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...you'll eventually find a different bummer about Oculus Quest 2: how desperate Facebook is to get the price down to that magical $299 number. It seemed like every single day that I tested this device in the pre-release period, I discovered some new corner-cutting issue that wasn't worth the savings. Those piled up to the point where Facebook will need to launch a Quest "2+" revision before I'm ready to recommend this headset.

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Facebook reps mentioned that the controllers were redesigned with an emphasis on increased battery life and comfort, which I found curious. The original Oculus Quest controllers didn't last very long, but they only required one AA battery and were far more efficient than, say, the HTC Vive Cosmos controllers. What got the battery drain down further? This is when Facebook reps admitted that Quest 2's controllers have fewer infrared sensor points.

I went back to compare tricky "expert" Beat Saber levels on both Quest 1 and Quest 2, and sure enough, the older controller is noticeably more accurate. It's hard to perfectly measure VR controller detection without access to verbose data logs (which I've used to diagnose issues with SteamVR in the past). But I can safely say that after an hour going back and forth between Quest 1 and 2, the number of lost swipes on the newer hardware was higher. So this downgrade in sensor points checks out.

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Oculus Quest 2 tries to split the difference with an adjustment system that both physically moves the lenses and digitally alters which pixels light up. Instead of pressing on Quest 1's plastic guide to adjust a headset's screens and lenses for utter precision, Quest 2 asks users to push directly on the edges of the lenses—quite firmly—to slot them into one of three settings. That's a pretty iffy proposition for an average user, since directly touching a VR headset's lenses is a big, fat no-no.

Quest 1 offered sub-millimeter precision with its slider. But Quest 2 only offers three rigid IPD settings, each 5mm apart: 58mm, 63mm, and 68mm.

My IPD is 61.1mm, almost halfway between the first two positions. When I use either of the closest default Quest 2 options, the results are just blurry enough to make me feel uncomfortable and dizzy after 10 minutes of use. Hmm.

(This lines up with my experience with headsets like Valve Index, which are similarly uncomfortable once I encroach the 1mm differential between my real IPD and the headset's setting.)

I asked Oculus Quest product manager Rangaprabhu Parthasarathy about this design change. He alleged that when testing Quest 1's calibration system, which let users guide their IPD slider until a series of green lines turned from blurry to crisp, "users didn't know which is clearer." In other words: Facebook blames dumb users, not trying to save money.

"I'm really sorry it's not landing in your sweet spot," Parthasarathy added.

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But Facebook's policies make that "standalone VR" magic harder to recommend this time around. As we've previously reported, Quest 2 requires a Facebook account to function; without one, you cannot run the system's built-in fork of Android, nor can you toggle the system's "developer" mode and sideload VR-optimized Android apps of your choosing. (Speaking of: New rules coming to the Facebook VR developer portal will soon force anyone who wants to sideload apps to either supply a working phone number or a credit card. Yes, that is separate from the FB account requirement.)

Quite frankly, I had designs on testing Oculus Quest 2 with a burner Facebook account. I'd set one up years ago with a spam email address, and Facebook's reps asked me for my Facebook account address before they shipped me the review unit. I gave them my burner profile URL, then went to reset the password. By wrongly typing my new password one time, I was locked out. "Please send us proof of your identity," the site sternly warned me.

I actually went to an Ars Technica colleague and asked how he felt about mocking up a "frequent shopper card" with my burner account's fake name on it. He declined. He said something about "ethics." Fair enough. I had to shift gears and give Facebook a real-name account to use Quest 2.

I mention this goofy anecdote because you may be tempted to do the same thing... but Facebook is both incredibly firm and incredibly arbitrary about leveraging the "real name" policy in its ToS. This service has waited to wipe hundreds of thousands of fake accounts, created by governments and political campaigns for illegitimate purposes, until after a PR nightmare emerges. The same service can flag the slightest weirdness in your attempts to connect real Oculus Store purchases with an account by the name of Guy Incognito.Should the latter happen, Facebook is clear: You can kiss your purchased software goodbye. The same goes for anyone who enters a Facebook-branded VR social zone, like Facebook Horizons or Facebook Venues, and breaks a Facebook ToS in those spaces. (Facebook says it's still working out the kinks in these policies, in terms of whether offending users will face "30-day suspensions" and what kind of software restrictions those may entail.)

On top of those issues, my Quest 2 tests have expanded upon what Facebook previously announced in terms of how they'll moderate their Facebook-branded social spaces. Facebook Venues' beta includes a notice that the app, at all times for all users, performs a "rolling recording" of everything you see, say, and do within VR, so that you can tap a button to upload that footage and report other users' behavior. (Facebook insists this recording happens entirely locally on your device.)

Should you ever tap the "report" button, the app's terms confirm that Facebook is well within its rights to retain any data you upload for as long as they deem necessary, with no statute of limitations. A similar data-retention scenario emerges every single time you block or mute someone within VR. If a stranger approaches you and does something unwelcome, and you choose to proactively push back with built-in block or mute functions, Facebook may silently and invisibly sic a moderator upon the situation to see what happened and how you may have reacted or what you might have said or done in response.

Even worse, if someone "near" you in an official Facebook VR space blocks or reports a user, even if you're just minding your own business, your behavior (including motions and speech) may be tracked by these same silent, invisible Facebook moderators. That data can be stored on Facebook's servers indefinitely without you being notified.

If you'd like to learn whether anyone on Facebook's staff watched you within any of these apps and for how long, Facebook advises you to take off your headset and visit the catch-all URL of facebook.com/support for more information. From there, you have to figure out where exactly to file such a request. (So far, searches for Facebook Venues at that site turn up zero results.)

As we at Ars Technica know, that kind of constant data collection is a bonafide recipe for disaster. If you're looking to reduce stress on your VR apps' servers, Facebook, policies like these are a good start, because I certainly won't be using that app again.

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