Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled the Quest 3 , Meta’s new mixed reality device . The choice of the date of the announcement this week is not accidental and seeks to anticipate the highly anticipated Apple device that the Cupertino firm will present next Monday at its conference with developers, WWDC 2023.
The Meta Quest 3 is just as we had anticipated , an evolution of the Oculus Quest 2, improved in lightness and comfort of use, with a notable increase in performance and a greater focus on mixed reality. Like the previous version, the device can work completely independently , but it can also be connected to a PC via Oculus Link and thus access any compatible development in the Meta ecosystem, the most complete in the VR market.
Zuckerberg says it’s the “most powerful Quest yet” and offers “twice the GPU processing power” over the Quest 2. It hasn’t been mentioned, but it is believed to mount a Qualcomm SoC specialized in VR. The amount of RAM and storage that it includes and other important aspects such as battery life and the wireless connection that Wi-Fi 6E should be have not been mentioned either. We assume that we will have all that data in the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase .
The Quest 3 mounts “the highest resolution screen ever seen” in Meta, but not all the details have been mentioned here either. We do confirm the redesign of the front of the device and the three vertical sensor areas to equip the pass-through color video cameras, which are the ones that allow us to see the world around them and the depth sensor in the central area.
The device looks smaller than the Quest 2 with “a 40% thinner optical profile” , which will contribute to the promised weight improvement and overall handling as the IPD can be adjusted without removing the headphones and they will they will be attached to the head with a new fabric strap.
The VR debuts new controllers , closer in design to those included in Meta Quest Pro. These Touch Plus have been simplified and the external tracking rings have been removed. Instead, TruTouch haptics (which first debuted on the Pro model) “will help you feel the action like never before,” Zuckerberg promises.
Software, availability and price
The device will be able to run Quest 2’s library of over 500 apps and games, and of course there will be a variety of new games designed to showcase its capabilities. Meta has announced twenty new titles , including “Stranger Things VR”, “a new version of NFL Pro”, “Assassin’s Creed: Nexus VR” or “Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord”. SEGA classics and other studios that are developing for the platform have also been announced.
Meta Quest 3 will be available next fall in all markets where Zuckerberg’s firm works. The price of the version with 128 GB of storage capacity will be $499 . Noticeably higher than the Quest 2 at launch. To say that if you do not want to jump to the new generation, the Quest 2 will remain on the market and can be purchased for $ 299 from June 4.
We still need to know all the details to know the potential of this Quest 3, which is still months away from launch. And it is that Meta has wanted to counterprogram the presentation of the Apple device. As far as possible, because the Cupertino model will have little to do with these Quests, it will be aimed at a more professional audience and it will be much, much more expensive .