What you need to know
- The Oculus Quest 3 (Meta Quest 3) made its way into someone’s hands early, revealing the full design and potential retail box contents.
- The leak shows how much thinner the headset is, plus how the new ringless controllers look in person.
- The Quest 3 looks to have a silicone face pad pre-installed and features a similar cloth strap to the Oculus Quest 2.
- We’re expecting a full release of the Quest 3 sometime in October with the full unveiling on September 27.
We’re still one full month away from the official Oculus Quest 3 unveiling and showcase but one lucky person has already gotten their hands on what looks like a retail model of the new VR console.
The video embedded below shows the $500 Oculus Quest 3 — more officially known as the Meta Quest 3 — along with the new controllers and a quick look at the headset design in person. We’ve already known the Quest 3 is 40% thinner than the Quest 2 based on information revealed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg back in June, but it’s great to see it in someone else’s hands to get an idea of the scale.
Funny enough, this same thing happened with the Quest Pro when it was left in a hotel room just two months before the official unveiling.
Quest 3 leaked early again #metaquest #Quest3 pic.twitter.com/KfjXx5Qxi7August 23, 2023
The headset looks like it ships with a silicone face pad similar to the one used on the Quest 2. That’s a relief since this type of face pad is far more comfortable than the scratchy, sweat-absorbing foam the Quest 2 originally shipped with.
But the Oculus Quest 3 also looks to ship with a cloth strap that looks incredibly similar to the one that ships with the Quest 2. Rumors suggest that the best Quest 2 head straps will work on the Quest 3 so long as they slide on the side arms, so our top two favorites — the GeekVR Q2 Pro and BoboVR M2 Pro — should work perfectly.
And the video also gives us a slightly closer look at those new ringless controllers which are said to be tracked with a combination of sensor data and AI prediction. These controllers are similar looking to the Meta Quest Pro‘s controllers, albeit they don’t have cameras onboard each controller as those controllers do.
So far as we can tell from the video, there’s not much else left in the box. The remainder likely just contains a USB cable and some manuals, but we don’t get to see that. Thankfully, it won’t be long before we get a full look ourselves. For now, you can learn if it’s worth upgrading a Quest 2 to a Quest 3 until the full unveiling happens at Meta Connect on September 27.
The Quest 3 is just a month or so away but it’s also nearly double the price of the Quest 2. If you’re not ready to spend $500 on a next-gen VR console, the Quest 2 is still the best way to get into VR.
