Meta’s $499 Quest 3 headset arrives this fall

Say hello to the second worst kept secret in VR. Meta today gave the world the first (official) glimpse of its latest headset, the Quest 3. The mixed reality hardware was shown off this morning ahead of showcase event featuring a slew of new gaming titles.

Priced at $499, the Quest 3 is $200 pricier than its 2020 predecessor, causing some analysts to balk at the headset. Timing is everything, of course. Odds are that price tag will look more appealing come Monday, when Apple is expected to reveal its Reality Pro – the MR system its been cooking for at least seven years, which is expected to run around $3,000.

In an Instagram post, Mark Zuckerberg called the headset, “The first mainstream headset with high-res color mixed reality. 40% thinner and more comfortable.” The CEO added that the product features the latest Qualcomm chipset, along with higher resolution displays and “2x GPU performance.”

A video attached to the post also touts “full color passthrough” – a feature tied to the AR bit of the MR experience, using built in cameras to capture the world in front of the wearer, offering an experience akin to graphical images overlayed atop the real world. Passthrough has been a bit of a crapshoot with mixed reality devices. The experience tends to be lacking on cheaper ($499 being cheap in this relative equation) headsets. The Quest headset also has built in depth sensors for better real world tracking — though much of the hand tracking is accomplished here through revamped controllers with improved haptic feedback.

It’s easy to read much of the post as digs at Apple’s forthcoming headset. “Mainstream” is certainly a key word, anticipating a potential $2,500 price gap between the two systems. Though Apple’s offering is likely to be positioned as a closer competitor to the high-end Meta Quest Pro, which starts at $1,000 or the $3,300 Magic Leap 2. Though those systems also feature enterprise offerings, and Apple’s entry is likely to be consumer focused.

The system is compatible with the Quest 2’s content library, which currently includes more than 500 titles — it’s an extremely healthy head start on Apple. Monday’s Reality Pro announcement is expected to be aimed at developers specifically (it is the Worldwide Developers Conference, after all), giving them time to create and adapt experiences for a system that’s likely to arrive close to the end of the year.

Zuckerberg promised additional information at Meta’s September 27 Connect conference — certainly that lines up with the fall timeline.