Meta drops the price of Quest 2 and Quest Pro VR headsets

[GFreeman]

Meta has announced a price cut for its Quest 2 256 GB and Quest Pro VR headsets, reducing the price by $80 and $500, respectively. The latest price cut puts the Meta Quest 2 256 GB at $429 and the Quest Pro at $999.99.

Unfortunately, Meta is still keeping the price of the Quest 2 128 GB VR headset at $399.99, which now puts it in a rather difficult position. Bear in mind that the Meta Quest 2 VR headset does not feature support for microSD cards, so $30 gets you double the storage, making the slightly more expensive model a better deal.



Meta already increased the price of Quest 2 headsets by $100 back in July 2022, mostly due to increased component prices.

The Meta Quest 2 features Fast-Switch LCD displays with 1832x1920 resolution per eye, and is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2 platform with 6 GB of RAM. Meta even runs a limited time offer, bundling the Quest 2 with two games, GOLF+ and Space Pirate Trainer DX.



The Quest Pro VR headset is Meta's high-end VR headset which launched at $1,499.99 back in October last year. Described as Meta's "most advanced headset yet," the Quest Pro comes with two LCD panels with 1800x1920 resolution per eye and uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2+ platform with 12 GB of RAM. It features five infrared eye and face tracking sensors as well as ten advanced VR/MR sensors for 6 degrees of freedom inside-out SLAM tracking, as well as color mixed reality and eye/face tracking.



The new price for the Quest 2 256 GB is already in effect as of March 5 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK, and the US. The Meta Quest Pro price drop will take effect on March 5th in the US and Canada, and on March 15th in all other countries where Meta Quest Pro is supported.

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[Denver]

If this is just a headset and joystick to view and interact with VR content why does it need memory? Does this work without a PC?

 

[spnidel]

finally, vr is getting cheaper at just 1k usd for a headset that sucks less than the previous generation

 

[TheLostSwede]

If this is just a headset and joystick to view and interact with VR content why does it need memory? Does this work without a PC?

The quest headsets are stand-alone devices that don't require a PC.

 

[Denver]

The quest headsets are stand-alone devices that don't require a PC.

Considering the required resolution and stability, it's pretty hard to believe you can play any quality VR content without a PC,

I believe it would make sense to sell a cheaper, memoryless version for PC use only.

 

[Dammeron]

If this is just a headset and joystick to view and interact with VR content why does it need memory? Does this work without a PC?

Quest goggles are a separate device to begin with. They run on Snapdragon and have their own app store. You can still use them with PC by using a USB C cable, or wireless, but it works like a "video streaming" mode, so there will be compression with loss of picture quality (there's no DP over USB mode).

 

[ZoneDymo]

I would like to vote for "going for it in the future" but it wont be near so there is no option for me.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Considering the required resolution and stability, it's pretty hard to believe you can play any quality VR content without a PC,

I believe it would make sense to sell a cheaper, memoryless version for PC use only.

It's not just about the memory though, but they have built in Qualcomm SoCs.
The 128 GB of storage isn't what makes these things expensive.

I would like to vote for "going for it in the future" but it wont be near so there is no option for me.

Same here, but not one of these, it would have to be something that connects to a PC over a proper interface.

 

[Dammeron]

Same here, but not one of these, it would have to be something that connects to a PC over a proper interface.

That's what I'm hoping for with the Quest 3 coming next year - although the goggles' specs are not that much different from Q2, maybe there will be a proper display connection with PCs.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I dont care how cheap they are, I will never touch anything made by META :barfs:

 

[Mindweaver]

The biggest reason behind dropping the price is that on the 14th of this month HTC is releasing the much smaller Vive XR Elite for $999 USD. It has a depth sensor included. The depth sensor was removed from the Quest Pro at the last minute. I would say even at the new price while it's a great hmd I would wait for the Quest 3 due to release this year. I fairly sure they will release it the day of this years Connect. The Quest 3 will have the same great pancake lenses like the Pro.

Everyone is shifting from VR to XR. It's not true AR but it's really the only way to move forward right now. Really AR is just really hard to do ATM. The Pro's XR is OK at best. The tracking cameras are black and white but the singular pass-through camera is color. How they are doing XR is it uses the tracking camera to capture the world and then they do a color overlay using the single color camera. The issue there is the delay. Users are experiencing a few seconds of black and white video and then the color kicks in.

This is the same as how they did Quest 1. It came out as a high-end headset then the next year they released the Quest 2 which was much better. The Pro is using a newer XR2+ chip which is roughly 1.5 times faster than the Quest 2 XR2 Gen1. The Quest 3 will be using the XR2 Gen2 which will be 2.5 times faster than Quest 2, says Brad Lynch. I'm holding off for the Quest 3 if the Valve Deckard doesn't release this year.

That's what I'm hoping for with the Quest 3 coming next year - although the goggles' specs are not that much different from Q2, maybe there will be a proper display connection with PCs.

Meta has already confirmed that Quest 3 will be this year.

 

[konga]

Considering the required resolution and stability, it's pretty hard to believe you can play any quality VR content without a PC,

I believe it would make sense to sell a cheaper, memoryless version for PC use only.

Well, the Meta Quest/Quest 2 are the most popular headsets by far, and their stand-alone capabilities play a large role in that. The most obvious benefit is that anyone can buy one and start playing things right away without having an expensive PC, opening up the market to totally PC-less normies. A secondary benefit is that there are no cables when using one, allowing you to have a fully untethered VR experience. This is pretty valuable to a lot of people.

Because the Quest headsets are so popular, most VR games and apps are actually pretty lightweight and are designed to run on these low-power devices. This means that you can run the vast majority of VR stuff just fine on one. It will be straight-up incompatible with many of the heavier VR games though, it's true. PC VR is like a separate ecosystem of its own with higher-fidelity games that can't really run on a Quest, though the market is much smaller so there's not much investment happening in this space from developers.

The biggest reason behind dropping the price is that on the 14th of this month HTC is releasing the much smaller Vive XR Elite for $999 USD. It has a depth sensor included. The depth sensor was removed from the Quest Pro at the last minute. I would say even at the new price while it's a great hmd I would wait for the Quest 3 due to release this year. I fairly sure they will release it the day of this years Connect. The Quest 3 will have the same great pancake lenses like the Pro.

The Vive XR Elite seems somewhat interesting, but what I want to know is how anyone is releasing a $999 headset in this day and age without eye tracking. That's a minor crime in of itself.

 

[Mindweaver]

The Vive XR Elite seems somewhat interesting, but what I want to know is how anyone is releasing a $999 headset in this day and age without eye tracking. That's a minor crime in of itself.

This is very true but for the size and weight they are trying to hit I will accept it. It's the closest thing we have to glasses with 6dof. The big thing for me is how is the store and how much is just VR vs stuff made for XR. Then next how good is the FOV for VR.

 

[mrnagant]

Beings how easy it is to sideload apks on the Quest, if that is how you install games, I would recommend the 256GB model. Especially for only $30 more. A number of games I would hate to be plugged into a cable. Games like SuperHot, you can easily use a 10x10 space. Beat Saber or similar games, when you really get moving it is nice to not have a cable. Games such as these, you don't even really need fidelity. They are simple games that don't demand a lot, so the most you gain is resolution. They still look good. Even games like Vadar Immortal look good. Just think of the Switch. It is really all in how you design your game. Switch is old, not powerful but you can still make very beautiful looking 3D games.

I actually don't really use Quest2 to play PC games. I don't care to sit in my computer chair to play VR. I am either missing out on some experience where I need to move my entire body, or I would rather be on the comfort of my couch for games I can stay stationary. You could do wireless, but for me the latency is too noticeable and reduces the overall experience.

What I would rather see and would love to buy, is a Quest2 like product running SteamOS with Steamdeck performance.

 

[Denver]

Well, the Meta Quest/Quest 2 are the most popular headsets by far, and their stand-alone capabilities play a large role in that. The most obvious benefit is that anyone can buy one and start playing things right away without having an expensive PC, opening up the market to totally PC-less normies. A secondary benefit is that there are no cables when using one, allowing you to have a fully untethered VR experience. This is pretty valuable to a lot of people.

Because the Quest headsets are so popular, most VR games and apps are actually pretty lightweight and are designed to run on these low-power devices. This means that you can run the vast majority of VR stuff just fine on one. It will be straight-up incompatible with many of the heavier VR games though, it's true. PC VR is like a separate ecosystem of its own with higher-fidelity games that can't really run on a Quest, though the market is much smaller so there's not much investment happening in this space from developers.


The Vive XR Elite seems somewhat interesting, but what I want to know is how anyone is releasing a $999 headset in this day and age without eye tracking. That's a minor crime in of itself.

I was never interested in VR, but after testing the PSVR2 it opened my eyes to how fun the new interactions in VR can be, it can even be a good exercise. :')

 

[tussinman]

Does this work without a PC?

It does. Popular games that run on it standalone wise is Resident Evil 4, Beat Saber, population one, Eleven table tennis.

The more visual breathtaking games (Half Life Alyx, Star Wars Squadrons, Flight Simulator VR, Skyrim VR) require you to connect it to a PC and have beefy specs.