After officially introducing its Quest 3 headset, Meta shared that it is dropping the price of its Quest 2 device up to $100. Also, the Facebook parent company promised to deliver a software update to Quest 2 and Quest Pro, giving them better CPU and GPU performances.
As expected, the arrival of the new Quest 3 pushed Meta to make its earlier VR headset offerings more affordable. According to the company, the price of the Quest 2 with 128GB storage will drop to $299.99 on June 4, while the 256GB version will be $349.99. That translates to a $100 decrease in the former and $80 for the latter. Nonetheless, it is important to note that Meta made $100 price increases to the said versions a year ago, which means the drop is somehow only bringing back the device’s initial prices. Yet, it is still great news as the price cuts should aid the versions continuously attract buyers, especially once the Quest 3 hits the stores in the fall at $499.99.
As Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared, Quest 3 received huge improvements compared to its predecessors, especially in terms of video pass-through for mixed reality and speed in performance. According to the report, it is even possible to use your phone while wearing the headset. With this, Quest 3 might easily overshadow the older Quest models. Meta, nonetheless, wants to keep these old Quest headsets relevant by making price cuts and enhancing their performances via updates.
“In an upcoming software update, we’re updating the Quest 2 and Quest Pro GPU and CPU,” Meta wrote in its recent blog. “Quest 2 and Pro will see an up-to 26% CPU performance increase with an up-to 19% GPU speed increase for Quest 2 and 11% for Quest Pro. As developers take advantage of these changes, you can expect smoother gameplay, a more responsive UI, and richer content on both headsets. And we’re enabling Dynamic Resolution Scaling for both Quest 2 and Quest Pro, so games and apps can take advantage of increased pixel density without dropping frames.”
The announcement came prior to the expected unveiling of Apple’s rumored headset, which is expected to challenge Meta’s offerings. However, as Gurman noted in the report, the headsets of the two companies will target different sections of the VR market. Apple’s headset will reportedly be offered at $3,000 as a high-end device. Meta, meanwhile, will continue to market its Quest products as affordable VR headsets.
