Meta Quest 3 Announced! - Oculus Quest 3 Announcement
So Meta Announced the Quest 3. If you haven't seen the trailer then you'll want to know that it costs 500 dollars, and the Quest 2 will now cost 300 dollars. Also, the Quest 3 looks pretty awesome. Whether or not it'll run great, feel great, and look great kind of remains to be seen for sure when people get to use it, but it's looking like it will be fantastic.
Meta Quest 3 Technical Upgrades and Specs
The Meta Quest 3 Announcement Poster
The specs seem awesome, with an advertised double GPU processing power over the Quest 2, and higher resolution displays. As someone who has had the opportunity to try the Quest Pro, if the upgrade from the Quest 2 to Quest 3 is anything like the change from the Quest 2 to the Quest Pro, then it is very noticeable and very awesome. The visuals on the Pro are much clearer, and most importantly there's no choppiness on some of the more intensive games.
Oh, and the controllers seem to function a lot like the Quest Pro controllers too. They'll at least be absent the rings that the Quest 2 controllers have, making them harder to break and overall lighter and more comfortable to use, and more immersive with improved haptics.
Meta Quest 3 Upgraded Comfortability
The Quest 3 will be 40% slimmer!
Another very cool thing about this new Meta Quest 3 is that it's much thinner than the Quest 2, and probably much lighter too. This will make it easier to store, easier to wear (hopefully), and more comfortable. Passthrough will also be a built in feature, just like with the Quest 2 and Quest Pro.
Luckily the Quest 3 won't be relying on your forehead to hold it up like the Quest Pro, and has a facial interface that holds your whole face like the Quest 2. For any Quest Pro users out there, now you can have improved performance without your forehead getting numb after long use with the straps tight.
Meta Quest 3 Price
Now let's get into what's going to keep a lot of people away from these fantastic upgrades, the price. It will cost a whopping 500 dollars, half a thousand dollars for a VR headset. That's even before accessories and games for it, though any Quest or Quest 2 games you already have on the Quest store will, of course, work on the Quest 3. That's a lot of money, and despite the impressive list of upgrades from the Quest 2, a lot of people will be asking whether or not the high price tag is worth it.
If you're really into VR, and especially standalone experiences, then the upgrade is definitely cheaper than getting a VR capable gaming PC instead, but you'll still be limited to what games are available on the Quest store, and there are a ton of great ones out there that still aren't.
Luckily this announcement is also accompanied by another that the Quest 2 128GB version will go back down to 300 dollars on June 4th, 2023. There will also be a software update that promises better CPU and GPU performance on the Quest 2 and Quest Pro. So if you've been holding off on buying a Quest 2, but can't afford the Quest 3, then you might want to go with the 2. Still, a lot of games have been announcing that they are dropping support for the Quest 1. It's only a matter of time until the same happens for the Quest 2, but you've still get a couple of years at the very least with the Quest 2 hardware.
Is The Meta Quest 3 Worth it?
Price aside, the Quest 3 packs a ton of great upgardes, and most importantly looks to be lighter and more comfortable overall than the Quest 2. If you can justify paying for it, there doesn't seem to be a reason not to buy the Quest 3 on release in the fall of 2023. It integrates all of the improvements of the Quest Pro, and even makes them better, without a lot of the drawbacks and insanely high price tag. Still, 500 dollars is 500 dollars, but for a new VR headset that's still surprisingly good. Still, it's not the low price that you might have expected from the pricing on the Quest 2. It also remains to be seen if the finished Quest 3 will actually deliver on this impressive list of upgrades.
