Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 AR/VR platform is very powerful

Those who’ve been following all the Meta Connect 2023 news probably know that the Quest 3 is powered by Qualcomm’s brand-new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 platform. First revealed by Mark Zuckerberg during Meta Quest 3’s presentation, Qualcomm’s next-gen AR/VR platform is a lot more powerful than the previous iteration.

What makes the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 very interesting platform is the fact that it brings premium Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality technology into a single chip architecture. Also, it’s relatively cheap to allow Meta to keep the price of the Quest 3 to very affordable levels compared with other VR headsets.

First off, the new platform comes with Qualcomm’s next-gen Adreno GPU (graphics processing unit), which powers 2.5x higher GPU performance compared to Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1.

Also, Snapdragon XR2 Gen features support for up to 3K by 3K displays, providing more depth, shades, textures and colors for the best immersive entertainment experience.

Thanks to the upgraded IPS and full color, ultra-fast 12ms video see-through latency, Meta Quest 3 users will benefit from very smooth transitions between the real and the virtual world.

Finally, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 platform features support for the company’s latest FastConnect technology, allowing users to experience lag-free and shared XR experience with ultra-fast Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 and 5.2 wireless connectivity for 60 percent higher throughput and 80 percent lower latency.

Meta’s Quest 3 is just the first mixed-reality headset that takes advantage of Qualcomm’s powerful Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, but it will be interesting to see if other companies involved in the VR/AR space will embrace the new platform.