C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A leaked render of Meta’s budget-friendly VR headset has surfaced online.
- The render lacks the front passthrough camera array from the Quest 3.
- The headset is rumored to be called Quest 3 Lite.
This year might be the year AR/VR headsets finally break into the mainstream. While Apple’s Vision Pro offered a glimpse of a futuristic mixed reality (MR) world — at an extremely high price — Meta seems to be focused on making VR more accessible as it works on what could be its most affordable Quest headset yet. A new render may have just shown us the design of this cheaper headset.
As reported by The Verge last year, Meta’s VR vice president, Mark Rabkin, spoke about plans to release a more affordable headset in 2024. Internally known as Ventura, Rabkin said the company was aiming to “pack the biggest punch at the most attractive price point in the VR consumer market.” For months, rumors have been swirling about this headset. Now, we might have our first look at it.
A recent leak on X (formerly Twitter) by VR accessory seller VRpanda may have revealed the possible design for the upcoming headset. The post adds that this new headset could be called the Meta Quest 3 Lite.
While it resembles past Meta Quest models, the render seems to lack the passthrough camera array of the pricier Quest 3. An affordable “lite” version of the Quest 3 would need to cut corners somewhere to bring the price down. However, we don’t expect that this is the way that Meta would try to save a little money.
When it comes down to it, the cost of the headset is more associated with the costly chip processing the massive amount of pixels per frame rather than the cameras. Multiple reliable sources in the past have claimed that the upcoming Quest Lite headset will use the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset as the pricier Quest 3. Reality Labs Director of Engineering for XR Tech, Paul Furgale also hinted in a blog post that “Passthrough and MR will be a standard feature on all future headsets” after the Quest 3.
Moreover, the detail contradicts some earlier reports. So we would recommend taking this render with a healthy dose of skepticism. It’s currently unclear where Meta will try to cut costs, but rumors have suggested that the headset could come without controllers.