The Meta Quest Pro Is Getting a Ripper Price Drop

In October 2022, Meta revealed the Quest Pro, a high-spec, lightweight version of its Meta Quest 2, at a whopping $2,450 price point. Now, the headset has dropped in price substantially, which, shocking no one, is just in time for HTC’s competing device to go on the market. Once called Project Cambria, the Meta Quest Pro is “the first in a new line of advanced headsets built to expand the possibilities of virtual and mixed reality”, according to the official announcement made back in October. You might be more familiar with its predecessor, the Meta Quest 2 (formerly known as the Oculus), as this headset made headlines for being a cheap and accessible way for getting into VR (though the price did go up in 2022). Let’s talk about what you can expect from the Quest Pro.

The Meta Quest Pro

The Meta Quest Pro was very pricey when it first went on sale. The high-tech headset originally cost $2,449.99 in Australia, or about four times the price of the Meta Quest 2 ($630) and over the price of the full HTC Vive Pro 2 kit. However, as of March 15, 2023, the Meta Quest Pro now costs $1,730 in Australia. At the checkout, this price drop appears as a “saving”, but Meta confirmed to Gizmodo Australia that it’s in line with a price drop that occurred in other regions two weeks ago. The Quest Pro was originally criticised for its high price, although keep in mind that, with the Meta Quest 2, the company was taking an obvious loss by selling the tech at such a low price (compared to other headsets). But now, with the HTC VIVE XR Elite available, boasting specs that put it on par with the Quest Pro (minus face tracking), Meta appears to be cutting the price by quite a bit.

The Quest Pro includes face and eye tracking, along with a Snapdragon XR2+ processor, 12GB memory, 256GB internal storage and a 90hz refresh rate. Tracking is internal, with no need to put camera lighthouses around your room. It weighs 722 grams and is 265mm long, 127mm high and 196mm wide. with side strap adjustments (instead of overhead, like on the Quest 2). Additionally, Meta says that users can expect an average battery life of 2.5 hours, with a breakdown on different activities and their power consumption here. One of the coolest features the Quest Pro offers is passthrough – which makes it a potentially useful tool when working at a computer (as shown below). The headset also includes newly designed controllers, but perhaps its most striking feature is how tiny it is. Seriously, the Meta Quest Pro is a small headset.

One of my main problems with VR as a medium is just how huge the headsets are, but the Meta Quest Pro seems to directly address this. I don’t really care about the face and eye tracking, but compressing VR into a smaller device is pretty darn cool. I can’t wait to use one. This article has been updated since it was first published.

The post The Meta Quest Pro Is Getting a Ripper Price Drop appeared first on Gizmodo Australia.