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The Meta Quest 3 has been made official, and it will go on sale this Autumn.
There has been a lot of hype surrounding the successor to the hugely popular Meta Quest 2. But what can we expect from the next-gen virtual reality headset?
Facebook has officially revealed the price, design and features of the Meta Quest 3 – here is everything we know.
The official Meta store lists the Quest 3 as going on sale this Autumn. You can sign up for email updates on the website now, though pre-orders aren’t yet available.
The company is hosting a Quest Gaming Showcase today, 1 June, promising “double the news” of last year’s equivalent event. With today’s announcement, there is a possibility that more information about the headset (and possibly the release date) may be unveiled.
Failing that, Meta has confirmed more information will be coming on 27 September 2023 at Meta Connect.
When Meta first began teasing the Meta Quest Pro in 2021, many assumed it’d be the successor to the Quest 2. Of course, now we know that it’s an entirely different headset with a focus beyond gaming.
Facebook has confirmed that the Meta Quest 3 is priced at $499/£499 for the 128GB version.
This is a step up compared to the $399/£399 price tag of the Meta Quest 2, though VR fans may be pleased to hear that this older headset will drop back to its original $299/£299 price tag from 4 June 2023.
The headset will ship to all countries where the Meta Quest is currently available.
What will the Quest 3 specs and features be?
Here is the official video reveal for the Meta Quest 3 – we’ve broken down what Meta has announced on the technical specs below:
Upgraded design
According to the teaser video, the Meta Quest 3 will be 40% slimmer than its predecessor and seems to include more fabric, making for a more comfortable fit. It will also offer updated lightweight Touch Plus controls with TruTouch haptics.
These controls drop the outer tracking rings to improve space and give them more of a natural feel.
Bloomberg went hands on with the device, and confirmed that it will feature a USB-C port, volume control, IPD wheel and a power button.
Improved performance
The Meta Quest 2 sported Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR 2 platform, offering the impressive standalone performance we’re all familiar with.
Meta and Qualcomm will continue that relationship with the Quest 3 and the next-gen Snapdragon mobile platform, which will boast double the graphics performance according to Zuckerberg.
In a YouTube video in late September 2021, Lynch suggests that the Quest 3 will indeed have the next-generation Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset alongside a boosted 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage.
Updated LCD displays
Whilst Facebook has confirmed that the headset will have the “highest resolution display and pancake optics”, though we don’t yet know specifics. YouTuber Lynch suggests that the Quest 3 will offer a higher-res, faster LCD panel than that of the Quest 2.
According to Lynch, the Quest 3 will sport an LCD display with a resolution of 2064×2208 per eye and an increased 120Hz refresh rate – that’s both higher resolution and faster than the top-end Quest Pro, which bodes well for consumers.
While the Quest 2 has offered an experimental 120Hz mode for the past few months, it’s exclusive to apps and games that support it, with Meta Home and other OS elements still rendered at 90Hz. The jump to 120Hz will bring a notable jump in smoothness no matter where you’re using the headset.
Mixed reality
The tease from Zuckerberg confirmed that the Meta Quest 3 will be “…the first mainstream headset with high-res color mixed reality”, pipping Apple to the post with its heavily rumoured AR/VR headset (though Meta is dubbing its technology ‘MR’, to stand for Meta Reality).
This means that users can see a colour version of their surroundings using the external cameras built into the headset. This means that users can play virtual boardgames on their kitchen tables, or decorate their walls with virtual paint.
Meta has confirmed that the device supports over 500 VR games, apps, and experiences, and that more titles are currently in development specifically for the Meta Quest 3.
This falls in line with what YouTuber Lynch reported. He leaked CAD renders of the upcoming headset in late September 2022, including specs that confirm Meta is planning to shift focus towards mixed reality.
The video provides meaningful insights into what to expect from the next-generation VR headset, codenamed Project Stinson internally, which essentially looks to be a combination of the Quest 2 and Quest Pro.
That makes sense in the light of the company’s Q4 2022 earnings call, when Zuckerberg promised that the Quest 3 “will feature Meta Reality” – the company’s name for its tech to combined virtual reality and augmented reality features in the same hardware.
It’s also said to have the same pancake lenses as the Pro headset, which allows for a more compact form factor, and it looks like there will be a manually adjustable IPD wheel on the bottom of the headset too. That’ll make it much easier to adjust the IDP than the Quest 2, which requires you to take the headset off.
The big difference between the Quest 3 and Quest Pro? Lynch claims that the Quest 3 won’t include eye or face tracking, two crucial features of the Pro headset. It’s likely a cost-saving measure more than anything, allowing Meta to keep the price of the Quest 3 down and more affordable for customers – especially with inflation levels rising rapidly in many regions around the world.
The video goes into granular detail about elements like cooling and audio, so sit down and prepare for an 18-minute unofficial deep dive into the Quest 3.
