With the Oculus Quest 3 (which will actually be called the Meta Quest 3) Facebook wants to confirm the success of its previous models. Presentation of what will undoubtedly be the future of virtual reality.
With the Oculus Quest, Mark Zuckerberg’s company now holds in its hands what is undoubtedly the future of virtual reality. The current Oculus Quest 2 is on its way to becoming, according to the company’s CEO, “the first popular VR headset”. A success on which he intends to surf by proposing a new declination. The future model is in development and was announced last January. It will most likely have to compete with the Apple VR headset, whose release date hasn’t been announced yet.
Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming standalone virtual reality headset from Meta, the new name of the Facebook group.
Meta Quest 3 Development Confirmed
During the announcement of financial results, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the future Meta Quest 3 (formerly Oculus) was already in development. Among its massive investments in the metaverse, the company’s objective is to focus on new hardware, but to offer the same platform and allow the content of the Quest 2 to be available. Not surprisingly, the CEO of Facebook wants “to develop a broader user base around the VR headsets [they] have”. This aligns with their broader vision for the metaverse.
The Oculus 2 sold very well during the 2021 holiday season, although Facebook does not communicate official sales figures. According to certain observers, the number of Oculus Quest 2 headsets sold could well surpass PlayStation VR in terms of sales. It is also a very profitable market for Facebook since more than 60 Oculus developers are already generating millions of dollars in revenue. A figure that has seen a significant explosion in recent months. Meta’s virtual reality business is dominant and growing fast.
Note that the Meta Quest 3 is different from the Project Cambria, which should give birth to the Oculus Pro.
Oculus Quest 3 Specs: What Differences with the Quest 2?
Of course, we wonder. What will be the technical specificities of this 3rd generation? Depending on the sources revealing information, we find important differences. At the moment, it is mainly speculations, but some details keep coming back.
Towards Significant Improvements
As the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset represented a technological leap forward compared to the original model, significant improvements are expected for the next generation. Experts agree on several major areas where Oculus can and should make progress with the Meta Quest 3 VR headset, which tends to be more than just an improvement on Quest 2, but a new, innovative and unique VR headset.
We could hope for several new features that would erase the shortcomings of the 2nd generation: a better comfort with more stability (even if it is already very successful on the Quest 2, why hope for even better!), a store more provided or a facilitation to online modes.
High Refresh Rate
The Oculus Quest 2 already offered a more accurate image and more than 50% compared to the normal. If this is already a high quality standard, the new headset will do even better to improve user immersion. The refresh rate had been increased from 72 Hz to 90 Hz between the previous generations, and an increase to 120 Hz is planned in a recently announced update. We can therefore estimate that this will be a minimum quality standard for playing video games and other programs offered by the Quest 3. Note that for now, this feature won’t be used all the time, as most experiences are not optimized for this quality.
Display: uOLED for the Meta Quest 3 and mini-LED for the Quest Pro
The analyst Brad Lynch published in January 2022 that both the Quest 3 and the Quest Pro will feature improved screens.
We also know that the next generation of device should be much thinner. Currently, the Oculus Quest 2 is still a large and heavy device that precludes users from really feeling immersed in the metaverse. It’s also a limit to spending more time in game, as the heavy weight causes some fatigues and can even become painful after a while.
But thanks to a new technology for the lenses, called “pancake optics“, they can become much more compact. This has been revealed for the Project Cambria (Quest Pro), but we expect such a breakthrough technology to be available for the Meta Quest 3 as well.
Better Light Management on the Meta Quest 3
CREAL recently did better than Sony with a 240 Hz display. However, is this really feasible for the Meta Quest 3 or is it too big a technological leap for this device? On the other hand, the light field VR headset technology, again unveiled by Creal in a recent video, is something we wouldn’t be surprised to see on this new headset. An accurate representation of light in the image of the real world is something that now seems necessary from a technological point of view.
No Full Body Tracking Yet
Full body tracking in VR means that your whole self will be transposed in the metaverse. As you know, currently you can only see your hands in game (not even your arms).
In February 2022, several news website reported rumors saying the Meta Quest could feature full body tracking in the near future. These have been denied by Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, the VP of Meta Reality Labs (soon the VTO of Meta). During a Q&A on Instagram, he stated that it would not be viable with inside-out tracking. The possibility remains under consideration and is indeed a necessity for the future, but not choice has been made on the solution to this problem as of yet.
What Software Evolution?
Beyond the purely technical part of the headset, virtual reality fans are also expecting other types of improvements. We can hope that the new headset will be lighter and will have improvements in terms of user comfort. It is also said that Facebook will offer a powerful hand tracking system for the Meta Quest 3 virtual reality headset. A haptic feedback system on the Quest’s controllers, similar to what Sony does with the DualSense on the PlayStation 5, would also be viewed favorably by many users.
Meta Quest 3 Release Date
This is of course a burning question for everyone. When will the new Meta Quest 3 headset be available for purchase? When will it be released on the market? If you are in a hurry, we don’t have good news. The Meta Quest 3 could be released at Meta Connects 2023. This rumor makes senses, as it would give more room to the Meta Quest Pro 2. As we remember, the Quest 2, was launched in October 2020, a year and a half after the original model. The Meta Quest 3 headset should therefore at best follow the same trend.
Andrew Bosworth, the current boss of Facebook Reality Lab and future CTO of Meta, who is never stingy with small information, gave some details in mid-April about the release of this new virtual reality headset. He acknowledged that a release was clearly not expected for 2022. “There is no Oculus Quest 3, there is only an Oculus Quest 2”.
This situation is also logical since it fits a current problem in the new technology sector, namely the huge shortage of components. A situation that also strongly affects Sony, which is blocked for the production of its PS5 and would think about an evolution of its console in the face of this problem.
What Will be the Meta Quest 3 Price?
We remember that the Oculus Quest 2 headset was sold at a lower price than its predecessor. As this kind of technology and products become more and more mainstream, their prices also tend to drop. So should we expect the Quest 3 virtual reality headset to follow suit? For the moment, there is no way to be certain of this information. As Meta’s goal is still to penetrate and equip more households, the price is expected to remain around $299.
The Oculus Quest 2 headset is available in two versions. The standalone VR headset comes with 64 GB of storage for $299 and the model with 256 GB of storage is sold for $399. We expect to see the same pricing tiers for the upcoming Oculus headset.
Will Meta Quest 3 work with PS5?
It would make sense that Quest 3 wouldn’t, especially since Sony is developing its own virtual reality viewers at the moment, the PSVR 2, which may also be available before Quest 3 hits shelves. Also, given that games like Horizon Worlds don’t seem to be coming to PS5 given that it’s a Meta exclusive at the moment, it makes sense that this would also extend to the hardware side of things.
Which VR headsets work with PS5?
As it stands, the only virtual reality viewer officially compatible with the PS5 is the original PSVR, which has not been discontinued, contrary to popular belief. To make it work with the PS5, you’ll need to pick up the PS5 camera adapter that Sony is giving away to PSVR owners for free, as long as you provide the headset’s serial number.
What platforms will Meta Quest 3 run on?
Given that Meta Quest 3 would be able to play Steam games like its predecessor, it would make sense for it to be compatible with powerful PCs for games that meet the hardware specs for using a virtual reality headset. It’s also worth noting that you may not need a PC to use the Quest 3, as it should work with games from its own internal storage if the previous generation headset is used as a model.
What about the Meta Quest Pro and the Meta Quest 4?
Meta Quest Pro
If we go by Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Bosworth’s statements, the Oculus Quest 2 will continue to reign for some time on their own. This means, there is no forecast that the Oculus Quest Pro will be launched imminently. Moreover, echoing other leaks from a few months ago, supplies of the new lenses would be expected in 2022, which would indicate that this launch would be possible within 1 year.
About the price of the Oculus Quest Pro, we have to know that it will not be as cheap as the Quest 2. So although many of us love the idea of having a much more advanced viewer, it is possible that its price goes according to the technology included and soars above what has accustomed us to the Oculus Quest 2 which would make it close to becoming mainstream.
Meta Quest 4
Even though the Meta Quest 3 VR headset has not been released yet and is still in the development stage, Facebook is already working on the next Meta Quest 4 model, thanks to the Facebook Reality Lab. Of course, there are not yet many details about this model, but the objective is undoubtedly to work around mixed reality, between virtual reality and augmented reality. The program should include features such as face tracking and eye tracking. At the same time, the objective is to have lighter, smaller and more powerful equipment.
“Because of the way equipment is developed, you always need to know what your next three products will look like,” Mark Zuckerberg recently explained in an interview. To build his metaverse, he needs to continuously push new technologies, even if no one knows how to create them yet.
