It’s solely been three months since Meta launched Quest Professional, pitching its next-gen blended actuality standalone to enterprise and prosumers with the hefty price ticket of $1,500. In an uncommon transfer by the corporate, Meta has quietly slashed the value of Quest Professional for a restricted time, placing it extra instantly in competitors with HTC’s not too long ago revealed Vive XR Elite standalone headset.
Replace (11AM ET): Sale timing has been revealed; the value drop is in impact for one week solely within the US, and two weeks within the UK (dropping to £1,300). We’ve included this within the physique of the article beneath.
Launched in late October, Quest Professional basically set the tone of the subsequent era of standalone VR {hardware}. Usually, Meta is consumer-forward, pricing its headsets beneath (or near) $500, however Quest Professional represents a pivotal shift in Meta’s technique.
Beginning with Quest Professional, the corporate is utilizing blended actuality as “a key a part of the journey towards full augmented actuality gadgets,” Chief Expertise Officer and Actuality Labs Chief Andrew Bosworth described in a year-end blogpost.
With the sale, it appears the corporate is quietly gunning to retain its share of the budding MR headset market by knocking the value of Quest Professional to match its largest competitor, Vive XR Elite, which HTC revealed earlier this month, couching it as its long-awaited return to the buyer VR house.
Now, Meta’s Quest Professional is priced at $1,100, or $400 beneath its earlier MSRP, difficult Vive XR Elite’s distinctive promoting factors within the course of. Based on CNET, the sale is going on for one week solely within the US, and two weeks within the UK (dropping to £1,300).
Notably, these aren’t solely analogous gadgets; some {hardware} quirks may act as key differentiators, though the plain overlap now places them squarely in direct competitors. Nonetheless, it’s fairly shut.
Right here’s a fast breakdown of the headset specs side-by-side:
Characteristic |
Vive XR Elite |
Quest Professional |
| Inside-out monitoring | vast FOV cameras (4), depth sensor (1) | vast FOV cameras (4), no depth sensor |
| Passthrough | single 16 MP RGB digicam | single RGB (MP?) digicam |
| Decision | 1,920 × 1,920 per eye (LCD) | 1,800 × 1,920 per eye (LCD) |
| Show Refresh | 90 Hz | 90 Hz |
| Eye-tracking | Extra module required | Onboard eye-tracking |
| Face-tracking | Extra module required | Onboard face-tracking |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 | Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ |
| Storage & Reminiscence | 128 GB / 12 GB | 256 GB / 12 GB |
| FOV | as much as 110-degrees diagonal | as much as 96-degrees diagonal |
| Optics | Pancake lens | Pancake lens |
| IPD Adjustment | handbook, 54–73 mm vary | handbook, 55-75 mm |
| Audio | built-in open-ear audio | built-in open-ear audio, 3.5mm audio port |
| Weight | 625g (together with battery), 273g in ‘glasses’ mode | 722 g (together with battery) |
| Controllers | 6DOF movement controllers (2), hand-tracking | 6DOF movement controllers (2), hand-tracking |
| Playtime on battery | ~2 hours | ~2 hours |
| Retail Worth | $1,099 | $1,099 (MSRP $1,499) |
A uncooked spec sheet doesn’t precisely inform the complete story, though it’s clear HTC might want to play catchup if it intends on remaining aggressive with Meta now that each headsets have achieved value parity, albeit quickly. Vive XR Elite remains to be in pre-order, with a late February transport window, whereas Quest Professional is obtainable right this moment, direct from Meta.
In Vive XR Elite’s favor is its convertibility: the normal battery headstrap may be changed with a glasses arm piece, which permits it for use with an exterior powerbank for extra informal content material viewing, like watching a movie in your personal non-public theater while on a aircraft or practice.
It’s a novel promoting level, though the shortage of three.5mm sours this considerably, as you’ll want to make use of Bluetooth headphones to look at something if you’d like full privateness in a public house. Nonetheless, the deal with day-after-day, on-the-go use units it other than Quest Professional. On the flipside, Quest Professional nonetheless options each eye and face-tracking out of the field, one thing Vive XR Elite will achieve sooner or later with the discharge of separate modules.
{Hardware} apart, Meta undoubtedly has a leg up with its content material ecosystem, as all video games designed for Quest 2 routinely assist Quest Professional—that’s a number of content material out of the field along with the admittedly smallish drip of blended actuality experiences already on the Quest Retailer.
In the meantime, HTC remains to be amassing video games for its rising content material library, which at present doesn’t boast any actually notable exclusives which may make you select one headset over the opposite. Notably, HTC additionally overtly refutes it would promote private consumer information because it’s not a social media firm—a transparent shot throughout the bow at Meta’s spotty observe file in consumer privateness and safety.
“What’s the price of your private information? We’re not a social media firm. Our enterprise mannequin doesn’t depend on promoting income, so it’s not one thing we’re doing. We need to construct good {hardware}.” – @shen
Be taught extra: https://t.co/IC7JOWmfzE#VIVEXRElitehttps://t.co/GXJWQo0lrH
— HTC VIVE (@htcvive) January 19, 2023
The record of variations doesn’t finish there. If you wish to be taught extra about Quest Professional and Vive XR Elite, try our in-depth hands-on articles with each headsets.