The Best VR Headsets in 2023

If you’re looking to invest in the latest VR technology, you’ve come to the right place. This buyer’s guide is from consumer electronics retailer Best Buy, which sells more than $40 billion worth of products every year.

In this guide, we’ll discuss what separates the best VR headsets from the rest. We’ll also cover how to choose the right one for your needs and budget.

The Best Overall: Valve Index

The Valve Index is one of the best PC-based VR headsets available today. It has an ultra-crisp display, wide field of view, and ‘knuckle’ controllers that can track your finger movements in 3D space.

It also has a high refresh rate and ergonomic improvements for comfort. Its custom lenses maximize FOV without sacrificing edge-to-edge clarity, while its physical IPD adjustment and eye relief allow you to position the headset in a way that’s comfortable for your face.

The Valve Index requires a high-powered PC to function fully, but that’s a price that may be well worth it for those who want to get the most out of their VR experience. However, it can be a bit fiddly to set up and requires patience during play.

HP Reverb G2

The HP Reverb G2 is a Windows-powered VR headset that’s easy to set up. Its tracking is handled entirely by cameras, making it one of the easiest to use tethered VR headsets.

The headset’s lightweight design means you can play for long periods without feeling too much strain, and an eye adjustment helps fine-tune the distance between your eyes and the screens. Its face pad and spacer combo, connected through a small magnet around the nose plate, can be removed to 9mm from the original’s 15mm, reducing the space between your eyes and lenses for more immersive visuals.

It also has four tracking sensors, which are a major upgrade over the previous two-sensor setup. However, they’re still prone to tracking errors in fast-paced games and movements near or below the head.

Varjo Aero

Varjo is one of the most advanced VR hardware manufacturers, and this year they took a leap into the consumer market with the Aero. While it isn’t a direct clone of the company’s flagship enterprise headset, it does offer many features that are essential for high-end consumer VR.

The Aero delivers industry-leading visual fidelity with crisp, true-to-life, edge-to-edge clarity across a 115-degree field of view. It also comes with Varjo’s Mini LED LCD panels, which allow for sharp images and excellent color reproduction.

The Aero is also equipped with Varjo’s Variable Resolution Aspheric Lenses, which produce an ultra-sharp peak resolution of 35 pixels per degree (PPD) compared to alternative commercially available Fresnel lenses that max out at 20 PPD. These variable-resolution lenses eliminate the god rays and screen-door effect often associated with Fresnel lenses and deliver an extremely true-to-life experience that will blow you away.

Meta Quest 2

If you’re looking to get into VR without the hassle and expense of a PC, the Meta Quest 2 is the best standalone headset on the market. It’s cheaper than the Oculus Rift, offers better performance and a higher refresh rate (120Hz) than its predecessor, and has a large game library to boot.

The design of the Meta Quest 2 is slick and lightweight, which makes it easy to carry around. The headset is 13 x 12 x 9.5 inches and weighs around 500 grams without the stabilizing strap.

The Quest 2 also has a few experimental features that make it easier to navigate through the VR experience. For example, it can be set to use voice commands instead of touch controllers for simple tasks. It also has an option to bring a couch into VR for sitting-based games.

Meta Quest Pro

Meta Quest Pro is a high-end VR headset that’s designed to help you work, create and collaborate in mixed reality. The device is equipped with high-resolution sensors, crisp LCD displays and next-generation pancake optics that deliver sharper visuals.

The headset also features eye tracking and Natural Facial Expressions that allow you to more naturally interact with your avatar in VR. It also supports stereoscopic mixed reality passthrough, which enables a more natural 3D view of the world.

The headset also includes a curved battery that sits at the back of the headset, which means it’s more slim than other headsets in this price range. It also has a nifty face-pad dial that can extend the lenses outward to fit glasses of all sizes.