The early days of a technology are always a rush to the next big advance. This was as true back at the start of home computing, when there was only a two year gap between the Vic-20 and Commodore 64, as it is today, with another two-year gap between each of GeForce’s three generations of graphics cards offering the fancy new tech of ray tracing. From that perspective, a platform like the all-in-one VR headset of the Quest 2 being three years old is practically ancient. It’s about time for a refresher so today Meta officially revealed the Quest 3.
While today’s announcement was short on specifics Meta did drop a full load of more generalized information in itsQuest 3 blog post. The new Snapdragon chip is going to be twice as powerful as the one in the Quest 2, for example, and rather than an over-the-shelf solution it was designed specifically for the needs of the Quest 3. This will be necessary not just to ensure full backwards compatibility with the Quest 2 and allow new games to look prettier but also due to the higher resolution display. What that resolution will be is an as-yet unanswered question but we do know it’s very likely going to be on an LCD display again rather than OLED. Rumors do suggest the resolution will be 2064 x 2208 per eye, but that’s completely unverified so take it with a very large grain of salt. We do, however, know that the fresnel lenses of the Quest 2 will be replaced with pancake lenses, which offer a clearer view and eliminate the chromatic aberration and god-rays that users of the current hardware have gotten used to. Oddly enough there’s no mention of eye tracking, so it seems highly unlikely to be part of new headset.
The upgrades to the insides are being matched with upgrades to the outside of the hardware as well. The new headset is going to be 40% slimmer than the Quest 2, and while there’s no word on how much that weighs the mass will be closer to your face, and therefore will be noticeably comfier. Think holding a book at your side versus arm’s length to get an idea of how that will work, except with the balance point being the bridge of your nose. The controllers are also getting a redesign, losing the ring with the tracking lights inside due to advances in tracking technology. They also include the TruTouch haptics found in the Touch Pro controllers, which presumably means a motor in the body, another by the thumb rest, and a third for adding resistance to the primary trigger. The Quest 3 will be fully compatible with the $299 Touch Pro controllers as well, which feature inside-out tracking so will have less potential to go out of sight of the Quest’s external cameras.
Those cameras are one of the bigger new features of the Quest 3, in fact. They’ve gotten a full upgrade from low-res black and white to high-res full color, and are meant to aid in AR gaming. The three ovals on the front of the Quest 3 are two 4 gigapixel RGB cameras and a depth sensor, and the video passthrough is ten times the resolution of the Quest 2. The plan is to have games that unite VR and AR (or mixed reality, MR, as Meta is calling it) into a seamless whole, and it’s going to be very interesting to see what new ideas shake out of it.
All of this comes at a price, of course, and the starting line is $499 for the basic unit. The expectation is that the potential various models will be similar to how Meta did it with the Quest 2, which had versions with 128 and 256GB internal storage, but there’s no specifics on that yet or what the difference in pricing will be.
While the bulk of today’s announcements focused on the shiny and new, the Quest 2 also got a bit of love and some honestly surprising announcements. First up, the price of the Quest 2 is reverting back to what it was at launch, with the 128GB unit coming in at $299.99 and the 256GB version $349.99 effective June 4, this coming Sunday. The real kicker, though, is that there’s an update on the way granting increased performance, with Meta claiming 26% to the CPU and 19% to the GPU. Per the video below it’s not a magic wand that makes all games instantly better, but developers who take advantage of the upgrade will see the benefits in their games.
As for the Quest 3, this is just about everything that’s been announced so far but more information is on the way in a few months. Meta is having its Connect conference on September 27 so expect to hear all the details then, including a release date that seems likely to be within a couple of weeks at most afterwards. No promises on that, obviously, and the official release window is “later this year”, but it’s good to have new hardware to look forward to.
