Meta’s best VR headset is down to its lowest-ever price, but not for long
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Have your eye on a Meta Quest Pro VR headset but put off by the eye-popping price? Then you’re in luck: it’s currently $400 / £200 cheaper than usual, but only for a limited time.
At the moment (January 30, 2023) the Meta Quest Pro is down to $1,100 at Meta’s official store (opens in new tab) in the US, while Brits can pick it up for £1,300 from Meta’s UK store (opens in new tab). Unfortunately, this deal doesn’t last forever, so if you want to grab one of the best VR headsets for the lowest price ever, you’ve only got until the end of the week in the US – or two weeks in the UK.
If you’re one of those people who considers Meta’s Oculus Quest 2 headset to be below par and don’t want to wait for the Oculus Quest 3 to launch at the end of the year, this is a great deal to take advantage of while you can.
Looking for something to play with the Meta Quest Pro? Check out the VR games and apps we played in January 2023, or our picks for the best VR games.
In terms of raw power and performance, comfort and features, the Meta Quest Pro is by far the best VR headset from Meta.
Not only does it offer the same standalone VR experience as the brand’s other Quest devices – meaning you don’t feel the constant tug of a cable tethering you to your PC or console – but it also improves on legacy setups with miniLED higher quality panels and powerful Snapdragon XR2 Plus chipset.
It also has an improved design with more padding and better weight distribution; unlike previous Quest models – which have a heavy front layout – the Quest Pro houses the battery in the strap, placing it on the back of your head and using it to counterbalance the screens and cameras on your face.
But despite the Quest Pro’s improvements, the less-impressive Quest 2 is still the VR headset we think is best for most people, especially since it’s so damn cheap. You can pick up Meta’s older headset for just $400 / £400 / AU$630, which is less than a third of the cost of Meta’s Pro model; it’s certainly less capable, but in the ways that matter, it’s certainly not a third as capable.
However, where Meta’s Quest Pro could take the advantage is in its unique tools: eye and face tracking and color passing. These features are exactly what they sound like; Eye and face tracking allows the Pro to track your eye and facial movements and use them in VR experiences, and color pass-through means a wearer can see the real world in color thanks to the Pro’s cameras, without having to remove the device ( which is great for mixed reality software).
The technology required to run these new features is seemingly where most of the Quest Pro’s extra cost comes from, but right now they feel more like gimmicks than must-have hardware. That’s not to say that these features don’t benefit titles that implement them, but they’re fairly minor upgrades and so far we’ve yet to use software that makes the extra cost worth it.
We think this may change in the coming year. With PlayStation VR 2 also introducing eye tracking, we’re likely to see a slew of apps making good use of it; we’re particularly excited about the capabilities of foveated rendering, a feature that allows headsets to selectively display only what the user is looking at. This allows them to use their power more efficiently and enable higher quality experiences.
Given that the Quest 3 isn’t expected to launch with facial or eye-tracking capabilities, Meta’s Quest Pro might be the only device in its range to enjoy these souped-up experiences for the foreseeable future. So it could be a good idea to pick up the Pro for a bargain price if you want to experience the best VR has to offer.
That said, choosing to wait might not be a bad idea either. There’s a lot of excitement to come this year with the launch of the Quest 3, HTC Vive XR Elite and the Apple VR headset; so we wouldn’t be surprised if this discount returns later in the year to entice people to stick with VR’s current champ.