Meta Quest 3 Fully Revealed With Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, October Release Date
After a soft reveal in June earlier this year, Meta has fully revealed the Quest 3, its latest headset that serves Mixed Reality experiences with a dash of passthrough magic and some big internal upgrades. The starting price has been set at $499 a pop, which is a healthy $200 hike compared to the Quest 2 following its price cut.
Meta is calling it the "world's first mass-market mixed reality headset," which is subjectively accurate when compared to Apple's $3,499 Vision Pro mixed reality headset. Powering the latest Meta headset is Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip, which is claimed to deliver twice the raw graphics power, alongside other benefits like faster load times and a smoother gameplay experience.
It also packs in 8GB of RAM, while storage options on the table are 128GB and 512GB. For folks who pick up the latter version at $649.99, Meta is also throwing in a complementary Quest+ subscription. Pre-orders for the Quest 3 are now open, while shipments begin on October 10.
Tagging along are a whole bunch of new accessories compatible with the Quest 3, such as the Meta Quest 3 Elite Strap ($69.99), Meta Quest 3 Silicone Facial Interface ($39.99), Zenni VR Prescription Lenses ($49.99), charging dock ($129.99), and the Quest Pro Touch Controllers ($299.99).
A big jump in the optics hardware
While a faster chip and a slimmer chassis are solid talking points, it's the optic hardware that sets the Quest 3 apart from its predecessor. The latest Meta offering comes equipped with a pancake lens kit — which is also seen on the far pricier Quest Pro — that allows the Quest 3 to trim down the optic profile by 40%.
The lenses offer a resolution of 2064x2208 pixels per eye, which is about 30% higher than the Quest 2. Numerically, those figures translate to a density of 1,218 pixels per inch and 25 pixels per degree. The Quest 3 defaults to a 90Hz refresh rate, but there's also an experimental 120Hz mode available. The horizontal field of view stretches to 110 degrees, but Meta says it has also enhanced the sharpness at the periphery by 70% this time around.
Another standout feature is passthrough, which allows the user to the real around them. Meta has enabled this convenience by fitting the Quest 3 with a pair of RGB cameras and a dedicated projector with depth sensing. Meta is claiming 2.2 hours of usage on a single charge, and 2.4 hours while gaming, while the bundled 18W charger is said to juice up the battery within 2.3 hours.
On the software side, the entire Meta quest catalog is backward compatible. Alongside existing titles, there are some new additions as well, such as "Lego Bricktales," "Stranger Things," and Xbox Cloud Gaming, among others.