project cambria

Quest Pro Revealed with Snapdragon XR2+, Face-tracking, & More; Ships October 25th for $1,500

October 11, 2022 From roadtovr

Today during Meta Connect the company finally revealed its high-end Quest Pro headset (formerly called Project Cambria). Priced at $1,500, the headset packs a new Snapdragon XR2+ processor along with a bevy of sensors for tracking the user’s expressions and the world around them for improved passthrough AR capabilities. Alongside new and improved controllers, the company also revealed the full Quest Pro specs, pre-order date, and release date.

Key Quest Pro Coverage:

Quest Pro Hands-on – The Dawn of the Mixed Reality Headset Era

Quest Pro Technical Analysis – What’s Promising & What’s Not

Touch Pro Controllers Revealed – Also Compatible with Quest 2

Quest Pro was just announced and is already available for pre-order starting today in 22 countries. Priced at $1,500 and with a release date of October 25th, Quest Pro is fully compatible with Quest 2 content while bringing improvements that will enhance passthrough AR functionality and social interactions thanks to face-tracking capabilities. Let’s take a look at the on-paper specs:

Quest Pro Specs
Resolution	1800 × 1920 (3.5MP) per-eye, LCD (2x)
Refresh Rate	72Hz, 90Hz
Lenses	Pancake non-Fresnel
Field-of-view (claimed)	106ºH × 96ºV
Optical Adjustments	Continuous IPD, contiguous eye-relief
IPD Adjustment Range	55–75mm
Processor	Snapdragon XR2+
RAM	12GB
Storage	256GB
Connectors	USB-C
Weight	722g
Battery Life	1–2 hours
Headset Tracking	Inside-out (no external beacons)
Controller Tracking	Inside-out (headset line-of-sight not needed)
Expression Tracking	Yes (eyes, face)
On-board cameras	5x external, 5x internal
Input	Touch Pro controllers (rechargeable), hand-tracking, voice
Audio	In-headstrap speakers, dual 3.5mm aux output
Microphone	Yes
Pass-through view	Yes (color)
MSRP	$1,500

Compact Optics & Form-factor

From a resolution and field-of-view standpoint, Quest Pro is actually quite similar to Quest 2, boasting an almost identical resolution of 1800 × 1920 (3.5MP) per-eye, but with a much more compact optical pipeline thanks to the use of ‘pancake’ lenses which moves the headset more toward a ‘goggle’-like form-factor than the old box-on-the-face of its predecessor. At 722g, Quest Pro is heavier than Quest 2, but may actually be more comfortable thanks to a rear-mounted battery for balance and a rigid headstrap.

And while the resolution isn’t higher, Meta claims Quest Pro has better clarity thanks to the headset’s new optics: a 25% improvement in sharpness at the center of the field-of-view, and a 50% improvement across the periphery (meaning larger ‘sweet-spot’ of clarity). As of now we’re not sure if those claims are merely about the lenses, or if they include the display as well, though we’ve reached out to Meta for clarity (pun intended).

Meta also claims Quest Pro includes a 500-element local dimming backlight which enables improved contrast up to 75% compared to Quest 2, while also allowing for a 1.3 times larger range of color.

New Controllers & Capabilities

Quest Pro’s controllers, which Meta is calling Touch Pro, are similar in shape but majorly upgraded under the hood. Gone are the tracking rings, which are instead replaced by three cameras which allow the controller to perform its own inside-out tracking. Not only does this make the Touch Pro controllers more compact, it also means they don’t need line-of-sight to the headset in order to maintain their position.

What’s more, the Touch Pro controllers feature improved haptics and new capabilities. The thumb rest of the controller has been angled and now includes a pressure sensor which allows for a natural pinch-like gesture. The controllers come with stylus tips which can be attached to the bottom, allowing you to flip the controller over to use like a bulbous white-board marker. The stylus even has a pressure sensor to determine how hard or soft you’re pushing against a surface.

Despite the new capabilities, the Touch Pro controllers maintain the same button and trigger layout as the Quest 2 controllers for full backwards compatibility with Quest 2 content. Touch Pro controllers are also the first from Meta that are rechargeable.

Though they are included with Quest Pro, the Touch Pro controllers are compatible with Quest 2 and can be purchased as an accessory for $300 starting later this year.

Better Sensing, Inside and Out

Quest Pro doesn’t just bring improved form-factor and controllers, the headset is also equipped with a bevy of sensors for better integrating the real world into the user’s experience, and better integrating the user into the virtual world.

Quest Pro packs five external sensors for passthrough AR capabilities, offering a higher resolution color view with improved depth-detection, making the headset better at understanding the geometry of the room around the user, and allowing it to more convincingly merge the virtual and real world.

The headset also includes five internal sensors for tracking the user’s eyes and face. In addition to using eye-tracking as input (potentially for things like foveated rendering), the sensors track much more information about the user’s face, allowing for significantly more expressive avatars than what’s possible on Quest 2.

Powered Up Processor

Given all the new and processing happening on Quest Pro, it’s a good thing the headset also sees both a processor and RAM upgrade. Quest Pro uses the newly revealed Snapdragon XR2+, an upgraded version of the processor that’s in Quest 2 but with better cooling, allowing for 50% more processing power. The headset also doubles the RAM over Quest 2 from 6GB to 12GB. As of now it isn’t clear how much of this increase in performance will be available to developers vs. how much will be retained for system functions like tracking.

More Features, Less Battery

Though Quest Pro includes a heap of enhancements over Quest 2, it comes with a cost… and not just in price. Meta says users can expect 1–2 hours of Quest Pro battery life. Luckily the headset includes a charging dock for both the headset and controllers, hopefully ensuring it’s ready to go whenever you are. Meta says the headset can charge to full from the dock in about 2 hours.

Complement Not Replacement, Says Meta

Meta says Quest Pro represents the company’s first entry in a line of “high-end” headsets, while Quest 2 and its progeny will continue to co-exist as an entry-level option.

Quest Pro is fully compatible with Quest 2 content, and while the headset is designed with an emphasis on passthrough AR (with an open peripheral view to keep users more grounded in their environment), the headset also includes magnetically attachable peripheral blinders to dial up the immersion for VR. A separate ‘full light blocker’, which blocks out even more of the surrounding view is available as a separate accessory.

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Quest Pro is priced at $1,500 and pre-orders are available today, with headsets poised to ship starting on October 25th.

Alleged Quest Pro Leak Shows Meta’s Next-gen Headset in Action

October 6, 2022 From roadtovr

Immersed, a startup known for its work-focused productivity app for VR, may have jumped the gun a little early, as the company posted a short clip of what appears to be Meta’s upcoming Project Cambria mixed reality headset (aka ‘Quest Pro’).

The video, spotted in a company blogpost, appears to be demonstrating the Immersed app in action on the unreleased Quest Pro, making use of its hand tracking and mixed reality capabilities.

Here’s a copy of the GIF, which has since been removed from the post:

First putting on a Quest Pro headset, the clip shows a user toggling through three levels of immersion: a full-color augmented reality view for productivity, a fully-immersed VR view for real-time collaboration, and a mixed reality view which combines both elements by also incorporating a physical keyboard and the user’s actual hands.

Meta hasn’t publicly acknowledged the Quest Pro naming scheme yet, however after an alleged unauthorized unboxing of the headset last month has shown the supposed unit’s exterior in full replete with Quest Pro branding—basically unveiling it well ahead of Meta’s upcoming Connect developer conference due to take place October 11th.

Based on images courtesy Immersed, Zectariuz Gaming

If there was any doubt, here are still images from the video (left) and from the unauthorized unboxing of Quest Pro (right). The only notable difference between the two is the inclusion of a light-blocking facial interface in Immersed’s shot, which may come in the box or be an extra for the sake of better immersion.

We’re sure to learn more then, although it seems fairly certain we’ll not only be seeing a lot of the next-gen standalone at Connect, but maybe a chance to plonk down some cash too for the admittedly expensive headset, said to be priced “significantly” higher than $800.

When speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in late August, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg let it slip that the company’s “next device [is] coming out in October,” which could mean we’ll be seeing an official pre-order announcement there too.

And the leaks don’t stop there. While readers should take it with a grain of salt, there’s been a report of a cheaper Meta Quest 3 set to follow Quest Pro at some point next year, which includes the latter’s full-color AR passthrough and depth sensor, however omitting Quest Pro’s face and eye-tracking function.

Alleged Quest Pro Unboxing Video Apparently Leaks Meta’s Next VR Headset

September 12, 2022 From roadtovr

As rumored over the past few months, Meta’s upcoming high-end VR headset Project Cambria seems to be named Quest Pro. And an apparent unboxing video has leaked too, which gives us a good look at the company’s next VR headset and controllers.

We saw the exterior box of Meta Quest Pro pop up on Reddit over the weekend, but a new video seems to have completely blown the cover off Meta’s next VR headset. Here’s a look at the box below for reference:

The video was obtained by Spanish language PC gaming streamer Zectariuz Gaming and posted to their Facebook, showing off the headset’s exterior and controllers.

The images above, appended with the ‘Engineering Sample’ sticker, are also seen on the box in the video, suggesting that either final or very near-final versions of the hardware aren’t just in the hands of trusted developers.

Here’s a breakdown of what we see in the video if you haven’t caught our previous coverage. Meta Quest Pro is a high-end VR headset capable of AR interactions thanks to its color passthrough cameras, which are placed on the front part of the headset.

You’ll also probably notice the headset is remarkably more compact than Meta Quest 2, which is due to the inclusion of pancake lenses. Those, like the name suggests, are flatter than traditional Fresnel lenses, reducing the space between the display and lens for a slimmer, less front-heavy profile. The headset also includes eye and facial-tracking, although we don’t really get a good enough look at the inside of the headset to learn anything new here.

The controllers are also a completely new design for the company, as you’ll see they’re missing the traditional infrared optical tracking rings seen on Rift, Rift S, Quest and Quest 2. The slimmer controller is studded with its own inside-out sensors that in theory should allow for more robust tracking since they don’t need to be within the line of sight of the headset itself.

There’s still no definite word on specs or price, although that last bit of info is officially slated to be “significantly higher” than $800, solidly putting Quest Pro in the enterprise and prosumer space.

There are also rumors (still unconfirmed by Meta) on Quest Pro’s specs. The data below is courtesy Bradley Lynch of SadlyItsBradely, however since they aren’t official please take with a grain of salt:

2,160 x 2,160 MiniLED Backlit LCD Panels (2)
Custom Pancake Lenses (2)
16MP Color Camera for Color Passthrough
Eye + Face Tracking (IR Camera based)
Qualcomm XR2+ Gen 1 SoC
12GB LPDDR5 RAM
256GB SSD
WiFi 6E Support
~5000 mAh battery

There is some decidedly more solid info on release for Meta’s next headset though. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg let it slip that its “next device [is] coming out in October,” which suggests a Quest Pro will follow in the footsteps of Quest 2 by being release during the company’s Connect developer conference, which takes place on October 11th, 2022.

Meta Connect Dev Conference to Be Held Virtually on October 11th

September 6, 2022 From roadtovr

Meta today announced that its next installment of Connect, the company’s annual XR developer conference, is again going digital this year. The event, which promises to share updates and looks into the “near and far future” of Meta, will be held on October 11th, 2022.

Like last year’s all-digital Connect, this year’s dev conference will include livestreaming keynotes and developer sessions, which the company says will be available on the Reality Labs Facebook page. And it’s all being boiled down into one day.

There’s no schedule out yet, however the company says its one-day virtual event will explore “the building of the metaverse and the future of augmented and virtual reality.” You can sign up for updates over at metaconnect.com for any upcoming livestreams.

We’d expect that much, but more specifically we’re hoping to learn a few key things. Topping the list is info surrounding its next VR headset, Project Cambria, or what is rumored to be dubbed Meta Quest Pro.

On the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg let it slip that its “next device [is] coming out in October,” which suggests a Cambria launch during Connect. That would also mean we get the full info drop on the so-called Quest Pro then. Reminder: at more than $800 Cambria is likely meant for prosumers and developers looking to get their hands on a VR headset capable of AR interactions (aka ‘mixed reality’) thanks to color passthrough and built-in eye tracking.

Whatever we see though will most certainly need top last year’s big name change if the company wants to make good on its complete rebranding, which essentially unplugged the Facebook and Oculus brand names and pivoted the company to focus more on building the metaverse.

Some other bits we’d expect in Connect 2022: Meta’s social VR space Horizon Worlds demonstrating a more definite direction, which we’d hope includes better-looking avatars and the sort of baked-in social features its VR hardware has been missing since, well, forever.

Now that Oculus…er…Meta Quest 2 has seen a price bump and the company still hasn’t delivered on its ambitious metaverse concepts, Connect 2022 may be just the place for the company to set expectations for Meta moving forward.

Allegedly Leaked Project Cambria Files Could Reveal Internal Design

June 2, 2022 From roadtovr

Meta is still pretty camera-shy when it comes to showing off Project Cambria, the company’s upcoming high-end VR headset which offers AR passthrough. It’s been intentionally blurred for its few on-screen demos, however now we may have just gotten a look under the hood.

YouTuber and tech analyst Brad Lynch (SadlyItsBradley) released a number of images in a post on his Patreon page which appear to be CAD files of Project Cambria.

Lynch previously released a render of an alleged production version of Cambria back in April, however he says some of those details were misinterpreted. With the leaked files, Lynch says there’s a few key items he’s noticed that are included in the upcoming headset that weren’t previously apparent.

“You may notice a wire on the right side of the device. In one of the pictures its sorta coiled/curved. This is the power delivery wire that connects the battery in the back of the head strap to the HMD up front. It seems that when you adjust the strap to the ‘closest point,’ it will coil automatically. And stretch to be straight when you adjust the opposite way,” Lynch says in the Patreon post.

Lynch notes that on the headset’s left side, a clip attached to the headstrap may be for the USB-C cable that is allegedly bundled with the device.

“This is very similar to how most PC VR HMDs include a plastic clip to run a tether around comfortable their devices. I am shocked they are including this, since I figured they would push the Oculus Air Link method rather than the Oculus (wired) Link method but there it is. Especially from the fact this device is almost certain to include Wifi-6E.”

In the image above you can also make out the adjustment knob for the headset’s strap.

Lynch also posits that a knob on the front of the headset is to dial-in lens distance from the face, or similar to how the comfort dial works on Valve Index.

He also alleges the IPD mechanism is set by “grabbing the lenses themselves and moving them,” as opposed to dialing them in with some sort of wheel mechanism. Unlike Quest 2, Lynch says it offers smooth adjustments between interpupillary distance (IPD) sizes for more precise user comfort.

And what sets Cambria apart from other headsets: Lynch alleges it has two “glacier” cameras on the front left and right, and one “teton” high resolution RGB Camera in the center, the latter of which is used to colorize the monochrome stereo glacier sensors.

A supposed infrared (IR) projector is also there—a small square sitting just above the centrally located RGB sensor—which is said to provide additional depth data for environmental mapping.

Lynch has spent considerable time over the past few months datamining with fellow VR cohorts Basti564 and Samulia to track down rumors and info. Although Lynch doesn’t reveal where this info came from, he maintains its a “large leak.”

Lynch has also included a prediction of specs based on those files and other obtained info. It’s said to feature:

2,160 x 2,160 MiniLED Backlit LCD Panels (2)
Custom Pancake Lenses (2)
16MP Color Camera for Color Passthrough
Eye + Face Tracking (IR Camera based)
Qualcomm XR2+ Gen 1 SoC
12GB LPDDR5 RAM
256GB SSD
WiFi 6E Support
~5000 mAh battery

There’s still no precise launch information yet for Project Cambria, although Meta has gone one record saying it’s slated to be “significantly higher” than $800, making it targeted more squarely at developers and enthusiasts.

Project Cambria’s Price Will Be “Significantly Higher” Than $800, Meta Reveals

May 2, 2022 From roadtovr

Following a report today which claimed Meta’s upcoming Project Cambria headset would be priced at $800, rather than denying the information as a rumor, the company took the curious step of confirming the headset would be much more expensive.

A report by The Information today, citing an internal roadmap, claimed that Meta is planning to release four new VR headsets by 2024. The first would be Project Cambria, the report says, priced around $800.

Now typically when there’s a leak like this, companies will simply decline to comment on any of it. In this case, Meta took the somewhat odd step of pretty much doing that except for addressing a single point.

A Spokesperson for the company tells Road to VR the $800 price for Project Cambria claimed by the report is not accurate, and further, that the actual price of the headset will be “significantly higher.”

That’s a curious move, but it seems that Meta didn’t want the report to set a false expectation for the price of the headset, which is expected to launch later this year.

We’ve known from the bits Meta has shared previously that Project Cambria wasn’t going to aim for the lowest possible cost like Quest. But it’s a bit surprising that the company says the actual price will “significantly” exceed $800.

If the reported price of $800 was within $100 or even $200 of the actual price, it doesn’t seem like it would be that big of a deal. But because the company took the odd step of not just saying ‘the price is incorrect’, but also adding that it will be higher, makes us think the real price will certainly exceed $1,000.

That’s definitely expensive for a standalone VR headset, but not unheard of. HTC’s Vive Focus 3—which is aimed at enterprise customers—is priced at $1,300. If Meta sees itself competing for those same customers, they may aim to come close to that price (if not a bit under).

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Interestingly, the episode bears resemblance to something that happened in the early Oculus days, before the company was absorbed deeply into Meta. Back in 2015, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said the launch price of the original Oculus Rift headset would be “roughly in [the $350] ballpark.” But when the headset’s price was officially revealed at $600, nearly double the ‘ballpark’ price, people weren’t happy.

This was before the launch of Oculus Touch, the headset’s motion controllers; later when someone asked Luckey what the ‘ballpark’ price would be for Touch he remarked, “no more ballparks for now. I have learned my lesson.”

Whether that’s a long forgotten memory for Meta or not, the company must have felt it was quite important to get ahead of the Project Cambria price discussion before it got out of their hands.

Report: Meta to Release Four New VR Headsets by 2024, Starting with Project Cambria in September

May 2, 2022 From roadtovr

According to a report by The Information, Meta plans to release four new VR headsets by 2024, and that’s purportedly in addition to its AR devices.

The Information reporters Sylvia Varnham O’Regan and Mathew Olson say they’ve seen an internal roadmap that shows an aggressive rollout of new VR headsets by Meta.

“By 2024,” the report says, the company plans to launch four new headsets. The report specifically says these are “virtual reality headsets” (though this could well include mixed reality headsets using passthrough AR) and indicates the four new devices are separate from the AR headsets that Meta is also developing.

The first of Meta’s four new headsets will be Project Cambria, which the report says is expected in September of this year.

We already know a bit about Project Cambria as the company officially teased the headset last year and a handful of leaks have filled in some details. According to The Information‘s report, the headset is likely to be priced at $800.

Update (May 2nd, 2022 – 4:24PM PT): Meta confirmed that the actual price of Project Cambria will be “significantly higher” than the $800 price stated by The Information’s report.

An unofficial rendering of Project Cambria based on leaked info | Image courtesy SadlyItsBradley

And a follow-up to Cambria is already in the works, according to the report; codenamed Funston, which is expected in 2024.

As for the other two headsets, those are the next-gen iterations of Meta’s more affordable Quest 2 headset, reportedly codenamed Stinson and Cardiff, with an expected release in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

But what features the headsets beyond Cambria will be target is still somewhat unclear. It’s too early for headsets built around some of the radical changes in compute architecture that Meta believes is necessary to take XR devices to the next level, or the holographic folded optics it’s been researching, though maybe the varifocal tech Meta has been working on for years is nearly ready for primetime. And what of those two headsets the company teased late last year?

As ever, only time will tell, but it looks like Meta’s increasingly steep investments in XR are ramping up the pace for the company’s headset releases.

Check out the original report by The Information for more details.

Unofficial Render Purports to Show Production Model of Meta’s Next-gen Headset, Project Cambria

April 7, 2022 From roadtovr

YouTuber SadlyItsBradley claims to have seen actual photos of the production model of Meta’s next-gen mixed reality headset, Project Cambria. Though they aren’t sharing the source photos, they worked with a 3D modeler to create a detailed rendering of what the photos showed.

SadlyItsBradley is an XR hardware analyst who has spent considerable time digging deep to track down rumors and info relating to upcoming VR hardware. Recently they claimed that Meta’s upcoming mixed reality headset, currently known as Project Cambria, reached its ‘DVT’ phase which means that it’s nearly ready for production.

SadlyItsBradley also claims to have seen actual photos of the production-ready Project Cambria, and while they couldn’t share the photos themselves, they worked with a 3D modeler Marcus Kane to recreate what was seen in detail. Below are the renders that resulted.

Project Cambria Unofficial Renders

In the video accompanying the renders, Bradley talked about the array of cameras on the headset, including a pod of four sensors hidden underneath the front cover. According to them, the pod contains two cameras and two non-camera sensors which are theorized to be some kind of depth-sensor:

What’s especially notable about the renders is how compact the optics and display housing is compared to current VR headsets. If the renders are fairly accurate, this affirms that Project Cambria is likely moving to a new optics system compared to past headsets (likely a ‘pancake’-style optic).

Some of this info and speculation—and even much of the look of the device—was teased by Meta itself last year. At the time the company said Project Cambria would include “high-res color mixed reality passthrough,” new optics, eye & face tracking, and controllers which do away with the tracking rings (likely moving to on-board inside-out tracking). The company also confirmed that Project Cambria would launch in 2022, though no further details on a release date or price have been announced.