BOBOVR Z4 Cardboard Virtual Reality VR Headset Review

The current VR headsets without using a phone are extremely expensive, and the cheapest one would still cost more than $100 at the very least. So I wanted to try out a cheaper alternative - Cardboard, which allows you to view in "VR" using your phone and appropriate apps and files. One of the ones I researched that seem decent was the BOBOVR Z4, and since there was multiple sales at Aliexpress during Black Friday, I had to jump on it.

Seller: SH Electronics Store on Aliexpress

General Overview of Product:

The BOBOVR headset includes your standard VR goggles with a field of vision of 120 degrees, but it also includes headphones. I thought this was very neat and very practical since most people will be listening to the sound whilst watching their VR content. The headset also has a lot of functionality and adjustability. Since it has headphones, it makes sense that they have a wheel to change the volume. You are also able to adjust the focal distance (distance of lens away from your eyes) and the pupil distance (distance of lens between your eyes), and that's not something that you see in every model. There's also a mechanism that touches the screen when you press a button, but I generally didn't see a need to use it. 

The VR headset manual

The part where you put the phone into the headset is very secure. You will know that it's secure because when you close the headset properly, there's a click sound. Whilst the seller says that it can only support 4.0" to 6.0" phones, I tried putting a 6.2" phone and it fits just right. I'm sure bigger phones can also fit, but I'm not sure whether the whole screen will be shown. The lenses itself is ok, but I found some videos to be too blurry to enjoy. Maybe it's the quality of the video I had, but I really doubt it, as I view the video without the headset, and it was definitely of HD quality. Also, it claims that you can use the headset with your glasses on, but it smudges parts of the glasses. Perhaps I had a big head, but if you are thinking of using it with glasses, I would probably shy away unless you have a small head.

The remote manual

There's the option to buy the headset by itself or buy it with a remote. Since it was only a couple of dollars more, I might as well try out the remote since it claims to have a lot of functionality. The remote is actually not bad. There's multiple modes and they also serve different purposes. One of the modes (the music/video playing mode) could have made a way to skip to next song or go back to previous song. Don't know why they didn't think of that since it's one of the basic functions.

Price and Value:

I bought the headset with the remote at $29.73 AUD, but when I factor in my country's tax, it comes out to $32.71 AUD. As of now, it's about $33.97 AUD without GST factored in, so saved $4, which is decent. The VR headset by itself is $30.67 AUD.

For the price, it's decent. You aren't going to expect the best of quality when you are paying this little, especially when the good ones are $100+, perhaps even $200+. If you want to try out "VR", this is not a bad investment. It also came with a free cleaning cloth. Nice!

Quality:

The quality of the headset is pretty good. I expected the headphones in the headset to break very easily, but they seem pretty solid. The sound quality is good and you get what you paid for. The newer versions of the BOBOVR series doesn't seem to have as good of a quality as Z4, and that's surprising, since I would expect a company to build upon the strengths and fix the weaknesses. The headset is also comfortable and it doesn't feel like a strain on my head. However, I do find that it can sometimes be awkward to keep on your head since the headset with the phone is pretty heavy.

Seller & Shipping Impressions:

The seller I purchased from had about 4580 customers, and the reviews were decent. The seller as a whole also seemed trustworthy. The product came with free shipping, and on top of that it was eParcel (SUPERB since it would only take 13-20 days). However, onto the downside, the guy took about 2-3 working days to ship my order. After he shipped my order, it remained untracked for more than 7 business days, and this was very frustrating since you would eParcel to be well tracked. Eventually there was a scan in one of the despatch and sorting centers in Shenzhen, eventually it came to Australia on the last day of the promised delivery timeframe. Not a good outlook, since it barely arrived before Christmas. But the shipping process is not the seller's fault, it's more of the courier's fault.

Overall Verdict:

It's a fair priced VR headset and the quality is exceptionally good for its price. It has a lot of functionality at a low cost and compared to other competitors in Aliexpress, BOBOVR Z4 seems to be the best value headset. If you are unsure whether you like VR, or you are undecided on whether you want to get the VR headsets that do not require a phone, I recommend trying this out first and then you can see whether you are going to regularly enjoy VR. Whilst I had a somewhat bad experience with the shipment process, it's most likely a one-off thing since it's during end of November/start of December.

Summary:
+ One of the best value cardboard VR headsets
+ Lots of functionality and amazing solid quality
+ User friendly
+/- Lenses are not the most amazing quality (but you get what you paid for)
- Can be a bit heavy
- (Personally) Not suitable when wearing glasses if you have a big head
- Seller ships order a bit slow