Thursday, 18 July, 2024 UTC
Summary
Meta plans to release Quest 4 in two variants in 2026 and then a Quest Pro 2 in 2027, The Information reports.
The report comes from The Information's Wayne Ma and Kalley Huang, citing at least three people who worked on the headsets. Ma has accurately reported Meta's Quest headset and smart glasses plans in advance multiple times in the past.
According to the report, in 2026 Quest 4 will be released in two variants, a standard model and a premium model, codenamed Pismo Low and Pismo High.
The following year, 2027, Meta plans to ship the high-end Quest headset codenamed La Jolla that Ma and Qianer Liu reported last month work started on in November and previous reporting from The Verge suggests is Quest Pro 2.
Meta Reportedly Began Work On Quest Pro 2 Back In November
Meta started work on a Quest Pro 2 in November 2023, The Information reports.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
The new report doesn't detail any of the specifications of the Quest 4 models or Quest Pro 2. However, an internal Meta hardware roadmap leaked to The Verge in 2023 revealed Quest Pro 2 will feature Codec Avatars, have higher resolution, and retain Quest Pro's rear-battery design.
“We want to make it higher resolution for work use and really nail work, text and things like that” Meta's VP of VR Mark Rabkin reportedly said.
Codec Avatars is Meta's long-running research and development project aiming to revolutionize remote communication by achieving truly convincing photorealistic avatars driven in real-time by headsets with face tracking sensors, and eventually glasses too. Meta first revealed the project's existence in 2019. In January references to Codec Avatars were found inside the code of the public Quest firmware, suggesting Meta is actively working on bringing the feature to an actual product.
Meta Quest 3S: Specs, Details, Everything We Know So Far
Meta’s next headset is Quest 3S. Here’s everything we’ve heard about it so far, including how it likely compares to Quest 3 and Quest 2.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
In the nearer term, a plethora of evidence suggests Meta's next headset will be Quest 3S, a more affordable version of Quest 3 coming later this year with a thicker design, inferior lenses, and lower resolution. That means Quest 3 should remain Meta's highest-end offering for years to come, though headsets from other companies running its Horizon OS may feature improved specs and features long before Quest 4.