The big picture: Meta’s new Quest Pro is a high-end VR/MR headset ideal for professional use cases. Users can utilize it to visualize 3D models of products, create as many virtual “screens” to a real-life workspace as needed, interact and collaborate with remote coworkers efficiently, and more. It’s also backward compatible with Quest 2 apps and games.
At Meta Connect 2022, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the company’s latest virtual reality headset, the Quest Pro. It’s a standalone headset, just like the mass-market Quest 2 launched a couple of years ago, meaning that it doesn’t require a connection to a PC or console.
Meta Quest Pro is the first device to use Qualcomm’s brand-new Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 1 platform, which reportedly provides 50 percent higher sustained power and 30 percent improved thermal performance compared to the Quest 2 chipset. It also comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
It has five external sensors, offering users a high-resolution color view of their surroundings and thus enabling mixed reality experiences. Another five internal sensors track the user’s eyes and facial expressions, allowing the use of foveated rendering and making avatars look more natural. Meta claims that images of your face and eyes will stay on the headset and won’t be shared with third-party apps.
The Quest Pro also features new and improved display panels. The two LCD screens use local dimming and quantum dot technology, each having a resolution of 1,800 × 1,920 and a 90Hz maximum refresh rate. Meta claims the new lenses improve sharpness and have a lower depth, allowing the headset to have a slimmer goggle-like profile. However, battery life takes a hit. Users can only expect about one to two hours of use per charge instead of Quest 2’s two to three hours.
The Quest Pro comes bundled with a pair of Quest Touch Pro controllers, each including three built-in sensors that help track their position without needing line of sight to the headset. They also feature improved haptics and new capabilities, such as a pressure sensor for the thumb rest to allow for a natural pinch-like gesture.
The Meta Quest Pro is available today for preorder at $1,499.99, and it will start shipping on October 25.
