Overnight (October 11 in the US) at Meta’s annual conference, Connect 2022, the company announced its successor to Oculus Quest 2 — a new VR headset called Meta Quest Pro. Costing $2,449.99, the headset will essentially work with your mind to help your avatar better reflect you in VR.
“It takes what people love about Meta Quest 2 and adds a bunch of new technologies to help you do more in the metaverse,” said Mark Zuckerberg. “It’s made for collaboration and creativity, and with mixed reality built-in, it lets you do things that haven’t been possible before. All in a beautiful design that’s comfortable to wear.”
The headset features high-res sensors for mixed reality experiences, crisp LCD displays for sharp visuals and eye-tracking and facial expression-tracking to help your avatar reflect you more naturally in VR.
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At the conference, Zuckerberg also shared that Meta had partnered with Microsoft and Accenture to bring its productivity tools to Meta Quest Pro. Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 are among the features available to use in the Meta Quest.
Also announced are a series of new features for Horizon Workrooms, the VR space for teams to connect and collaborate. They include more expressive avatars, breakout groups with spatial audio, sticky notes for the whiteboard, a new stylus controller tip for clearer writing and a personal office for individual productivity where you’ll be able to access large virtual screens.
Longer term, Zuckerberg said, Meta hopes to launch Magic Room, a Zoom integration and 3D model review.
A journalist for Tech Radar who had the opportunity to try the headset noted that while the Meta Quest Pro is strapped to your face and lets you play many of the best VR, it isn’t technically a VR headset — instead, it’s a mixed reality headset.
The publication wrote that the headset doesn’t completely cover your eye — it leaves a large space at the side and bottom, which means you can see the world around you. You can pay for attachments to block out your surroundings, but the full cover doesn’t come with the headset — it’s extra cost. The mixed reality experience, it notes, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though.
“Based on our hands-on time with the Meta Quest Pro, its mixed reality experiences felt more real than anything we had experienced in pure VR,” Tech Radar said. “But for people looking to escape reality to the fullest extent possible, the Meta Quest Pro might not be the headset for you.”
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