Meta Quest 3 announced just ahead of Apple headset launch

Apple is widely expected to launch a pricey Reality XR headset on Monday, but that isn’t stopping VR giant Meta from launching a new Quest headset. Yes, the company has just launched the Meta Quest 3, so what should you expect from the new device?

For starters, the company says the Meta Quest 3 is 40% slimmer than the Quest 2, which should make for a more comfortable experience. Meta says it’s also redesigned the Touch Plus controllers to be more ergonomic while completely dropping those quirky tracking rings.

We also see key spec upgrades, such as the switch to a “next-generation” Snapdragon chipset that promises over twice the graphical performance of the Quest 2’s Snapdragon XR2 processor. This suggests that the Quest 3 is indeed powered by the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 SoC.

The Quest 3 also brings a higher resolution screen with so-called pancake optics, enabling improved visuals and a slimmer overall package. Other notable features include higher-quality color passthrough, augmented reality integration for games (such as playing a virtual board game on a real table), and backward compatibility with Quest 2 content.

Meta Quest 3 price and availability

The Meta Quest 3 starts at $499.99 for the 128GB model, which indeed represents a $100 premium over the previous generation headset (or $200 when comparing it to the Quest 2’s launch price).

Expect the Quest 3 to be available in all regions where the Quest 2 is offered (e.g. Australia, Europe, Japan, North America, South Korea, and Taiwan). There’s no word on a specific launch date bar a fall release window.

Speaking of the Quest 2, Meta also announced a price drop from $399.99 to $299.99 for the older model (128GB). The 256GB variant also gets a price cut to $349.99. Of course, the headset originally launched for $299.99 before Meta instituted a $100 price hike. Nevertheless, Meta says it intends to continue selling the older Quest alongside the Quest 3.

There’s also good news for current Quest 2 and Quest Pro owners, as the company says a future software update will boost CPU and GPU speeds for these headsets (up to 26% for the CPU, up to 19% for the Quest 2 GPU, and up to 11% for the Quest Pro GPU). The two headsets are also getting dynamic resolution scaling, which allows for on-the-fly resolution adjustments to ensure consistent performance.