If you're looking to pick up the best VR headset for Half-Life: Alyx and the host of VR games available today, check these out. Time to strap in for some awesome augmented action. We've devised this list for those of you that are eager to jump into the world of VR, but might need a hand navigating the realms of reality when it comes to money, comfort and convenience. Don't worry, all recommendations are compatible with the biggest VR games out there and we've taken into account the all-important FOV and resolution for the ultimate experience.

If your extra dollar is burning a hole in your pocket, the best VR gaming headset right now is the Valve Index. You'll need a high-end gaming PC to accompany this vigorous... investment, so it's tricky to recommend for those without that kind of power under the hood. Even so, if you have a serious PC, this is a serious VR solution to go with it.

The Index is back in stock now after the release of Half-Life: Alyx, although they may still be a little scarce. In fact that's the case of many of these headsets—stocks are limited, and they all tend to sell out quickly whenever a big title gets released.

They may be like gold-dust, but the best VR experiences don't have to mean remortgaging your home or selling off your kids. There are several less-expensive VR headsets on the list, for those on a budget.

We've dropped the Oculus Quest down our recommended list because it's no longer directly available from Oculus since the Oculus Quest 2 was announced. We're expecting to take delivery of the new Quest any day now, and will update this list once we've had a chance to play with it (I do of course mean rigorously test it).

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Best VR headsets

(Image credit: ©Valve)

1. Valve Index The best VR headset for a premium experience on a gaming PC. Display: AMOLED | Resolution: 2880 x 1600 | Refresh Rate: 120Hz, experimental 144Hz mode | Field of View: ~130 degrees | Controller: Index Controllers | Connections: DisplayPort, USB 3.0, USB 2.0 $2,100 View at Amazon Best in class hardware Comfortable to wear Virtually no SDE

The Valve Index boasts some of the best visuals of any mainstream, commercially available HMD, with a display resolution equaling the Vive Pro, Quest, and Odyssey+ but paired with a 120Hz refresh rate (up to 144Hz in a currently unsupported, experimental mode). The FOV, at 130°, is also best-in-class, and there's virtually no detectable screen door effect inside the headset.

It also boasts some impressive technology and handy convenience features, like per-finger tracking on the excellent Index controllers, USB passthrough for future accessories, and fantastic, crystal clear audio via the near-field speakers, which hover just above the ears. It's also comfortable to wear, built from carefully selected, high-quality materials and top-notch weight distribution.

But all that comes at a price. As we said in our Valve Index review, it's the best VR headset on the market... if you don't consider the value proposition. At nearly a thousand dollars, the complete Index offering costs more than double the price of the Rift S or Quest, and almost precisely double the MSRP of the Odyssey+, which can be regularly found at a discount. There also aren't many solid use cases for the finger tracking technology, apart from Half-Life: Alyx, which you get for free.

Read the full Valve Index review.

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The Rift S is an exciting proposition. It entirely displaces its predecessor, the original Oculus Rift. It is definitively an upgrade, but it's being sold at the same price point the original retailed for. That said, it is also an odd step back in some baffling ways, with a slight decrease in refresh rate and in the fact it uses LCD lenses rather than OLED.

That said, the Rift S is easily the best mid-level wired headset you can buy for PC. Not only does it have a deep library of games—a library that's matured and expanded tremendously since the launch of the original Rift—its higher resolution and more comfortable fit means the original Rift is now obsolete (unless, of course, you can find one at a deep discount). While the original may have a slight advantage in some of the categories mentioned above, the experience of wearing the Rift S is far superior, especially given that it fully supports inside-out tracking. That means you don't have to buy, wire-up, and find a place for external sensors in your play space.

If you've already invested in a mid-tier or higher gaming PC, want a powerful headset, but don't want to spend a massive amount of cash for the privilege, the Rift S is a clear winner. It may be more of an iterative upgrade from the original than we initially hoped. However, it's still an excellent piece of hardware, and a fantastic way for PC owners to dive into virtual reality for the first time.

Read the full Oculus Rift S review.

(Image credit: HTC)

The HTC Vive Cosmos Elite is designed to address some of the problems with the original HTC Vive Cosmos, while maintaining that model's core specifications. The dual 4.3-inch 1440 x 1700 displays running at 90 Hz really are worth holding on to. Cosmos Elite comes bundled with Half-Life: Alyx and 6-months of Viveport Infinity subscription, which at the very least means there are lots of things to try out with your new headset.

The Cosmos Elite is essentially the original Cosmos bundled with the first generation base stations and controllers, and a different faceplate. This means you lose some of the immediacy of the original's inside-out tracking, but get improved accuracy for the trouble. That's a hit that does feel reasonable in the right games (Half-Life: Alyx for instance). You will need a decent area for you to throw your helmeted self around in, though.

The original launch price of the Cosmos Elite was prohibitively high at $899, and this is one of the reasons it didn't fair better in our review. Still, if you're looking for a premium VR gaming experience, you're going to have to pay a chunk for it whichever solution you go for, and this does boast one of the highest resolution displays around right now.

Read the full HTC Vice Cosmos Elite review.

(Image credit: ©Samsung)

4. Samsung Odyssey+ The best VR headset from the Windows Mixed Reality group. Display: AMOLED | Resolution: 2880 x 1600 | Refresh Rate: 90Hz | Field of View: 110 degrees | Controller: Odyssey Controllers | Connections: HDMI, USB 3.0 $629.90 View at Amazon Same resolution as the Vive Pro for half the price Inside-out tracking Reduced screen door effect

The Odyssey+ is Samsung's refresh of, you guessed it, the original Odyssey HMD. It's a substantial improvement and the best of the current crop of Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) offerings. Don't let that category name fool you; the Odyssey+ is primarily a dedicated VR headset—the "mixed" nomenclature comes mainly from Microsoft's initial eagerness to bundle HoloLens into the same ecosystem as its VR initiative.

The Odyssey+ boasts an impressively high-res display for a WMR device, at 2880x1600, and also takes advantage of a proprietary anti-screen door feature Samsung deploys to reduce the fine-grain you see in the majority of HMDs. As a result, the screen-door effect in the Odyssey+ is practically undetectable, and combined with the WMR standard of inside-out tracking provides a remarkable level of immersion.

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The freedom of untethered VR is genuinely compelling—even after becoming more than slightly jaded by spending tens of hours in Oculus' other headset offerings, the Quest still manages to wow with its power and portability. While it's not quite at the same performance peak as the likes of the Rift S or Index, in practical terms, you're unlikely ever to notice, and the magic of the passthrough cameras to see what's happening in the real world and walk around your house is wholly unique.

It's also totally portable—going on a trip? Toss the Quest in your bag and go. At 571g, it's still pretty lightweight, especially since it doesn't require sensors or cables or any other constrictive accessories (other than the excellent, refined Touch Controllers), and it doesn't need to be connected to a massive, powerful gaming PC to function.

You can tether the Quest to your PC as well. That functionality is currently in beta, but it does work well. You can use any "high-quality" USB 3 cable for this, or you can buy "a premium, custom optical fiber cable" straight from Oculus. You won't get the Rift S experience exactly, but at least games that require a PC aren't off-limits if you own a Quest.

The Quest is no longer available since the Oculus Quest 2 was released, which is why it's lower down this list than it used to be, but you may still be able to pick it up on other sites. We're awaiting our Oculus Quest 2 at the time of writing, and will be updating this list once we've had chance to use it.

Read the full Oculus Quest review.

Jargon buster - Virtual Reality busted

Field of view (FOV)

The field of view refers to the amount of an environment that's visible to an observer; in VR, it's the extent of the game world that's visible in the displays. A broader FOV in a headset is integral to a feeling of immersion.

Head-mounted display (HMD)

Broadly any wearable mounted on the head with graphical capabilities but often used to refer to VR headsets specifically.

Inside-out tracking

Systems used to track a user's movements in VR that originate in the headset, as opposed to outside-in tracking, where external sensors are used to track movement. Tracking, and the method used, is crucial to enable either three degrees of freedom (being able to look around in any direction in VR) or six degrees of freedom (being able to look around and move your body in any direction in VR).

Latency

The delay between an input and a response, in VR, the delay between user input through a controller, moving your head, or other methods, and the response on the headset displays. Low latency is vital to reducing nausea in VR, which is most intense when there's a delay or stuttering between moving or looking and the display reacting.

Resolution

Resolution is the measurement in pixels, horizontal and vertical, of an image or display. Higher resolution in VR is essential because the displays are so close to the user's eyes, which emphasizes jagged lines, pixelation, and the screen door effect.

Refresh rate

The number of images a display is capable of displaying per second, measured in hertz. The high refresh rate is essential for VR similarly to latency, as a low refresh rate can cause stuttering (or even the appearance of freezing), which can cause nausea.

Screen door effect (SDE)

The fine mesh-like effect of viewing an image rendered in pixels at close range, where the grid between pixels is visible. Higher resolutions (or proprietary solutions like that built into the Odyssey+) mitigate this effect.