Meta Quest 3 Getting Big Improvements Over Quest 2 With ‘Almost Life-Like’ Videos: Report

There's a lot of buzz surrounding mixed reality headsets, with Apple's headset rumored to debut in the coming months and Meta's Quest 3 VR headset reportedly coming later this year. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman recently went hands-on with a Quest 3 prototype, revealing a few key features.

Gurman, who specializes in Apple leaks, also tried to gauge how it could compare with Apple's headset offering. In the hands-on experience of the Quest 3, he tried out the interface, gaming features, video pass-through-mode, and software capabilities.

Meta Quest 3 Features

The Meta Quest 3, codenamed Eureka, feels "far lighter and thinner" than 2020's Quest 2, states Gurman. The head strap appears a bit stronger, with fabric on the sides instead of plastic used by its predecessor.

The front design gets a revamp with three "vertical pill-shaped sensor areas" which accommodate the color video pass-through cameras on either side and a standard camera with a depth sensor at the center.

To compare, the Quest 2 lacks color pass-through and a depth sensor. Gurman notes that while the Quest 3's video pass-through performance is a significant upgrade over the Quest 2, it won't be comparable to the Apple headset which will be equipped with nearly a dozen cameras.

The dual RGB color cameras on the Quest 3 "presented colors more accurately and offered an almost lifelike rendering of the real world." The navigation was also smooth, owing to the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor.

One letdown is the lack of face and eye-tracking on the Quest 3, a feature that's present in the Quest Pro and the Apple headset. Instead, the Quest 3 can be controlled by in-air hand tracking as well as left and right hand remotes.

Speaking of the price, Gurman states, "Meta hasn't yet settled on pricing for the device, but people involved in its development believe it may come in higher than the Quest 2's $400." He also predicts that there won't be a next-gen Quest Pro "anytime soon" since "the first version bombed."

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