Meta just opened preorders for Quest 3, set to be the most powerful standalone headset yet when it ships in October. Here’s a detailed rundown of its specifications and features and how those compare to other headsets.
Of course, on-paper specification sheets don’t tell the whole story, so we’ll be bringing you hands-on impressions from Meta Connect later this week and a full review when the device ships in October.
Quest 3 Specs vs Quest 2 vs Quest Pro
Quest 3’s specs significantly exceed Quest 2 with no regressions, and in most ways even surpass Quest Pro despite starting at half the price.
Quest 2
Quest Pro
Quest 3
Launch
Late 2020
Late 2022
Late 2023
Lens Type
Fresnel
Pancake
Pancake
Field of View
89-96°
106°
110°
Lens Separation
58mm / 63mm / 68mm
58mm–70mm
58mm–72mm
Supported IPDs
56mm-60mm /
61mm-65mm /
66-70mm
55mm–70mm
53mm–75mm
Depth Adjustment
❌
✅
✅
Display Type
Single LCD
Dual QD-LCD
Dual LCD
Pixels Per Eye
~1680×1870 (est)
1800×1920
2064×2208
Local Dimming
❌
✅
❌
Max Refresh Rate
120Hz
90Hz
120Hz (experimental)
Chipset
Snapdragon
XR2 Gen 1 (7nm)
Snapdragon
XR2+ Gen 1 (7nm)
Snapdragon
XR2 Gen 2 (4nm)
RAM
6GB
12GB
8GB
Passthrough
Greyscale
Low Res
Colorized Greyscale
Medium Res
True Color
High Res
Depth Sensing
❌
❌
✅
Wi-Fi
6 (2.4GHz + 5GHz)
6E (2.4GHz + 5GHz + 6GHz)
6E (2.4GHz + 5GHz + 6GHz)
Battery Location
Visor
Rear Padding
Visor
Battery Life
2 hours
1-3 hours
1.5-2.9 hours
Eye Tracking
❌
✅
❌
Face Tracking
❌
✅
❌
Controllers
Touch
Tracking Rings
Basic Haptics
Touch Pro
Self-Tracking
TruTouch Haptics
Touch Plus
Ringless
TruTouch Haptics
Pricing
$300 (128GB)
$350 (256GB)
$1000 (256GB)
$500 (128GB)
$650 (512GB)
Quest Pro is still the only Meta option for local dimming, eye tracking, and face tracking. But Quest 3 has a twice as powerful GPU, higher resolution, higher max refresh rate, 3x the color passthrough pixels, and a depth projector for 3D environment meshing and improved hand tracking.
Quest 3 Specs vs Apple Vision Pro
While Apple Vision Pro is a much higher end device with a starting price seven times higher, Quest 3’s specs actually hold up fairly well.
Meta Quest 3
Apple Vision Pro
Launch
Late 2023
Early 2024
Operating System
Meta’s Android Fork
visionOS
IPD Adjustment
Manual
Fully Automatic
Display Type
LCD
Micro-OLED
Total Pixels
9.1 million
23 million
HDR
❌
✅
Refresh Rates
72/80/90/120 Hz
90/96 Hz
Chipset
Qualcomm
Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 (4nm)
Apple
M2 (5nm)
Color Cameras
2x 4MP
2x High-Res
Depth Sensing
✅
✅
Eye Tracking
❌
✅
Face Tracking
❌
✅
Battery Location
Visor
Tethered External
Battery Life
2-3 hours
2 hours
Front Display
❌
✅
Authentication
Pattern
OpticID
Tracked Controllers
✅
❌
Starting Price
$500
$3500
At a much more accessible price, Quest 3 still promises color passthrough good enough to read your phone, a slim visor with pancake lenses, and hardware depth sensing for 3D environment meshing and high quality hand tracking. And unlike Vision Pro, it has tracked controllers and doesn’t need an external battery.
However, Vision Pro has OLED microdisplaays with more than twice the number of pixels, a more powerful chipset, eye tracking, face tracking, automatic IPD adjustment, OpticID, and the EyeSight front display. It can also run most iPhone and iPad apps from the App Store as floating panels, and developers can even offer cross-buy.
Quest 3 Specs vs Pico 4
ByteDance’s Pico 4 launched last year to consumers in Europe and Asia boasting improved hardware compared to Quest 2, including a slimmer design enabled by pancake lenses which also have a wider field of view.
However, Pico 4 still uses the original Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1, whereas Quest 3 is the first headset with the new XR2 Gen 2. Further, Quest 3 has active depth sensing for 3D environment meshing and improved hand tracking, while Pico 4 only features 2D cameras.
Quest 2
Pico 4
Quest 3
Launch
Late 2020
Late 2022
Late 2023
Lens Type
Fresnel
Pancake
Pancake
Field of View
89-96° × 96°
105° × 105°
110°× 96°
Lens Separation
3-step
Continuous
Continuous
Depth Adjustment
❌
❌
✅
Display Type
Single LCD
Dual LCD
Dual LCD
Pixels Per Eye
~1680×1870 (est)
2160×2160
2064×2208
Max Refresh Rate
120Hz
90Hz
120Hz (experimental)
Chipset
Snapdragon
XR2 Gen 1 (7nm)
Snapdragon
XR2 Gen 1 (7nm)
Snapdragon
XR2 Gen 2 (4nm)
RAM
6GB
8GB
8GB
Passthrough
Low Res Greyscale
(Depth Correct)
Color High Res
(Not Depth Correct)
Color High Res
(Depth Correct)
Depth Sensing
❌
❌
✅
Strap Type
Flimsy Cloth (Replaceable)
Semi-Rigid Plastic (Not Replaceable)
Flimsy Cloth (Replaceable)
Wi-Fi
6 (2.4GHz + 5GHz)
6 (2.4GHz + 5GHz)
6E (2.4GHz + 5GHz + 6GHz)
Battery Location
Visor
Rear Padding
Visor
Battery Life
2 hours
2 hours
1.5-2.9 hours
Controllers
Rings
Basic Haptics
Arcs
HyperSense Haptics
Ringless
TruTouch Haptics
Pricing
€350 (128GB)
€400 (256GB)
€430 (128GB)
€500 (256GB)
€550 (128GB)
€700 (512GB)
However, Pico 4 still has its own advantages over Quest 3: better weight distribution thanks to its battery being in the rear padding, slightly higher resolution panels, and a taller field of view.
Quest 3 Specs vs Original Oculus Quest
Of course, no specs comparison would be complete without including the original Oculus Quest, the device that redefined VR over four years ago.
Oculus Quest
Quest 2
Quest 3
Launch
Mid 2019
Late 2020
Late 2023
Lens Type
Fresnel
Fresnel
Pancake
Field of View
No Official Figure
89-96°
110°
Lens Separation
58mm–72mm
58mm / 63mm / 68mm
58mm–72mm
Supported IPDs
56mm–74mm
56mm-60mm /
61mm-65mm /
66-70mm
53mm–75mm
Depth Adjustment
❌
❌
✅
Display Type
Dual OLED
Single LCD
Dual LCD
Pixels Per Eye
PenTile 1440×1600
RGB ~1680×1870 (est)
RGB 2064×2208
Max Refresh Rate
72Hz
120Hz
120Hz (experimental)
Chipset
Snapdragon
835 (10nm)
Snapdragon
XR2 Gen 1 (7nm)
Snapdragon
XR2 Gen 2 (4nm)
RAM
4GB
6GB
8GB
Passthrough
Greyscale
Low Res
Greyscale
Low Res
True Color
High Res
Depth Sensing
❌
❌
✅
Wi-Fi
5 (2.4GHz + 5GHz + 6GHz)
6 (2.4GHz + 5GHz)
6E (2.4GHz + 5GHz + 6GHz)
Battery Life
2-3 hours
2 hours
1.5-2.9 hours
Controllers
Touch S
Tracking Rings
Basic Haptics
Touch
Tracking Rings
Basic Haptics
Touch Plus
Ringless
TruTouch Haptics
Pricing
$400 (64GB)
$500 (128GB)
$300 (128GB)
$350 (256GB)
$500 (128GB)
$650 (512GB)
While Quest 3 improves over Quest 2 the differences since the original Oculus Quest four years ago are even more dramatic. Notably, though, it was the only Quest so far with OLED displays which offered contrast and colors unmatched by any LCD, even with Quest Pro’s local dimming capabilities.
