According to a hands-on report by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, the anticipated Meta Quest 3, currently under the codename Euruka, is “far lighter and thinner” in comparison to the Quest 2. This is great news for those who desire improved comfort while wearing a VR headset for extended periods of time.
Many of the features Gurman mentioned are similar to what can be expected from Apple’s upcoming headset that’s likely to be announced at WWDC 2023, including hand-tracking and see-through video.
While Meta has yet to settle on the price for the Quest 3, Gurman believes the chances are good that it can exceed the cost of the Quest 2 but remain less than the Quest Pro, which debuted at $1500 last fall before it saw a price cut down to $1000 in March.
In February 2023, Mark Rabkin, VP of Meta VR, told his employees that the Quest 3 would cost more than its predecessor and that people need to believe that all the new features are worth it. What’s more, he showed off a preview of the lighter design, believing that the moment someone puts on the headset, it feels easier and more natural.
The report also confirmed other major improvements, such as the second-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip that offers vastly better performance.
It also confirmed what Quest 3 would not have, the biggest being eye-tracking. By not having eye-tracking, it also won’t have foveated rendering, which adjusts the graphics based on where someone is looking, something that the PlayStation VR 2 has already been able to solve.
Other upgrades from the Quest 2 include additional sensors where the front-facing cameras make use of pass-through video and an improved system to adjust the inter-pupillary distance of the lenses between the eyes.
In spite of the rumors of a higher-resolution display, Gurman did not report Quest 3 looking noticeably better than Quest 2 inside.