The Meta Quest 3 has finally arrived at the hands of consumers this month and it is always an exciting time to try out the latest VR device from Meta. This latest iteration of the Quest line stands out as the first device to take advantage of full color passthrough and improved AR capabilities, falling into the recent trend of XR Devices rather than a primary focus on VR. But with all that aside, how does it feel to use the device and how will businesses be able to take advantage of the new features? Also, what are the stand-out features for the Meta Quest 3 for business users?
In this article, we will review our initial impressions of using the headset, what stood out to us, and the uses we can see for Meta Quest 3 For business. We will point out new features and improvements but also where we see room for improvement.
Improved visuals in many ways
What stood out immediately to us when using the Meta Quest 3 is the increase in resolution when using the device. Everything feels crisp and easy to see when in a fully VR space. The amount of blur or fuzziness is drastically reduced. It pays off in spades when it comes to viewing text in VR. Text is clean, clear and easily legible, even when using smaller views and windows in the software. No more squinting to read the menu options. Many of the software experiences on the Meta Quest 3 just look better with this improved resolution that it feels like they got an upgrade, even if they didn’t (more on that later).
Along with an improved resolution comes an improved field of view (FOV). On the Meta Quest 3, you get a 110-degree horizontal and 96-degree vertical FOV. That’s a 15% boost over the Meta Quest 2. What this means is that the view you get through the headset will allow you to see more of the VR environment at once and will make you feel less of the binocular effect you get with headsets with a smaller FOV.
What this does for business
The improvement to the visuals with the headset will just be a general overall improvement to anything viewed on the headset. Any presentation you show, any environment you create will just look clearer on a screen with improved resolution. And the improved FOV will improve the level of immersion by making the view seem more natural. As well if you’re able to raise the resolution of the textures in your projects, you can improve how they will look in the VR environment and make your VR projects more realistic.
Powerful Processing Power
To power these improved visuals and new AR tech, the Meta Quest 3 comes with improved processing power. The system comes with a second-gen Snapdragon XR2, fabricated with a 7-nm process and 8 GB of RAM. That boils down to the Meta Quest 3 just being faster and more responsive. Applications should load quicker; the system will boot up faster and it all helps power the many different sensors and tackers the system uses to translate easy movements into VR.
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In many of the applications now, developers have created Meta Quest 3 updates to take advantage of the processing power. While we don’t want to focus much on the games offered on the quest it's worth pointing out that with the new processing power, these games have received updates that improve frame rates, lighting, and textures up to 4K resolution. When compared to their Quest 2 counterparts, it’s night and day between the two. It’s a great way to see what the device is capable of and what developers will be able to do with the device.
More power, better business?
So how can all this new processing power help the Meta Quest 3 for business? Well with the device still being new, it may take some time for devs to take advantage of the new tech and specs available. But from what we’ve seen so far it has us excited. But for baseline, improved load times and better overall performance are always welcome, especially when it comes time to present, and you want that VR experience to be as smooth as possible.
AR and Passthrough
The new passthrough capabilities with the Meta Quest 3 are the feature that had us the most curious. How realistic would it feel and how natural would it be to use this device with AR? Overall, the AR features work extremely well. The device is accurately able to collect spatial data and understand the space it is in. It feels very futuristic to have a view of the area around me with an AR screen that I can position in that space to my liking. It feels even more futuristic to interact with AR objects with hand tracking that is built into the Meta Quest 3 including using our hands to top on the screen as if it’s a touch screen.
The main issue we have with the AR interface at the moment is the quality of the passthrough video. It feels particularly grainy, especially if you have to use it in a not optimally lit environment. It especially feels non-HD after all the other VR experiences we’ve used with the newer higher-resolution screens. It’s by no means unusable, but it is just noticeable enough.
A good showcase of the AR capabilities with full color passthrough. Credit: UploadVR
AR and Business
Despite this being the main new feature of the Meta Quest 3 when it comes to business applications, we think it will take a bit more time before we can see how you can take advantage of the new passthrough and AR features of the headset. At the very least the new color passthrough will be a boon for viewers at events who may need to see their surroundings quickly to make sure they aren’t in the way. But beyond that, we eagerly await to see how developers take advantage of these new features.
Initial Impressions
So those are our initial impressions of the new features of the Meta Quest 3. Overall we’re very pleased with what the headset has been able to provide. We are particularly pleased with the overall viewing experience with wider FOVs and improved resolution that will improve anyone’s experience with the device.
We will continue our investigation into the Meta Quest 3 and more specifically its use cases with it comes to architecture and design. Stay tuned for our full review of the newest standalone XR device from Meta.
