It’s a total no-frills hard case, with barely enough room for your headset, controllers, and a small bag for cables or batteries.

This case feels sturdy, with a gray fabric covering nondescript enough that it probably won’t arouse a thief’s attention at the airport. When closed, it looks like a chunky makeup case or perhaps a case for a tiny french horn. There’s no additional padding inside, but the snug fit means your gear won’t move around much during ordinary travel.

It’s such a tight fit that you have to pull the straps all the way in on your Quest headset for it to fit the confines of the case. This means it’s not a great choice for regular storage around the house, and you’ll have to readjust the straps every time you take it out. The controllers stand up vertically and are secured by an attached strap inside, which is a pretty compact design that will save you a few inches when you load this into your plane’s overhead compartment.

Other carrying cases available online come with foam padding and zippered pouches, so don’t expect any of those fancy bells and whistles with this model. But the price is right— the Joyhub case is $22.99 on Amazon. By comparison, the official carrying case from Oculus is equally barebones, with a much flimsier wrist strap instead of a nice luggage strap, at a higher cost of $40.

Feel free to think of the Joyhub case as the cheaper, less deluxe option. It does the job of helping you get your Quest from point A to point B without much likelihood of eyepiece scratches. It’s not as slick and professional-looking as other options out there, but the few bucks you spare will let you grab an extra game or two instead.

Get A Grip

Third-party grips exist for three reasons; you want to have a better grip, you want it to keep the battery cover in place, and you want to feel just a little bit bigger. Another advantage to such grips is that you can play with open hands since they have bands that keep the controllers bound to your hands. I find this particularly useful for something like Guided Tai Chi, which I refused to play before because I found it incredibly unnatural to do any Tai Chi with my hands held tight. Most Tai Chi is practiced with relaxed, open palms, and gripping controllers stuck me as anathema to the relaxation I would usually enjoy when practicing Tai Chi.

Anatomy of a Grip

Most of these kinds of grips are somewhat similar in structure and function. The main section fits around the bottom of your controllers, and they have a lip on the outer side that goes up near the edge of the tracking rings. You slide your controller into them, pull out the native strap from the bottom of the grips, push the grip up and against the controller until it’s firmly in place, and then tie the grip to the ring and extend the straps to the bottom of the grip. This creates an arc stretching from near the ring to the bottom of the grip. It is in this arc that you slide your fingers/hand. You tighten this arc of material by pulling more of it through the bottom of the grips where it’s held by a locking mechanism that can be loosened to tighten or loosen the straps.

What About the Mamut, Dammit?

I’ve tried the Mamut Touch Grips that Tim Wilson reviewed here on 6DOF Reviews a while back, and although they worked well for him, I had a less than stellar experience. My main problem with the Mamut grips was that I couldn’t comfortably reach the trigger button with my index fingers when I had them on. Perhaps the angle on the upper lip was too close to the front and constrained my finger, or maybe they were simply made for smaller hands. All I know is that I stopped using them because, to reach the trigger button, I had to have the hand band wrapped around my fingers rather than around the back of my hand. I found this less than ideal and gave up on them.

Enter AMVR

I recently had the opportunity to try out the AMVR Touch Grips, and, even though both grips look more or less the same when you see photos of them, there are some differences. To me, those differences were critical, and the end result is that I now only take them off when I have to replace my controller batteries.

It’s tough to explain in writing what the main differences are when the experience is so tactile, but here it goes:

Big Hands / Small Hands

The AMVR Touch Grips have three different slots that the accompanying bands can be attached to rather than the Mamut’s single twin slot. This allows you to move the bands to accommodate the size of your hands. Given my experience with the Mamut Grips, I didn’t even bother with the two lower slots, and immediately attached the bands to the highest slot, as hoped, this meant that my index finger had no trouble reaching the trigger button on the Touch controllers. The higher placement of the band slots also means that the bands rest comfortably on the back of my hands, and not against the backs of my fingers.

Here’s a photo I took that might help explain what I just wrote –

Laces / Bands

Whereas the Mamut grips used laces to attach to your hand, the AMVR touch grips use bands. The laces weren’t solid enough to be irritating, but having flat bands rather than soft cylindrical laces against my hand just feels better to me. The bands also have silicone attached to their insides, so they adhere to the back of your hands when you’re using the grips. How long will the silicone last? I’m not sure, but I’ve noticed no deterioration and I’ve been using them for several weeks.

Velcro

Unlike the Mamuts, which use the same laced to attach the lip to the ring and then loops it through itself to go to the grip’s locking mechanism at the bottom, the AMVR touch grips use a short velcro loop to attach the lip to the ring, and this goes through a smaller slot that’s above the three hand-size slots. I’m not sure which is a more secure solution, but to me, the AMVR method seemed to ensure a neater fit around the ring and felt less clunky.

Texture Schmetzure

The texture of the protective shells on both grips feel very similar, and I can’t say there’s much of a difference there. They both felt solid, and both provided good friction. The AMVR’s surface is made up of small triangles, and the Mamut’s is made up of small diamonds.

The Value Proposition

Whereas the Mamut grips cost $37.95, the AMVR touch grips are sold for $24.99. The difference in value is compounded when you realize that the AMVR touch grips come with a VR Lens Cover, and Anti-Light-Leakage Nose Pad, four velcro strips, and four bands.

Throwing in the Kitchen Sink

I’ve never used a VR lens cover because I just don’t put my Quest somewhere where I’d need to worry about the lenses getting scratched. I also know that at least one user who had scuffed lenses thought that it might’ve been caused by his lens covers. So the utility of the lens cover is something that you have to decide for yourselves.

The Anti-Light-Leakage nose pad was confusing for me. I wasn’t quite sure how to attach it, and, to my understanding, Doc Neale had the same problem. I finally asked the folks at AMVR how to attach it, attached it, found it did nothing for me, and promptly took it off, never to see it again. Now maybe my nose isn’t the right shape, and perhaps I just didn’t spend the time adjusting it because, honestly, I’ve never let a little light leakage take me out of a game, but again – as with the lens covers, your mileage may vary.

The inclusion of four bands is, admittedly, a cool move. They all have AMVR branding on them, but two of them are just black and white, and the other two are colored Red and Blue! Clearly, these were made with Beat Saber players in mind, not surprising considering AMVR is also the company that gave us the Beat Saber Handles. I’d have appreciated a plain black band option, without any branding whatsoever, but I’m also a brand-averse person who won’t wear any clothing that prominently displays any logo.

You Know Where I’m Going With This, Don’t You?

Whereas I had some issues with their Beat Saber Handles, the AMVR Touch Grips impressed me a great deal. They’re well thought out, nicely designed, and feel robust. I had an easier time putting the AMVRs on than the Mamut grips (especially when it came to getting the native straps out of the bottom) and loved the fact that I could finally, comfortably use my index finger for the trigger button. They’ve been attached to my Touch controllers since I received them, and I only wish that somehow AMVR had managed to work out a way for us to replace batteries without having to loosen the velcro strip and pull the grips halfway off.

At $24.99, and until I run into an even better solution, I can’t recommend these enough. If you’ve had any of the controller issues that I mentioned earlier in this review, or just want a more comfortable grip on your controllers, go ahead and buy these.

Give me a minute…

I was eyeing the Quest when it was first released, mostly on account of Beat Saber. I loved the game on PSVR but hated the fact that I couldn’t add custom levels to it as PC gamers had been able to. Then, along came the news that the Quest version would support custom levels. Bam. Sold.

Now, other than a smaller selection of tracks, the PSVR has other problems, inherent not to Beat Saber, but to the platform; poorer tracking, the lack of custom levels, and the wire that often got in my way. Having said all that, it has an advantage that I only noticed when I started playing the game on the Quest; the PS Move Controllers made for awesome lightsaber hilts.

The beams came out of them at just the right angle, and the grip was fantastic.

What’s Wrong With the Quest Controllers?

On the Quest, almost from the start, I could tell I would have issues with the Touch Controllers. They’re great for regular games, where you don’t have to swing your arms around at speeds that make hardware developers go back to their code. With Beat Saber, especially if, like me, you have relatively big hands, the Touch controllers are less than perfect. They’re too small and they’re slippery. The light beams also come out at a slightly odd angle, but that’s okay, you get used to that. It’s true small, slippery grips that could put you off their game.

Can You Light My Saber?

The AMVR Dual Handles (otherwise known to the community as ‘the AMVR Beat Saber handles’ promise to solve that problem. They look the part too, looking for all intents and purposes like you welded a pair of PS Move controllers to your Oculus Touch Controllers.

I hated them when I first got them.

Putting them on was a tedious process that could have been explained better. You have to take off your battery cover, remove the native Touch controller straps, unscrew the AMVR controller until you find their replacement straps (there are two, one at the bottom for your wrist, replacing the regular strap, and another at the top to secure the AMVR handle to the Touch Controller), attack the top AMVR strap where the native strap was attached, firmly secure the grip around the Touch Controller, and then screw it from the bottom until it’s held tight. I hope these instructions help you out because honestly, it took me longer than it should (and a couple of YouTube videos), to figure this out.

Okay, so once they’re on, how are they?

Functionality

They’re great for Beat Saber, even if they feel a little funny at first. The hilts are a little farther from your grip than they normally would be, but that’s okay. You get used to the extra length. The grip is also very good. It feels robust, it’s totally non-slip, and the light beam comes out perfectly.

So why did I hate them?

As mentioned, putting them on was a tedious, clunky process. Screwing the handles on tight cannot be done very quickly. The worse problem is that although they work wonderfully for Beat Saber, they are absolutely, ridiculously awkward to use for anything else. Maybe they’d also be good for a sword fighting game where you didn’t need to reach the thumbsticks, the trigger buttons, or anything else. Maybe. To my knowledge, only Beat Saber, of all the games I’ve got, forgoes the use of almost all controls, requiring buttons only to pause, quite, or start a level. This is not the norm, and because of this, the AMVR handles are terrible for ‘normal’ not-Beat Saber usage.

Wax On, Wax Off

What this means is that you’ll have to constantly put them on and take them off. The very notion of doing this every single time I wanted to play Beat Saber put me off. So, without further consideration, I put them back in the box and forgot about them for a month. To my knowledge, only Beat Saber, of all the games I’ve got, forgoes the use of almost all controls, requiring buttons only to pause, quite, or start a level.

Most games do make use of some of the controls, and because of this, the AMVR Beat Saber handles are terrible for ‘normal’ (read – anything other than Beat Saber) usage. What this means is that you’ll have to constantly put them on and take them off. The very notion of doing this every single time I wanted to play Beat Saber put me off. So, without further consideration, I put them back in the box and forgot about them for a month.

Let’s Try That Again

Two days ago, the Quest ScoreSaber beta was released for Beat Saber. In case you don’t know, ScoreSaber allows you to access global and country leaderboards for custom levels. So whereas before you could play ‘Moves Like Jagger’ for fun, now you could actually see how you measure up against tens of thousands of other players online.

I’m a guy who once spent a full day making it to the global top fifty on one of the original Beat Saber tracks, ‘Commercial Pumping’. I am at my best when I’m trying to beat the rest of the world. I’m not crazy, I won’t go nuts over not being in the top ten, but if I like the tracks, I want to at least squeeze into the top fifty. Fine, let’s say the top one hundred, at least. I may be getting old, but I’m not dead. Not yet.

So I figured I’d have a long Beat Saber sessions, rather than bounce around between games as I usually would. Given that, that I was willing to spend most of the day playing nothing but Beat Saber, I pulled the AMVR handles out of their box, put them on, and went for it.

Usability Revisited

Admittedly, they were easier to put on this time, practice, as they say, makes monkeys out of all of us. It helped that I knew what I needed to do this time.

The grips do help a lot with Beat Saber, and I found myself blissfully unconcerned with losing my grip, and quite happy with how they felt. The extra reach that you have with the handles could arguably be considered unfair since you can reach cubes that would otherwise be just a little bit out of reach. Is it unfair enough that it’s cheating? Not really, but if you’re playing for fractions of a percent, hoping you inch your way up the leaderboards, then it could well give you a slight advantage.

AMVR Handles from Amazon

Last Words

All in all, I have mixed opinions on these things. If you think you’re going to keep them on all the time, then forget it. If you’re buying them knowing full well that you’ll have to put them on every time you want to use them for Beat Saber and then take them off every time you want to do anything, absolutely anything, else, then fair enough. They’re only $25.90.

I’m going to be using them occasionally, and only when I’ve decided beforehand that I’m going to spend the day (or at least a full morning or evening) playing nothing but Beat Saber. I can also see them being useful if I have people over and we’re all just interested in competing at Beat Saber. Most of the time, however, I’ll probably leave them off, or maybe use the Mamut Touch Grips instead if I just want a little more grip without the full PS Move experience that the AMVR handles provide.

I’m rating these for casual users who would consider them an extra peripheral. If you’re a dedicated Beat Saber player who swears by them, don’t get angry – just add one or two points to the overall score! You’re getting them anyway, aren’t you?

BASICS

What was the problem? Well, for some people, the Oculus Touch controllers either had the tendency to slip out of people’s hands when grip was lost or due to the loss of grip buttons and triggers would get accidentally pressed. That is where Mamut comes in. The rubberized grips not only help you feel, but the included straps can be used as knuckle straps and increase your confidence in the grip.

SETUP

The Mamut Grips require minimal setup out of the box. You simply slip them over your Oculus Quest controllers, tighten up the straps. There’s not much more to say. This is a testament to the user-friendly design that Mamut has created.

PLAYABILITY

I used to get frustrated at certain games as some of the tactile actions were not very intuitive. Interestingly, I’ve found that when I use these grips with the knuckle straps, many games feel more natural. Now I feel more confident in my grip. One such game is Beat Saber. As silly as it sounds, when my knuckles are tightly strapped to the grips, I feel so much more confident in my ability to swing wildly without the worry of the grips slipping from my hands. This is true for other games as well, especially shooters. Crisis VRigade is one of my favorite shooters, and with these grips, I find myself much more confident. Also, my movements feel more natural. With the ability to completely let go of the grips (thanks to the knuckle straps), these grab and drop movements feel much more intuitive, almost natural.

USABILITY

I have to say that these may not be for everyone. Everyone has different palm sizes, finger sizes, grip styles, etc. Mamut did a great job designing these to be ergonomic and functional, but that doesn’t mean that it is the perfect option for everyone. I have a couple of friends who have tried them and think they are uncomfortable. What I’ve found is they fit best for people with larger hands. You’ll need to decide for yourself if they are right for you.

LONGEVITY

When I ordered these, I assumed they would be a cool add-on that I would use from time to time and might work better for certain games and not so well for others. I was so wrong. Now that I have these, I could not imagine taking them off! I mean that. They make my experience many times more enjoyable in almost every game. What I didn’t expect is that I find myself playing for longer. After many games and many hours spent with these grips, I can say that the quality is wonderful. I don’t see them getting worn out for a VERY long time.

LAST WORDS

Although perfection is not possible because no two hands are alike, I find that these are a fantastic, functional product that everyone should try if their budget allows.

The Rendered Reality channel on YouTube have also covered the Mamut Touch Grips, watch Shawn & Tyler’s video here!