The Meta Quest 3 improves on the formula in strength and convenience—and it may cost more

A hands-on look at the Meta Quest 3 reveals a huge range of improvements to the Meta mixed reality headset, as detailed in Mark Gorman employment the news to bloomberg This morning. Gurman says the Quest 3, now called the Eureka, is “much lighter and thinner” than the original Quest 2, which shows promise for its comfort during extended use.

In February, Meta VR CEO Mark Rapkin told staff that Quest 3 will be more expensive than its predecessor and that “we have to prove to people that all of this power, all of these new features are worth it.” He said Meta has sold 20 million Quest headsets to date.

He also previewed the lighter design, stating that “the main north star of the team has been from the moment I put this headset on, Mixed Reality should make it feel better, easier and more natural… You can easily walk through a house knowing you can see well.” .You can put fasteners and stuff on your desktop.You can take your coffee.You can stay there for a longer time.”

The report confirms some other big improvements we were expecting, such as the second-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip, with better overall performance as a result.

The report also talked about what Quest 3 is wont You have, they follow the eye. That means games can’t use edge rendering, a feature found in Sony’s PSVR 2 that adjusts based on where the player is looking and allows the system to focus processing power on graphics in those places and backtrack elsewhere.

Design upgrades from the Quest 2 include more sensors inside three bean-shaped areas that house four cameras, two of which are color cameras for video. They also feature an improved system for adjusting the lens’ interpupillary distance — the distance between your eyes — using a wheel you can turn while you’re wearing it instead of taking off the headset and manually moving the screen.

The depth sensor in the middle of the device could improve AR performance compared to the Quest Pro’s camera-only approach. The redesigned controllers get rid of the Quest 2 loops, but the depth sensor could help keep costs down by tracking the controller’s position without the need for cameras like the Quest Pro controllers. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg actually said the Quest Pro will get a depth sensor in protocol interviewbut feature It did not reach the final version.

Gorman called the scrolling video “almost lifelike,” a good sign after my colleague Adi Robertson described the AR mode as “fuzzy in low light, dull or choppy in bright light, and sometimes eerily saturated in between” in her review of Quest pro.

The improvements there seem to be mainly due to how the headset’s cameras handle light and color, as Gurman didn’t think they looked noticeably sharper, despite rumors of a higher resolution screen.