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[Eddie-Griffin]

https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/the-meta-quest-pro-is-getting-a-limited-400-price-drop/

The one-week sale, or two weeks in the UK, kicks in today.
It's been less than three months since the Meta Quest Pro first went on sale, and it's already getting a $400 discount.

The new price, $1,100, isn't permanent: It's only for one week in the US, and two weeks in the UK (where the price is dropping to £1,300). But it's a notable reduction for a headset that was widely criticized for its high price when it debuted last fall.

The Meta Quest Pro is a step-up design from the two-year-old Quest 2 headset, but the Quest 2 only costs $400, while the Pro, even at its on-sale price, costs nearly three times as much.

The Pro has some advantages over the Quest 2: It has a higher-res display, fits more easily over wider glasses, has redesigned controllers that can track movement with their own built-in cameras, adds color passthrough cameras and improved mixed reality, and has eye and face tracking. But its bulkier design and sometimes shorter battery life mean it isn't always a clear improvement for everyone, it runs VR apps basically the same as the Quest 2, and its built-in processor isn't really much different.

The Quest Pro promotion is available on Meta's store and at third-party stores, and it's a limited-time promotion for now. But it may be a sign that Meta's already considering more price cuts for its hardware as competition screeches around the corner.

Sony's PlayStation VR2 arrives in late February, and so does HTC's Vive XR Elite, another standalone pro-level VR headset with a lower $1,099 price. Apple's rumored VR headset is expected in 2023, and could be announced anytime this year. Meta's own Quest 3 is expected later in the year, and could include several Quest Pro features at a much lower price.

Now the question is, is this price drop Quest Pro taking advantage of momentum, or is this a bad omen about VR adoption this year and is Quest Pro trying to shift stock?

With a large number of players coming in within the next few months, and later this year, this may be the biggest year of VR since this new wave started, so it's going to be very interesting to see if these headsets can grab back consumer interest as large as before, or bigger.

I find the longer sale of the Quest Pro in the UK to be rather curious. They get an extra week which makes me wonder even more if it's a stock issue or not.

 

[feynoob]

Geez, that is a quite drop.

 

[keraj37]

I had almost all top VR headsets you ever heard about - all sold, never looked back. My 65" tv and a pad in the hands gave me more joy, for less effort and money.

 

[Jennings]

I don't think a $400 discount is enough. It's still well over $1000 for a bulky device you have to strap to your face.

 

[Haint]

LOL, $1100 and $1500 are exactly the same customer. Thing is bombing cause it's using the same SOC as the $299 Q2, has effectively the same resolution, the same terribly lossy PCVR streaming, can't use local dimming in 99% of apps, and its MR passthru has worst quality than a $30 prepaid phone camera.

While the actual end result is probably quite a bit better than Q2, they have no way to communicate that to customers, and even then, those who would find it $1200 better is infinitesimally small. These people working at these tech firms are completely out of touch with reality. They spend more on lunches or coffees in a week than most people spend on discretionary technology in a year. They're probably completely baffled as to why a new product from the brand that holds 80% of the market only has 0.01% marketshare after more than a quarter on sale.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

LOL, $1100 and $1500 are exactly the same customer. Thing is bombing cause it's using the same SOC as the $299 Q2,

The Quest Pro was always meant to just be a more powerful and capable Quest 2, and the Quest 3 is supposed to have the newer technology along with it's pro variant. As overpriced as the Pro is, they did actually bring that up so can't go after them to hard on the lack of upgrades in many areas.

While the actual end result is probably quite a bit better than Q2, they have no way to communcate that to customers, and even then, those who would find it $1200 better is infinitesimally small. These people working at these tech firms are completely out of touch with reality. They spend more on lunches or coffees in a week than most people spend on discretionary technology in a year. They're probably completely baffled as to why this a new product from the brand that holds 80% of the market only has 0.01% marketshare after more than a quarter on sale.

They probably thought after the Quest 2 the Quest branding would always attract a relatively sizable audience that would bring in money, even if the Pro wasn't as successful as the Quest 2.

Turns out only Apple can really get away with that (or pre-2011 Blackberry)

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Interesting timing.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Does the pro have much better hardware? so games look much better than quest 2?

I think I might still hold out for Quest 3 tbh.

 

[Haint]

Does the pro have much better hardware? so games look much better than quest 2?

I think I might still hold out for Quest 3 tbh.

No, the lenses are the only clear upgrade. Pro has the same processor as Q2 slightly OC'ed, same display resolution, same low contrast LCD's (99% of apps can't/don't use local dimming due to latency), same or worse battery life, same lossy PC streaming, and the mixed reality stuff looks terrible due to the dog shit cameras and/or image processing they used. It would have been a compelling product if it actually had $1500 worth of specs/features/upgrades (i.e 3K+ HDR OLED's, 60Ghz PC streaming, a next-gen SOC, actually impressive looking MR with killer apps), or was like $600 as is, but they chose the worst of both.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

If you are a consumer then the Quest 3 will be more your jam. $1,100 for what the quest pro is right now for enterprise users is a fantastic deal but has sold very poorly (my guess). It is my favorite of all Enterprise aimed headsets currently that's even before we talk about the controllers....which are superior, full stop. The $1700 price tag is a large pill for my enterprise clients to accept....esp when they look at the Quest 2 and say "well...that can basically do what we want, let's just buy those" it is very hard to sell the vision of the $1700 pro model.

I don't think the (temp) $1,100 price tag is going to dismantle that argument either.

 

[DenchDeckard]

No, the lenses are the only clear upgrade. Pro has the same processor as Q2 slightly OC'ed, same display resolution, same low contrast LCD's (99% of apps can't/don't use local dimming due to latency), same or worse battery life, same lossy PC streaming, and the mixed reality stuff looks terrible due to the dog shit cameras and/or image processing they used. It would have been a compelling product if it actually had $1500 worth of specs/features/upgrades, or was like $600 as is, but chose the worst of both.

Holy shit that's terrible.

OK, thx very much for the advice. I'll wait for the quest 3.

 

[analog_future]

$1100 is still like $600 too much.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Thanks for making me feel even better about my PSVR2 preorder.

 

[Alexios]

Holy shit that's terrible.

OK, thx very much for the advice. I'll wait for the quest 3.

Yeah go by that very objective and rational analysis conveniently omitting the two most high cost features, the eye tracking and the self tracked controllers meaning it doesn't rely on the HMD cameras for that any more (hence the lack of rings on them and the lower battery life, I mean, each controller has a full snapdragon inside to make the tracking without severe blindspots and use of guestimates during those that every other VR kit has - except those with Valve's lighthouse tracking solution which require the lighthouse bases instead - viable). It's a Pro kit primarily for devs anyway, also it has additional RAM and when it launched there was no better VR chipset to use, all the competitors coming around this time also use an XR2 in different configurations even though they're all way later than Quest 2. Trashing things it does better than any other kit out like the color and depth correct passthrough too, yikes, gg. Just google for info rather than take any comment like some gospel, lol. Plenty passthrough camera videos to judge the image quality. I don't want one, it's not for me, but come on. There's Quest 3 coming for something lower cost, or 2 as it is. That's basically just trashing it for having a premium build and all that extra stuff I didn't even fully detail when that's all of why it even exists vs their budget line and you're free to ignore it. The controllers alone cost like 3x what the Quest 2's do. But yes as a gamer there's no reason not to wait for other consumer kits.

Anyone saying drop it by 500 more and I'm in, well, they don't want you in, move on, lol.

 

[Secret of Evolution]

Going into the thread thinking "Wow $400 is a lot off, maybe it's like $300 now and I'll pick one up!"

The fuck.

 

[Three]

This is to clear stock before Quest 3 info beats the pro in some specs at a lower price. I would never buy this.

 

[Haint]

If you are a consumer then the Quest 3 will be more your jam. $1,100 for what the quest pro is right now for enterprise users is a fantastic deal but has sold very poorly (my guess). It is my favorite of all Enterprise aimed headsets currently that's even before we talk about the controllers....which are superior, full stop. The $1700 price tag is a large pill for my enterprise clients to accept....esp when they look at the Quest 2 and say "well...that can basically do what we want, let's just buy those" it is very hard to sell the vision of the $1700 pro model.

I don't think the (temp) $1,100 price tag is going to dismantle that argument either.

No idea how it has sold with "enterprises", but with consumers it's at 0.1% marketshare after a full Holiday quarter on sale according to the main porn app (which is the only thing that publishes usage stats by headset). Q2 is near 70%. 0.1% puts it in dead last, below a half dozen headsets you've never even heard of.

 

[Moochi]

Drop it by another $800 and I'm in. I own two quest 2's. It's going to have to be at least 2x better for the same cost for me to upgrade.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Interested in seeing Quest 3’s price. If it’s in the $400 - $500 range then I can see myself upgrading.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Holy shit that's terrible.

OK, thx very much for the advice. I'll wait for the quest 3.

He's embellishing some of his data points there, look at reviews and comparisons and do research to see if they spec difference is enough for you. Though imo, it costs way too much.

If you are a consumer then the Quest 3 will be more your jam. $1,100 for what the quest pro is right now for enterprise users is a fantastic deal but has sold very poorly (my guess). It is my favorite of all Enterprise aimed headsets currently that's even before we talk about the controllers....which are superior, full stop. The $1700 price tag is a large pill for my enterprise clients to accept....esp when they look at the Quest 2 and say "well...that can basically do what we want, let's just buy those" it is very hard to sell the vision of the $1700 pro model.

I don't think the (temp) $1,100 price tag is going to dismantle that argument either.

$1700? It's $1500 before the price drop according to the photo and article.

 

[Dream-Knife]

Unfortunately I think it's game over for VR, unless PSVR2 can do well somehow, Nintendo innovates with it, or more likely Apple makes it trendy and a status symbol.

 

[Haint]

Yeah go by that very objective and rational analysis conveniently omitting the two most high cost features, the eye tracking and the self tracked controllers meaning it doesn't rely on the HMD cameras for that any more (hence the lack of rings on them and the lower battery life, I mean, each controller has a full snapdragon inside to make the tracking without blindspots that every other VR kit has - except those with Valve's lighthouse tracking solution which require the lighthouse bases instead - viable). It's a Pro kit primarily for devs anyway, also it has additional RAM and when it launched there was no better VR chipset to use, all the competitors coming around this time also use an XR2 in different configurations. Trashing things it does better than any other kit out like the color and depth correct passthrough too, yikes, gg. Just google for info rather than take any comment like some gospel, lol. Plenty passthrough camera videos to judge the image quality. I don't want one, it's not for me, but come on. There's Quest 3 coming for something lower cost, or 2 as it is.

That's basically trashing it for having a premium build and all that stuff when that's all of why it even exists vs their budget line and you're free to ignore it if you think it's not for you.

Yeah the warping mixed reality that looks like your Aunt's $30 Tracphone is mighty impressive and well worth the $1300 price premium, as is the 1% of scenarios where self track controllers have any benefit whatsoever. Also virtually nothing uses eye tracking cause the userbase clearly isn't there to warrant the implementation time, and it has relatively little benefit on mobile SOCs. So yeah, very "premium" experience you're selling here.

 

[Moochi]

Unfortunately I think it's game over for VR, unless PSVR2 can do well somehow, Nintendo innovates with it, or more likely Apple makes it trendy and a status symbol.

Meta screwed up massively with their approach. They had something really great going on with Quest 2, but they didn't understand it and tried to move too fast. The metaverse concept is something that must manifest organically through consumer use and preferences. It's something that has to be grown. They should have built a backbone for apps to be seamlessly interconnected instead of a Playstaton Home knockoff.

 

[ReBurn]

$400 off is still too expensive for this.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

For some of you talking specs of Quest 2 and Pro, here's a chart found (assuming it's accurate)

From Reddit. I deleted the link since it pastes in a shit load of the entire thread.

 

[ReBurn]

Meta screwed up massively with their approach. They had something really great going on with Quest 2, but they didn't understand it and tried to move too fast. The metaverse concept is something that must manifest organically through consumer use and preferences. It's something that has to be grown. They should have built a backbone for apps to be seamlessly interconnected instead of a Playstaton Home knockoff.

The metaverse cannot manifest organically. Like every other cultural or societal shift it's going to take leaders to form it. The problem with Meta leading it is that Mark Zuckerberg is not the type of visionary leader a shift like the metaverse will require. He built a utility app to share pictures of your lunch, cats and kids and got lucky with the timing. You can tell from Horizon Worlds that Meta isn't equipped to spearhead the metaverse.

 

[Alexios]

Noone should want the fabled metaverse any more than they wanted all their flat games to be replaced by a single MMO before VR. It's neither happening nor is it a benchmark of its success.

It's just another medium for games, media and all kinds of other life utilities just like 3D graphics or whatever other technologies people here care about primarily for their gaming potential, which VR has in spades.

 

[CrustyBritches]

The Quest Pro was never aimed at gamers, it was meant for professional/enterprise use. Anybody looking for an upgrade to their Quest 2 should just wait for the Quest 3.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

For some of you talking specs of Quest 2 and Pro, here's a chart found (assuming it's accurate)

From Reddit. I deleted the link since it pastes in a shit load of the entire thread.

Pico 4 is a pretty decent device in comparison.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

He's embellishing some of his data points there, look at reviews and comparisons and do research to see if they spec difference is enough for you. Though imo, it costs way too much.



$1700? It's $1500 before the price drop according tot he photo and article.

I think headset feels better than other enterprise headsets (my opinion based on wearing one for 4 - 6 hours a day), has a better field of view (demonstrable), better visual clarity (demonstrable based on application), and better tracking capabilities (demonstrable).

The quest 3 will have SOME of the hardware that the Quest Pro uses (controllers for one), but not all of them which will (read **should**) lower the price.

Here is a receipt from one we purchased. In this state the tax took it to $1620. Other states have higher tax, some have lower tax. I erred on the side of higher to represent on avg. what it may cost after tax and shipping.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

What data points am I embellishing exactly?

The user I was quoting was quoting the user Reallink, not You.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

The user I was quoting was quoting the user Reallink, not You.

My fault! I fixed that on my end!

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

My fault! I fixed that on my end!

Yeah the tax, I supposed in states like CA it would be closer or over $1700.

 

[Alexios]

Pico 4 is a pretty decent device in comparison.

That comparison graph is not fully accurate either though and misrepresents things as seeming equal when they aren't (iirc Pico 4's pass through may be color like Pro's but it's not depth corrected - which Quest 2's is without being color - so basically just a 2D view with more limited uses as of now).

It's definitely a good alternative to Quest 2. We'll see about 3 (and what the next Pico does as well).

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

That graph is not fully complete either though, and misrepresents things as seeming equal when they aren't (iirc Pico 4's pass through may be color like Pro's but it's not depth corrected so basically just a 2D view with more limited uses, of course updates are always possible).

Huh? Sorry not sure what you are referring to. Pico 4's pass through is "ok" but I don't think it is as good as the QP's. None of them are really great though...the QP passthrough is an improvement over the Q2 but not something I would want to use for MR content.

 

[Deerock71]

I don't think a $400 discount is enough. It's still well over $1000 for a bulky device you have to strap to your face.

 

[poppabk]

The Quest Pro was never aimed at gamers, it was meant for professional/enterprise use. Anybody looking for an upgrade to their Quest 2 should just wait for the Quest 3.

Yep. I don't need a multitude of cameras pointed at my face tracking my stupid facial expressions when I'm gaming. The pro is for social interactions, mainly business, and its more a proof of concept than a device that is going to be widely adopted. I'll be keeping an eye on the Quest 3 mainly for improved optics but the Quest 2 is honestly working out fine right now.

 

[Talkin Hawkin]

Are they doing this because sony vr is out soon?

 

[Spukc]

Are they doing this because sony vr is out soon?

yes
no
maybe
yes
no

 

[jaysius]

Thanks for making me feel even better about my PSVR2 preorder.

 

[Spukc]

hey it has resident evil 8
and gt7

more then other vr users had for the last well since half life alyx came out.