Meta reveals US$500 Quest 3, arriving this fall
After much anticipation and weeks of leaks, Meta has officially announced the Meta Quest 3 virtual reality headset. Set to begin shipping this fall, the Quest 3 promises an upgraded virtual reality experience with higher resolution, improved performance, and a sleeker design. With an affordable starting price of $500 for the 128GB version, the Quest 3 aims to captivate users with its advanced features and immersive capabilities. Meta notes that it is its first mass-market offering to deliver both cutting-edge VR and MR experiences in a single device.
The social media company announced the first details of the Quest VR headset in a blog post – and later Mark Zuckerberg teased it in a post on Instagram. The Meta CEO noted that the new VR headset is 40% thinner than its predecessor, the Quest 2, and will be the first announced headset that comes with “high-res color mixed reality,” which promises sharper and more realistic visuals for an immersive VR experience.
Users can expect enhanced clarity and detail, allowing for a deeper level of immersion in virtual worlds. The headset’s improved performance ensures smoother gameplay and faster loading times, providing a seamless and enjoyable experience for users. This competitive pricing makes the headset more accessible to a larger audience, expanding the reach of virtual reality technology. Meta plans to provide further details about the Quest 3, including additional storage options and pricing, during the upcoming Meta Connect event on September 27.
““High-fidelity color Passthrough, innovative machine learning, and spatial understanding let you interact with virtual content and the physical world simultaneously, creating limitless possibilities to explore,” Meta noted in its official release. With its improved features and competitive pricing, the Quest 3 has the potential to attract a broader audience and drive mainstream adoption of virtual reality. Its enhanced visual quality, coupled with smoother performance, offers a compelling experience that can captivate both casual users and VR enthusiasts alike.
Additionally, the Quest 3’s improved hardware and sleek design make it a versatile platform for various industries. Virtual meetings, remote collaboration, architectural visualization, and virtual tourism are just a few examples of how the Quest 3 can transform different sectors. Its affordability and user-friendly nature enable businesses and professionals to explore the potential of VR in their respective fields.
Furthermore, the Quest 3 is slated to come with a next-generation Qualcomm chipset, which promises two times the graphics performance, while building on the success of its predecessor and aiming to deliver an even more immersive and seamless VR experience. From the looks of it, the Quest 3 appears to have at least three cameras on the front that may improve some of the pass-through experiences, where a user can see the real world around them while wearing the headset and interacting with apps. Meta noted in a video that it had improved “natural” depth perception for the wearer, and touted graphics improvements for gaming.
“Ultimately, our vision is to enable you to move through all realities in a way that’s intuitive and delightful,” saod Mark Rabkin, VP of VR, “going beyond the rigid classifications of ‘virtual reality’ and ‘mixed reality’ to deliver truly next-gen experiences that let you effortlessly blend the physical and virtual worlds. Meta Reality gives you both the deep, immersive magic of VR and the freedom and delight of making your physical world more fun and useful with MR. We’re excited to see what developers and creators can build on the Quest Platform when the possibilities are limitless.”
If you cannot wait to get your hands on it, you need to wait till this fall, during which the shipping of the headset will start. The 128GB version, as mentioned earlier, will be made available for $499.99, while there will be “an additional storage option for those who want more space” at an unspecified price. In similar news, starting June 4, Meta will also be lowering the price of Quest 2. Starting June 4, the Quest 2 will cost $300 for the 128GB SKU and $350 for the 256GB version. It is also bringing updates to the Quest 2 and Quest Pro GPU and CPU, wherein Quest 2 and Pro will see an increased CPU performance of up to 26% (the same is up to 19% for the GPU) for Quest 2 and 11% for Quest Pro.
