Should you buy a Quest 3? Here’s a list of all the new top features to help you decide!

 

Augments: finally, proper AR support!... In 2024

While the Quest 3 is certainly an entertainment-focused VR headset, it differs from the Quest 2 and even the Quest Pro in one major way: its AR capabilities. Not only does the Quest 3 offer better passthrough in color, but it allows you to do things with that ability too.

So, Meta calls these Augments and essentially, they are interactive objects that you can place in the physical space around you. As in, something really close to what Apple showcased with the Vision Pro, but it’s still early to do a proper comparison.

Now, of course, a major caveat here is that if you are excited about this one, then you should know that you’ll be able to try it as soon as next year. But in theory, this does mean that you’ll be able to create something like a virtual workspace for yourself with the Quest 3.

IOBT: The Quest 3 tracks your upper body, no trackers required!

Meta’s latest headset is also the first one to support built-in upper body tracking. While this doesn’t mean that you won’t need a set of trackers for fully immersive experiences, it does mean that you are enabled to achieve way more with the headset alone.

This is a massive upgrade over the previous iterations of the Quest, which were only able to track the position of the wearer’s head and arms (thanks to the controllers). The Quest 3 is capable of recognizing things such as elbows and even the position of the torso, which is sure to come in handy for existing and future XR experiences.

And, yes, this feature even has a name: Inside-Out Body Tracking, or IOBT.

AI-Generated Legs? AI-Generated Legs!

So, here’s the thing: it is supper understandable if you don’t want to invest in a pricey set of VR body trackers. They cost a lot, are a pain to set up and not every game even works with them.

So Meta has come up with an alternative for those of us who aren’t in need of hyper-accurate tracking: AI-Generated Legs.

Basically, AI estimates — allegedly, with a high success rate — where the position of your legs should be, relative to the data from the IOBT system from the point above. Based on that: voila, you get kind-of-sort-of trackerless full-body tracking. Nice!

Microgestures: the Quest 3 makes like the Apple Pro

The Quest 3 is capable enough to recognize so-called microgestures from the wearer’s hand. Those would be pokes, grabs, clicks and presumably many more that can be implemented can be recognized by the headset and set to do stuff.

The Quest 3: hard numbers and specs

And, of course, we can’t really consider such a list “complete” with an exhaustive list of specifications for the Quest 3. Here they go:

• Supports 4K with “infinite displays”
• Runs on a resolution of 2064×2208 pixels per eye with a 90Hz refresh rate
• Capable of 120Hz (still experimental and limited)
• 110 degrees horizontal, 96 degrees vertical
• Lens adjustment from 58mm to 71mm IPD
• Runs on the Snapdragon XR2 Gen2 chipset
• Equipped with Pancake lenses
• Supports 3D Spatial Audio (40% louder than the Quest 2)
• Has two RGB camera with 18 PPD
• 8GB of DRAM
• Offers 2.2 hours of battery life on average
• Can be used while charging
• 512gr of weight (40% less than the Quest 2)
• Controllers support TruTouch variable haptics
• Works with Air Link
• Wi-Fi 6E support

So, is the Quest 3 a worthy successor to the Quest 2? For sure, especially for the asking price of $499 for the base 128GB model. After all, this is a PC-VR enabled headset, so you’ll be able to utilize your PC’s hard drive in order to store most of your favorite apps and games too.

But that being said: is this an upgrade that makes sense for you? Well, you still have some time until October 10 rolls around, which is when the headset is going to start shipping. And while we can't guess what your final call will be, we can surely say that we can't wait to try out the Quest 3 in real life!