensors, and it includes the same Touch Controllers that ship with the Oculus Quest.
Just like the Rift S, the Oculus Quest is expected to ship this spring, but since the Quest is a standalone headset and doesn't require a PC, it could be that Microsoft won't be selling it. Nonetheless, a release date may not be far off, since Facebook's F8 developer conference takes place today and it could very well include more information about both headsets.
Update: During the opening keynote at F8, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that both the Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest are arriving on May 21, with pre-orders open today. The CEO of the social networking company also announced that F8 attendees will get a free Oculus Quest when it releases.
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