Meta Quest Pro: A better and costlier VR headset for businesses

Despite the recent layoffs and plummeting share price, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has not yet given up on the Metaverse. Meta is still fixated on its trajectory toward ensuring a populated Metaverse, and they seem to be pushing its virtual universe with everything they have. 

With the announcement of Meta Quest Pro in October's Meta Connect Keynote 2022,  the company has made it clear that they are determined to make VR the next big thing, with Metaverse in the centre of it all. 

In an attempt to make Quest VR the future of modular communications, Meta has introduced the Quest Pro, which is better than its predecessor, Quest 2, in every possible way.

Lighter and balanced design

Quest Pro has a better build quality and a lighter and balanced design for comfort. 

In their older devices, the battery, sensors, cameras, and all the internal components were housed in the rectangular box that goes on the user's face. In Meta Quest Pro, the curve cell batteries are housed on the back of the VR gear; it sits on the back of the user's head.

This equally distributed form factor gives the user a perfectly balanced fit, unlike the Quest or Quest 2, where all the weight was put at the front. 

Specs 

The sleek form factor of the Pro houses a much better display that offers 75% more colour contrast for clear pictures and 37% more pixels for vibrant colours in the immersive experience. Lenses over the display have also been upgraded to a more compact pancake lens, which is 40% thinner than the older generations. 

As for processing power, the Quest Pro now has the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 1 processor, which Qualcomm specifically developed for virtual reality and mixed reality devices. The RAM has been upgraded, from 2 GB on Quest and 6 GB on Quest 2, to 12 GB in the Pro. The internals have also been redesigned to allow better thermal dissipation, enabling longer play hours. 

Another major change to the Quest lineup is the addition of cameras inside the headset. These new cameras capture the user's facial expression and reflect it on the on-screen avatar to give users a more realistic socialising experience that include expressing facial cues and body language in the Metaverse.

Photo: Collected

Controllers

The controller has also received a significant bump-up, especially when it comes to tracking. Quest Pro moved from primitive optical tracking to self-tracking technology in the new touch-enabled controllers. 

On the older models, the cameras tracked the controllers' movement by determining the relative position of the circular ring around them. But on the Quest Pro, Meta has decided to step up the tracking technology and equipped individual controllers with Snapdragon processors. These controllers are now individual computer-like units that can operate independently to keep track of their movement and relay that data to the headset. 

The tail-end of the trackers has a stylus-like tip that allows users to write and draw on virtual whiteboards, which makes the immersive office work meetings in the Metaverse more real. 

And to top this off, the new controllers do not need to be powered by AA batteries. Both controllers and the headsets can now charge together in a new charging dock, which also works as a stand for the device.

VR experience

Apart from the hardware changes, the overall virtual reality experience has also improved. Avatars in Horizon Worlds, which Meta is pushing to be the next-generation social platform, now shows adaptive arms that move like it does in the real world. 

The Passthrough has also improved. The cameras on the Pro headset can now show colours when Passthrough is enabled, instead of the black and white static view on older devices.

A tool for professionals? 

On the work side of things, Meta is introducing a bunch of new collaborations with professional tools and platforms. Integration with Zoom and Microsoft is perhaps the biggest and most useful addition to come from this venture. 

Going forth, users will be able to attend Zoom calls from within the Metaverse and present themselves as the avatar. This can create a wholesome environment for online meetings and calls that is far more effective and immersive than traditional two-way meetings on a screen. 

Microsoft Teams will also work in Meta's virtual environment, allowing team collaboration tools like a whiteboard, chat, and video conference to be present in the virtual world where they can discuss, brainstorm, and present as they do in a traditional conference room meeting, but from the comfort of their homes. 

Microsoft 365 is also coming to Quest Pro with native support for tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. But the most exciting news of it all is that Windows is coming to the Quest devices to offer a full-fledged PC experience in the Metaverse. 

With this Windows integration, users will be able to access their computers while wearing the headset, split the tabs into multiple screens and windows, and basically turn their single display monitor into a big multi-display setup. 

The virtual monitor, Zoom and Microsoft integrations, the expressive avatars, are all attempts to make Quest Pro the only computer device in people's homes. Meta wants to prove that Quest Pro can be your next laptop and is not just a novelty gadget to enjoy VR content.

Technically, Quest Pro is actually more than a virtual reality headset; it is a mixed-reality device that allows digital or virtual elements to interact with real-world objects. This extension to the real world opens up new opportunities to collaborate and interact using the Meta Quest Pro. 

For example, teachers could explain biological, mechanical, or astrophysical models much better with an interactive and immersive experience. 

This mixed reality experience and business tools integration makes Meta Quest Pro perfect for business and professional collaboration.

While Quest and Quest 2 are for a broad audience, Quest Pro is targeted toward businesses. The pricing also indicates that. The new Quest Pro costs more than four times the Quest 2. 

Only serious businesses or studios can afford to invest in such an experimental tool. But, for it to be a viable investment for businesses, the software experience needs improvement. Right now, it still feels like a gadget to spend some downtime and catch up with friends over a friendly match. 

However, the day when your Quest device is your main computer that you use in your home, office, or on vacation might not be that far.

Buying Meta Quest Pro in Bangladesh

Unlike Quest 2 and the other mainstream virtual reality devices, business-oriented premium VR devices like Meta Quest Pro do not yet have a market here in Bangladesh. But gadget retailers like Multimedia Kingdom and Ubuy import them, and it could cost you around Tk1,80,000 to get your hands on one.