So, what are buyers getting for their money with the new Quest 3? Possibly not unrelated, there are reports that shipment expectations are down. Asking users to upgrade so soon, at a 60 percent premium, is a big risk. While the hardware generation cycle has doubled-it’s three years almost to the day between the launch of the Quest 2 and Quest 3 it was a shade under 17 months between the original Oculus Quest and Quest 2-it’s still about half the roughly six-to-seven year cycle of a conventional gaming console generation. Considering the previous model launched at £399 ($399) for its top-end 256-GB version, that's a significant leap. Quest 3 sees a price bump in line with its technological upgrades, with the basic 128-GB SKU listed at £480 ($500) and the 512-GB version at £620 ($650). It's far from the high-priced luxury item that Apple is planning, but it's also no longer the budget VR-for-all option that the Quest 2 was. With the Quest 3, Meta is now situated somewhere in the middle. At the other, you have companies like Niantic eschewing dedicated hardware in favor of AR gaming apps like Pokémon Go or Monster Hunter Now-stuff to use on the smartphone you already have. Also heavily targeting an imagined MR market, it's set to retail at a ludicrously expensive $3,499. The problem is, it's still not clear that it really knows where that idea ultimately leads, and by extension, who the Quest 3 is really for.Īt one extreme of the market, you have Apple prepping the 2024 release of its Apple Vision Pro headset. But by bringing together the host of technologies needed to make something as mundane as typing feel weirdly futuristic, Meta has provided the first real indication that MR-or, whisper it, maybe even the metaverse-might have potential after all. And, full disclosure, I've cheated slightly-all those italics above were added IRL.ĭon't worry-a new approach to the humble act of typing isn't the most entertaining thing about Quest 3. This is, incidentally, quite fun, turning typing into an ad-hoc quick-fire game. That said, I made things somewhat harder by using hand tracking-it's also possible to aim the Quest 3's controllers at letters, effectively shooting each one to type. I certainly wouldn't want to write virtually regularly, not with the current state of the format. But being able to do this at all, accurately, and using my actual hands to type on the air, is impressive.īack in the physical world now, and on a materially extant keyboard, it's abundantly clear reality still has the edge. Slowly tapping letters one at a time to ensure the virtual keyboard recognizes each input means I'm nowhere near my usual words-per-minute speed-it's taken about 15 minutes to write this much. Typing this way is, to be clear, far from ideal. After several generations of headsets offering pure immersive VR, the Meta Quest 3 also leans into mixed reality, with an upgraded suite of six outward-facing cameras that show your real-world surroundings in full color, track your hand movements far more accurately than on Quest 2, and allow the gizmo to place digital objects-like ghostly keebs-within reach. Except “virtual reality” is no longer quite accurate. Or rather, in it, sending a message to myself via VR WhatsApp. I'm writing this on the Quest 3, Meta's latest virtual reality headset. Specifically, typing on an ethereal keyboard that's floating right in front of me, hovering atop my actual real-world office desk. This feels new, different … exciting even.
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