You may remember our post from a while back about the Oculus Santa Cruz. We summed it up as one of the headsets that will (hopefully) bring a new era of VR.
As expected, we found out more about the exciting new headset at this year’s Oculus Connect 5. We now know that it will be called the Oculus Quest, and heard further details on specs and pricing. So, we thought we’d update our readers with everything that we found out.
What is the Oculus Quest?
As our title suggests, the Oculus Quest is an upcoming 6-degrees of freedom (6DoF) standalone VR headset. Like the Oculus Go, everything you need to experience VR is encased within the device. There’s no need for an external PC or wires. Like the Oculus Rift, it tracks your movements in every direction and has 6DoF controllers. The Quest fits somewhere in-between these other two devices.
There are some new innovations that really make the Quest stand out. Perhaps most notable is the Oculus Insight system. This is the tech that powers the inside-out tracking, allowing for the 6DoF.
It uses a series of fours sensors located on the front of the headset to sense the space you’re in. According to the keynotes presentation, this means the Quest is capable of multi-room tracking.
The device will come paired with two controllers that are similar to those that come with the Rift. By all accounts, they look very similar to the Oculus Touch controllers. They feature the same ringed-design, with a button configuration comparable to that on the Rift version.
The Oculus Insight system will track their position, which does mean that they will potentially drop out of the tracking range.
Oculus Quest Key Specs
We also learned further details about the specifications of the upcoming headset. The Quest will use the same lenses that are found in the Oculus Go but will use a different display.
The company claim that the Quest will feature their highest resolution screens yet; an OLED panel with a resolution of 1600×1440 pixels per eye. Users will be able to adjust the lens distance for maximum comfort.
…the Quest will feature their highest resolution screens yet; an OLED panel with a resolution of 1600×1440 pixels per eye.
The Quest will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 mobile processor. Although not as powerful as the 845 found in the Samsung Galaxy S9, it still promises to deliver high-quality graphics and performance.
Oculus says that elements such as the chromatic aberration correction, recently announced for the Go, will also make it to their new headset.
Release Date and Price
We still don’t have an exact release date, but, as expected, Oculus is planning for a spring 2019 launch. We’re hopeful that this will be in Q1 of next year, but wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up being Q2. As for the price, we know that the base 64GB model will cost $399, with no word yet on a UK price point.
We have to admit, we’re very excited to get our hands on the Oculus Quest.
