I'll snap some pictures of the Rift and Rift S tomorrow but I can lay down a few thoughts right now.
The LCD screens looks good! I was worried that going from OLED to LCD would be a mistake and though I have to admit that blacks are blacker on the Rift, it is close with the Rift S and the Rift S has a cleaner screen for sure. Screen door effect is almost non existent to me. I always thought the Rift was pretty good. You can look past the screen door effect when immersed in a good game and some games just look so much better than others but with the Rift S I can say without a doubt that it really is a BIG improvement in this area. I mean I was trying to see the screen door effect and found it much harder.
Virtual desktop is much easier on the eyes and I can actually read text so much better. Movies look very clean as well. I always thought the Rift didn't do a great job for movies but this is like a night and day difference to me. I can actually see myself watching a movie now, (not that it is a selling point for me but cool all the same).
So IMO this is a big step in the right direction. The lower refresh rate does not seem to make a difference to my eyes. The Rift being 90Hz Vs the Rift S's 80Hz.
Setup was WAAAAAY easier. I mean damn....that was way easy. Nothing at all like the Rift CV1 and it's pain in the butt sensor setup. I used three sensors with the Rift for 360 and once set up it worked great but this is much much better.
The new style band is super comfy. quicker to adjust and fits better with my glasses. I had a lot of issues using glasses with the rift when it came to comfort but this is much better.
Just the one cord running to PC is a god send too.
The only thing I don't like is the speakers. They provide a more spacious sound effect which is actually quite cool. Sounds around my head actually sound more like ....outside my head; but they sound weak. The Rift speakers that laid on my ears have a more robust sound with decent bass. The Rift S falls short in this area. Nothing a set of ear buds can't fix (which can be plugged directly into the rift S head band but I wish they would have put better speakers in.
Tracking is good. It's solid. Compared to my Rift with 3 sensor setup...it works just as good. Moving around, quick actions, even placing my hands behind my head....it all worked flawlessly. Very impressed with its inside out tracking. Oh and being able to see outside the headset is pretty cool. It's black and white but I can see the entire room and thats damn cool. Beats always having to tip the old Rift up so I can see real quick.
All in all this was totally worth the $399 price tag and my old Rift will now go to my other gaming rig for the kids to play with.
I'll post more as time goes by...I have to redownload most of my games which I will do tonight. I'll try to remember to take some side by side photos of the Rift and Rift S plus the controllers. The redisgned controllers work great but I admit they will take some getting used to as I've been using the old style for so long.