At the Meta Connect last night, the Mark Zuckerberg-headed company launched a new VR headset dubbed Meta Quest Pro. The VR headset offers features like high-res sensors for robust mixed reality experiences, LCD displays, sleek design, plus eye tracking and Natural Facial Expressions that will help your avatar reflect you more naturally in VR. Over the last few years, we have seen Meta investing a lot in VR and AR experiences and the company believes that Metaverse is the future.
Meta Quest Pro has been launched at $1,499.99, which roughly translates to slightly over Rs 1.2 lakh. The device comes bundled with the headset, Meta Quest Touch Pro controllers, stylus tips, partial light blockers, and a charging dock.
As for availability, the Meta Quest Pro will be available for purchase on October 25. For now, the VR headset will be available in select countries (which doesn’t include India) and select retail platforms, including — Best Buy in the USandCanada, Argos and Currys in the UK, and FNAC and Boulanger in France. Interested buyers will also be able to pre-order the device from Amazonin the US, UK,Canada, and France.
The Meta Quest Pro is powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ platform, which is said to have been optimised for VR to run at 50 per cent more power than Meta Quest 2 with better thermal dissipation. The headset comes with 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and 10 high-res sensors, which the company claims help enhance a variety of immersive experiences.
Meta Quest Pro includes two LCD displays that use local dimming and quantum dot technology with the aim of providing “richer and more vivid colours”. “Our custom local dimming tech, powered by specialized backlight hardware and accompanying software algorithms, can control more than 500 individual LED blocks independently, giving the displays 75 per cent more contrast,” the company said.
Meta also said that the “Quest Pro also has 37 per cent more pixels per inch and 10 per cent greater pixels per degree than Meta Quest 2, making everything from reading text to playing games look better. Additionally, there’s a 25 per cent improvement in full-field visual sharpness in the center view, 50 per cent improvement in the peripheral region, and 1.3X larger color gamut than Meta Quest 2.”
The Quest Pro also includes an all-new sensor architecture with high-res outward-facing cameras that capture 4X the pixels. The company claims that with Meta Quest Pro, users can view their physical environment in full colour. The device also features a stereoscopic mixed reality Passthrough, which combines multiple sensor views to create a natural view of the world in 3D.
There’s also a continuous lens spacing adjustment mechanism, accommodating inter-pupillary distances (IPDs) between 55mm and 75mm (a larger range than Meta Quest 2, which accommodates IPDs between 58mm and 72mm). The headset also lets adjust the lens distance from your eyes with a new eye relief dial to optimize fit, face tracking, and viewing experience.
Coming to Meta Quest Pro’s controllers, they look a bit different from the ones that ship with Meta Quest 2. The new Meta Quest Touch Pro controllers come with three built-in sensors in each controller to track their position in 3D space independent of the headset, giving you a full 360-degree range of motion. The controllers also come with upgraded haptics using the new TruTouch Haptics system to provide a wider and more precise range of feedback, as well as rechargeable batteries.
The device packs a charging dock and a 45W USB-C power adapter. It features eye tracking and Natural Facial Expressions, which the company claims “brings us a step closer to showing your authentic self in the metaverse.”
“We believe VR devices will help usher in the next computing platformbecoming as ubiquitous as laptops and tablets are todayand that people will use them in their everyday lives to access the metaverse. With its cutting-edge technologies, Meta Quest Pro represents an important step toward that future. We designed it to expand the possibilities of both VR and mixed reality. And to do that, you needtruly innovative hardware,” Meta said, commenting on the launch of the new VR headset.
