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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has publicly pinned a launch window for the company’s next major VR headset. In an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Zuckerberg said the device is coming at Meta’s Connect conference in October.
Zuckerberg described some key features of the new headset—most notably the ability to track your facial expressions and represent them on your virtual avatar. He again explained that his focus is on using VR as the ultimate expression of technology connecting people—for example, by facilitating eye contact within VR.
“When you’re on a video call, you don’t actually feel like you’re there with the person. To me, what virtual reality unlocks is that it really convinces your brain that you’re there,” he said.
These features fit previous reveals and reports about Project Cambria, a VR headset project Zuckerberg discussed briefly at last year’s Connect. Recently, Bloomberg ran a story suggesting that the headset will be called the Meta Quest Pro.
Whether it’s called Project Cambria, Meta Quest Pro, or something else, it’s expected to be priced as a high-end device.
In late July, Meta announced that the Quest 2’s base configuration (the one with 128GB of storage) would leap from a $299 MSRP to $399 and that the more expensive model with 256GB would jump from $399 to $499.
And over the past several months, various industry analysts have said that Meta won’t be able to sustain its practice of selling headsets at a loss, especially with a big competitor like Apple poised to enter the market.
So while we don’t know how much this new headset will cost, you can bet it will be quite a bit pricier than the Quest 2 at either its old or new price.
