The Meta Quest Pro model is a very significant improvement compared to the old Meta Quest 2 model – but with a price five times higher it is doubtful whether it is intended to be used as its direct replacement
Many VR enthusiasts are eagerly anticipating the announcement of the model that will be the successor to the popular and popular Oculus Quest 2 glasses (which in recent months became the Meta Quest 2 with the completion of the rebranding that removed almost any mention of the original creators) – and instead received something different, with promising advanced technologies But also a threatening price in private market terms.
The Meta Quest Pro glasses are intended for professionals and content creators first and foremost, when in addition to the advanced capabilities as a virtual reality platform thanks to the use of Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 1 the product will benefit from augmented reality capabilities, similar to Microsoft’s HoloLens glasses, with a display of virtual elements while So that the real world is visible to the user – and in full color according to Facebook/Meta’s claim, unlike other products where the display of colors is very limited.
While it is clear from its name that the Snapdragon XR2 Plus is not a completely new product, but rather a refresh of the standard XR2 chip that powers Meta Quest 2, among other things, which in turn is based on the hardware of the Snapdragon 865 chip from the world of smartphones with relevant adaptations to the world of reality The mixed – Meta still declares a great improvement of about 50 percent in performance in Quest Pro compared to Quest 2, which will be reflected in the entire library of games and applications of the latter which will be available from the first moment also for the buyers of the new model.
The Quest Pro glasses use miniaturized and advanced ‘pancake’ optics (as opposed to more traditional Fresnel lenses in the Quest 2), include support for spatial audio, 10 built-in sensors for spatial tracking as well as tracking the users’ eyes and faces, wireless Wi-Fi 6E connectivity Built-in, an array of three built-in microphones for more effective filtering and noise cancellation, mechanical adjustment of the lenses to the distance between the pupils, internal storage of 256GB plus 12GB of LPDDR4X memory (double the amount of memory in the Quest 2) – and above all more advanced built-in display means with 1,920× resolution 1,800 pixels per eye, a horizontal display space of 106 degrees, a refresh rate of up to 90 Hz and guaranteed improvements to the displayed color range and contrast ratio.
The controllers of the Quest Pro are also new and improved, with improved vibration motors and built-in cameras for tracking and orientation independently in space that allow the removal of the light bulb ring which is part of the controller design in Quest 2. Unlike the popular virtual reality glasses for gaming enthusiasts that come in white, with a set Compatible with white controllers – here you will get both the glasses themselves and the controllers in gray-black, at least as the first default.
Now that we have noted the pleasant and impressive figures of the Meta Quest Pro, it is time to refer to the painful number that stands above them – a starting price tag of no less than 1,500 dollars before tax, which is 3.75 times higher than the launch price of 400 dollars for the Oculus Quest glasses 2 two years ago and 5 times higher than the current starting price of $300, after the launch of the discounted version with 128GB of storage. The wait for an actual replacement for the Quest 2 continues, then, while there’s no arguing that the Quest Pro was designed and developed for a different segment of the MR market.
The Quest Pro glasses will be officially launched before the end of October in 22 countries around the world – unfortunately Israel is not one of them. Would you like to see the model land in Israel, at a price that will probably be over NIS 6,000? Let’s tell in the comments.
