The Meta Quest 3 is an outstanding VR headset at a aggressive worth. However evidently Meta is seeking to drop that $499 price ticket additional with a cut-back headset aimed squarely at finances consumers.
Earlier this month, VR Panda teased a “Quest 3 Lite” on X (previously Twitter), and now the leaker has returned with a render of what the headset will reportedly appear to be:
It seems like a cross between the nonetheless out there Quest 2 and Quest 3. It inherits the extra curved look of the Quest 3, however the two RGB cameras and depth projector on the entrance have disappeared, making it functionally nearer to the Quest 2.
Whereas the Quest 2 does have a passthrough digicam, it’s a fundamental grainy affair designed for preliminary room set-up and to ensure you don’t stroll into partitions. The Quest 3’s full-color passthrough, nonetheless, opens up an entire world of mixed-reality functions, as you possibly can see within the video under.
Whereas eradicating cameras would certainly lower your expenses, Meta reversing on this could nonetheless be a shock. As just lately as January, the corporate printed a weblog put up the place it quoted its Actuality Labs Director of Engineering for XR Tech saying that he was “satisfied that Passthrough and MR shall be a regular function on all future headsets.”
You would argue that that’s only one individual’s opinion, however company blogs are likely to echo the corporate line, and it might be bizarre for Meta to incorporate that quote if it knew that it had a headset with out passthrough simply ready within the wings.
In fact, eradicating passthrough cameras will solely shave a lot off the worth, and Meta might also search to incorporate a extra inexpensive processor. But when there’s an older processor and no passthrough, it’s questionable how a lot of an improve this could be over the Quest 2 — hopefully it inherits the lens readability and improved consolation of its successor.
This isn’t the primary we’ve heard of an incoming cheaper headset. Final 12 months, The Verge printed particulars of an inside presentation at Meta the place the corporate’s vp for VR, Mark Rabkin, allegedly informed staff {that a} extra “accessible” headset codenamed Ventura was scheduled for 2024.
“The objective for this headset could be very easy: pack the most important punch we are able to on the most tasty worth level within the VR shopper market,” he reportedly stated.
With Apple driving new curiosity in digital actuality with its Imaginative and prescient Professional headset, Meta clearly senses a possibility to drive adoption with a product that’s already seven occasions’ cheaper. Certainly, CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims that the $499 Quest 3 beats the £3,499 Imaginative and prescient Professional on nearly each metric. It’s “the higher product, interval,” he stated in a video final month.