The Oculus Quest 2 VR headset has leaked in full via a pair of promotional videos uploaded to a marketing hub run by parent company Facebook, The videos outline the specs of the standalone headset, which is a successor to 2019’s Oculus Quest. Also listed on the site is a pair of live demos of the headset, scheduled for September 16th and 17th. That lines up neatly with a previously-rumored launch date for the Quest 2 of September 15th.
According to the videos, the new headset is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 platform, which is specifically designed for AR and VR hardware (unlike the general-purpose Snapdragon 835 that powered the original Quest). One video boasts that the Quest 2 has an “almost 4K display,” which it says translates to “nearly 2K per eye,” which a second video says is 50 percent more pixels than the original Quest. The headset also has 6GB of RAM (up from 4GB) and up to 256GB of storage (up from a maximum of 128GB), as well as 3D positional audio, and the return of controller-free hand tracking.
Although the videos provide plenty of new details about the Oculus Quest 2, there are a couple of lingering questions. It’s not clear, for a start, what the display’s refresh rate will be, which previous reports indicated could increase from 72Hz to 90Hz or even 120Hz to display smoother motion. There’s also no mention of the headset’s size or weight. Previous reports suggested that the Quest 2 would be less bulky than the original Quest, but the videos simply refer to the new hardware as “streamlined” and “light.”
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The new headset features a higher-resolution display, and comes with updated controllers.
The videos do mention a new soft-touch strap which they say make the headset easier to slip on and off as well as a pair of updated controllers with “new ergonomics” that Oculus claims should make them more comfortable to use. Oculus Link support also returns for the Quest 2, allowing you to use a USB-C cable to connect the headset to a PC and use it to play PC-based VR games.
This isn’t our first look at the new headset, images of which leaked back in July.
The Oculus Quest 2 looks set to be the first headset Facebook will release following its controversial decision to require Oculus users to have a Facebook account. Although users of the company’s existing headsets can use a separate Oculus account until 2023, Facebook has said future devices will require a Facebook login, regardless of whether you already have a separate Oculus account.
There’s no word on how much the headset is due to cost, but a now-removed Walmart listing suggested its 256GB variant could retail for $399. With the Facebook Connect developer conference scheduled to start on September 16th, it’s likely that an official announcement isn’t too far away.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said that the original Oculus Quest had a 60Hz display. This is incorrect, it actually had a 72Hz display. Previous reports also indicated that the headset would be getting less bulky, not more, as we previously stated.
