Official Review Hardware Updated

Review cover KIWI Design 10ft (3m) Oculus Quest Link cable (Hardware)
Official GBAtemp Review

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Review samples provided by KIWI Design. However this review is the opinion of the author and has not undergone any kind of approval or screening process by the supplier/manufacturer.
Take advantage of PC VR by connecting your Oculus Quest to your PC via Oculus Link. For optimal performance you need a high quality cable. How does the KIWI Design 10ft USB 3.0 Oculus Link cable shape up?

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When initially released, the Oculus Quest was a standalone VR headset and was limited to the Oculus store ecosystem. However, thanks to Oculus Link you can now connect the Quest to a PC and take advantage of the expansive PCVR library which opens up a world of new experiences and functionality (providing you have a compatible GPU*).

When Oculus Link was first released back in September 2019, it was very particular about the USB cables it would be compatible with. 

To get Link working properly it required you to have a high quality USB 3.0 compatible cable and even then only specific cables and USB ports seemed to work. Thankfully that is no longer the case and as Link has aged, compatibility has grown along with it.

While some users may opt for unofficial wireless solutions to get their Oculus Quest working on their PC such as ‘Virtual Desktop’ by Guy Godin, I have found that it introduces enough lag to make certain games uncomfortable to play. It also has quite strict requirements to get it working to its maximum potential such as high quality 5ghz WiFi network. Whereas Oculus Link with a high quality USB 3.0 cable provides a much more responsive and stable connection. 

Oculus have even made the official charging cable that comes with the Quest compatible with Link even though the cable is only USB 2 which means that visual quality through the Link may be degraded compared to a proper USB 3 capable cable. Link works by balancing the image quality and latency depending on the quality of your connection.

The KIWI Design 10ft (3m) Oculus Quest Link cable is a USB 3.0 certified cable which means you should get maximum visual clarity and the lowest latency possible using a compatible USB 3.0 port.

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It's a cable!

Now, this is just a USB cable. I'm sure you've seen plenty of them!

The KIWI Design USB 3.0 Oculus Link cable has a USB 3.0 type A connector on one end and a right-angled type C connector on the other. 

The cable is approximately 10ft or 3m in length which is fine for use when sitting at a PC but for room scale VR it’s going to be a bit short. Unfortunately standard USB 3.0 cables are limited to 10ft/3m in length so an active USB 3.0 extension cable will be required to extend the cables use for room scale VR.

A velcro strap is included on the cable which alongside the right-angled connector, make for a neat connection on the Quest as it allows you to route the cable alongside the headset strap and keep it held in place with the velcro strap. This is the most comfortable way to wear it in my testing, rather than just letting the cable drop down in place which results in uncomfortable pulling due to the extra weight added to the side of the headset.

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Let’s compare the KIWI Design cable to the fan-favourite Anker Powerline cable which is a tried and tested cable available on Amazon, which I have also previously used for Oculus Link.

Weight:

Compared to the Anker cable, the KIWI Design cable is immediately lighter and more flexible. The Anker cable feels a lot more rigid and its extra weight makes for a more cumbersome experience when connected in VR. The lighter and more flexible KIWI Design cable is noticeably nicer to use. 

Anker USB C Cable, Powerline USB 3.0 to USB C Charger Cable: 155 grams
KIWI design 10ft (3m) Oculus Quest Link cable: 88 grams

Speed test:

Using the Oculus Link PC software we can run a test to find out the effective link speed of the cable. Let’s run the test and compare the Anker and KIWI cables.

Anker cable (direct USB connection) 1.8 gbps
KIWI cable (direct USB connection) 1.8 gbps
Anker cable (via active USB extension) 1.6 gbps
Kiwi active (via active USB extension)  1.6 gbps

The KIWI Design cable can charge the Quest, but during play the battery will drain faster than the USB 3.0 can keep up with. Although it will last a little longer than playing from the battery alone, a USB 3.0 port can simply not provide the current needed to charge and play simultaneously. 

 

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Final Thoughts

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All in all, the KIWI Design 10ft (3m) link cable works just great. It’s a high quality USB 3.0 cable that works perfectly with the Oculus Link. It’s high quality and lightweight construction make it a perfect choice and personally I prefer it over the chunky Anker Powerline cable that so many recommend.

As an alternative to the $80 official Link cable at a quarter of the price you won’t go wrong.

Verdict

What We Liked ...
  • Lightweight and flexible
  • Right-angled connector
  • Easy to use velcro strap
What We Didn't Like ...
  • Only 16ft / 3m in length
8.5
out of 10

Overall

It's a cable! A nicely made, lightweight cable that is perfectly suited for Oculus Link use and can be had for a fraction of the price of the official cable.
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shaunj66
qqq1 said:
Get better wireless, dump the cable.
Click to expand...
My PC is connected via gigabit ethernet and I even bought a new ASUS router in anticipation the virtual desktop app. When I tested it (directly next to the router) I still experienced some latency and frame skipping/stutter. Oculus Link on the other hand is butter smooth and responsive. Maybe my GPU (GTX 1060 6GB) is to blame but I'm honestly not bothered about the cable and find the extra stability worth the trade off.
 
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K
As smooth as the link connection is, I just can't go back to playing wired anymore. It's just so nice being able to move around without worrying about pulling my PC off the desk.

I can't say I've used Virtual Desktop for streaming, but ALVR is practically perfect as far as I've experienced
 
shaunj66
kikongokiller said:
As smooth as the link connection is, I just can't go back to playing wired anymore. It's just so nice being able to move around without worrying about pulling my PC off the desk.

I can't say I've used Virtual Desktop for streaming, but ALVR is practically perfect as far as I've experienced
Click to expand...
From comparisons I've read you should definitely give VD a go - it's apparently leagues better.
 
K
From comparisons I've read you should definitely give VD a go - it's apparently leagues better.
Click to expand...
Last I've heard, VD had to get rid of SteamVR support :/ so I'm not sure how that would end up going. Doesn't it cost money too?
 
Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee
  • Deleted by shaunj66
The Real Jdbye
qqq1 said:
Get better wireless, dump the cable.
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter. It's just never going to be as good because the stream must be compressed to transfer over wifi and decompressed on the other end, which adds delay. That delay might be imperceivable using a regular monitor with something like Steam Remote Play, but it becomes very apparent when there is head tracking involved and each time you move your head there is a delay before the image responds with movement. Which not only breaks the illusion, but can be a major trigger of motion sickness in many people.
With 5gbps, little to no compression is needed, this speeds up the process.
Better wifi can help with dropouts, stuttering and to some degree latency, but only up to a certain point. Wifi is just less reliable tech, and the bandwidth limitations are a factor too. 60ghz wifi is the only thing that's fast enough (both in terms of latency and bandwidth) for perfect VR without compression, and due to being so short range and not being a common frequency, there is little interference making it more reliable as well. But as far as I know the Quest doesn't support that.


Oculus Link is great, but it's still not perfect. The image doesn't come directly from the GPU, but has to be sent to the CPU so it can be transmitted out through the USB port. Which could explain the "jellyness" Linus Tech Tips mentioned, there might be just a tiny bit of latency added by the image having to take an extra step through the CPU, not enough to be perceptible but just enough to make things feel off somehow, without you quite knowing why. That may just be because he's more used to native PC VR headsets though, and maybe someone who didn't have much experience with native PC VR headsets wouldn't be able to tell at all.
 
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osaka35
I don't have much experience with VR yet. I've been waiting for the next generation of stuff. Definitely going cables unless wifi 7 is out by then XD

Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:
Spyware, adware etc x1000 doesn't bother you.
No offence, honestly. You are an Admin that I have respected.
Click to expand...
as long as they don't disable functionality if shady stuff is blocked, a pi-hole or similar dns block list (or related) specifically made for what facebook collects from this device should be sufficient. Create a fake account just for this, and we'll see how it goes. I personally will be waiting to see exactly what data they're taking, but I'm not too concerned if it's just "what game they play" for metrics.
 
Y
There is debate whether USB would have less latency than wifi, from the ALVR github comments (copy/paste from https://github.com/polygraphene/ALVR/issues/401)

Because the bottleneck isn't in the transport latency. It's the time it takes your computer to encode/decode the video stream.

For example. The wifi chip in the Quest maxes at about 867megabits/sec.

The max bitrate ALVR lets you do is 250Mbps. Even if you had the worst AC wifi router at about 433Mbps that can still handle that (provided your PC is connected via ethernet cable to the router).

So the problem here isn't network bandwidth what so ever. It's the processing power required to encode/decode the video.
 
shaunj66
Darth Meteos said:
Numerous reviews on Amazon say they were shipped a USB 2.0 cable that doesn't work properly.
Consider avoiding.
Click to expand...
That's for the discontinued 16ft version that goes against the USB specs that limit non powered repeater cables to max out a length of 10ft. I had the same issues with the 16ft version. However theMthe 16ft version works great when connected to an active USB extension lead giving a huge length. Perhaps i should mention in the review
 
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The Real Jdbye
@qqq1 If you have never tried proper PC VR, you might not know how to tell the difference. But try moving your head rapidly and stopping, and see how long it takes the image to stop moving. It should be very apparent.
 
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