Meta and LG are coordinating on a brand new mixed-reality headset, the Meta Quest Pro 2, allegedly due out in early 2025. Meta could also be one in every of the largest names in VR and MR, nevertheless it has loads of roadblocks to beat earlier than the Pro 2 can correctly problem the Apple Vision Pro.
The 2022 Meta Quest Pro was forward of its time. While we praised its design, the {hardware} and software program had been each untimely for a $1,500 gadget meant to be worn all day as a laptop computer different, and it shortly dropped in value after low gross sales.
This 12 months’s Vision Pro has extra folks keen to spend a ton of cash on XR headsets, however that additionally means the competitors is extra fierce. With a Samsung XR headset, Sony XR headset, and different units on the approach, Meta cannot take pleasure in the similar market dominance it has in the VR gaming house with the Quest 2 and three.
That’s why the Quest Pro 2 must actually impress folks to justify the alleged $2,000 price ticket — a lot lower than the Vision Pro however nonetheless rather more than most individuals are keen to pay. Here is our Meta Quest Pro 2 wishlist of options and specs, together with our ideas on what the Pro 2’s objective must be.
We know that LG and Meta are partnering up, with Meta giving its AI tech to LG TVs and LG engaged on next-gen XR gadget improvement. They did not specify which units, however behind the scenes, experiences got here in that LG will manufacture the Quest Pro 2.
LG’s involvement has us hopeful that it will have a greater construct high quality than the first Pro. We’ve additionally heard rumors that it will have an LG-made OLED micro-display, an OS primarily based on LG’s WebOS — at the moment discovered on its TV units — and a $2,000 price ticket, with an early 2025 launch date. It’s all hypothesis, nevertheless it’s convincing hypothesis!
We’re extra sure that Meta will use a Snapdragon chip, prefer it has for each different Quest headset. The almost certainly candidate is the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, since we know Samsung will use the similar chip for its XR headset.
According to Qualcomm, it may well help a max decision of 4,300 x 4,300 per eye, which might crush the unique Quest Pro (1800 x 1920) and even beat the Vision Pro (3660 x 3200). It’d additionally help as much as 12 cameras, which might assist deliver again the Quest Pro’s internal face and eye monitoring cameras.
Recently, Mark Zuckerberg reviewed the Apple Vision Pro — negatively, to nobody’s shock — and in the midst of the roast, he gave some hints about what to anticipate from the Quest Pro 2. Specifically, he mentioned they intend to deliver again eye-tracking and higher hand-tracking controls, each areas the place the Vision Pro shines.
He additionally mentioned they will deliver again bodily controllers, which is a aid for individuals who liked the self-tracked Quest Pro controllers. Instead of all the time having to maintain your arms in the body for the Vision Pro cameras to choose up your gestures, you possibly can work along with your arms comfortably at your sides, out of sight.
Otherwise, we can look to the first Quest Pro to counsel what the Quest Pro 2 ought to have: At least 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, face and eye monitoring for life like avatars, built-in audio system, and a wi-fi design.
The Quest Pro 2 CAN’T be as heavy as its predecessor
If the Quest Pro 2 has any likelihood of success, it must be lighter, with a design extra targeted on consolation than type. Even although the Quest Pro is comfy in brief bursts, it was too heavy to put on for all-day use at 722g/ 1.6lb. For context, the Apple Vision Pro weighs about 625g, together with a 353g battery pack.
Meta’s design id is tied up in the incontrovertible fact that it is wi-fi; can it give the Quest Pro 2 a sufficiently big battery and a built-in Elite Strap for consolation whereas additionally bringing the weight right down to extra manageable ranges? If not, this will probably be a non-starter for lots of potential consumers.
We’re followers of how the Vive XR Elite permits you to take away the rear battery portion and convert it right into a glasses-style format, as long as you plug in a charging cable. If Meta has a way of hot-swapping a battery or eradicating it totally for a glasses-esque design, that would definitely really feel each “Pro” and revolutionary.
If not, it should settle for including a high strap, even when it is marketed as “elective,” like the Vision Pro’s Dual Loop band. It’s the solely approach to offset the strain positioned in your brow and again of your head for a heavy XR headset, and the Quest Pro dearly missed one.
Otherwise, we fairly favored how the unique Quest Pro stored your peripheral imaginative and prescient unblocked, so that you’re conscious of your environment even in “VR” mode. We hope Meta retains this design as a substitute of aping Apple’s isolating, enclosed design.
LG’s job is crystal clear (actually)
Where LG might help Meta enhance is in the Quest Pro 2’s show high quality. Now that the Vision Pro is providing 23 million show pixels and 6.5MP cameras for passthrough, folks will count on Meta to come back near these numbers. That’s the place LG is available in, hopefully with a crystal-clear show.
A low-res show or low-res passthrough will solely enhance the eye pressure you expertise working in mixed-reality, so nobody will want to put on the Quest Pro 2 for lengthy sufficient to be helpful. Ideally, Meta and LG will discover a approach to take care of movement blur when turning your head — one thing many Vision Pro customers discover with their micro-OLED shows.
In an ideal world, Meta would use its varifocal lenses prototype it confirmed off final 12 months. They’re lenses that routinely concentrate on no matter you are taking a look at as a substitute of getting a hard and fast point of interest, which can actually assist with eye pressure. We simply do not know if this know-how will probably be prepared for the Quest Pro 2.
A laptop-level value wants laptop-level speeds
Snapdragon XR2 chips are principally redesigned variations of the Snapdragon 8 chips present in flagship Android telephones, with slower efficiency as a result of they should observe a bunch of cameras concurrently. They’re nice for VR gaming, however that might not be sufficient.
Why? Because Apple gave the Vision Pro an M2 chip present in its MacBook Pro laptops. It’s simpler to cost folks a laptop-level value if it has the energy to match, and the folks shopping for mixed-reality headsets pay a number of consideration to specs.
Instead of utilizing the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, Meta ought to contemplate giving this spatial laptop an precise laptop chip, one thing on par with the Snapdragon X Elite. The problem, after all, will probably be providing better energy, constant wi-fi battery life, and dependable thermal venting. We hope Meta and Qualcomm can determine this out!
Lack of apps may very well be the Quest Pro 2’s Achilles heel
Even extra so than {hardware}, the largest subject with the Quest Pro was its lack of apps. You basically paid $1,500 plus tax and put 1.6 kilos of laptop in your head to go on an Oculus internet browser and work there.
Now, with the value going up — and with Google making unattainable calls for for Meta to get Play Store entry — Meta has to make it clear what the objective of the Quest Pro 2 is, provided that the Quest 3 additionally has full-color blended actuality. Only then will anybody moreover VR superfans contemplate shopping for it.
If the Meta Quest Pro 2’s main focus is productiveness, it must have particular spatial apps out of the field. It took over a 12 months for Meta’s partnership with Microsoft to pan out with Microsoft apps on Quest, at which level the unique Quest Pro had already failed. And its 2021 promise for a bunch of PWA apps for productiveness providers like Slack by no means panned out, both. By 2025, we ought to hope Meta has extra to supply.
Another angle may very well be to make the Quest Pro 2 the equal of a transportable LG TV— with an LG-made show and interface and all of the streaming providers you’d count on, upgraded for a spatial 3D interface. The solely downside is that Apple itself has struggled to get manufacturers like Netflix and YouTube on board with Vision Pro apps, and we’re not sure if Meta will do any higher.
Our principle is that Meta and Microsoft ought to staff up extra intently, and make the Quest Pro 2 pair straight with PCs.
Meta might want folks to work inside its personal software program, nevertheless it has to acknowledge the incontrovertible fact that most individuals work on PC, Apple, or Chromebooks, and the latter two ecosystems are too intently tied to rivals with their very own XR agendas. Microsoft, with all its Hololens struggles, will doubtless be extra keen to let Quest Pros combine extra intently with PCs. It additionally places much less strain on Meta to seek out productiveness apps, if folks can simply depend on their very own PC’s software program.
We have a few 12 months left earlier than the Quest Pro 2 launches (allegedly), effectively earlier than the Quest 4. Given how leaky Meta’s places of work have confirmed to be in the previous, we’ll little question get a clearer imaginative and prescient of how the Quest Pro 2’s design and software program will enhance, with a potential early reveal at Meta Connect 2024 this fall.
What, if something, can Meta do to get you to drop $2,000 on the Quest Pro 2? Is there one thing particular that you just want from the headset when it comes to the design, software program, or options? Or do you discover a competitor like Samsung’s XR glasses or the Vision Pro extra tempting?