Technologies

PSVR 2 vs. Quest 2: Which Should You Buy, or Should You Wait?

Two very different VR headsets compared — and you may also want to wait for the inevitable Quest 3.

Sony’s PlayStation VR 2 is the PlayStation 5’s first dedicated VR headset, but 2023 is just getting started. With Meta’s Quest 3 expected by the end of the year and Apple’s unknown VR/AR headset expected to make an appearance as well, this isn’t necessarily the best time to get a VR headset. But we love a lot of what the PSVR 2 offers, even if it’s currently limited to a smaller game library and needs a wired connection to a PS5.

The Quest 2 is the most successful VR headset, although it’s over two years old. Here’s how these two devices differ and what each is best at. My colleague Justin Eastzer and I deeply discussed the topic in the video embedded in this story.

For more, read CNET’s PSVR 2 review and Quest 2 review, and check out our favorite Quest 2 games and PSVR 2 games.

Read more: Best VR Headsets of 2023

Hardware: Standalone vs. cabled

The Quest 2 is a fully self-contained VR game system; nothing else is required. For its $399 (£399, AU$630) price, that’s a huge advantage that other competitors are still trying to match.

The $550 (£530, AU$880) PlayStation VR 2, meanwhile, is tethered to a nearly 15-foot cable that needs to be plugged into a PlayStation 5. It doesn’t work on its own at all. It’s really a headset extension of your PS5.

That difference in design makes a bigger impact than you might think. The Quest 2’s portability also means it’s an easy headset to set up for full-motion VR gaming and fitness games and apps. Games like Beat Saber, and fitness apps like Supernatural, are some of the best things you can do on the headset.

The PSVR 2’s cable is long, and it feels heavy. The one-cable setup and its self-contained in-headset camera-based tracking are a lot easier to set up than the original PSVR was, but it’ll still need to live wherever your PS5 lives, and makes the PSVR 2 a better sit-down or stand-in-place experience than a full-motion one.

The back of two VR headsets, looking at the lenses, sitting on a green table — The Quest 2 (left) is more compact, but has less impressive graphics and optics. The PSVR 2 fits my glasses better, is comfier, but it’s bigger.

Scott Stein/CNET

Displays and audio: PSVR 2 has a big edge, mostly

The Quest 2’s LCD-based display is pretty sharp (1,832×1,920 pixels per eye), but the PSVR 2’s 2,000×2,040 pixel-per-eye HDR OLED display is higher res, more vivid and has much better contrast and black levels. Colors are bright and rich. On top of that, the PSVR 2’s ability to drive PS5-quality graphics means games have greater detail than the Quest 2. The latter uses an integrated Snapdragon XR2 mobile processor that’s less powerful, although the Quest 2 can be tethered to a gaming PC, which lets it play higher-end games similarly to the PS5.

PSVR 2 and Quest 2 headsets, seen looking down on a green table — The PSVR 2 (right) can adjust its distance from your face, but its visor design is bulkier.

Scott Stein/CNET

The Quest 2 has speakers that pump 3D audio near your ears but still lets other sounds in, which is bad for cinematic experiences but good for hearing kids or alarms — handy when absorbed in VR. It also has a headphone jack. The PSVR 2 has included earbuds for 3D audio but no speakers, which means you’re far more isolated when listening to audio. The earbuds sound OK, but Sony’s wireless Pulse 3D over-ear headphones (sold separately) offer better sound. The PSVR 2 has a headphone jack too, just like the Quest 2.

The PSVR 2 also adds an extra couple of immersive wrinkles. The headset uses eye tracking to boost graphics quality where your eyes are looking via foveated rendering technology. The headset also has rumble, which sounds gimmicky but can feel like an extension of bass vibrations in-game, adding an overlap between sound and immersive sensation.

Two VR controllers (Quest 2 and PSVR 2) on a green background — The Quest 2 Touch controller (left) and PSVR 2 Sense controller: Similar button/stick/trigger layout, but the PSVR 2 has better haptics and force feedback, while the Quest 2 has better finger sensing off-button.

Scott Stein/CNET

Controllers and input: PSVR 2 has better haptics and eye tracking, Quest 2 has hand tracking

The PSVR 2 and Quest 2 have the same type of controller design, mostly: VR headsets have settled on buttons, analog sticks, triggers and grips that are pretty consistent across the board. The PSVR 2 Sense controllers have much better vibration feedback and even force-feedback «adaptive triggers» that offer resistance in some games. These are features the PS5 DualSense controller already has, but they feel a lot richer in VR than the Quest 2’s pretty basic buzzing. The PSVR 2 also uses eye tracking to add additional controls in some games, letting you glance at objects to select them, potentially improving accuracy.

The Quest 2 has better finger awareness when holding the controllers, sensing when your fingers are on or off, or even resting on the buttons or triggers. This awareness can create sensations that feel like hand tracking. The PSVR 2 doesn’t do this nearly as well yet. Also, the Quest 2 can do actual hand tracking without needing any controllers. This input type isn’t perfect, but it can be helpful… and the PSVR 2 doesn’t do this at all (yet).

psvr2-vs-quest2-controllertriggers — The PSVR 2’s triggers (right) have pressurized force feedback you can feel, which gives an edge for some games.

Scott Stein/CNET

Software: Quest 2 has a huge advantage (for now), PSVR 2 has some standouts

The Quest 2’s software library covers hundreds of games, productivity and design apps, fitness apps, meditation apps and social world apps. There are also plenty of free apps and games. The Quest platform has been around since 2019, giving it a big lead time. The PSVR 2 is starting from scratch. The hardware isn’t automatically backward-compatible with original PSVR games. Although many of those games are getting PSVR 2 upgrades, it means waiting for the updates to happen, if they do at all.

For now, the PSVR 2 is also skipping entire genres found on the Quest 2. The PSVR 2 is all games, as you’d expect. There should be a few fitness apps (Les Mills Body Combat is already available) but no social world apps. That might be comforting for parents with younger kids, but it leaves out extra uses you could get from the still-evolving Quest 2.

Additionally, most of the PSVR 2 launch games are ports of games on the Quest 2. Only a few are unique standouts that the Quest 2 natively lacks: notably Horizon Call of the Mountain, Gran Turismo 7, Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky, with more coming.

PSVR 2 and Quest 2 facing each other on a green background — The PSVR 2 (right) has eye tracking and more adjustable eye distance, or IPD, while the Quest 2 lacks eye tracking and has only three IPD settings.

Scott Stein/CNET

Price: Quest 2 has the edge

The $399 all-in value of the Quest 2 is a big advantage here. The PSVR 2 is more expensive at $550, and you still need the PS5, making it a $1,000-plus investment. But the Quest 2 is getting old, and a Quest 3 will likely come later this year that you should hold off for.

psvr2-vs-quest2-controllerheadset — Scott Stein/CNET

Yes, you should wait

Now is the time to wait and see what comes for VR. The Quest 3, expected by the end of the year, should be a clear upgrade over the nearly three-year-old Quest 2, and there’s a chance that many more games (and even a holiday bundle) will upgrade the PSVR 2 experience by year’s end. If you can, I’d hang on and see what the situation looks like for both Meta and Sony in the fall.

If you already have a Quest 2, the PSVR 2 doesn’t offer enough yet to make the switch. And if you’re a PS5 owner who doesn’t mind spending a bunch of money on new tech, the PSVR 2 is already a fun experience, just one we can’t quite get a future sense of yet.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Monday, May 19

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for May 19.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword is pretty easy. 5-Across, «one for whom every day is Boxing Day,» stumped me because I really wanted the answer to have something to do with cats. (Spoiler: It did not.) Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Network satirized on «30 Rock,» for short
Answer: NBC

4A clue: Sport played on horseback
Answer: POLO

5A clue: One for whom every day is Boxing Day?
Answer: MOVED

6A clue: Like correct letters in Wordle
Answer: GREEN

7A clue: Blend together
Answer: MELD

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: «Invisible Man» or «Little Women»
Answer: NOVEL

2D clue: Run in the wash
Answer: BLEED

3D clue: What bourbon whiskey is primarily made from
Answer: CORN

4D clue: Tiny hole in the skin
Answer: PORE

5D clue: Longtime movie studio acquired by Amazon in 2022
Answer: MGM

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 19, #238

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 238, for May 19.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Connections: Sports Edition might be tough today if, like me, you don’t know what «loge» means. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Brag.

Green group hint: Where’s my seat?

Blue group hint: City that never sleeps.

Purple group hint: Opposite of go.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Boast

Green group: Stadium seating sections

Blue group: New York Knicks

Purple group: ____ stop

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is boast. The four answers are crow, gloat, grandstand and showboat.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is stadium seating sections. The four answers are bleacher, loge, suites and upper deck.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is New York Knicks. The four answers are Bridges, Hart, McBride and Towns.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ stop. The four answers are back, jump, pit and short.

Technologies

Blade Runner: 18-Rotor «Volocopter» Moving from Concept to Prototype

It may look "nutty" and like a "blender," but the designers say the craft could challenge helicopters

Inventor and physicist Thomas Senkel created an Internet sensation with the October 2011 video of his maiden—and only—test flight of a spidery proof-of-concept 16-rotor helicopter dubbed Multicopter 1. Now the maker of the experimental personal aviation craft, the European start-up e-volo, is back with a revised «volocopter» design that adds two more rotors, a serial hybrid drive and long-term plans for going to 100 percent battery power.

The new design calls for 1.8-meter, 0.5-kilogram carbon-fiber blades, each paired with a motor. They are arrayed around a hub in two concentric circles over a boxy one- or two-person cockpit.

After awarding the volocopter concept a Lindbergh Prize for Innovation in April, Yolanka Wulff, executive director of The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, admitted the idea of the multi-blade chopper at first seems «nutty.» Looking beyond the novel appearance, however, she says, e-volo’s concept excels in safety, energy efficiency and simplicity, which were the bases of the prize.

All three attributes arrive thanks largely to evolo’s removal of classic helicopter elements. First, the energy-robbing high-mass main rotor, transmission, tail boom and tail rotor are gone. The enormous blades over a normal chopper’s cabin create lift, but their mass creates a high degree of stress and wear on the craft. And the small tail rotor, perched vertically out on a boom behind the cabin, keeps the helicopter’s body from spinning in the opposite direction as the main blades, but it also eats up about 30 percent of a helicopter’s power.

The volocopter’s multiple rotor blades individually would not create the torque that a single large rotor produces, and they offer redundancy for safety. Hypothetically, the volocopter could fly with a few as 12 functioning rotors, as long as those rotors were not all clustered together on one side, says Senkel, the aircraft’s co-inventor and e-volo’s lead construction engineer.

Without the iconic two-prop configuration, the craft would be lighter, making it more fuel efficient and reducing the physical complexity of delivering power to the top and rear blades from a single engine. Nor would the volocopter need an energy-hungry transmission. In fact, «there will be no mechanical connection between the gas engine and the blades,» Senkel says. That means fewer points of energy loss and more redundancy for safety.

E-volo’s design eliminates the dependence on a single source of power to the blades. As a serial-hybrid vehicle, the volocopter would have a gas-fueled engine, in this case an engine capable of generating 50- to 75 kilowatts, typical of ultralight aircraft. Rather than mechanically drive the rotors, the engine would generate power for electric motors as well as charge onboard lithium batteries. Should it fail, the batteries are expected to provide enough backup power so the craft could make a controlled landing.

Whereas helicopters navigate by changing the pitch of the main and tail rotor blades, the volocopter’s maneuverability will depend on changing the speed of individual rotors. Although more complex, it is more precise in principle to control a craft using three to six redundant microcontrollers (in case one or more fails) interpreting instructions from a pilot using a game console–like joystick—instead of rudder pedals, a control stick and a throttle.

Wulff’s first impression about the volocopter’s design is not uncommon. E-volo’s computer-animated promotional videos of a gleaming white, carbon-fiber and fiberglass craft beneath a thatch of blades recall the many-winged would-be flying machines of the late 19th century. This point is not lost on Senkel.

«I understand these skeptical opinions,» he says. «The design concept looks like a blender. But we really are making a safe flying machine.»

That would be progress in itself. Multicopter 1 looked like something from an especially iffy episode of MacGyver, complete with landing gear that involved a silver yoga ball. Senkel rode seated amid all those rotors powered only by lithium batteries. Multicopter 1 generated an average of 20 kilowatts for hovering and was aloft for just a few minutes.

There’s a reason why the experimental craft flew briefly and only once.Senkel describes that first craft as «glued and screwed together.» Seated on the same platform as the spinning blades, he says, «I was aware of the fact that I will be dead, maybe. Besides, we showed that the concept works. What do we win if we fly it twice?» he asks rhetorically.

Other than putting the pilot safely below the blades, the revised volocopter design would operate largely the same as the initial prototype. The design calls for three to six redundant accelerometers and gyroscopes to measure the volocopter’s position and orientation, creating a feedback loop that gives the craft stability and makes it easier to fly, Senkel says.

The volocopter’s revised prototype under construction could debut as soon as next spring. The first production models, available in perhaps three years, are expected to fly for at least an hour at speeds exceeding 100 kilometers per hour and a minimum altitude of about 2,000 meters, still far shy of standard helicopter’s normal operating altitude of about 3,000 meters. «This could change our lives, but I don’t expect anything like that for 10 years,» Senkel adds.

Given that most of the technology needed to build the volocopter is already available, «this idea is fairly easy to realize,» says Carl Kühn, managing director of e-volo partner Smoto GmbH, a company that integrates electric drive systems and related components.

Like Senkel, Kühn has modest short-term expectations despite his repeated emphasis on the standard nature of the technology involved. «I guess that e-volo will have [a prototype] aircraft in three years that can do the job—that it will lift one or two persons from one point to another,» he says.

The biggest immediate limitations appear to be regulatory. For instance, European aviation regulators consider any electrical system greater than 60 volts to be high voltage and regulate such systems more aggressively, Kühn says. As a result, the volocopter will operate below that threshold. The craft will also need to weigh no more than 450 kilograms to remain in the ultralight category, which is likewise subject to fewer government aviation regulations, according to Senkel.

The Lindbergh Foundation’s Wulff says the organization’s judges felt e-volo had «a greater than 50 percent chance of succeeding, or they wouldn’t have given them the innovation award.» Asked if she would line up to fly one someday, she says, «I sure would. It looks very compelling to me.»