We weren’t impressed with our first Meta Quest Pro experience

Even the biggest boosters of virtual reality may hesitate at the idea of ​​spending nearly $1,500 for the Meta Quest Pro without trying it first. Thankfully, a retail partnership means people can try out the upcoming Quest Pro at select Best Buy locations during weekend demos.

However, after watching one of those demos, we were largely unimpressed with our first experience. Even if the Quest Pro’s new features eventually justify its huge price tag (and more time with a retail unit later this week should fully answer that question), our retail demo has put Meta’s best foot forward.

Where am I going?

Entering Best Buy in Columbia, Maryland, on Sunday, I found no signage suggesting a special VR demo was underway in the store. Instead, I had to search the aisles until I found a lone Quest display in an unloved back corner of the store, complete with a Quest 2 and Quest Pro under glass. Nearby, a demo worker leaned on a counter and played with his phone next to a demo unit in a charging station. When I approached him, he said I was the first person to show an interest in a demo all weekend (although another came to see what it was about while I was in the headset).

There was no dedicated room or area reserved for the Quest demo in the store. Instead, the demo worker awkwardly led me to a small patch of bare carpet where I stood unceremoniously between a tower of store shelves and a stack of boxed 4K TVs. When shoppers and workers passed through that area during my setup, I was redirected to another section of the carpet, even further to the corner of the store. There I had to set up my own virtual ‘guard’ to mark the safe operating room and mark walls and other obstacles for various ‘augmented reality’ experiences.

To make matters worse, about 15 minutes into my demo, a peaceful meditation session in Tripp VR was interrupted by an abrupt “powering down” message when the headset was empty. The demo employee apologized, saying the device was “on zero percent when I got it” and was plugged in not long before our demo. I took a short shopping break and came back with a fully charged unit, but the Quest Pro still largely ruined its one shot at a first impression.

A quest for comfort

Demo-specific issues aside, the Quest Pro is noticeably more comfortable than previous Quest headsets. The thin bands on those earlier units have been replaced with a thick headband and large, semicircular pads resting on the forehead and back of the skull. Once wrapped around your eyes, an easy-to-turn knob at the back gives a fit that feels secure without being too tight.

This new design has almost completely eliminated the “ski goggles” pressure that old Quest headsets put on the eye area. While the Quest Pro put a little pressure on the bridge of my nose, it was no more distracting than wearing sunglasses. I was even able to reach up and scratch my nose without taking the headset off, thanks to a new open-bottomed design that also allows for much better airflow (however, the demo unit had magnetic “blinders” pre-installed on the sides to allow for better airflow). real-world distractions. I had to ask to make them disappear).

Although I only spent about an hour in total in the Quest Pro during my demo, I felt like I could have lasted indefinitely without complaining.

The Quest Pro also has some nice quality of life improvements when it comes to positioning the headset for perfect visual focus. The headset’s inward-facing cameras automatically detected my interpupillary distance and told me to adjust the system’s lenses inward (which I did by simply reaching through the bottom of the headset and sliding it in a smooth but solid motion). The headset also told me it was too low for my eyes and that I had to tilt it up and put it back on for a better view.

With everything in focus, though, I have to say I was more than a little impressed with the Quest Pro’s display. While the image may have been a bit sharper than I’ve been used to on previous Quest headsets, it was far from the brightness boost you’d expect from a high-end headset. The change was most apparent in my peripheral vision, where images remained crisp and clear with no distortion, even when looking at the edges of the screen.

My first experience with the full-color passthrough camera wasn’t good either – my view of the outside world was shaking back and forth a few inches as I tried to arrange my play space. While the issues corrected themselves relatively quickly, it was still a shocking start to the experience.