I can’t let go of Meta Quest Pro. Ever since I first put the headset on and tested it, I’ve been blown away by its performance, and the Quest 2, the best gadget I’ve owned, has been dusting itself off in favor of this new champion. increase. of VR. And yet, as I sit here impatiently waiting for my Quest Pro at the charging station, I know the real truth of the situation. I’m not in love with his Meta Quest Pro, I love his Oculus Quest 3 hiding in it.
Meta Quest Pro is Meta’s ultra-premium upgrade for Oculus Quest 2. The old white plastic-clad front-heavy design has been replaced with a sleek black shell with more comfortable weight distribution and padding. Under the hood, the Quest Pro also sports an all-new Snapdragon XR2 Plus chip with 50% more sustained power than the Quest 2’s regular XR2, and improved specs with a pair of Mini-LED display panels. Proud. Each screen offers 1800 x 1920 pixels per eye, 37% more pixels per inch and 10% more pixels per degree than the Quest 2’s panel.
If that wasn’t enough, the Quest Pro features an improved controller that’s rechargeable and uses the camera for more precise tracking, along with all-new features like color passthrough, hand tracking, and eye tracking.
The end result is a package that blows the Quest 2 out of the water. However, there is a catch. The Pro is significantly more expensive than the Quest 2 and not very cost effective.
too many good things
Meta’s enhanced headset will set you back $1,500 / £1,500 / AU$2,450. That’s almost four times the $400 / £400 / AU$630 of the base Quest 2. Comparing the Pro to the more expensive 256GB Quest 2 model at $500 / £500 / AU$790, the price discrepancy is not negligible.
Given the plethora of upgrades the Quest Pro has compared to its predecessor, we would expect a price jump, but what makes the price hard to swallow is that the headset’s most unique feature so far is the gimmick’s It feels like
Face tracking is interesting, but if you’re not spending a lot of time in Horizon Worlds or other Horizon apps, it’s not very useful. Additionally, he was very impressed with the tracking, but all he can do at the moment is make sure I’m wearing the headset properly and tell me how to adjust it. Color passthrough also suffers from a lack of meaningful mixed reality experiences. Most apps that use this offer a perfectly good VR-only option.
Over the next year I think Meta and its collaborators will explain why users should care about face tracking and color passthrough, but for now the only real benefit Meta offers is a better chip and display. The improvement is noticeable, but not worth the extra $1,000 / £1,000 / AU$ 1,820 for Quest 2.
And this is where Quest 3 comes in.
Quest 3 is my VR headset
The meta (and leaked design) imply that the Quest 3 will be an improvement over the existing Quest 2, but it won’t have as many features as the Quest Pro. It lacks face/gaze tracking and likely offers a more basic passthrough. function. Instead, it will most likely just pack a stronger chip and a better display than its predecessor.
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Plus, the Quest 3 is likely to come at a more budget-friendly price point.Meta has previously said that the regular Quest line is aimed at more casual VR fans, while the Quest Pro model takes the experience to the next level. It was described as being for prosumers and professionals (and willing to pay the high entry cost required).
But I don’t want the next level experience of tracking and mixed reality. I just want a device that runs the best Oculus Quest 2 games more comfortably. So if the Quest 3 were to match the Quest Pro in what matters most to me, which is the Meta Quest Pro stripped of the eye and face tracking, for under $500 (around £500 / AUD$790) will be sold at ) then you should definitely buy a VR headset when it comes out.
We won’t know what Meta will have until the Quest 3 is announced later this year at Meta Connect 2023 (expected around October), but I’m already counting down the days. , Meta’s Quest 2 will definitely help – and so will Quest Pro if you can afford it – but given how close we are to the Quest 3 being announced, it’s going to be incredible like Black Friday in 2022. Quest 2 deal. If you don’t care about the Pro’s performance, the Quest 3 looks like the Quest 2 successor I really want.
