The Oculus Rift will be available to buy from UK retailers from September 20. Delays in production prolonged the device’s arrival to stores in the UK, though it was available to pre-order since January.
Oculus has signed an agreement with popular retail stores, both online and physical, including Amazon, John Lewis, Curry’s PC World, GAME, and Harrods. A high-anticipated demand for the device has led some retailers to impose a one-headset-per-person restriction.
Some of the retailers will offer in-store demos, so you can experience VR games and watch VR movies before deciding that you want to spend £549 to purchase the headset. We advise our readers to check their PCs for the following specs, before placing an order online:
Minimum PC Requirements
- Nvidia GTX 970 GPU
- An Intel i5-4590 processor
- 8GB of RAM
The Rift headset is powered with an OLED display with a 2,160 x 1,200 resolution; it offers a 110-degree field of view. The headset is mainly designed for PC users. However, the device requires high-end graphic cards, and a lot of processing power, which means that not all PCs can support it.
"We've seen interest in virtual reality rise dramatically in the last few months, with sales of the Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus, headset up 310% in the last six weeks alone, “said Head of Buying for Electricals at John Lewis, Will Jones. "The Oculus Rift device is a significant progression in virtual reality technology, set to reinvent how we work and play, and we are proud to offer our customers the chance to experience it first."
There will be demo events all around the UK this month, for those who are interested in experiencing the device before buying it. Click here to find out the time and place for the nearest demo.