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 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/CNETDisplays 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.

The PSVR 2 (right) can adjust its distance from your face, but its visor design is bulkier.
Scott Stein/CNETThe 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.

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/CNETControllers 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).

The PSVR 2’s triggers (right) have pressurized force feedback you can feel, which gives an edge for some games.
Scott Stein/CNETSoftware: 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.

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/CNETPrice: 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.

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.
Technologies
Speediance’s Compact Resistance Trainer and Wearable Make Wellness and Fitness More Connected
Speediance unveils a portable strength training device and a wearable at CES.
Speediance unveiled its new Gym Nano and Speediance Strap products this week at CES 2026. The smart fitness equipment manufacturer, which previously developed its own smart home gym, the Gym Monster 2, designed the Gym Nano and Speediance Strap to complement its current equipment ecosystem.
«Rather than developing products in isolation, we’re building a comprehensive training and health ecosystem that adapts to users’ real lives and empowers better decision-making over time,» Speediance founder and CEO Liu Tao said in a statement.
Speediance used the consumer tech expo in Las Vegas to demonstrate the Gym Nano, a portable, motor-driven cable resistance training system designed to occupy minimal space for those who prefer to work out at home. The strap is a prototype wearable device designed to read your health data and provide training recommendations based on this insight.
CNET previously tested Speediance’s VeloNix AI Smart Bike and named it the best AI-powered exercise bike.
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Gym Nano
The Gym Nano is a compact digital cable resistance machine trainer that fits any space and delivers full-body workouts. It’s meant to make strength training at home easier if you have limited space and can’t commit to larger home gym equipment.
The Gym Nano offers up to 220 pounds of resistance through adjustable 1-pound increments. It also has five dynamic weight modes: Eccentric, Chain, Standard, Fixed Speed and Sled.
Speediance Strap
The Speediance Strap is a screen-free wearable that collects data related to your sleep, training and core body temperature. It then uploads and shares this data to the Speediance Wellness Plus app, where it makes suggestions for your daily training and recovery based on this information.
The strap can be used for both endurance and strength training activities and recognizes various types of exercises, movement patterns, training volume and other insights that can help you learn how well your body is responding to your training.
The Speediance Strap is a screen-free wearable that collects data related to your sleep, training and core body temperature. It then uploads and shares this data to the Speediance Wellness Plus app, where it makes suggestions for your daily training and recovery based on this information. Similar to other wearables, the Speediance Strap assesses your readiness each day and can detect stress factors to determine if you should focus more on recovery on that day.
«With Speediance Strap, we are exploring how wearable data can function as part of a decision-support layer within a connected fitness system, rather than existing as isolated metrics,» Tao said in a statement.
Additionally, everyday insights (like core and recovery data) will be free to you unless you want to upgrade to the Wellness Plus access, which will come at an additional cost to receive long-term insights and AI planning.
It’s unclear when the Gym Nano will be available for purchase, but the Speediance Strap is expected to launch through a Kickstarter campaign in spring 2026.
Technologies
OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Health: A Dedicated Tab for Medical Inquiries
The company wants you to upload your medical records and connect the wellness apps you use.
ChatGPT is expanding its presence in the health care realm. OpenAI said Wednesday that its popular AI chatbot will begin rolling out ChatGPT Health, a new tab dedicated to addressing all your medical inquiries. The goal of this new tab is to centralize all your medical records and provide a private area for your wellness issues.
Looking for answers about a plethora of health issues is a top use for the chatbot. According to OpenAI, «hundreds of millions of people» sign in to ChatGPT every week to ask a variety of health and wellness questions. Additionally, ChatGPT Health (currently in beta testing) will encourage you to connect any wellness apps you also use, such as Apple Health and MyFitnessPal, resulting in a more connected experience with more information about you to draw from.
Online privacy, especially in the age of AI, is a significant concern, and this announcement raises a range of questions regarding how your personal health data will be used and the safeguards that will be implemented to keep sensitive information secure — especially with the proliferation of data breaches and data brokers.
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«The US doesn’t have a general-purpose privacy law, and HIPAA only protects data held by certain people like health care providers and insurance companies,» Andrew Crawford, senior counsel for privacy and data at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in an emailed statement.
He continued: «The recent announcement by OpenAI introducing ChatGPT Health means that a number of companies not bound by HIPAA’s privacy protections will be collecting, sharing and using people’s health data. And since it’s up to each company to set the rules for how health data is collected, used, shared and stored, inadequate data protections and policies can put sensitive health information in real danger.»
OpenAI says the new tab will have a separate chat history and a memory feature that can keep your health chat history separate from the rest of your ChatGPT usage.
Further protections, such as encryption and multifactor authentication, will defend your data and keep it secure, the company says. Health conversations won’t be used to train the chatbot, according to the company.
Privacy issues aside, another concern is how people intend to use ChatGPT Health. OpenAI’s blog post states the service «is not intended for diagnosis or treatment.»
The slope is slippery here. In August 2025, a man was hospitalized after allegedly being advised by the AI chatbot to replace salt in his diet with sodium bromide. There are other examples of AI providing incorrect and potentially harmful advice to individuals, leading to hospitalization.
OpenAI’s announcement also doesn’t touch on mental health concerns, but a blog post from October 2025 says the company is working to strengthen its responses in sensitive conversations. Whether these mental health guardrails will be enough to keep people safe remains to be seen.
OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
If you’re interested in ChatGPT Health, you can join a waitlist, as the tab isn’t yet live.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Technologies
I Tested the Honor Magic 8 Pro and Found a Huge Problem With the Camera
I discovered a catastrophic problem with this phone’s cameras and it needs to be fixed fast.
I’ve found a big problem with the Honor Magic 8 Pro’s camera that urgently needs addressing. I’ve taken hundreds of test photos in my weeks with the company’s latest flagship phone, and while plenty of them are perfectly decent, many of the images I’ve taken with the ultrawide lens display horrendous image processing issues around the edges that ruin them completely.
I discovered the issue when I first got the phone late last year, and while it’s had several significant software updates since then, the problems persist. So what’s gone wrong? It’s possible that I’m monumentally unlucky and happen to have been given a broken unit. If so, I fully expect the replacement models I’ll be testing to be free of any issues. Or, maybe it’s a more widespread problem and I’ll see the same issues cropping up again. I personally think it’s more likely to be an issue at the software level, and as such, it could be a simple fix for Honor to push out in the coming days and weeks.
I’ve spoken to Honor about this and, unsurprisingly, the company is keen to say that this isn’t widespread, stating «Our internal investigation confirmed that the issue was limited to an isolated hardware anomaly in that specific early development sample. It doesn’t reflect the hardware or software polish of the final retail units now launching in the European market.» And sure, my test unit was an early non-EU version, but it is also the phone that the company did send me to review. Receiving early prerelease samples is common in the industry and while small hiccups can sometimes be expected, I rarely find such significant problems as this.
Honor is sending additional retail units for further testing and I hope that I’m able to confirm that this isn’t an issue seen on all models. I was prepared to write a full review of this new flagship phone, but these camera issues are severe and raise more questions than answers. I will update this article with more information and my testing results as they become available.
Read more: Best Phone to Buy in 2026
Even if it is an isolated incident, it’s still disappointing to see such significant problems on a new phone, especially a flagship that costs £1,099 in the UK. Honor doesn’t officially sell its phones in the US, but for reference, that price converts to roughly $1,480.
The phone does have some positives. I like its processor performance and display, for example, which I’ll come on to later. But the camera issues I’ve seen mean I can’t recommend buying this phone until it’s clear whether they’re limited to my review device or if they’re issues common across all models.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s going on.
Honor Magic 8 Pro camera troubles
Taken with the camera’s standard zoom, the shot above is fine — there’s a decent amount of detail and the exposure is even overall.
But switch to the ultrawide mode and things go horribly wrong. There’s a vibrant purple fringe around the edge that’s full of image processing artifacts that ruin the shot.
It’s not a subtle problem; it’s a huge red flag that something is very wrong with this phone.
For reference, here’s the iPhone 16 Pro’s ultrawide shot. Notice the difference?
As you can see, it’s not an isolated incident. It seems to be more apparent when there are areas of shadow in the edges. It makes me suspect that the phone is seeing these dark patches and trying — and failing — to brighten them and add detail back into the scene. It’s not dissimilar to the early problems I found on Google’s Pixel 8 Pro, which also struggled with shadow detail, suggesting to me that this is a software fault, rather than a mechanical problem with my unit.
It also doesn’t seem to affect the ultrawide lens when recording video, which again suggests it’s not a hardware issue as I’d expect to see the same problems from the lens in any mode. The downside of that is that it could theoretically affect all models of the Honor Magic 8 Pro. However, the big upside is that software problems can be easily remedied with over-the-air updates.
To be honest, I don’t love the camera elsewhere, either. The image processing has gone overboard in this image, brightening the shadows and trying to rescue the highlights in the background excessively. It’s resulted in an over-processed image that looks unnatural.
The iPhone 16 Pro’s attempt has allowed those shadows to remain what they are — shadows — and I vastly prefer this version as a result.
I’ve also noticed that there can be significant color shifts when switching between the main and ultrawide lenses, which I would again prefer not to see on a camera phone of this price.
However, this could be attributed to the same software processing issues I’ve already discussed, so I’ll have to leave my verdict on the camera for when I’ve done more testing.
On the upside, this shot of the Tennents brewery in Glasgow looks good.
And I like the colors and tones in this sunset scene in Edinburgh. So it’s not all bad — it can take a decent photo sometimes. So what about the rest of the phone?
Honor Magic 8 Pro: Display, performance and battery life
I like the phone’s 6.71-inch display, which is bright and vibrant. It’s lovely for gaming, too, thanks to its max 120Hz refresh rate. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 processor, which puts in some of the best scores we’ve ever seen on our benchmark tests for both processor performance and graphics processing.
It certainly feels nippy in everyday use. Games like Genshin Impact, unsurprisingly, played smoothly at max graphics settings. The phone runs on a 6,270-mAh battery, which, while sizable, only gave average results on our battery drain tests. Battery performance sits alongside phones like the Galaxy S25 or Google Pixel 10, but it’s a big step below the iPhone 17 Pro Max or OnePlus 15.
If it feels like I’m glossing over the rest of the phone somewhat, it’s because I am. With the issues I’ve seen so far, it’s possible that there may be other early teething troubles elsewhere, so I’m going to hold off giving any kind of definitive verdict on any part of the phone until I’ve tested more models and have a full appreciation of what the phone is really like to use.
Honor Magic 8 Pro: Should you buy it?
Right now, I absolutely don’t think you should. The issues I’ve seen with the camera are significant and badly need addressing. It could be that it’s a simple software fix that can be rolled out in the coming weeks, or it might be an isolated incident that affects me and me alone. I’ll be retesting on multiple devices and it could be that they’re absolutely fine.
But unless you’re desperate for a new phone today and you absolutely have to have an Honor phone, then I recommend waiting until we’ve got more clarity about how deep these problems lie.
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