Meta Quest 3 VR Headset Arrives This Fall and Costs Just $500

The long-awaited true sequel to the Meta Quest 2 is nearly upon us, as the company just dropped some juicy details for the Quest 3. 

CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the new Meta Quest 3 headset just a few hours before the company's latest games showcase event. The Quest 3 is next-gen in nearly every sense of the word, with mixed reality support and full-color passthrough. The grainy black-and-white passthrough with the Quest 2 was a sticking point for many, so this is a welcome update. For the uninitiated, this lets users see a color version of the physical space around them, powered by external cameras. Zuckerberg says it's "the first mainstream headset with high-res color mixed reality."

The computing power and graphics are getting a beefy update, too, with Zuckerberg boasting that the next-gen Qualcomm chipset offers twice the graphical fidelity of the Quest 2. Meta says this is its "most powerful headset yet," which must sting a bit for anyone who plunked down $1,000 to $1,500 on the Quest Pro. 

Despite the added power, the Quest 3 is thinner and lighter than the Quest 2. Meta's advertising a 40 percent reduction in size. The controllers have also been completely redesigned with the same haptic feedback tech found with the Quest Pro. Meta has removed the outer tracking rings, making the controllers more comfortable to use. Hand tracking will also be an option right out of the box. 

The Quest 3 will offer full backward compatibility with the previous generation, with many exclusive titles on the way.

As for the price, it starts at $500 for the 128GB model. This is $50 less than a PSVR 2 without considering the added cost of a PlayStation 5.

It’s also likely to be much less expensive than Apple’s long-rumored mixed-reality headset, which should get a proper announcement next week at WWDC. Zuckerberg says more information regarding the Quest 3 will come this September, with a fall launch date after that.