Meta reveals its Quest 3 virtual and mixed reality headset at $499.99

Meta says the Quest 3 has the, "highest resolution display" out of all its released headsets, and comes with the company's pancake optics to make "content look better than ever". (Image: Meta)

Meta has announced its next Virtual Reality (VR)/ Mixed Reality (MR) headset, the Meta Quest 3. It will be launched later this year and will be priced starting at $499.99. Apple is expected to reveal its own pricey mixed reality headset on June 5 at WWDC. Rumors say that the headset will be priced at $3,000, so this could be Meta's way of pre-empting the launch to let people know they have alternatives.

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Meta says the Quest 3 has the, "highest resolution display" out of all its released headsets, and comes with the company's pancake optics to make "content look better than ever".

It will run on, "a next-generation Snapdragon chipset developed in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies".

Meta promises twice the graphical performance with the new chipset, and the headset has a "40% slimmer profile" when compared to Quest 2. Meta has also redesigned the Touch Plus controllers that come with the device.

The company says that the new controller doesn't require "outer ring tracking", making them feel like a natural extension of your hands. They also support hand tracking.

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The Quest 3 will be compatible with all Quest 2 apps and games. Speaking of Quest 2, Meta has announced a price drop for the last generation headset, which now starts at $299.99 for the 128GB variant, and $349.99 for the 256GB variant.

Meta will also release a software update for the Quest Pro and Quest 2 that will increase CPU performance up to 26%, with a 19% increase in GPU speed for Quest 2 and 11% for the Quest Pro.