The Meta Quest 3 has been revealed, with a price of $499, and an expected release date of Fall 2023. The announcement of the newest version of the Meta has also meant a price drop for the Meta Quest 2, which falls to $299 for the basic version, and $349 for the 256GB version.
Specific stats haven’t been released yet, but Meta has released that the new Quest will be 40% thinner and more comfortable, and will include a better display, resolution, and twice the graphical performance when compared to the Quest 2. Best of all, it’s going to be fully backwards compatible with Quest 2 games and apps, so anything you’ve bought on your VR headset now will be playable on the new model.
The Quest 3 will sport a newly redesigned pair of controllers too. The odd plastic tracking circles around the top of the controllers are out, which Meta claims helps the controllers feel more natural in the hand. There’s a push towards more mixed reality tech too, with the Quest 3 debuting "Meta Reality", an advancement of the current tech which detects objects in your physical space, and adding ways to explore that space in "natural, intuitive ways that were nearly impossible before." Full color and depth perception are two of the major advantages this offers, and it’s compelling looking in the trailer above.
"Quest 3 combines our highest resolution display yet and pancake optics to make sure content looks better than ever," says a Meta blog post. "To power those extra pixels, this will be the first headset to feature a next-generation Snapdragon chipset developed in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies."
The Meta Quest 3 can also handle hand-tracking natively now, so you’ll be able to ditch the controllers for even more apps and games, and likely even in the Quest menus — something which wasn’t possible in the previous iteration, as hand-tracking was only available on a few select apps.
The price drop for the Quest 2 is a welcome addition to the announcement. At least, on paper, that is. In reality, the price drop is back down to the level the Quest 2 was priced at before Meta raised the price in November of 2022. So really, Meta is just dropping the price back down to where it was. Still, the Meta Quest 2 is still a great VR headset, even if the price drop is largely smoke and mirrors.