When it comes to gaming peripherals, the general rule of thumb is ‘you get what you pay for’, and the RIG 4VR is exactly that. Aimed specifically for the PSVR headset, its black and white design ties in very well with the PSVR. The packaging on the RIG 4VR headset isn’t the best and offers little to no protection from shock damage with just a simple piece of vacuumed plastic molded to the shape of the headset.
Out of the box, the RIG 4VR is very lightweight compared to most competing headsets, which is great if you are using the PSVR headset as you already have enough on your head as it is. Being able to fully dismantle this headset was a shock to the system, ear cups pop off the frame with a simple pull and are held in place by rubber grommets. These rubber grommets personally don’t feel up to the task and maybe after a while will lose their rigidness and probably won’t hold the cups in place anymore.
The microphone can be taken off the headset completely for those who don’t want or need it. But all this popping off and dismantling made the RIG 4VR feel extremely cheap, with no adjustability except for 3 holes to move the cups up or down, making the RIG 4VR useless if you can’t fine-tune it to the unique shape of your head.
When on your head, the RIG 4VR is comfortable, which is key for long gaming sessions with the PSVR. The cloth ear cups are open-backed and offer no sound deadening at all but manage to keep your ears cool enough, which is fine if someone wants your attention when you are engrossed in the PSVR. One grief I seem to have with the ear cups are that they are slightly small and nipped my ears, and I have small ears, so folks with bigger ears may struggle with these. The elastic headband helps to keep the headset on your head whilst you are playing with the PSVR, which is great as things tend to get a bit hectic on VR. The RIG 4VR supports a 3.5mm jack and also comes with the option to split the cable at around shoulder level to plug into the PSVR, which is a superb touch, but it also comes with a longer cable for conventional gameplay.
Sound is obviously key to a headset, but don’t expect any decent sound to come from this headset since it only supports stereo sound. It’s great for basic gaming, but for any kind of competitive play, stay well clear of this headset. Put simply, the RIG 4VR plays all basic sound to a good standard, but any kind of finer sound effects which come from 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, like footsteps to the left or right, were extremely hard to pick out. The shoddy excuse for bass sounds were a shame, but with only 40mm speaker drivers behind the cups, that would be wishful thinking.
The mic was of acceptable sound quality, so I was told anyways, which is great to hear. It’s detachable, or it can be folded up and muted for quick ease, which is a great feature for those not interested in speaking.
My personal opinion is that for the price of this headset (£59.99), you can have an all around better headset from other companies. Headsets from Turtle Beach, Tritton and other lead brands are simply better in every way. The RIG 4VR is a headset that is aimed at a certain gap in the market: VR. VR is the next big thing in gaming and will only get bigger, so to produce a headset such as this is a step in the right direction, it could have just done with a bit more fine-tuning.
Developer: Plantronics
Manufacturer: Plantronics
Platforms: PS4 (PSVR)
Release Date: 2016