Facebook parent company Meta has announced the Quest 3, its upcoming next-generation AR/VR headset, just ahead of Apple’s much-expected AR/VR headset debut next week at WWDC 2023. The new Meta headset will launch later this year
Meta says the Quest 3 headset is 40% slimmer than its predecessor, and is said to boast a more comfortable design. The provider will also sport a higher-resolution display, and up to twice the graphics performance of the Quest 2, which was released in 2020. Meta says the Quest 3 is the first headset to be powered by a next-generation Snapdragon chipset developed in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies.
The new headset uses the TruTouch haptics that first debuted in Touch Pro to “help you feel the action like never before.” Meta Quest Touch Pro Controllers are compatible with Quest 3. Hand tracking will be supported out of the box, so users can explore without controllers.
The Quest 3 is compatible with the Quest 2’s catalog of more than 500 VR games, apps, and experiences. Meta says it has more new VR and MR titles ready for the new headset’s launch.
The Quest 3 is priced MUCH lower than Apple’s rumored headset, which is expected to cost around $3,000. Pricing for the Quest 3 headset will start at $499.99 with 128GB of storage. Meta will share more details about the Quest 3 at its Meta Connect event on September 27.
The price of the Quest 2 will be rolled back as of June 4 to $299.99 USD for the 128GB model and $349.99 USD for the 256GB model.
In an upcoming software update, Meta is updating the Quest 2 and Quest Pro GPU and CPU. The Quest 2 and Quest Pro should see as much as a 26% CPU performance increase, along with an up to 19% GPU speed increase for Quest 2 and 11% for Quest Pro.
Dynamic Resolution Scaling for both Quest 2 and Quest Pro will also be enabled, allowing games and apps to take advantage of increased pixel density without no dropped frames.
Meta says the new Quest headset boasts an all-in-one design. Meanwhile, Apple’s headset is expected to include an external battery pack that is attached by a cable.
Bloomberg scribe Mark Gurman says the Apple headset will sport an external battery pack with a cable permanently connected to it. The cable will have a proprietary connector on one end that attaches to the headset itself.
That connector will apparently be magnetic in nature, but it will be firmly connected so it doesn’t fall out while in motion. Round-tipped, the cable connector will lock into the port by the user turning it.
In his newsletter last weekend, Gurman shared his hands-on impressions of the Quest 3, saying that he “came away impressed with the mixed-reality focus of the Quest 3, the much-improved video pass-through capabilities, the faster performance, and the large content library.”