SAMSUNG HMD ODYSSEY+ XE800ZBA-HC1US BLACK (Open Box)

Pros: The headset was great. It was comfortable, the image was great, the audio equally so, I liked how accurate the controllers were (assuming they weren't behind your face) and for being my first headset, and it was a great introduction to VR. Highly recommended on that front Cons: I never had a good one. At the current date of this review (August 31) I bought a used one on April 22. I loved it, except it would sometimes stop showing the image. It also took about 15 minutes to get it working steadily. I didn't detract too much from the experience, but it was a little annoying when trying to show it off to friends and family and I had to fight the hardware to get it working. Tested it on friend's PC and it behaved the same so I knew it wasn't my computer causing the issue. Thankfully Amazon's return process is really easy and convenient. Bought a second used one May 19th. This time I had pixel issues with the screen for the left eye. There were thin columns of pixels that were showing inverse colors, and it was thick enough that it was a struggle to play games that were dark. Really ruined the immersion. Much appreciation for how Amazon handles their return process After buying used ones I decided to go with a brand new one. I bought that one on May 26. It was the most unplayable headset I've bought. The headset would work for about a couple of minutes, then it would constantly reboot, the screen would go black, sometimes it would even try to flash one of my eyes with a really intense light for a half a second. Couldn't enjoy it at all. So I sent it back to Samsung to see if they could fix it. They took it, replaced some hardware, and sent it back. Still the same issues. I sent it back a second time. Still the same issues. All of this took about a month's time, and after I got it back the third time after Samsung claimed they fixed it, I got tired of fighting the hardware and decided to ask for an exchange. I was thinking if they had a known good one, they can send me that one since I bought one under warranty this time. The attempted repairs beforehand took a lengthy amount of time because it would take about a few days for it to ship, another few days for the technicians to do the repairs, and then once I got it back in my hands it was about a week or so after I would initially send it back to them. However, going through the exchange/ refund process wasn't nearly as quick. Firstly (and the main issue with my experience) the refund and exchange department is only open Monday-Friday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. I had a really difficult time on making call backs because I've started well into my work day by 9 in the morning, and by the time I have chances to call (if I even remembered to) it wouldn't be until part way through the day in which case the department had a wait list of callers that at time got up to about 4-6 hours waiting. Highly discouraging. Again, I first wanted an exchange. After a week or two of calling them, they agreed that an exchange will be fine, but they had to check their inventory for one that was in stock. They said they'd call me back. A week or so goes by and they haven't called me back, so I called them (eventually, I had difficulty following up at times. refer to previous paragraph). I felt like they didn't make any progress on their end unless I called their repair and exchange department. I've lost track of how the timeline goes at this point, but what felt like weeks trying to get an exchange, they finally stated that they had none in stock, and they'd offer a refund. I was fine with that since I was pretty much done with Samsung by this point. The catch this time though is the refund had to be approved. Another week and a half goes by waiting to see what the approval was, until I eventually made contact with them again. They said it was approved and had a request ticket made for me to get my check in the mail. So here it is at the end of August after buying my first VR headset in the spring, and I still don't have a working VR headset. I really wanted to like it because I've tried this headset on a friend's set up and I was amazed at how immersive VR is. It seems that if you get a good HMD Odyssey, it will be a great experience. I just couldn't get one that worked right for me for some reason. Not to mention Samsung's inability to properly troubleshoot and diagnose their hardware. It was too discouraging and too time consuming to make me want another one.