Wednesday, 12 October 2022

Meta Announces Quest Pro VR Headset With a Metaverse Focus

Almost a year after Meta teased its high-end Cambria headset, the device has been fully unveiled as the Meta Quest Pro. Unlike the Quest 2, the new headset is intended for work rather than gaming, with advanced hardware for tracking facial expressions and full-color video passthrough. You’ll pay for all those advanced features, though. The Quest Pro retails for a staggering $1,500, and you can place an order right now.

The Meta Quest Pro appears unchanged from when we last saw it leaked. Whereas the Quest 2 has all the hardware on the front, the Quest Pro is more well-balanced. The battery is in the rear strap, and the front uses thinner pancake lenses. It also has continuous IPD adjustment to ensure you can find a comfortable lens alignment. Those who have been able to wear the Quest Pro say it is more comfortable than the Quest 2, but the headset is overall even heavier at 722g (about 1.6 pounds).

If you’re worried about having 1.6 pounds of computer hardware perched atop your head for long periods of time — don’t be! Meta estimates the Quest Pro will only run for 1-2 hours per charge, and it will take two hours to recharge on the included stand or via a USB-C cable. That’s going to make it hard to get much work done in the metaverse, but that’s what Meta sees as the use case here. The Quest Pro also comes with new rechargeable controllers.

You’re not paying all that money for a big visual upgrade. While Meta says the Quest Pro has much better contrast and 37 percent higher pixel density, the LCD resolution is about the same as the Quest 2 at 1800 × 1920 per eye with the same 90Hz maximum refresh rate. One big contributor to the price is the array of 10 cameras, five outward and five inward-facing. The outward ones track your movements and pipe in color video overlays, and the internal ones track facial movements and expressions. Meta showed how this data feeds into the improved avatars it’s working on.

The Quest Pro might not be aimed at gaming, but it could hold its own. It’s the first headset with the Snapdragon XR2+ chip, and it’s backed by a whopping 12GB of RAM. With the middling battery life and high price, the Quest Pro might be more appealing to developers who are trying to make content for the burgeoning metaverse. Developers and anyone else who wants a work-centric headset can pre-order now for $1,500 and can expect to get their Quest Pro on or around Oct. 25.

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