HONSVR presents a cheap, practical solution to what can be one of VR’s biggest problems. If you wear glasses, playing with any HMD can be quite an uncomfortable experience. Not only that, but playing VR with your glasses on risks damaging both your glasses and the lenses of your expensive new toy.
“Just get contact lenses”, you may be thinking. But this isn’t an ironclad solution for everybody. For one, they can be really expensive! If you’re looking at wearing daily disposable lenses, they can cost anywhere between £30-50 a month (and beyond). Not to mention that it’s hard to get your prescription lens spot on with contacts. Which, when you’re looking for optimum fidelity and comfort in VR, is an important factor.
The Oculus Quest 2 does do something to remedy this flaw. It includes a small glasses separator attachment you can fit between the lenses and the face padding. But this really doesn’t increase the space that much, and it certainly doesn’t mitigate the risk of damage.
Luckily, there is a solution. It doesn’t involve buying contact lenses for the sake of VR, or applying watch-face protectors desperately to your headset’s lenses. HONSVR sell prescription lenses for a surprisingly cheap cost, custom made to your prescription, and deliver them right to your door.
For a little bit of perspective, they’re currently selling their Quest 2 lens adapters for $49.95. Making certain adjustments to your prescription will up the price a little bit – mine totalled out at $59.95 at the end (which did make it eligible for free delivery, at least). But the process of ordering couldn’t be easier if you’ve got your prescription to hand. It’s just a case of entering the information into the drop down menus you can see below.
It almost sounds too good to be true, and you’d be right to be a little cautious. So we reached out to HONSVR to review both their service and the final product so you can find out if their lenses might just fix all your VR woes. Let’s get into the details!
ORDERING THE HONSVR LENS ADAPTER
We’ve already covered this in brief above; but ordering was simple. I just copied the information from my prescription over to the product page and checked out with PayPal. I quickly received an order confirmation, and thanks to communication with HONSVR‘s info email, learned they would take 1-2 days to produce and about a week to ship to the UK from China.
You can shell out for some additional extras. You can include a blue light filter to reduce eye strain and a snazzy lens cover to protect them on the fly. I didn’t go for these, purely because I keep my Quest 2 in a case. But they’re a cheap way to add an extra layer of protection.
This time scale turned out to be completely accurate. I placed the order on January 3rd, was notified they’d been shipped two days later, and received them via Royal Mail this morning. Not bad going! It arrived in a small, sturdy box. Inside was a small, branded case complete with a microfibre cloth to clean the lenses and spare magnets for the adapters. They were both individually wrapped in soft plastic for protection.
INSTALLING THE HONSVR LENS ADAPTER
Installing the lenses took about three minutes. I’ve included the instructional video below so you can get an idea of the process.
Installing the HONSVR lens adapter wasn’t quite as easy for me as that video made it seem, but it wasn’t far off. Your headset’s lens mount has a couple of little plastic ridges. Your lens adapter comes in two pieces – a plastic ring that snaps onto the headset, and the lens itself. Getting those adapters in place can feel a little bit fiddly, especially when you’re dealing with such a sensitive part of the headset, but they go on fine as long as they’re lined up right.
You need to remove the face pad from the Quest 2, click the adapters into place, and then just drop the lenses down. They’re held in place with magnets and feel secure enough to do the job. Then it’s just a case of reattaching the face pad and you’re good to go. If you need to remove the lenses so someone else can play, you just pull them off the magnets whilst leaving the adapter in place.
I’m honestly tempted to buy another pair for my partner’s prescription so we can just swap between them as needed – it’s that easy.
PLAYING WITH THE HONSVR LENS ADAPTER
I’m not exaggerating when I say I have never enjoyed a VR headset with so much comfort and clarity before. It actually illuminated to me how off my contact lens prescription must be, because the visuals were impeccably sharp in comparison.
My glasses frame is a little bit on the chunky side. Sliding the Quest 2 over them without anything breaking always felt pretty tense, and the glasses felt like they were being pushed hard into my nose. Being relieved of that sensation makes playing games on the Quest 2 properly immersive again, without the constant reminder of my short-sightedness.
Considering the speed at which my HONSVR lenses were produced and shipped, and the relatively low price I paid for them, I really can’t fault them in any way. The prescription was carried out absolutely accurately, the product arrived faster than some UK glasses companies I’ve used, and installation was basically effortless.
It’s not unreasonable to say that, if you need to wear glasses in VR, you need to make the leap and get yourself a pair of these. I know it can seem a little unreasonable having to invest more money into an already expensive hobby, but it really does make a world of difference. I’d recommend HONSVR to any of my visually impaired friends looking for a clean solution!
HONSVR sell a range of VR accessories on their website. We reviewed the Oculus Quest 2 prescription lens adapters. They also manufacture prescription lenses for the Valve Index and PlayStation VR headsets.
3 comments
Any advice on removing the lens adapters?? I had to replace my rx lenses (which I love) and the replacement is different than the adapter – and I can’t get the adapter off!!
I asked our writer and he wasn’t sure how to go about doing that with the different adapter sorry. Hope you get it sorted though.
[…] Thinking about picking up a VR headset? Do you wear glasses? Consider picking up a prescription lens adapter from HONSVR to improve your experience. You can read our review of their Oculus Quest 2 adapter HERE. […]