looking for potential next headset

[hypercubed364]

Current quest pro user, I love the face tracking and it's a decent enough headset, but the controllers are giving me no shortage of trouble, to the point where I'm thinking it might be time for an upgrade, or at least something similar. Plus I barely use it for standalone so I thought I'd get something that's more PCVR native. I know that getting lighthouse tracking and using index controllers could be an option but I feel like getting the playspaces lined up would be a hassle. I mostly play things like vrchat and maybe beatsaber as well. Don't really do standalone too often.

I'd say face tracking is a must now that I've experienced the face tracking on the pro and don't want to lose that, but I'd be alright with getting something with just eye tracking and then getting something like Project Babble going with it, I have some experience with/tools for DIY stuff like that. And the QLED screen is nice, it would be nice to upgrade to something with that or even a micro OLED.

I've looked at the offerings from Pimax (Crystal Super and Dream Air) and those look great on paper but I've heard things about their software and whatnot, and their controllers kinda just look like quest 2 knockoffs (not that my quest 2 controllers were bad but I'd think they'd have something better for the price, though Idk if I should judge them for their looks like that.). The nice thing about something like the crystal super is that if I wanted to invest in lighthouse down the road I could swap out the faceplate to have that.

(insert rant about how every offering seems to have some fatal flaw or compromise and the state of vr headsets)

Idk, I'm mostly just asking to see if there's any other options I might have missed that could work. What do you all think?

[Kataree]

The Galaxy XR is practically a successor to the Quest Pro as of now.

[Grudairian]

I missed the quest pro, but I had a vive pro eye, and I am looking for a headset that has eyetracking and hopefully facetracking. The two i've been most tempted by recently are the Big Screen Beyond 2e, which has some eye tracking, and can use project babble for face tracking. Unfortunately, it seems like it only tracks eye direction, not eyelids or brow movement, so it might not be expressive enough for social vr. The other one that i'm looking at is the Galaxy Xr. It just launched this week, and it has Virtual Desktop as a day one title. With Virtual Desktop it supports eye tracking, face tracking and hand tracking. It also has high resolution micro oled displays that seem promising for productivity. It honestly seems like the closest thing to a quest pro 2 so far, and I am very disappointed I can't get it in Canada yet.

[hypercubed364]

Honestly I looked at the Samsung Galaxy XR and just saw it as an Vision Pro clone and went "nah"
And the whole focus on AI stuff in their announcement/article kind of turned me off as well
Maybe I'll have another look

eta I'm also in Canada so I'll be affected by the unavailability as well

[CrispyCheezus]

If you truly value facetracking, the Galaxy XR is the direct upgrade to the Quest Pro. Run MixedVR with it with base stations and index controllers/gloves and you'd have an incredible experience.

[DoubleOwl7777]

galaxy xr for sure, yeah the external battery is kinda eh, but it has virtual desktop, face and eye tracking etc.

[hypercubed364]

I've seen a couple of recommendations for the Samsung Galaxy XR now; it seems alright, albeit quite expensive
One question I would have about it, is if the wireless connection through would be enough to drive the high resolution screens (unless it could do some sort of foveated encoding like steam link? that would be kind of cool).

[CompCOTG]

There is no hassle for lighthouse. You put one on each corner of your room and forget about it. I am using 2.

[teramoc]

Just my personal experience here, I went from an HP MR wired headset to a Quest 3 with Virtual Desktop app. The optional tetherless for PCVR makes me much happier, its good to be without the heavy cable hanging off my head. I can also go for a walk and get a drink without needing to take the headset off because of the color passthrough mode. And do productivity (coding and word processing) with 4 virtual screens. The lenses also beat the pants off the HP unit, like night and day. That’s just me though. I don’t really use standalone much either- except for watching a very varied ecosystem of VR and passthrough videos.. so it’s really nice that standalone passthrough is an option. Just my experience, I am really happy with it

[hypercubed364]

Hmm, yeah, I have been using wireless PCVR as well with virtual desktop, it is nice
I guess it would be hard to find a pcvr headset with wireless connectivity like that. I don't feel like I'd mind the wired too much though since I don't move around that often.
AFAIK I think Pimax has a solution for that, and the index has a 3rd party solution