Quest 3 preview

[Unseul]

A First Look at the Headset That Could Be Apple’s Biggest Competition

This week, I go hands-on with Meta’s yet-to-be-announced Quest 3 and explain how it may be the biggest challenger to Apple’s new headset. Also: The first major iOS 17 details emerge, Apple extends its supply agreement with Broadcom, and a tap-to-pay executive departs.

www.bloomberg.com

Obviously not a vr enthusiast writer as he misses out some key points but some interesting things raised.

No tracking rings, but also no cameras in the controllers...

No eye tracking.

Feels lighter but apparently not a huge improvement in resolution.

Can use phone in passthrough.

Doesn't comment ( that I saw) on fov, lenses, Hz, screen type.

 

[Unseul]

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It'll be interesting how it performs compared to the Pro, but it will have the advantage of being a mass-market headset, so there will be more developers using its power. Though I expect games to be hobbled by having to support Quest 2 until there are enough quest 3s sold to make it worthwhile for Quest 3 exclusives.

Don't know about hobbled, suspect there'll be two versions, one with upgraded graphics.

 

[Unseul]

As a PC headset I think the Pro is going to be better than the Quest 3. I have no confidence that the Q3 display as a whole (apart from a small bump in resolution) will be better.

Q3 will be a better performing stand-alone headset but the controllers have worse tracking than the Pro and it doesn't ship with a charging dock or a decent headstrap. By the time you've added pro controllers, charging dock and a decent headstrap you're probably exceeding Pro pricing.

What I would love is a Pro2 with the Q3 processor, higher resolution MiniLED with more dimming zones and a depth sensor - something that could take the wind out of Apple's sails.

Better codec, better chip, could lead to better wireless pcvr.

As I've said, I'm probably not going for a Q3 on release anymore, but will wait for a bargain I guess.

 

[Unseul]

I'll wait and see what exclusives it has. But I bet it'll be a while before there are many as they need to keep supporting Q2.

With 20 million q2s I don't see them doing too many Q3 exclusives at all to be honest. I suspect next gen will be out by then.

 

[Unseul]

The direction leading to better screens, tracking, hand tracking, wireless gaming, and a 100x larger player base that actually has developers interested in developing VR games.

I'll take it...

 

[Unseul]

No point developing games for VR if the hardware isn't upto scratch or priced so far out of this galaxy that only the rich can afford to play it. You'll never make back what you put in development costs if that was the case.

Q3 needs to be a success and cheap enough for the masses to buy and use.

Q2 will remain the cheaper option, and I suspect it'll remain supported for some time.

 

[Unseul]

What do you guys expect regards clarity improvement for PCVR? What's the current limitation of the quest 2, for example if it's encoding, then that won't change between q2 and Q3, or is it the display itself or is it the lenses?

Why wouldn't encoding change? Far more powerful processor means it can unpack much faster, better Wifi means it can receive more data. At the very least, a better chip would perhaps be able to improve ASW performance. It also supports decoding the new AV1 codec, which might make a larger difference.

 

[Unseul]

The main issue will be that in addition to ~£500 for the headset I’ll probably need to pony up another ~£150 for an upgraded head strap and some prescription lenses!

That’s what’s making me consider whether to hit the preorder button as it’ll be more like £700 all in for it. Plus I’m unlikely to get much more than £150 for selling my quest 2!

I've found adding a cheap rubber type skull cap on the back of my original quest 2 strap, covered in some old foam and a universal battery pack holder has worked fantastically. Very comfortable and cheap.

 

[Unseul]

Or the 512Gb model with addons will take you past £1000. For that money you can have the 256Gb pro model with superior controllers and other things superior?????

Worse processor though. Have to say, until I see what the reviews are on the q3, I'm not sure if I'd rather the q3 vs a pro. For now, I'm just sitting on the 2 though.

 

[Unseul]

Hey guys, I just went into Selfridges in Oxford Street looking for a demo of the Meta Quest or Meta Quest 2 just to get an idea of what current VR looks like as I'm probably going to buy the Meta Quest 3. He was able to let me try the Pico. I was really pleasantly surprised with how comfortable it is wearing my glasses and that was without their extender to separate glasses and lens further. I reckon I could wear the Pico for some time and may not need to buy prescription lens.The head strap has a rotating wheel which easily loosens and tightens so it felt very solid, and that was apparently just the default strap.The padding is deep and soft. My question is, will the Meta Quest 3 likely be as comfortable/feel as good as the Pico without aftermarket bits and bobs?

You may need to buy an aftermarket strap for it. But you can ask Shi as to how many issues he's had with the software etc, and why he's coming back to the quest lineups.

 

[Unseul]

Sorry Unseul, when I replied to you earlier I thought you meant buying a strap for the Pico, but of course you meant for the Quest3. I've just been checking out aftermarket strap reviews on youtube for the Quest2 and by far, the Kiwi Design seems to be the one everyone says is the most comfortable and balanced. Assuming Kiwi make one for the Quest3, I guess that's the one I'm going to get.

My current plan, when I eventually get a q3, and assuming it's a very similar material strap, is simply to swap over my current half home made contraption onto the new headset . The slimmer profile should help with a lot of the wobble regardless.

 

[Unseul]

Got my discount code. I don't know whether to go for 128Gb (£432) or 512Gb (£558) versions.

Hate this approach of non upgradable storage.

I'm not buying the strap straight away, will wait to see how the default strap is first.

They've updated it, it no longer works.

Well, if you add 4 gaming mice to the order, it does... but then I'm not sure of the point. I guess if you have a lot of stuff you need to buy anyway, to top it up until you reach the point it suddenly starts working (I think a ps5 controller added to the order made it work too).

 

[Unseul]

Yep thats it.

Once dispatched I get a £100 credit. I'll just pay the full remaining amount up once that comes through.

So it's a credit note, rather than a discount? Can you definitely use the credit to pay off the item you earned the credit on?

 

[Unseul]

Has anyone seen any information on AV1 codec on Quest 3? I'm aware of the computational requirements of AV1 being significantly higher than H265, but I haven't seen any benchmarking of the decode speed on XR2 Gen2.

It looks like the throughput of both AMD 7000 and NV 4000 AV1 encoders is very good, better than H264 and H265. But throughput is not the same as latency, nor can I find anything on the latency to decode on the Q3. Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-intel-nvidia-video-encoding-performance-quality-tested
Interesting to note the AMD AV1 encoder has higher FPS than NV...

I think we're just going to have to wait and see to be honest, I know I've read that Guy Godin (virtual desktop) has spoken about it, and whilst I don't remember exactly what was said, I don't think he was too excited? The chip power alone could easily mean that all decoding is much improved.

 

[Unseul]

is the Q3 really 110 degrees? if so far from complaining about it, that would be amazing, and would make it the biggest FOV headset to come from oculus/facebook/meta.

iirc the true FOV of Quest2 is around 96 degrees and quest pro 106 degress.

It's meant to be slightly better than the pro I believe, but obviously depends on the facial interface, eye relief settings etc.

 

[Unseul]

17.03 for me. Though my delivery may well be later due to being on the Isle of Wight.

 

[Unseul]

Not selling as well as hoped... it's not even released yet, and there's people reporting shortages for the 512gb in lots of countries.

I've not watched, so what are his sources?

 

[Unseul]

I think his sources are an article from that rock of unbiased reporting website called Ars Technica. That's sarcasm by the way. Basically Ars Technia hate Meta/Facebook. Remember they were the ones that said the Quest 2 was crap and it was going to fail badly. They produced another article recently saying that the Quest 3 sales were terrible and, just like their Quest 2 article, gave a lot of dubious information to backup their claim.

Now, I don't know if the Quest 3 is selling well or not. I don't think it's going to sell as well as the Quest 2 as that was released in a perfect storm. But I wouldn't base how good or bad the Quest 3 is doing or how good/bad the Quest 3 is from an article from Ars Technia.

The Ars technica review was awesome in just how bad it was if it's from them I'll definitely be taking it with a pinch of salt!

 

[Unseul]

Just got an email from Berry saying they're on their way via royal mail.

 

[Unseul]

Royal mail are fairly reliable but their tracking granularity is poor. Mine apparantly is at local depot although email yesterday said between 10-1pm, its now 11.30 so I don't know if they will meet that slot.

Yeah, mine is still apparently local depot, but between 11.30 and 3.30! So a big window for me to have to work on my laptop, rather than on my proper computer .