Far and away the most popular virtual reality headset on the market is the Oculus Quest, and it looks like its sequel is near on the horizon. An image seemingly displaying the Oculus Quest 2 was posted to Twitter, and it reveals some key details.
Bloomberg reported earlier in the year that Oculus was developing its second-generation stand-alone headset. Oculus Quest 2 is meant to be nearly 15% lighter than its predecessor, with a higher screen refresh rate of 90Hz versus the first versions 60Hz. Its build materials were speculated to be more in line with the Rift S, featuring plastic that was elastic compared to the fabric and velcro straps on the current unit.
The image leaked on Twitter is seemingly in line with the Bloomberg report, which also stated that there were numerous versions of the second-generation device being tested.
Featured is a two-tone design akin to the black and white of Sony’s PlayStation 5. The plastic straps of the Rift S are here, with adjustments exclusively reserved for the sides instead of having a third adjustment on the strap that lays across the top of the head.
The most interesting aspect of the headset is the lack of an interpupillary distance slider, which serves as a way to adjust the lenses on the headset to provide better focus dependent on the user’s eyes. Bloomberg reported that some of the prototypes being tested would not feature a physical slider. Perhaps this issue will be handled via the software.
The Twitter user that posted the photo, who has accurately leaked hardware previously, responded to questions on if this was a “pro” or “lite” version of the current hardware and stated that he believed it to be called the Oculus Quest 2.
The controllers look to be of a similar design to the ones on the current Quest but it is believed that they will feature improvements as well.
While the VR market has been slow to take off, the Quest has undoubtedly been one of its biggest success stories, frequently out of stock and estimated to have sold more than 500,000 units in the past year. Oculus even culled the Go stand-alone unit from its lineup, as the Quest was able to offer a more complete package at an affordable price.
It makes sense that a Quest 2 would be in the pipeline, though there are rumblings that a 2020 launch is no longer an option due to the pandemic and that we won’t likely see a release until 2021.
