• Facebook owner Meta has unveiled its latest VR headset – the Quest Pro – at this year’s Connect keynote.
• The device is an impressive piece of tech, but its price may keep some consumers away.
• We ask if Meta will be able to turn its metaverse-related losses around with the new corporate-aimed device.

At the beginning of last year, the idea of the “metaverse” was still nascent, existing only in whispers and furtive glances among the executives of then-Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg renamed the largest social media company in the world to Meta in an effort to show his determination that the metaverse was not only real, but could make him and everyone who jumped on the bandwagon billions.

It was also a very successful way to spread the message of his metaverse concept as seemingly everyone on the internet has or had heard of Facebook and tuned into the name change.

Then came questions about what exactly the metaverse is – a game? An app? A marketplace? A business? Or is it all of the above?

How would people even gain access to this metaverse? On Tuesday Meta made the answer quite clear – you’ll pay that’s how and pay a lot.

“So this is an important moment,” said an aloof Zuckerberg at the company’s 2022 virtual Meta Connect keynote. “At Meta, we’re focused on building the fundamental technology that will help bring the metaverse to life.”

Then he revealed the company’s latest VR headset: The Meta Quest Pro.

It looks like Meta is dropping the Oculus name from its future VR headsets and just going with Quest. The device is sleek and looks to us as the epitome of corporate tech design. Ergonomics is likely something the company has invested significant time and money into and the new headset is fashioned with lengthy and daily use in mind.

Here are five things you should know about the Meta Quest Pro

What’s the price?

First and foremost, the Quest Pro is not cheap. It retails for $1 499. 99 (~R27 291.65). This is a similar price to Valve’s Index VR headset (~R27 900), but much more dear than the company’s previous Oculus gaming VR headsets and other devices like the PlayStation VR, which retails for around R9 000.

This price will exclude the run-of-the-mill consumer, but Meta is aiming for bigger fish with the price and hardware of the Quest Pro. Corporates like designers, manufacturers, city planners and architects would be perfect for the device’s AR and VR functionalities, including “Gravity Sketch” – which looks to allow users to draw in 3D in the air in front of them.

What’s under the hood?

Since the Quest Pro is made for “mixed reality” the device comes with high-resolution outward-facing cameras that capture four times as many pixels as previous VR devices like the Meta Quest 2. In-built “pancake” lenses fold light over several times which reduces the size of the headset while allowing sharper visuals.

New “dimming technology” from Meta also gives the device 75 percent more contrast for more vibrant colours. In terms of silicon, the Quest Pro is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ processor, which is optimised for VR, the company says.

New touch controllers are coming with the device. Zuckerberg says that the “controllers are now basically their own computers, which is a bit ridiculous.” New camera sensors mounted on the front of the controllers track their positions in 3D space. They come with an analog stick, two buttons – A and B – and even a back-mounted trigger.

Even if the headset becomes a corporate office mainstay, gaming will never truly leave its DNA.

The battery pack of the device is also mounted on the back for added ergonomics.

What’s different about it?

Meta says that the Quest Pro has inward-facing sensors, able to capture your natural facial expressions and eye tracking. This means that your metaverse avatar will laugh when you laugh. Its eyes will move with your eyes and even its cheeks can puff up with your own.

A new partnership with Microsoft will see Microsoft Windows 365 and Microsoft Teams integration within the company’s metaverse meetings app Meta Horizon Workrooms.

At the same keynote, the company also announced new and improved metaverse avatars were coming to Meta’s Horizon Worlds platform which will surely look and feel even better through the Quest Pro.

What will its future be?

Time will tell what the device’s future will be. Zuckerberg wholeheartedly believes the metaverse is future of big tech and has invested billions into the company’s metaverse wing Reality Labs.

So far it has been a costly endeavour for Meta. It lost $2.8 billion during the second quarter related to Reality Labs. With the price of the Quest Pro, some analysts have chimed in that Meta will be alienating its consumer base to provide a high-end device aimed at big corporates.

The strategy around the VR headset in question has never been done before at least not at this scale. Will corporates flock to snap models up? This seems unlikely to us, and apart from designers and artists with deep personal pockets, and manic VR heads, who is left to buy the expensive business device?

When is it available?

The Meta Quest Pro will begin shipping on 25th October 2022. Users can now pre-order the high-end VR device here. As of the time of writing South Africa is currently not included in the device’s shipping regions (23 of the world’s leading economies).

We will definitely give you a heads-up if this ever changes.