At its Connect event on Tuesday, Meta officially unveiled its Quest Pro virtual reality (VR) headset, confirming that the high-end gadget would be powered by the latest Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 1 CPU. Qualcomm claims that the processor has 50% more sustained power and 30% better thermal performance than the XR2 Gen 1 chip found in the Meta Quest 2.
The Quest Pro headset has 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and 10 high-resolution sensors spread on the inside and outside of the headset, with the XR2 Plus Gen 1 processor assisting with face and eye tracking. This technology is combined with the Snapdragon 662 processor in the Quest Touch Pro controllers, which “can self-track via numerous integrated positional cameras and gives ultra-low latency to the headset,” according to Meta and Qualcomm. By combining the capabilities of the headgear and controllers, users’ virtual avatars are expected to seem more realistic.
The Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 1 processor will be available to companies other than Meta. Meta announced a multiyear agreement with Qualcomm last month to power the company’s “future roadmap of Quest devices,” as it relies on outside help from the chipmaker rather than custom-designed silicon, as many recent products from Apple (for its iPhone and Mac lineup) or Google (for its Pixel lineup) do (with its recent Pixel phones and Tensor chips). Meta has placed a large wager on the metaverse and even changed its name to show its committment. Last quarter, the business posted a $2.8 billion loss despite substantially investing in Zuckerberg’s vision of a mixed reality future.
