Best virtual reality headsets in South Africa — starting from R7,595

South Africans can buy a range of virtual reality (VR) headsets to enhance their digital entertainment experiences.

VR technology is particularly appealing to gamers because it provides the closest thing to being in the game world.

While the home-based VR ecosystem is still relatively young and still has irritating niggles in the overall user experience, it has come a long way from its early days.

In the past few years, one major improvement has been inside-out tracking, which eliminates the need to surround the player with multiple cameras to track movements within a large area.

As of 2024, Steam had nearly 5,000 VR-supported titles that could be played with headsets that supported streaming from Windows or Linux PCs.

The two most well-known manufacturers of high-performance VR headsets for PC gaming and enterprise applications are Meta and HTC.

Meta’s Quest VR business grew from its acquisition of Oculus in 2014.

It used the Oculus branding for several years before eventually dropping the name with its more recent releases — including the Meta Quest 3 line-up.

The more affordable Quest 3s is also the cheapest new VR headset you can buy in South Africa in November 2024, priced from R7,595 on GeeWiz at the time of publication.

HTC also boasts a range of highly capable devices in its Vive range but these are more hard to find from local shops.

When they are, the HTC devices have hefty price tags well above their recommended retail prices in the US and other developed markets.

If a Vive’s features or design appeal to you, an alternative to consider is buying directly from Amazon.com in the US.

At the time of publication, the marketplace had several listings of HTC headsets at much better prices than in South Africa.

PlayStation 5 owners can also play VR games with the company’s PS VR2 system, launched in early 2023.

While it costs about the same as the regular PS5 console with a disc drive, the headset and its accompanying controllers are a major improvement over the original PS VR.

Prominent YouTube tech channel Linus Tech Tips found the pairing of a PS5 and a PS VR 2 headset offered better value than a gaming PC with a Meta, HTC, or Valve VR system with similar capabilities.

The big upside to the PS VR2 is that it has two OLED screens, whereas other VR headsets near its price use LCDs. Its major downside is that it always has to be plugged in, as it does not have a built-in battery.

In addition, you won’t have as large a library of games to choose from. The PS VR2 is only compatible with the PlayStation 5 and about 500 games.

Aside from supporting the platform on which you want to play, other important features to look out for in a VR headset include resolution, field of view, battery life, and weight.

While you may find many VR glasses on the market for cheaper than what we’ve listed, these models do not support true immersive VR capabilities but convert a 2D experience or app into 3D.

The results can vary greatly but generally don’t measure up to software built specifically for VR.

VR glasses have either no or much less powerful image processing hardware and will also often lack dedicated controllers for tracking movements.

Below are the best true VR headsets available from local retailers or direct import via Amazon.com in South Africa.

Meta Quest 3s + controllers — From R7,595 (GeeWiz)

Meta Quest 2 + controllers — R8,995 (GeeWiz)

Meta Quest 3 + controllers — From R12,599 (Wootware)

PlayStation VR2 + controllers — R13,899 (Takealot)

HTC Vive XR Elite mixed reality + controllers — R17,858 (Amazon.com)

HTC Vive Cosmos — R19,350 (Wootware)

HTC Vive Focus Vision + controllers — R22,930 (Amazon.com)