Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has officially unveiled the Meta Quest Pro, which is the company's new and first high-end and advanced Virtual Reality (VR) headset at Meta’s annual Connect conference. With pre-orders announced, Meta Quest Pro will be available for purchase on October 25 for €1,799.99 or £$1,499.99 or $1,499.99. The package includes the headset, Meta Quest Touch Pro controllers, stylus tips, partial light blockers, and a charging dock.
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The company is collaborating with Microsoft Corp. to offer Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 office-productivity software on the new device.
Meta Quest Pro marks the social networking giant's entry into the high-end line of devices, and the VR headset is packed with innovative features such as high-res sensors for robust mixed reality experiences, LCD displays for sharp visuals, a completely new and sleeker design, plus eye tracking and Natural Facial Expressions to help the user's avatar reflect them more naturally in VR.
“This… is Meta Quest Pro. It’s the first in our new line of advanced headsets, built to expand what’s possible in VR. It takes what people love about Meta Quest 2 and adds a bunch of new technologies to help you do more in the metaverse. It’s made for collaboration and creativity, and with mixed reality built in, it lets you do things that haven’t been possible before," Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, said in a statement.
"All in a beautiful design that’s comfortable to wear. Whether you’re looking to work in a new way, or you just want the very best experiences available today... this sets the standard.”
But the metaverse won’t be built by one company alone -- Zuckerberg was joined by both Microsoft Chairperson and CEO Satya Nadella and Accenture Chairperson and CEO Julie Sweet, to share new partnerships that will accelerate the future of work.
They detailed how Meta Quest Pro was built with work in mind, and that the partnership with Microsoft is intended to bring its productivity tools to Meta Quest devices and Meta work experiences.
This includes Microsoft Teams immersive meeting experiences for Meta Quest, Microsoft Windows 365 for Meta Quest, Microsoft 365 app experiences for Quest, a Microsoft Teams/Workrooms integration, Meta Avatars in Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Intune and Azure Active Directory support for Quest.
The partnership with Accenture will help businesses adopt Meta’s hardware and software, integrated with Microsoft tech, so that businesses can bring the future of work to their people sooner.
Meta also announced that Quest for Business, its subscription bundle for Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro, that includes essential admin features like device and app management, will be coming next year. Meta also announced a series of new features for Horizon Workrooms, the VR space for teams to connect and collaborate. The new features include more expressive avatars, breakout groups with spatial audio, sticky notes for the whiteboard, a new stylus controller tip for clearer writing and a personal office for individual productivity where you can access large virtual screens and utilize the full-colour passthrough mode.