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Meta is reportedly planning some major upgrades to the screens used in its upcoming headsets, though we expect it will be some time before the rumored micro-OLED panel it’s been working on.
One problem that most VR headsets suffer from – be it budget-friendly models like the Oculus Quest 2 or a more premium device like the Meta Quest Pro – is the “screen door” effect. Because your eyes are so close to the screen, you may start to see gaps in the pixels that make it look like black lines are running across the screen (making it look like you’re looking at the objects on the screen through a screen door).
Meta appears to be addressing this issue soon, however, with reports indicating it’s teaming up with two South Korean manufacturers, SK Hynix and LG Display, to develop a new batch of micro-OLED screens for its headsets (via The Electric (opens in new tab)).
If that’s true, the high pixel count of the micro OLED panels should make the screen door effect much less noticeable and even disappear. In addition, the headsets would also benefit from the better contrast and power efficiency of OLED screens, compared to the LCD screens currently used by Meta’s Quest 2 and Quest Pro.
Unfortunately, if Meta plans to adopt this display made by LG and SKHynix, we don’t expect to see it until the headset that follows the Oculus Quest 3 appears. With the Quest 3 almost certainly coming out later this year – unless it’s hit by a delay – there probably won’t be enough time for those display companies to develop a new display for it, much less produce it and put it in the market. to include design.
It’s much more likely that we’ll first see these micro-OLED screens appear in the Meta Quest Pro 2 or the Oculus Quest 4, both of which are at least a few years away. That said, we wouldn’t be surprised if the Quest 4 along with the Quest 3 lacked the upgraded micro-OLED panels.
The new screens will probably be quite pricey – too expensive for Meta’s cheaper range of Quest devices. So we expect this to be a prosumer enhancement that will remain exclusive to the Quest Pro line for a generation or two – much like the eye and face tracking features that Meta introduced with its first Pro headset, which is said to be won’t come to base models until component costs come down.
We’ll have to wait and see if and when these improved panels come to light – and which models they’ll be used in – but hopefully we’ll see some better screens in Meta’s headsets soon. The screen door effect can be a major obstacle to how immersive VR experiences feel to some, and improving the hardware is the only way to remove this and make the best VR headsets even better.