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Meta Quest 3: price, design, and everything we know so far
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The Oculus Quest 3, now officially known as Meta Quest 3, has been announced, and we won't have to wait much longer to get our hands on the highly-anticipated VR headset. 

Meta's more budget-friendly Quest 3 headset, separate from the pricier, premium Meta Quest Pro, will be more expensive than the Oculus Quest 2. That is to be expected for a new 2023 headset, and to soften the blow Meta has lowered the price of the Quest 2 so you can at least try VR if you're on a tighter budget even if it's not the latest and greatest version of it. And the Quest 3 will be greatest, with Meta calling it its “most powerful headset” yet.

There's plenty of new and official information on the Meta Quest 3 now, and it's certainly shaping up to be a contender when it comes to topping our list of the best VR headsets you can buy. For now, read on to learn everything we know about the upcoming headset.

Meta Quest 3: What you need to know

  • What is the Meta Quest 3? Meta’s follow-up VR headset to the Quest 2
  • Meta Quest 3 release date: “Fall” 2023, but most likely September or October
  • Meta Quest 3 specs: We don’t have all the details, but Meta says it’s its “most powerful headset” yet
  • Meta Quest 3 design: Similar to the Quest 2 but slimmer and the controllers lack tracking rings

Meta Quest 3 price

So far, Meta has only confirmed the price of the Quest 3's 128GB model, which will retail for $ 499 / £499. The official announcement page also makes mention of “an additional storage option for those who want some extra space.”

We're not sure exactly as to how much extra storage will be provided by this upgraded model, but it's very likely to be a total of 256GB there. No price for this model has been announced either, but expect something in the region of $ 599 / £599 or potentially up to $ 699 / £699.

Meta Quest 3 release date

The Quest 3 has been confirmed to launch in “Fall 2023,” which means, barring any delays, we should see it launch somewhere between the months of September and December 2023. Meta's official page for the Quest 3 states that further details will be revealed at the Meta Connect event happening on September 27.

Given the release schedule of the Meta Quest Pro, which was detailed at Meta Connect 2022 and launched soon after, we expect that the Meta Quest 3 will launch shortly after the Connect in September or October. We'll have to wait and see what Meta decides though.

Oculus Quest 3 specs and features

Meta Quest 3 floating next to its handsets

(Image credit: Meta )

We now have official information, straight from Meta's mouth, about the specs and features we can expect for Meta Quest 3. It was always a safe bet that the headset would continue to be a standalone device, and that's certainly remained true. You won't need a PC or external device to play the best VR games out there.

The most immediate improvement for Quest 3 is a high-fidelity color passthrough feature, which should allow you to view your immediate surroundings via a high quality camera. Not only will this help you plan out your playing space, but should also aid augmented and mixed reality experiences become even more immersive.

Quest 3 has also been confirmed to sport a 40% slimmer optic profile over the last-gen Quest 2. That'll reduce the weight of the device and should allow for comfier play sessions overall. Similarly, its Touch Plus controllers have been reworked with a more ergonomic design. Other improvements in this area include enhanced hand tracking and controller haptic feedback, similar to the DualSense wireless controller for PS5.

Meta Quest 3's front exploding outwards, revealing all of its internal parts

(Image credit: Meta )

It's been speculated that the Quest 3 will adopt uOLED displays (an upgraded version of OLED). Though, we've also seen conflicting reports that instead hint at OLED displays, and mini LED displays. What analysts seem to agree on is some kind of visual enhancement will come to the Quest 3 – so expect improved display quality and higher resolutions.

So far, Meta's own details remain vague on this front. We know that Quest 3 will feature a higher resolution display than Quest 2, paired with pancake lenses for greater image clarity and an overall reduction in device weight. These lenses should also improve the display of motion, hopefully reducing motion sickness and the dreaded image ghosting effect that plagues many a VR headset, even the PSVR 2.

Lastly, Meta has confirmed that the Quest 3 will be powered by the latest Snapdragon chipset from Qualcomm. In Meta's own words, the new chipset “delivers more than twice the graphical performance as the previous generation Snapdragon GPU in Quest 2.” We should expect a pretty significant leap in visual quality, then.

Oculus Quest 3 – what we’d like to see

In our Oculus Quest 2 review, it was hard to find fault with a VR headset that proved immersive, comfortable and easy to use. And yet, while it clearly leads the pack in the VR market, it still falls foul of some of the pitfalls that the technology as a whole suffers from. Here’s a list of updates we want to see on the Oculus Quest 3:

Improved motion sickness prevention
One of those technological pitfalls, and perhaps an unavoidable one, is the motion sickness that can often ensue when using any VR headset. Depending on your tolerance for whirring and blurring, the Quest 2 can be one helluva dizziness-inducer. While there isn’t yet a clear path to making any VR headset immune to user dizziness, it’s nonetheless something we’d like to see improved on the Oculus Quest 3.

A better fit
The same goes for the fit of the device. While the Quest 2 is indeed a comfortable weight when on the head, it can still be a little claustrophobic to achieve a good, tight fit. Again, it’s a problem encountered by almost all VR headsets, and a base-level issue that the next generation of hardware should at least attempt to better address. Those aforementioned design rumors suggest the new Oculus device could solve some of these issues.

Improved Oculus Store
Other improvements we’d like to see include a more effective in-VR Oculus Store. While the equivalent store on browser and in the app makes it easy to discover new releases and search for upcoming games, the store inside the headset itself seems to roll the dice on what apps are shown with no way to quickly navigate to new content. This makes it difficult to pre-order games and discover new titles to purchase when using the device, which is a pivotal part of ensuring the headset maintains replayability.

A virtual hand pointing at the Quest store menu using the Quest's hand-tracking

(Image credit: Oculus / Facebook)

A neighborhood-like social space 
While the Quest 2 has a competent party invitation system to get you game-to-game with your friends, there isn’t a social space to engage with others in-between. It would be interesting to see the Quest 3 introduce a virtual social space, in the same vein as NBA 2K’s neighborhood area, to share some downtime with others. What’s with the multi-person furniture in the current home environment if there’s nobody to share it with? Luckily, Meta's new metaverse project – ambitious as it seems – suggests virtual social spaces will be at the forefront of all future Quest headsets.

Improved media sharing
Sharing screenshots and videos on Oculus devices has never been easy, and it’s an issue that the Quest 2 has tried to address with a few video updates.  The process could still be more streamlined, so we'd like to see the Oculus 3 make the whole deal more accessible.1080p video, app integration, proper audio syncing – that’d all be golden.

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Meta Quest 3 gets new launch teaser – here’s what to expect at Meta Connect
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The Meta Quest 3 has appeared in a new teaser that confirms it'll be announced at the Meta Connect event alongside news on “AI, virtual, mixed and augmented realities”.

This year's Meta Connect will take place on September 27 and will be a two-day virtual event, with Mark Zuckerberg's keynote taking place on that first day. This keynote has previously seen hardware announcements such as the Meta Quest Pro, alongside upgrades to the virtual social network Horizon Worlds.

So what are we expecting this year? Judging by the launch teaser below, the Meta Quest 3 – which was announced on June 1 in the days before Apple's WWDC 2023  – will be the star of the show. And while we already know a lot about the headset, Zuckerberg said there would be more announcements at Meta Connect 2023.

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The teaser doesn't reveal a great deal more that we didn't see already, in the original announcement in June, but again focuses on the three cameras/sensors on the front of the Quest 3 headset. These are likely to consist of two color passthrough cameras, plus an IR (infra-red) projector to help map your surroundings.

The main benefit of this full-color passthrough will be that the Quest 3 will be able to show the real world in color, rather than using the black-and-white passthrough seen on the Quest 2. 

The video also shows the headset's redesigned Touch Plus controllers, which are apparently more comfortable to hold than the Quest 3's and will have improved haptic feedback. This could, for example, adjust the level of feedback you feel when doing virtual boxing.

The Meta Quest 3 VR headset and controller

(Image credit: Meta)

But Meta Connect will also need to give us a glimpse of the software and mixed-reality experiences that will be possible with the Quest 3. And while the teaser doesn't give us a peak at any of those, the official Meta Connect page is promising a broader look at VR, AR and mixed realities.

The page also mentions AI, which could be referring to the rumored announcement of some new AI chatbots with different personalities, which are also expected in September.

Meta Connect: what to expect

Despite Meta making increasingly loud noises about its moves into AI – including developing its own AI chip and a speech-generating AI tool that's apparently too dangerous to release – we're still expecting the Quest 3 to be the main focus of Connect, and this teaser seemingly confirms that.

The main things we already know about the Quest 3 are that it'll offer full-color passthrough, have twice the graphical performance of the Quest 2, and be 40% thinner than its predecessor. That said, some leaks have suggested that it may also be marginally heavier than the Quest 2.

We also know that the Meta Quest 3 will cost $ 499 / £499 / AU$ 829 when it becomes available for pre-order, most likely immediately after Meta Connect on September 27. But the main thing that Meta needs to nail at Connect are the new software experiences that'll convince existing Quest 2 owners to upgrade.

The current state of the Quest Store suggests that few games and experiences are managing to break through to become widely-acclaimed hits. Still, new games for Meta's social VR app Horizon Worlds, like Super Rumble (above), suggest that Meta is retooling the platform to help it offer improved graphics and more sophisticated games.

With a smartphone version of Horizon Worlds also apparently en route for those who don't have a VR headset, plus a rumored new Smart Guardian feature to make it easier for Quest 3 owners to map their room, we can expect improvements across the board.

But exactly how much the $ 21 billion hit Meta's Reality Labs has seemingly taken in the last 18 months affects the Quest 3 is something we'll have to wait until September 27 to find out.

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The Quest Pro series may be dead as Meta struggles to stay in the VR game
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Meta has reportedly decided to cancel all future work on Quest Pro VR headsets including suspending all “development on the second-generation Quest Pro”. 

According to a recent report by The Information, sources close to the situation claim that Meta told its suppliers “earlier this year it won’t order any new components for” its high-end headset. GoerTek, the Chinese electronics company who manufactures the Quest Pro, will continue to do so “until the remaining inventory of [parts] runs out”. 

So once all the units have been made, that’s it. There may not longer be new Quest Pro units after this.

The Information points to several factors as to why the Quest Pro could be discontinued. For starters, it wasn’t all that well received. We liked the Quest Pro when it first came out, but apparently not enough people did as sales have been consistently weak. Even the $ 500 price cut wasn’t enough to save the headset so Meta may have decided to cut its losses. 

Development woes

The report goes on to say there have been lot of development problems, forcing the company to refocus their efforts.

The Information claims that Meta is working on a pair of AR glasses, code-named Orion. Originally, the glasses were supposed to use special microLED displays from British tech Plessey. However, the company had difficulties in reducing manufacturing defects as well as making those displays “bright enough for use”. Because of these issues, Meta is changing course by outfitting the Orion glasses with LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) screens  –  a piece of aging technology that, as TheVerge points out, was first seen in movie projectors during the 1990s.

Developmental woes don’t stop there as they affect Meta's other projects. Another pair of AR glasses in the work, code-named Artemis, was supposed to use silicon carbide in its construction to offer a wide 70 degree field of view. But complications arose forcing the company to use regular glass, shrinking its field of view down to 50 degrees. 

Quest Pro on table

(Image credit: Meta)

The report goes on to mention multiple failures, adding to skyrocketing costs. The pressure is mounting on the firm, and if that wasn’t enough, competition is getting fiercer as Apple revealed its Vision Pro VR headset during WWDC 2023, and it's shaping up to be an impressive piece of tech.

Some online publications speculate the Vision Pro is the sole reason why the Quest Pro is getting canceled. The prevailing theory is Meta worries it won’t be able to compete with Apple’s machine. While that may be one reason, the more likely culprit is the rising developmental issues exasperated by a middling response towards the Quest Pro.

Benefit of the doubt

We don't know for sure what Meta's plans are moving forward. The Information's report claims it's going to work on less expensive offerings like the Quest 2.

At the time of writing, Meta has yet to officially respond. We would like to give the company the benefit of the doubt, as it's also likely that the reports of the Quest Pro’s death have been greatly exaggerated. We reached out to Meta to see if it would like to make a statement about the report. This story will be updated at a later time.

If you’re interested in getting into VR, be sure to check out TechRadar’s on the best headsets for 2023. There are a lot of fairly inexpensive options out there.

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Your Oculus Quest 2 just got better hand-tracking to boost your virtual boxing skills
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Meta has released the v56 update for the Meta Quest Pro and the Oculus Quest 2, which introduces a bunch of upgrades for two of the best VR headsets out there.

With the new Quest update Meta is rolling out Hand Tracking 2.2, which says aims to bring responsiveness more in line with what users experience with controllers. According to Meta, Hand Tracking 2.2 will reduce the latency experienced by a typical user by 40%, with a 75% latency reduction for fast hand movements. 

Meta recommends that you download the Move Fast demo app from App Lab to get a feel for what these improvements mean in practise. It looks like a simple fitness trainer in which you have to punch, chop and block incoming blocks while looking out over a lake decorated with cherry blossom trees. Meta has said we can expect more hand-tracking improvements when the Meta Quest 3 launches later this year. It's yet to be seen if these upgrades can keep up with the hand-tracking Apple is expected to launch with its Apple Vision Pro headset.

Another important improvement is coming just for Meta Quest Pro owners. One of the premium headset’s best upgrades over the Quest 2 is its display, which offers local dimming. This allows screens to achieve deeper black levels and improved contrast, something which can help a lot with immersion, as dark spaces actually look dark without it being impossible to see. However, local dimming isn’t available in every app, so with v56 Meta is launching a Local dimming Experimental Setting (which can be found in the Experimental menu in your headset’s Settings).

The feature is off by default, but if you turn it on you should see the benefits of local dimming in a load more titles – that is, unless a developer chooses to opt out. Just note that as with other experimental settings, you may find it isn’t quite perfect or causes some problems.

Quest 2 users aren't missing out on visual upgrades entirely though, as Meta recently announced that a Quest Super Resolution upscaling tool is coming to help developers make their games look and run better.

This month Meta is also improving the accessibility of Quest titles by introducing button mapping and live captions. Live captions will appear in your Quest headset’s Settings, under the Hearings section of the Accessibility menu. Once turned on you’ll see live subtitles while using the Meta Quest TV app, Explore, and the in-headset Quest Store. In the same Accessibility menu, go to the Mobility section and you’ll find an option to remap your Quest controllers – you can swap any buttons you want on the handsets to create a completely custom layout.

These accessibility settings won’t revolutionize your headset overnight, but they’re a great first step. Hopefully, we’ll see Meta introduce captioning to more apps and services, and perhaps it’ll launch custom-accessible controllers like the ones that Sony and Microsoft offer for their PS5 Access controller and the Xbox Adaptive Controller.

New ways to stay connected 

Beyond these major upgrades, Meta is rolling out a handful of smaller improvements as part of update v56.

First, when you leave your headset charging on standby between play sessions it can smartly wake up and install updates whenever it detects that your installed software is out of date. This should help to reduce instances of you going to play a game only to find that you need to wait for ages while your headset installs a patch.

Second is the new Chats and Parties feature. Whenever you start a call in VR a chat thread is also connected with all of the call members, so you can keep in contact later; you can also now start a call from a chat thread (whether it’s a one-on-one chat or a group chat).

Third, and finally, meta is making it easier to stream your VR gameplay to Facebook, and while you play you’ll be able to see a live chat, so you can keep in contact with your viewers. While the platform isn’t many people’s first choice, it hopefully opens the door for easier real-time live streaming to more popular platforms like YouTube and Twitch.

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Huge visual enhancements could be coming to your favorite Oculus Quest 2 software
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Your favorite VR games and apps’ visuals could soon be sharper than ever as Meta is unlocking a new resolution-boosting tool for developers.

Developed in collaboration with Qualcomm – the manufacturer of the Snapdragon chips used by Meta’s headsets – Quest Super Resolution upscaling tool promises to boost image quality and deliver a smoother experience. So expect the best VR games and apps to have sharper images, and be running at higher framerates on your Oculus Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro than they did before the upgrade.

The Quest Super Resolution upgrade follows a major boost to the CPU and GPU performance of Meta’s headsets that came last month in June 2023. Both the Quest 2 and Quest Pro’s CPUs saw a 26% speed boost last month, while the Quest 2 and Quest Pro’s GPUs got a performance boost of 19% and 11% respectively.

Meta was able to achieve these upgrades via a software patch rather than releasing new hardware because it has allowed the existing components to run at higher clock speeds. To avoid the systems getting too hot while you’re wearing them, the Quest headsets’ components were underclocked – read: their maximum performance is held back compared to what it should be able to do running normally. June’s update removed some of these limitations, with Meta likely deciding it was being a bit too conservative with its underclocked approach.

Thanks to Quest Super Resolution, developers have a new way to utilize the Quest system’s improved GPU capabilities. But we’ll have to wait for them to implement Super Resolution into their software before we see any improvements in the VR software we love.

How does Meta Quest Super Resolution work? 

Meta’s blog post gets a little jargon-heavy in its “What is Meta Quest Super Resolution?” section – calling it a “single-pass spatial upscaling and sharpening technique.” What you need to know is that upscaling is a way to get better visual quality out of your hardware without sacrificing performance.

Quest Super Resolution in action (Image credit: Meta)

In general, upscaling works by having a GPU render an image at a lower resolution (say, 1080p or full-HD) and then using tricks to scale it up to a higher one (like 4K, or even 8K). While an upscaled image typically won’t look as crisp as one rendered at the target resolution, it’s a lot less taxing for a GPU to create an upscaled image – as such it can usually run upscaled software at a higher framerate.

Higher smoother framerates are a must-have for VR apps. If the visuals are choppy, or run below a minimum of 90fps, that’s when wearing a headset can make you feel motion sick.

Meta Quest Super Resolution's upscaling algorithm has a few special tricks up its sleeves, too. The highest setting can apparently greatly reduce artifacts caused by upscaled objects blurring into one another at their edges. You can see this in the image above, the Super Resolution image looks the most crisp, with well-defined edges to the objects in the complex scene.

Want to learn more about upscaling? Check out our Nvidia DLSS vs AMD FSR piece to learn about how these two technologies stack up against one another.

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Check your emails Oculus Quest 2 owners, Meta might be giving you a free upgrade
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If you own an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset then go and check your emails, as Meta might be trying to give you a free Elite Strap accessory for it.

User u/claimingmarrow7 took to Reddit to show off an email they claim to have received from Meta. In it they’re told they’ve been sent a unique code they can redeem to be sent a Quest 2 Elite Strap with “no string attached” – all they have to do is take advantage of the promotion before it expires on August 4, 2023.

It’s not currently clear if this is an offer exclusive to select users like claimingmarrow7, or if all Quest 2 owners will be sent similar emails in the near future. We’ve reached out to Meta for clarification, but while we wait for a response we’d recommend looking in the inbox for your Quest account’s registered email (and the spam folder too) to see if you’ve also got a code for a free VR accessory.

The Meta Quest 2 headset next to a plastic Elite Strap

(Image credit: Meta)

What is the Elite Strap?

The Elite Strap is an optional Quest 2 upgrade that replaces the original elastic strap with a plastic one that tightens using a fit wheel. This mechanism gives the headset a much more secure fit on your head and is generally more comfortable than the regular strap.

It doesn’t come cheap, however, with the strap usually costing $ 59.99 / £59.99 / AU$ 89.99 – so getting one for free is a solid deal. 

Just note that this offer appears to be for the regular Elite Strap rather than the version with a battery. The upgraded (but more expensive) Elite Strap with battery model not only provides an extra hour or two of battery life – effectively doubling your Quest 2’s usage time – but further improves the Quest 2’s comfort as the battery serves a counterweight to the usually front-heavy design of the headset.

If you aren’t lucky enough to get a code for a free Elite Strap from Meta and are looking to buy your own, the Elite Strap with battery option is the one we’d recommend – it’s definitely worth the higher cost for people who use their headset a lot.

Looking for a bigger upgrade to your Quest 2? Check out our picks for the best VR headset to see what other options are out there for you to try out.

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The latest Oculus Quest 2 update comes with a serious performance boost
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The latest software update for the Oculus Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro is here, and it’s bringing some serious performance upgrades to both of Meta’s VR headsets.

Meta teased this update following the Meta Quest 3 announcement where a press release revealed that the Quest Pro and Quest 2 would see their CPU speed rise by up to 26% each. What’s more, the Quest 2’s GPU will, according to Meta, improve by up to 19%, while the Quest Pro’s GPU will improve by 11%.

These hardware upgrades are achievable via a software update because Meta’s new update is allowing the CPU and GPU in each headset to run at a higher clock speed. Previously both headsets ran underclocked systems – read: maximum performance is being held back – in order to prevent the headsets from getting too hot and causing discomfort for the player. Clearly, Meta decided that it was a bit too conservative with its underclocked approach, so now it's releasing a bit more power.

On top of its faster processing, Meta has announced that the Quest Pro is getting a boost to its eye-tracking accuracy. While the update post doesn’t go into much detail we can’t help but feel like this is Meta’s first step to helping the Quest Pro catch up to Apple’s newly unveiled Vision Pro headset – which threatens to usurp Meta’s spot at the top of the best VR headsets list.

The Apple Vision Pro headset on a stand at the Apple headquarters

What will Meta learn from the Apple Vision Pro? (Image credit: Future)

One innovation Apple’s headset has is that it uses eye-tracking to make hand-tracking navigation more accurate. Rather than awkwardly pointing at an app you just have to look at it and then pinch your fingers.

The Quest Pro’s improved eye-tracking accuracy could allow Meta to implement a similar system to the Apple Vision Pro – and help make its eye-tracking technology more useful.

More minor changes

Beyond these performance boosts, the Meta Quest v55 update brings a few minor software improvements.

Now when using Direct Touch hand tracking, you’ll be able to tap swipe notifications away or tap on them like buttons as you can with other menu items. If this doesn’t make interacting with your headset feel enough like using a smartphone, Meta has also said that the full Messenger app will now launch on the Quest platform – allowing you to call and message any of your contacts through the app, not just the people that use VR.

Two new virtual environments will be made available too. The Futurescape – which was featured in the 2023 Meta Quest Gaming Showcase – combines futurism with nature, while the Great Sand Sea is a vast desert world that’s an exclusive space for people who have preordered Asgard’s Wrath 2. To change your current environment to either of these options you’ll need to go into your Quest headset Settings and find the Personalization menu. You should see the option to change your environment to either one of these new spaces or the previously released virtual homes. 

Check out our interview with one of the developers to find out how Asgard's Wrath 2 will bring out the best of the Oculus Quest 2.

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