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Meta has unveiled the latest headset in its standalone lineup and it’s seemingly got enough bells and whistles to make it a significant upgrade.
The Meta Quest 3 will be released “this fall” and, as well as the same high quality virtual reality experience offered by its predecessor, it’ll come with enhanced mixed reality features to make it an all-round AR/VR device.
The crown of best consumer VR headset currently held by the PlayStation VR2 (in our eyes) may soon be snatched back.
Announced by Mark Zuckerberg ahead of the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase, the Meta Quest 3 will be the first headset to feature a next-generation Snapdragon chipset. This includes graphics processing that’s twice as fast as in the Quest 2.
It also sports Meta Reality, the company’s name for its augmented / mixed reality technology that enables wearers to see and interact with virtual objects in the real world. This uses new, high resolution cameras and systems to better show the outside world when the headset is on. There is high-fidelity passthrough, to show the play area in full colour, as well as “spatial understanding” and machine learning.
There are dual 4-megapixel colour cameras on the front of the headset, plus a depth sensor. This is better than the Quest 2, which only offers black and white cameras for passthrough.
Also improved between generations is the size and comfort of the device. The Meta Quest 3 is considerably slimmer than its predecessor.
The controllers are more streamlined too, with Zuckerberg claiming that they are more ergonomic – the outer rings have been ditched, for starters. And they feature the same TruTouch haptics that debuted on the Touch Pro controls.
That being said, you might not even need controllers, as the Quest 3 supports hand tracking from the off.
The Meta Quest 3 will cost $499.99 when it launches, but if you don’t want to wait, the price of the Meta Quest 2 will be dropped from Sunday 4 June, to $299.99 for the 128GB version, $349.99 for the 256GB model. We don’t yet have UK pricing.
Meta Quest 2
The Meta Quest 2 price has dropped by 25%. Check out the discount on Amazon.
£299 There will be further details revealed about the Quest 3 during Meta’s Connect conference on 27 September 2023.
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