Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsFurther Impressions
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2020
SECOND REVIEW
TLDR: Many reports of straps cracking or breaking off. Be wary of spending $50 as this may happen to you. Not a great step up so unless you plan on using your headset often, reconsider.
After a week of usage, my opinion has not changed too much. In terms of fulfilling it's purpose, the Elite Strap does a better job distributing weight than the cloth strap. The twisting mechanism to tighten the strap is also easier to do compared to the cloth strap. However, there is still the issue of the headset being too front heavy. Even with the Elite Strap, it's definitely noticeable. After an hour or so of usage, your neck will get pretty sore from carrying the weight of the headset. It would work a lot better if the back of the Elite Strap was heavier to offset the weight.
Even with this, I was considering changing my review from a 3/5 star to a 4/5 star, however, an issue came up.
Quality (2/5)
One of my main worries when using the strap was how thin the side plastic was. Sure, it was solid, but for certain VR games that require a lot of movement, the strap may not hold up. While this hasn't happened to me (yet) many other people have reported the side straps cracking or snapping off entirely. Apparently only after a few days of use while playing moderately intense games like Beat Saber. Others have also claimed that simply adjusting the straps lead to them cracking. While I'm unsure if this is universal or just certain product malfunctions, the fact that this has occurred to certain people is concerning.
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FIRST REVIEW
TDLR: Feels better than the cloth strap but painfully difficult to install. May not be worth the $50 unless you're planning on using your headset often.
If you're someone like me who did a lot of research into the Occulus Quest 2 before buying it, you probably know the gripes reviewers have about the quality of the cloth strap. This product serves as a replacement and in some ways solves the issue but has its downsides.
Installation (2/5):
There is no nice way to say it. The installation was frustrating at best and potentially dangerous at worse. The Quest 2 comes with some removable parts that are necessary when installing the elite strap. First, you must remove the cloth strap. For some unknown reason, there is no sliding mechanism or a way to lock it in place that doesn't require pulling it out. Doing so is difficult as it requires quite a bit of force and its hard to tell which part is part of the strap and which part is part of the headset. I spent a couple minutes prying and seeing where it was supposed to come off before I resolved to just force it off and hope for best. It came off fine but its not unlikely that you may accidentally damage your headset as its just that confusing.
For installing the strap itself, this part was even worse. The instructions are pretty vague so it takes a bit of interpreting to find the best way to approach it. It works similar to the way the cloth strap came off where there is no sliding/locking mechanism. You just have to force the strap onto the headset and hope it locks. Trying to gently attach it isn't an option as the arms of the headset are pretty thick and requires a lot of strength to get them to go over it. Like with the cloth strap, I spent a couple minutes trying to attach it before resolving to just roughly pushing it onto the arms. This took a couple tries before it finally clicked. Once again, it worked, but its not unlikely that you may damage your headset in the process.
First Impressions (4/5):
Works as advertised. It distributes the weight far better than the cloth strap though the headset is still very front heavy. The size adjusting is a dial which is far more convenient than the cloth strap.
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I'll be updating this review as I get a better feel of it.