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iFixit Takes Apart the Oculus Rift DK2, Finds Galaxy Note 3 Display Inside

Posted by timothy on from the wait-'til-it's-handed-out-like-earphone-on-the-plane dept.

An anonymous reader writes with a teardown from iFixit of the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2: "iFixit's teardown reveals lots of interesting hardware within, including 40 infrared LEDs, a well-organized motherboard, and a display panel lifted directly from a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. They also took apart the IR tracking camera for good measure." The review is the usual iFixit blend of funny, concise and technical; they include a nice shot showing those IR sources embedded in the plastic of the frame. Why the straight-from-a-phone display? "This seems to make economical sense, since Oculus is working to ship something like 45,000 DK2s—a goodly number for a mid-development prototype, but certainly not enough to warrant a fully custom display."

4 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Gonna get sued! by tbuddy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I doubt they would partner with them and then sue them over it.

  2. Re:I thought that the OR2 delivered a 1080p displa by Guspaz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Dual screens was never in the plans for any Rift, why would it be a surprise or a disappointment? The consumer version is expected to use at least a 2560x1440 display.

  3. Re:Gonna get sued! by tbuddy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Or they are partners.

  4. Leaving the entire panel intact makes sense... by Gordo_1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The cheapest and simplest thing for Samsung to do for a relatively small run of only 45k devices is to literally lift existing pre-built screens directly off the Note 3 assembly line and hand them over to Oculus. Virtually any kind of customization, like removing the Gorilla glass or touchscreen controller would require an assembly line change and could result in a much larger production slow down. I know it's hard to believe that 'wasting' unnecessary materials is actually cheaper than removing them, but if you know anything about manufacturing you understand the enormous impact that an assembly line change can have.