Meta announces its new virtual reality headset, a real gateway to the metaverse according to the company: Meta Quest Pro. The most expensive device ever built by the company of Zuckerbergdesigned for the professions but not only.
Meta Quest Pro, the viewer that is a gateway to the metaverse
Until now, VR headsets have had to find a compromise between power and practicality. The Meta Quest 2 focuses on lightness and competitive price, giving up something on a computational level. Other devices prefer to connect to the PC to harness its power, but leave the device glued to us.
The new Meta Quest Pro wants to try to be the best of both worlds. Powerful, independent and comfortable. So much so that for Meta’s Product Management Lead Rupa Rao, the new headset is “the beginning of the evolution of VR. It will be our first immersive multi-functional platform that will enable the metaverse ”.
A truly powerful viewer
The new Quest Pro indeed wants to ensure a truly formidable powerdefinitely more than the Quest 2 (with consequent price increase). The new design allows you to use new optical features and ten sensors to enhance the immersive experience.
Managing all this new hardware is a processor Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+accompanied by 12GB of RAM and 256GB of memory. Qualcomm’s new processor, designed with the metaverse in mind, offers a refresh rate da 90Hz and performance that Meta ensures to be the 50% better than Quest 2.
Meta also used a bit of engineering inventiveness in weight distribution as well. More power requires a bigger battery, but instead of putting it in the headset and increasing its size, the American company has integrated one curved cell on the back of the device, in the band that keeps it anchored to your head. And compared to other Meta products, it feels like a lot more of a pair of ski goggles rather than a bulkier helmet.
Meta Quest Pro, the border between real and virtual
Meta with this new headset aims to combine VR with ‘real’ life (IRL), with the new design that allows a some peripheral vision. If you prefer total immersion, you can mount the side ‘blinders’ that you find in the package, or buy the dedicated ones for 50 dollars.
The company also worked to reduce the thickness of the headset by using pancake lenses that are 40% thinner. The resolution still increases compared to Quest 2: it gets to 1800 × 1920 per eye, while the Quest 2 was 1440 × 1600. We are not at the level of professional viewers like the Vive Pro 2 (2448 × 2448), but it should get a realistic immersion without being connected to the PC.
The battery should guarantee sessions of 60 to 90 minutesbut if you want it also works connected to the power outlet.
The sensors are five external cameras and five internal sensors. The external ones are used for transparency, showing you the outside world while wearing the headset. This will make it easier to switch between VR and the IRL world when you turn off your device, without getting confused. It also allows you to implement elements of augmented reality in the metaverse.
The internal sensors are used instead to follow your gaze, in order to focus the resolution of the objects you are looking at (and reduce the workload in the peripheral areas). It also allows you to relate more easily to people, above all during virtual meetings such as those in Horizon Rooms. But not only.
The metaverse grows, even with Microsoft
Also Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, attended the presentation of the Meta viewer. He explains: “The metaverse will change everything from play to productivity. And if we do it together I am convinced that we can shape the future of virtual reality to make the its use more interesting than ever “.
And for this very reason “like Microsoft, we are thrilled to be able to collaborate with Meta to bring the new one online version of Teams designed especially for the metaverse “. And in the future he explains that there will also be declensions of Microsoft 365 e Xbox Cloud Gaming for VR in the metaverse.
But to really enable the metaverse, you need apps. And Mark Zuckerbergthe CEO of Meta, invites the developers to the Quest store where “one app out of three achieves millionaire revenues, with 33 exceeding ten million dollars”.
Meta is building the metaverse and it does it also from the hardware point of view, with solutions like Quest Pro. Which still costs a lot: 1,500 dollars, which in Italy they become 1799.99 euros (including hand pointers). Hinting that this device will mainly serve developers and professionals. But with the more affordable ‘base’ Quest line and this Pro version, Meta is ensuring access to this virtual world. It remains to be seen how many will use this new entrance to enter the metaverse.