Meta today announced it’s lowering the price of the 256GB version of Quest 2 as well as its more recent enthusiast-grade standalone, Meta Quest Pro.
Meta initially launched a 64GB and 256GB variants of Quest 2 in late 2020 for $300 and $400 respectively. A 128GB version was introduced in 2021, which replaced the 64GB version. To stave off rising costs, the company announced in July 2022 that it was raising the price of Quest 2 128GB and 256GB variants to $400 and $500 respectively.
Starting March 5th, Meta is now again restructuring its Quest 2 pricing by bringing the 256GB Meta Quest 2 from its current price of $500 to $430. Notably, the 128GB version of Quest 2 is staying at the same $400 price point.
Quest 2 (left), Quest Pro (right) | Photo by Road to VR
Meta Quest Pro is also seeing a price reduction on March 5th, bringing it from its $1,500 launch price to $1,000.
Meta says in a blogpost that pricing changes to Meta Quest 2 (256GB) will also update across Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the UK.
Quest Pro’s price will take effect US and Canada on March 5th, and March 15th in all of the other countries mentioned above.
The news of the Quest 2 and Quest Pro price change comes days after a report dropped from The Verge citing an internal memo on the company’s future roadmap.
A Quest Pro successor is also planned, but may come “way out in the future” after Ventura is released in 2024, the report maintained. Meanwhile, the company has sold 20 million Quest 2 headsets, however user retention has been a battle.
Provided the report is true, it seems the company is shaking up its pricing tiers to better entice Quest 2-owning enthusiasts into Quest Pro before it drops the more powerful Quest 3 later this year. Making the Quest 2 more accessible now will also make the “slightly more expensive” Quest 3 appear more attractive to users looking to upgrade then, and not now to the Quest Pro.
What are your thoughts on the new pricing strategy? Let us know in the comments below!
It’s only been three months since Meta launched Quest Pro, pitching its next-gen mixed reality standalone to enterprise and prosumers with the hefty price tag of $1,500. In an unusual move by the company, Meta has quietly slashed the price of Quest Pro for a limited time, putting it more directly in competition with HTC’s recently revealed Vive XR Elite standalone headset.
Update (11AM ET): Sale timing has been revealed; the price drop is in effect for one week only in the US, and two weeks in the UK (dropping to £1,300). We’ve included this in the body of the article below.
Released in late October, Quest Pro essentially set the tone of the next generation of standalone VR hardware. Typically, Meta is consumer-forward, pricing its headsets below (or close to) $500, but Quest Pro represents a pivotal shift in Meta’s strategy.
Starting with Quest Pro, the company is using mixed reality as “a key part of the journey toward full augmented reality devices,” Chief Technology Officer and Reality Labs Chief Andrew Bosworth described in a year-end blogpost.
Quest Pro | Image courtesy Meta
With the sale, it seems the company is quietly gunning to retain its share of the budding MR headset marketplace by knocking the price of Quest Pro to match its largest competitor, Vive XR Elite, which HTC revealed earlier this month, couching it as its long-awaited return to the consumer VR space.
Vive XR Elite | Image courtesy HTC
Now, Meta’s Quest Pro is priced at $1,100, or $400 below its previous MSRP, challenging Vive XR Elite’s unique selling points in the process. According to CNET, the sale is happening for one week only in the US, and two weeks in the UK (dropping to £1,300).
Notably, these aren’t entirely analogous devices; some hardware quirks might act as key differentiators, although the undeniable overlap now puts them squarely in direct competition. Still, it’s pretty close.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the headset specs side-by-side:
Feature
Vive XR Elite
Quest Pro
Inside-out tracking
wide FOV cameras (4), depth sensor (1)
wide FOV cameras (4), no depth sensor
Passthrough
single 16 MP RGB camera
single RGB (MP?) camera
Resolution
1,920 × 1,920 per eye (LCD)
1,800 × 1,920 per eye (LCD)
Display Refresh
90 Hz
90 Hz
Eye-tracking
Additional module required
Onboard eye-tracking
Face-tracking
Additional module required
Onboard face-tracking
Chipset
Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2
Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+
Storage & Memory
128 GB / 12 GB
256 GB / 12 GB
FOV
up to 110-degrees diagonal
up to 96-degrees diagonal
Optics
Pancake lens
Pancake lens
IPD Adjustment
manual, 54–73 mm range
manual, 55-75 mm
Audio
built-in open-ear audio
built-in open-ear audio, 3.5mm audio port
Weight
625g (including battery), 273g in ‘glasses’ mode
722 g (including battery)
Controllers
6DOF motion controllers (2), hand-tracking
6DOF motion controllers (2), hand-tracking
Playtime on battery
~2 hours
~2 hours
Retail Price
$1,099
$1,099 (MSRP $1,499)
A raw spec sheet doesn’t exactly tell the full story, although it’s clear HTC will need to play catchup if it intends on remaining competitive with Meta now that both headsets have achieved price parity, albeit temporarily. Vive XR Elite is still in pre-order, with a late February shipping window, while Quest Pro is available today, direct from Meta.
In Vive XR Elite’s favor is its convertibility: the traditional battery headstrap can be replaced with a glasses arm piece, which allows it to be used with an external powerbank for more casual content viewing, like watching a film in your own private theater whilst on a plane or train.
It’s a unique selling point, although the lack of 3.5mm sours this somewhat, as you’ll need to use Bluetooth headphones to watch anything if you want complete privacy in a public space. Still, the focus on every day, on-the-go use sets it apart from Quest Pro. On the flipside, Quest Pro however features both eye and face-tracking out of the box, something Vive XR Elite will gain in the future with the release of separate modules.
Hardware aside, Meta undoubtedly has a leg up with its content ecosystem, as all games designed for Quest 2 automatically support Quest Pro—that’s a lot of content out of the box in addition to the admittedly smallish drip of mixed reality experiences already on the Quest Store.
Meanwhile, HTC is still amassing games for its growing content library, which currently doesn’t boast any truly notable exclusives that might make you choose one headset over the other. Notably, HTC also openly refutes it will sell personal user data since it’s not a social media company—a clear shot across the bow at Meta’s spotty track record in user privacy and security.
“What’s the cost of your personal data? We’re not a social media company. Our business model doesn’t rely on advertising revenue, so it’s not something we’re doing. We want to build good hardware.” – @shen
The list of differences doesn’t end there. If you want to learn more about Quest Pro and Vive XR Elite, check out our in-depth hands-on articles with both headsets.
