Oculus first announced the Oculus Link technology and software this past Oculus Connect Event in September of 2019. This software allows the Oculus Quest to essentially become a Rift S, with all of the same similarities and the same gaming capabilities. With the right PC hardware and an Oculus Link-ready cord with the right specs, your Quest is able to play some of the most high-end games the Oculus Rift Platform has to offer. Starting yesterday, the official Oculus Link cable is available in select regions.
We aren’t sure which regions the new cable is available in, but the main Quest-consuming countries are thought to be included in this initial release. The cord is priced at $79.99 inside of the United States.
This new cord from Oculus is believed to be the best Link cable on the market. We have found a few cables that are capable of harnessing this new tech, but none of them have had the impressive specs that are inside the new Oculus cable. This cable isn’t just another pretty piece of hardware, as it holds 15 feet (3 meters) of tech that is unrivaled in the market right now. For the full list of specs, you can check those out below.
Official Link Specs
- Length – 5 Meter Headset Cable
- Outer Diameter – 4.6 Millimeters
- Weight – 224g
- Color – Black
- Type – USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C
- Connectors – Headset: Right Angle USB Type-C
- PC Straight Type-C
- Cable Exterior – TPU 0.5 Millimeter
- Low Friction Durable Flexible
- Shielding – High Quality Spiral Shielding
- Cable Bend Radius – 20 Millimeter
- Signal Requirements – USB 3.2 Gen 1 Signaling 5 Gbps USB 2 Backward Compatible
- Infrared Signal Loss Tolerances – <500mV VBUS @ 3000mA : <250mV GND @ 3000mA
- Power Supply – 3A
- Bandwidth – 5 Gbps
- Electrical Identification – eMarker
- Support for SuperSpeed USB ports
These specs were also available for third-party manufacturers to use, but not many have come out with their own cable dedicated to the link just yet. Oculus wasn’t anticipated to release their own cable for over another month, but putting it on the market during the holiday season seems like the perfect idea from a company that is selling out of early everything this season.
If there is going to be another company that can compete with Oculus and its own cord, they will need to price their Link at a much cheaper price. We doubt another company is going to release any hardware for the Link that is more impressive than Oculus’, so cutting the price without cutting too much power and latency is going to be incredibly important.
Have you tried out the Oculus Link beta yet? Let us know in the comments below and tell us what your favorite game is on your standalone VR PC headset! For more VR news and community updates, make sure to check back at VRGear.com
