Meta Quest Pro’s big permanent price cut after 4 months of release, alongside with price drop of Meta Quest 2 256GB Model
Originally, Meta launched the Quest Pro for $1,500 in the US and €1,800 in Europe. However, according to reviews and feedback from users who purchased the Quest Pro, the product did not live up to its high price tag. The headset was criticized for its low resolution, lack of a depth sensor, uncomfortable head strap, low-resolution passthrough, and the use of cartoonish low-poly avatars in Horizon worlds and workrooms, which were advertised as key features of the Quest Pro for work and productivity purposes.
Meta has been experimenting with the price of the Quest Pro headset, as evidenced by a $400 price drop for one week in January of this year. This move was likely part of Meta’s experimenting – they wanted to know how many headsets will sell this week and how will it influence the VR industry.
Mark Zuckerberg in his Meta Channel Broadcast on Instagram informed about the most recent Meta Quest Pro’s huge 500$ price drop. Meta’s most popular consumer VR Headset, Quest 2, also gets a price drop, but only for the 256GB Model. The price drop is 70$ – From 500$ to 429$ Meta wants to “create new hardware so more people can get into VR” – So price drops are reasonable.
But according to the most recent Meta roadmap, Meta has no plans to create a high-end mixed-reality device in the near future. They are planning to create a Meta Quest Pro successor, La Jolla, but they hinted that we cannot expect it in near future. So why sell the high-end hardware at a possible loss, when there is no other hardware on the horizon? Well, there is.
Meta Quest 3 – The hardware to take a wheel after Meta Quest Pro?
All of the leaks about Meta Quest 3 together suggest that it could be a significant upgrade over Meta Quest Pro, despite being half the price. Meta Quest 3 is about to feature the same pancake lenses and FOV as Quest Pro, higher resolution displays, and a chip that’s twice as powerful as Quest Pro’s.
Quest 3 will also feature more complex mixed-reality experiences, with a depth sensor and two RGB cameras on board. In comparison, the Meta Quest Pro features only one RGB camera that overlays color on two black-and-white cameras and lacks a depth sensor. Recent leaks also suggest that Quest 3 will cost slightly more than the current Meta Quest 2, likely somewhere between $429 and $500. This is still significantly less than the Quest Pro, which only offers eye and face tracking as additional features that Quest 3 won’t have.
That being said, it is worth noting that Quest Pro’s eye and face tracking are supported by a small number of games and applications, so it may not be that huge of a deal for many people.
Even if Meta Quest 3 will cost 500$, the bundle with Quest Pro’s controllers will still cost 800$, which is still 200$ less than the Meta Quest Pro offer. It is highly possible that Meta wants to sell as many current Quest headsets as possible until they release powerful new hardware which will be in almost every way better and still affordable.
