Just under a month ago, Facebook temporarily paused sales of its Oculus Quest 2 headset following complaints of facial skin irritation from an admittedly small number of users.
In an effort to make up for any inconvenience, the social media giant announced it would not only include silicone face covers for all new units by default, but that it would also provide covers for existing owners, too.
In addition to this key quality improvement, Facebook also announced a doubling of storage of the entry-level Oculus Quest 2 at no extra cost, bringing the unit’s available space up from 64GB to 128GB.
Oculus Quest 2 (128GB) | AU$479
Oculus Quest 2 is officially back on sale at Amazon AU, with the online retail giant offering the new 128GB entry-level model for just AU$479, which is the same price the now defunct 64GB model went for just before it was recalled.
The 256GB model will return as before at a later (as yet undisclosed) date and will be available for the same AU$639 price tag.View Deal
Analysis: is Oculus Quest 2 now safe to use?
Facebook first addressed the Oculus Quest 2 skin irritation issue back in December 2020, when it was only affecting, as the company claimed, around 0.01% of users. However, users continued to experience skin irritation, forcing Amazon to delist the product from some of its European sites in May 2021.
Facebook eventually recalled the headset in July 2021, and results of a formal investigation into the matter followed shortly after.
“Our investigation determined that our manufacturing process is safe, meaning no unexpected nor hazardous contaminants were found in the Quest 2 foam interface or manufacturing process,” said Andrew Bosworth, Head of Facebook Reality Labs in an open letter to the Oculus community.
So while Facebook is convinced the Oculus Quest 2 is safe to use, it will still include silicone face covers for all new units globally as an additional level of precaution.
Thankfully, existing owners are also covered, and may request a free silicone cover that fits over the headset’s foam facial interface by simply logging into the Oculus My Device page with their Facebook or Oculus ID and selecting the option to “Request silicone facial interface cover”.