Meta Quest 3 goes head-to-head with PSVR 2 and Apple's VR headset this fall
Meta's new VR headset boasts numerous improvements over the Meta Quest 2
Meta has announced the successor to its popular Meta Quest 2, and it’s perhaps unsurprisingly called the Meta Quest 3.
The headset will be priced starting at $499 and features several improvements over its predecessor. For instance, it’s 40% slimmer than the Oculus 2, has double the GPU processing power, higher resolution displays, full-color passthrough, and redesigned controllers.
The Meta Quest 3 seems like an impressive leap over the previous model that was released in 2020, and it’s slightly cheaper than Sony’s PSVR 2, which costs $549. You also need a PS5 to use PlayStation VR2, so add another $499 to the total price.
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Meta Quest 3 announced
📆 The Meta Quest 3 is out this fall
💰 Its starting price is $499, which is $100 more than the top-end Oculus Quest 2
🆕 The headset is 40% slimmer, had double the GPU power and full-color passthrough
🤲 It also features redesigned controllers with haptic feedback
With three cameras on the front of the headset, the Meta Quest 3 will lean more into augmented reality experiences this time around, which I particularly enjoyed when using the HTC Vive XR Elite at MWC 2023.
Apple’s VR headset, which is expected to be revealed during WWDC 2023, is also expected to focus on virtual and augmented reality, so it will be interesting to see how the two companies approach VR and AR.
Apple’s headset is also tipped to cost up to $3,000, making like-for-like comparisons difficult compared to Meta’s budget headset. Instead, the Meta Quest Pro is a more likely point of comparison, as it originally launched for $1,499 in October last year but has since received a permanent price cut.
Meta also announced it’s lowering the price of Quest 2 to $299.99 for the 128GB model from June 4, and the headset’s CPU performance is set to increase by up to 26% and its GPU performance by 19% in an upcoming software update. The same upgrade will apply to the Quest Pro, though GPU performance will only improve by 11%.
We’re still waiting for the official specs of the Meta Quest 3, and I’m personally intrigued to know what lenses the device uses. Will Meta opt for the more affordable Fresnel lenses like on the PSVR 2, or use higher-quality pancake lenses? It’ll also be interesting to see what resolution the Meta Quest 3 targets as well as the refresh rate.
Thankfully we won’t have to wait long to find out more, as Meta has promised to share all the juicy details during its Connect conference on September 27.