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Meta Quest Pro and Quest 2 are now cheaper, permanently.

Generous offering? Or cunning tactic?

Updated: Mar 7, 2023 8:41 am
Meta Quest Pro and Quest 2 are now cheaper, permanently.

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That’s right, folks, despite only releasing back in October of 2022, Meta has already cut the price of the Quest Pro from $1500 to $1000. Additionally, the Quest 2 has also received a $70 price cut, almost reversing the price increase we saw last year, though this only affects the 256GB SKU.

Meta Quest Pro VR headset

Meta Quest Pro 1

Chipset

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+

Storage

256GB

RAM

12GB

Display resolution

1832 x 1920 per-eye

Battery Life

1-2 hours

Weight

1.59lbs/0.72kg

When the Quest Pro released on October 25th, reviews were generally great, with a lot of praise going to the AR integrations and slimmer design than the Meta Quest 2.

However, there was a pretty sizeable elephant in the room: The price. At $1500/£1499/€1799, the cost was far higher than other standalone VR headsets. it was 3 times higher than the Meta Quest Pro and PICO 4 VR, for example.

Meta Quest 2

Meta Quest 2

Chipset

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2

Storage

128GB/256GB

RAM

6GB

Display resolution

1832 x 1920 per-eye

Battery Life

3 hours

Weight

1.1lbs/0.53kg

This made for a very hard-to-swallow price tag, which understandably put a lot of people off. When we reported on the price, we theorized that it was due to Meta wanting the Quest Pro to be more of a business/enterprise device.

It certainly seemed that way too, with a large proportion of the official announcement concentrating on co-working and office applications. Of course, $1500 is far more tenable for a business than it is for a single consumer, tax write-offs notwithstanding.

Now, though, as per the subject of this article, the change in price has had a strong affect on the value of the Meta Quest Pro. This means that a lot of people will be reconsidering a purchase. However, why did Meta drop the Quest Pro price now? What gives?

Why Meta dropped the price of the Quest Pro and Quest 2

We hasten to add that this is just our theories, and we haven’t had any official comment from meta on the subject. That being said, the timing of this price drop is very convenient.

Regular readers of the website will know that we’ve been preparing extensive coverage of the Vive XR Elite ahead of its release, and during our research to write the pages, it became clear that it might be a Quest Pro killer, offering very similar specs and reported capabilities, while being about $300 cheaper than the Quest Pro.

At least it was, until Meta decided to drop the Meta Quest Pro price by $500, undercutting the Vive XR Elite price by $100, just a few short days before the XR Elite’s release date. Well acquainted with sneaky corporate tactics, this can’t be a coincidence.

This is a well-considered move by meta to make folks rethink their Vive XR Elite pre orders. Though, it might also help with lacklustre growth in Meta’s VR division, indeed the VR section of the company lost $14bn in 2022 according to gamesindustry.biz.

So, we think that the Quest Pro and Quest 2 price drops are a tactic to kill two birds with one stone: undercut the Vive XR Elite just before release, and quickly recoup some of what they lost by lowering the price of their most popular products to more enticing prices.

Will it work? Well, no company is going to release date on pre order, sales, or cancellations, unless they are notably strong, so, we don’t know yet. However, we do know, that HTC are probably starting to sweat.

HTC Vive XR Elite VR headset

HTC Vive XR Elite VR headset 1

Chipset

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2

Storage

128GB

RAM

12GB

Display resolution

1920 x 1920 per-eye

Battery Life

Up to 2 hours, comes with a hot-swappable 26.6Wh Battery

Weight

1.37lbs/0.62kg


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