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After numerous leaks, the successor to the market-leading Meta / Oculus Quest 2 has been announced and released, called Meta Quest Pro. This headset signifies Meta’s foray into enterprise VR with a higher price and wider feature set, pitting it against the more affordable Pico 4 Enterprise and high-end Varjo Aero.
This extensive Meta Quest Pro review will cover its rich features and how its specifications and performance fare against its competition, ending with a price comparison and final verdict. After this review, you will know which VR headset is right for you, so strap in, it is going to be a long one.
In detail, we will cover:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Industry-leading tracking | Expensive considering the Pico 4 Enterprise offering |
| Latest and fastest processor | Short battery life |
| Impressive RAM | Not automatic IPD adjustment |
| AI-enabled body tracking API | Mixed reality passthrough is better on Pico 4 Enterprise and Varjo’s MR headsets |
| Limited productivity applications available in the Meta Store |
| Display | 4K |
| Resolution | 1800×1920 per-eye |
| Refresh rate | 72/90 Hz |
| Visible Field of View | 106° horizontal |
| Lens type | Pancake |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ |
| Weight | 722 grams with head strap |
| Storage (ROM) | 256 GB |
| RAM | 12 GB LPDDR5 |
| Tracking | Inside-Out 6DoF with 5 internal and 5 external cameras |
| Eye tracking | Yes |
| Face tracking | Yes |
| Hand tracking | Yes |
| Body tracking | Yes, using AI |
| Battery life | 1-2 hours |
| Price | $1499.99/￡1499.99/€1799.99 excl. VAT |
Like many other VR headsets recently, the box has a bright design with the Meta Quest Pro headset, new controllers, and iconography displayed around the box. Opening the box, the color changes to a bronze-gold, contrasting nicely with the black interior where the hardware is suspended. The packaging feels somewhat below the product considering the price and could have benefitted from arriving in a hard case used for portability.
In the box, you will receive:
If you find terms and abbreviations used in this review confusing, we recommend this article to help you: The ultimate VR glossary of words, terms and acronyms.
The somewhat underwhelming feeling box vanishes when you pick up the Meta Quest Pro VR headset as you immediately feel its premium build quality. Design-wise, the Meta Quest Pro has adopted the skiing goggles shape dictated by the new pancake lenses used in the headset. For example, the same form factor is also seen on the Pico 4 Enterprise VR headset. Throughout the Quest Pro, a matte-black design runs through and giving it a professional minimalist look.
Next, you will notice its hefty weight of 722 grams with the Halo-type head strap. A weight similar to Varjo Aero’s 717 grams with its strap and a bit more than the 586 grams the Pico 4 Enterprise clocks in with its Halo-type strap as well.
Like the Pico 4 Enterprise, the standout innovation is the pancake lens enabling a slimmer and lighter form factor, translating to a much more comfortable virtual reality experience, especially compared to the Oculus Quest 2.
Something that impressed us was Meta Quest Pro accommodating glasses of all sizes, as a nifty face-pad dial can extend the headset’s lenses outward to fit any glasses.
As always, the new Meta Quest Pro has the standard back-of-the-head comfort dial that extends or shrinks the Halo strap to provide the best fit.
Speaking of comfort, as it is becoming industry standard, the battery pack is located in the back of the headset balancing the headset’s weight quite comfortably. As a note, while I found the headset to be comfy, some of my colleagues experienced headaches after prolonged use from the weight pressing in on their foreheads. My colleagues then proceeded to loosen the headset, which meant that under active use, the Meta Quest Pro slid and changed the IPD adjustment, removing immersion and posing as an ongoing inconvenience. This is likely because the front weight of the VR headset is centralized on the forehead cushion as opposed to a fascial pad-rim like on Oculus Quest 2 or a top strap. As a comparison, we didn’t experience this as much on the Pico 4 Enterprise or Varjo Aero.
On paper, the Meta Quest Pro has the widest IPD range compared to Varjo Aero and Pico 4 Enterprise. However, Quest Pro’s IPD adjustment is manual, whereas the competitor’s IPD is automatic. We will touch on this in more detail later.
Contrary to other virtual reality headsets, Meta Quest Pro, by default, does not fully enclose the wearer into the VR experience and subsequently suffers from a light leak. Interestingly, this is intentional, as you will need to attach the included side-mounted gaskets that magnetically attach to the headset to achieve a fully immersive VR experience. The reason is the Meta Quest Pro is targeting enterprises that are likely to use its mixed reality passthrough more than the virtual reality function. Yet, these light blockers did not block all external light sources, as the whole lower part of the headset maintained a visible gap. To close this, you will need a Meta accessory head cover not included in the box. A minor gripe with this accessory is that when attached, it raises the headset so it cannot be charged from the charging dock. The same happens when the included face cover is installed. It is an unfortunate design oversight.
The Meta Quest Pro has a manual IPD adjustment acting as a free-moving slider within 55-75 mm, making it the widest IPD range between the Pico 4 Enterprise and Varjo Aero. However, in setup, when adjusting the lenses from inside the headset, the visual IPD range is 59-71 mm. Incidentally, less than Varjo Aero’s 57-73 mm automatic IPD range. In fact, we found this change in IPD confusing on the Quest Pro, decreasing its user-friendliness.
This, however, pales in the IPD adjustment on Meta Quest Pro being manual rather than automatic. We found this incredibly unfortunate as the Quest Pro is a premium MR headset with a lofty price tag. Comparably, the much more affordable Pico 4 Enterprise features automatic IPD adjustment. This is important, as manual lens adjustment decreases the risk of simulator sickness and makes the headset more complicated for multiple people. Our disappointment is more exaggerated in that Meta Quest Pro has outstanding eye tracking, meaning it easily could feature automatic IPD adjustment. Alleviating this gripe a bit is that the IPD setup uses its eye-tracking cameras to help you find the best fit.
Lastly, when taking the headset on and off, the continuous manual IPD adjustment can accidentally slide and change.
Setting up the Meta Quest Pro, a companion app is needed found on Android and iOS. In this Meta app, you create and activate your Meta Account, pairing it with the Meta Quest Pro. Overall, we found this process quick and user-friendly. In particular, we appreciate the removal of a Facebook account requirement.
We found the eye relief slider positioned on top of the headset to be easily adjustable, and at further distances, this widened the already immersive Field of View of 106° horizontal.
Like other VR headsets using the pancake lens, the Meta Quest Pro is easily transportable. We especially appreciated the GaN charging brick, using gallium nitride instead of silicon to achieve a much smaller size and faster charging speeds.
A minor note that likely will be added in a post-launch update, is the Guardian must be manually placed. While we did find it easy to draw the tracking zone with the full-color passthrough, assistance in doing so would decrease its setup time.
The Meta Quest Pro is the first virtual reality headset featuring the new Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ processor. Meta claims this chipset delivers a 50% increase in computing power over the older XR2 in most VR headsets. Practically, we did not find significant difference in performance. Although, this is likely because existing content is yet to be optimized for the new XR2+ chipset.
Where we did find a difference was in the number of applications the Meta Quest Pro could run simultaneously from its 12GB of fast LPDDR5 RAM. Comparably, Pico 4 Enterprise features 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM. In other words, if you purchase the Meta Quest Pro, you do so for its compatibility with future content and increased capability for sideloaded software.
If you are unsure what computing power your use case requires, you can contact our experts here, helping you clear everything up.
Before we cover display specifications, we need to highlight the importance of the optics stack in Meta Quest Pro. Like Pico 4 Enterprise, the Quest Pro uses the innovative pancake lens. The new lens design removes the concentric rings on the alternative fresnel optics and eliminates many of the visual artifacts as a result. Additionally, the new pancake lenses provide higher clarity throughout your field of view, making it possible to perceive every detail at the periphery.
Because Meta Quest Pro features eye tracking, dynamic foveated rendering is possible. Foveated rendering is a new software solution that uses eye tracking to optimize the graphical performance to where your eyes are looking. In effect, dynamic foveated rendering significantly improves visual performance and even battery life. In fact, to see it in action, Red Matter 2 on the Meta Store takes advantage of this innovative rendering technology.
The display panels on the Meta Quest Pro are dual LCD with an additional quantum dot layer providing a resolution of 1800 x 1920 pixels per eye. Comparably, Pico 4 Enterprise has a crisper 2160 x 2160 pixels per eye
Where the Meta Quest Pro differs is its quantum dot layer equipping the display with 500 local dimming zones providing rich blackness levels. So while the crispness of Pico 4 Enterprise was better compared to the Quest Pro, we found its contrast and blackness levels to be superior.
A central talking point Meta has highlighted is the Meta Quest Pro’s full-color video passthrough for mixed reality purposes. In our testing, we found the passthrough on the Quest Pro to be decent and a step in the right direction. The Quest Pro’s video passthrough provided adequate detail to view and recognize objects and people in the real world. Yet, it is not crisp enough to interact with the physical world around you.
Effectively, the metered video passthrough makes the Meta Quest Pro’s mixed reality capabilities subpar. When using MR on the Quest Pro, your hands and physical objects jigger rapidly as you move around. We posit it is because the Quest Pro is 3D mapping objects in real-time, and its processing cannot create a smooth experience. In either case, we found this to be a detriment to its mixed reality use cases. However, expect this to be optimized in subsequent software updates.
| Meta Quest Pro | Pico 4 Enterprise | |
| Resolution | 1800 x 1920 pixels per eye | 2160 x 2160 pixels per eye |
| Foveated rendering | Dynamic | Dynamic |
| Refresh rate | 72/90 Hz | 90 Hz |
| Field of view | 106° | 105° |
Like Pico 4 Enterprise, the Meta Quest Pro is a standalone inside-out VR headset. But where Quest Pro differentiates is its impressive tracking capabilities. Not only does the Quest Pro have 16 tracking cameras littered around the headset and included Pro controllers, but Meta also released a body tracking API, enabling body tracking for the headset.
The Meta Quest Pro VR headset has five internal cameras: one eye-tracking camera per eye, one tracking your upper face, and two tracking your lower face. On the outside, the Quest Pro has five tracking cameras: three front-facing and two side-facing cameras to track and map the environment. We found no stability or reliability issues with the Quest Pro’s tracking. The hand tracking was even better than the Oculus Quest 2.
One of the standout features of the new Meta Quest Pro is the three dedicated cameras for face tracking. We thought of it as quite impressive, able to mimic facial and micro-expressions, even eye contact. The effect was that our remote meetings felt more realistic and enjoyable. However, we look forward to realistic renders of the wearer’s face, as the current cartooney virtual avatar portraying the user is a bit silly in a business setting.
The quality of eye tracking on Meta Quest Pro is very similar to Pico 4 Enterprise, meaning no significant latency issues were found.
A downside to the Meta Quest Pro’s impressive array of tracking is it takes a hit on battery life. We found the battery on Quest Pro ranging from as short as 1.5 hours to 3 hours. While it largely depends on if all the tracking is enabled and how processing-intensive the content is, expect the longevity to be closer to 1,5 hours.
In either case, the Meta Quest Pro’s battery life was lower than Pico 4 Enterprise in all our tests.
In theory, there is plenty of content available for Meta Quest Pro, as the same app store is the same for Quest Pro as with Oculus Quest 2. However, since the Meta Quest Pro is a business device, there is a distinct lack of productivity applications available. This will change from the partnership with Microsoft and the upcoming Dynamic 365 coming to the platform. But for now, it is sparse.
Yes, Horizon Workrooms is available and free of charge, but its features are limited, and the overall application feels undercooked. For example, inviting someone to your Horizon Workrooms must be done through your phone or computer on separate applications, which is cumbersome and time-consuming. Likewise, while you can fire up a mixed reality virtual screen setup, the user interface is clunky and unfinished.
But as the platform matures and third-party developers begin releasing productivity applications to the Meta Quest Pro, the headset becomes more compelling.
Within the first week after Meta Quest Pro’s launch on October 25th, Meta’s version of Kiosk Mode (“Demo Mode”) was released. In short, with Demo Mode, you can launch the Meta Quest Pro in a curated state so the user only can access the apps you allow.
Meta also launched after the Quest Pro’s release, Quest Link compatibility. This means the Quest Pro headset can connect to a desktop for streaming content to an external monitor, accessing libraries like SteamVR, or sideloading customized software onto the Quest Pro.
What differentiates the Meta Quest Pro from other business-focused standalone VR headsets is the inclusion of WiFi 6E. Meta has confirmed the Quest Pro will receive WiFi 6E support in 2023, enabling a staggering 6 GHz frequency band. Practically, making the headset capable of smooth, lossless, and reliable streaming wirelessly to external devices.
Like most VR headsets, spatial audio is available for the Meta Quest Pro. We found the sense of direction excellent and on par with Pico 4 Enterprise. The Quest Pro’s integrated speakers are a delightful improvement over the Quest 2. The highs and mids were crystal clear and commendable at portraying human voices. In either case, however it is always recommended to use dedicated headphones to experience a much better 3D audio experience.
On a side note, we appreciated the two 3.5 mm headphone Jacks on the Meta Quest Pro VR headset. For comparison, the Pico 4 Enterprise does not feature a headphone Jack, demanding the user to have Bluetooth headphones.
A big improvement compared to the Oculus Quest 2, is the Meta Quest Pro controllers. The new Quest Pro controllers now have independent, inside-out tracking from three optical cameras. And powering the computation is a chipset usually seen in smartphones: the Snapdragon 662 processor. With such computing comes a hit in battery life which we found to be between six to eight hours, depending on the use case. When the Pro controller inevitably does run out, it takes 1.5 hours to charge them from the included charging dock. A minor downside is that the connector pins to attach the controllers are not USB-C, meaning third-party chargers cannot be used.
The new tracking capabilities of the Meta Quest Pro controllers mean the tracking rings have been discarded and that tracking still works outside the view of the Meta Quest Pro headset. We found no occlusion or dead zones, even in low-light settings. Although in complete darkness, the Pro controller does not work as the tracking is optical rather than LiDAR or IR.
Lastly, the included stylus tips mimicking a writing pencil are a welcome addition and something we wish other VR manufacturers would echo.
What cements our verdict for the new Meta Quest Pro VR headset is its steep price point. In fact, this is something new to Meta, having a history of subsidizing its VR hardware to increase sales.
The new Meta Quest Pro price is $1499.99/￡1499.99 or €1799.99. This positions the headset to be double the asking price compared to its closest competitor Pico 4 Enterprise’s €899 cost.
The Meta Quest Pro feels like a devkit for developers to release productivity applications on the Meta Store.
The reason is that Meta Quest Pro could have benefitted from being a tethered PC VR headset, equivalent to Varjo Aero. By doing so, its short battery life wouldn’t be an issue, and the processing off-loaded to a powerful PC. Further, this would perfect the mixed reality experience on the Meta Quest Pro, which is currently not powerful enough for enterprises’ specific use cases.
While the Quest Pro definitely features numerous highlights like extensive tracking and mixed reality capabilities. In fact, when it works, it shines. These instances are few and far between and don’t justify the significantly higher price tag compared to its competitors for now.
| Meta Quest Pro | Pico 4 Enterprise | Varjo Aero | |
| Price | $1499/€1799 incl. VAT | €899 excl. VAT | €1.990 excl. VAT (incl. Varjo subscription) |
| Display | Dual LCD with Quantum Dot | Dual LCD | Dual Mini-LED |
| Optics | Pancake | Pancake | Aspherical |
| Resolution | 1800 x 1920 pixels per eye | 2160 x 2160 pixels per eye | 2880 x 2720 pixels per eye |
| Foveated rendering | Dynamic | Dynamic | Dynamic |
| Refresh rate | 72/90 Hz | 90 Hz | 90 Hz |
| Field of view | 106° | 105° | 102° |
| Processor | Snapdragon XR2+ | Snapdragon XR2 | Tethered PC |
| RAM | 12 GB | 8 GB | Tethered PC |
| Tracking | Inside-out tracking with 10 integrated cameras + face, eye, body, and hand tracking | Inside-out tracking with 5 integrated cameras + face, eye and hand tracking | 6 DoF Marker-based from dual SteamVR 2.0 base stations with 200 Hz eye tracking |
| Weight | 722 grams with Halo-strap | 586 grams with Halo-strap | 717 grams with headstrap |
Jakob Pii is the Head Writer at VR Expert and currently lives in the UK. He started his career in VR gaming in 2015 and has stayed in XR since, from exposure therapy in VR to 360-degree video documentaries. He is fascinated by how emerging technologies change how we live, play and work.
1 Comments
Great information