Everything we've heard about the upcoming cheaper version of Quest 3

There is strong evidence thatMetais preparing to launch a cheaperQuest 3 Alternative, direct replacement for Quest 2.

Here's why we're almost certain it's happening, along with all the rumors about the upcoming headset, which will allegedly be called the Quest 3 Lite or Quest 3S.

Quest 2 is on its way out, Meta needs a replacement

Since the Quest 3 launched in October, Meta has reduced the price of the Quest 2 to $250 several times, and recently even to just $200. In April, it also lowered the price of official Quest 2 accessories by more than 50%.

In February, the Quest 2's higher storage capacity 256GB model was completely sold out and has been removed from all retailers, indicating that production of at least that model has ended.

In recent weeks, we've also seen the first announcements of heavy VR games that will launch as Quest 3 instead of Quest 2, including Survios' Alien: Rogue Incursion and Meta-owned studio Camouflaj's Batman: Shadows of Arkham.

Meta's continued price reductions for the Quest 2 headset and accessories, the disappearance of the 256GB model, and the announcement that it will no longer support its premiere game strongly suggests that the headset will soon be available in themarketOn the disappearance.

But the fact is that if the Quest 2 is withdrawn from the market, the entry price of Meta's Quest platform will increase to $500 for the Quest 3's 128GB model. So in order to expand the VR market as quickly as possible, Meta needs to launch a cheaper headset that can run the same content as the Quest 3.

Meta roadmap leak confirms a cheaper headset coming this year

Back in March 2023, about ten months before the Quest 3 shipped, Meta's internal VR and AR hardware roadmap meeting leaked to The Verge.

In addition to accurately describing the details of the then-unannounced Quest 3 and Quest Pro 2, the leaked conference also revealed that Meta is also planning to release a more "easy-to-use" headset in 2024.

Here's how Meta's VP of VR, Mark Rabkin, described the headset in that leaked meeting:

"The goal of this headset is simple: to achieve maximum impact in the VR consumer market at the most attractive price point."

Bloomberg Mark Gurman describes its appearance and price

Bloomberg Mark Gurman has a strong track record of reliably reporting Meta and Apple hardware and software moves in advance. For example, he reliably reported on the Oculus Quest 2 and Apple before it was officially revealed or even acknowledged to exist VisionProof many details.

A few days before the launch of the Quest 3, Gurman reported that Meta's next headset would be a "mixed reality headset" that "looks a lot like the Quest 3 but uses lower-cost components."

他的报道称，Meta的目标是达到300美元的价格，至少“考虑”不附带控制器发售该头戴设备。但需要注意的是，最近几个月，马克·扎克伯格赞扬Touch Plus控制器是他认为Quest 3优于Apple Vision Pro的一个关键原因。

National analysts claim the device uses XR2 Gen 2 Fennel lenses

A week after Gurman's report, a national analyst officially released his claims about the device, after accurately reporting that Meta andPICOHeadgear details.

The analyst first reported that the device would use the Quest 3's new Qualcomm XR2 Gen 2 chip, but come with the Quest 2's older Fennel lenses to lower the price.

He claimed that the product could be named "Quest 3 Lite" and launched between $200 and $300.

The Wall Street Journal confirmed reports of these specifications

In November, the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta planned to bring a cheaper version of Quest 3 into the country through a deal with Tencent.

Tencent's deal has previously been reported by domestic news site 36Kr and the Wall Street Journal, but in previous reports the headset was reported as the Quest 2.

A November report in the Wall Street Journal claimed that this cheaper version, the Quest 3, used cheaper lenses than the Quest 3 but had a more powerful GPU than the Quest 2, seemingly in line with national analysts.

Does it support color mixed reality?

From reports so far, it looks like the cheaper headset will use the same XR2 Gen 2 chip as the Quest 3 with Fennel lenses. What's less clear, however, is whether or not it will feature similar color penetration as the Quest 3.

By including the XR2 Gen 2 chip, the Meta will enable the less expensive Quest 3 to run the same VR content at the same level of quality as the main Quest 3. From a developer's perspective, there won't be any difference. But if the cheaper Quest 3 doesn't have similar mixed reality capabilities, developers will have to treat it very differently to integrate mixed reality features.

Supporting the idea that the cheaper Quest 3 must include Mixed Reality is the fact that in January, Paul Furgale, Director of Technical Engineering at Meta XR, seemed to directly imply that all future Quest headsets would support Mixed Reality.Paul Furgale, Director of Technical Engineering at XR, stated "After experiencing the Quest 3, I'm convinced that through the road and MR will be a standard feature on all future headset devices."

While the dual 4 megapixel color cameras on the Quest 3 may have some special features such as a global shutter, they are unlikely to cost anything significant. The real cost of the penetration feature is having chips that can efficiently handle 8 megapixels per frame, and the XR2 Gen 2 handles that part.

In October 2024, Quest firmware data miner Samulia discovered a new headset called Panther.Samulia had previously discovered many of the Quest Pro's specs a year earlier, as well as the Quest 3's resolution and 3D spatial mesh capabilities.

The reference to Panther is to "simulate" it on Quest 3 (Quest 3 was codenamed Eureka at the time). According to the debug log text, applying this setting helped Meta test the room setup functionality without a depth projector.

Many believe that the Quest 3's depth projector is a key component of its penetration capabilities, but this is not actually the case. In fact, it is only used to generate a 3D scene grid during room setup. The real-time depth map used to re-project the penetration is generated by a computer vision software algorithm that compares the views from the two front-facing grayscale tracking cameras.

Theoretically, the depth projector does not even need to fully generate a 3D scene mesh. Estimating depth without the need for hardware-level depth perception is a fast-improving area in computer vision, and the fact that Quest 3 has already achieved this suggests that the same estimates can be used to generate a scene mesh. While it may be less accurate compared to Quest 3 and require you to be close to every wall, Meta may find this trade-off acceptable for devices that cost significantly less.

Summary (too long to read)

Putting all the evidence together, it's likely that production of the Quest 2 has ended and Meta is currently clearing out inventory in preparation for the launch of a similarly priced direct replacement.

The replacement - whether it's called the Quest 3 Lite, Quest 3S, or any other name - appears to be going to use the same Qualcomm XR2 Gen 2 chip as the Quest 3, allowing it to run the same content but also use the older Fennel lenses from the Quest 2 to achieve a price tag in the neighborhood of $300.

它可能还支持彩色混合现实，但可能带有更慢且不太准确的房间设置流程。

事实上，这款头戴设备将是一款价格更便宜的Quest 3，设计更为臃肿，镜片清晰度较差。它将使更多人享受Quest 3的VR图形-并可能大大扩大室感知混合现实市场。