Meta launches Meta Quest Pro a New VR headset at $1,499.99; Find details

At Meta Connect last night, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company launched a new VR headset called the Meta Quest Pro. The VR headset offers features like high-resolution sensors for robust mixed-reality experiences, LCD screens, sleek design, plus eye-tracking and expressions. natural facials that will help your avatar more naturally reflect you in VR. In recent years, we have seen Meta invest heavily in virtual reality and augmented reality experiences, and the company believes that Metaverse is the future.

Meta Quest Pro launched at $1,499.99, which roughly translates to just over Rs 1.2 lakh. The device comes with earphones, Meta Quest Touch Pro controllers, stylus tips, partial light blockers, and a charging dock.

As for availability, Meta Quest Pro will be available for purchase on October 25. For now, the VR headset will be available in select countries (excluding India) and select retail platforms, including: Best Buy in the US and Canada. , Argos and Currys in the UK and FNAC and Boulanger in France. Interested buyers will also be able to reserve the device on Amazon in the US, UK, Canada and France.

Meta Quest Pro: Features and Specifications

Meta Quest Pro is powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ platform, which is said to be optimized for VR to run with 50 percent more power than Meta Quest 2 with better heat dissipation. The headset comes with 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and 10 high-resolution sensors, which the company says help enhance a variety of immersive experiences.

Meta Quest Pro includes two LCD screens that use local dimming and quantum dot technology with the goal of providing "richer, more vivid colors." " Our custom local dimming tech, powered by specialized backlight hardware and accompanying software algorithms, can control more than 500 individual LED blocks independently, giving the displays 75 per cent more contrast," said the company.

Meta also shared that "Quest Pro also has 37 per cent more pixels per inch and 10 per cent greater pixels per degree than Meta Quest 2, making everything from reading text to playing games look better. Additionally, there's a 25 per cent improvement in full-field visual sharpness in the center view, 50 per cent improvement in the peripheral region, and 1.3X larger color gamut than Meta Quest 2."

The Quest Pro also features a completely new sensor architecture with high-resolution, outward-facing cameras that capture 4x more pixels. The company claims that with Meta Quest Pro, users can see their physical environment in full color. The device also features a Stereoscopic Mixed Reality Passthrough, which combines multiple sensor views to create a natural 3D view of the world.

There's also a continuous lens-gap adjustment mechanism, supporting interpupillary distances (IPDs) between 55mm and 75mm (a larger range than Meta Quest 2, which supports IPDs between 58mm and 72mm). The headset also allows you to adjust the distance of the lens from your eyes with a new eye relief dial to optimize fit, face tracking and viewing experience.

Coming to the Meta Quest Pro controllers, they look a bit different than the ones that ship with Meta Quest 2. The new Meta Quest Touch Pro controllers come with three sensors built into each controller to track your position in 3D space regardless of the headphones. , giving you a full 360-degree range of motion. The controllers also come with improved haptics that use the new TruTouch Haptics system to provide a wider and more accurate range of feedback, as well as rechargeable batteries.

The device includes a charging dock and a 45W USB-C power adapter. It features eye-tracking and natural facial expressions, which the company says "brings us a step closer to showing your authentic self in the metaverse."

"We believe VR devices will help usher in the next computing platform becoming as ubiquitous as laptops and tablets are today and that people will use them in their everyday lives to access the metaverse. With its cutting-edge technologies, Meta Quest Pro represents an important step toward that future. We designed it to expand the possibilities of both VR and mixed reality. And to do that, you need truly innovative hardware," said Meta, commenting about the launch of the new virtual reality headset.