Reddit user Samulia, that is used to analyze the Quest firmware (and made some “predictions” about the Quest 2 Pro), has found in the Quest runtime some videos that depict a new headset with new controllers, most probably the upcoming Quest 2 Pro! The news has been shared with me by the other great technologist Basti564 (subscribe to his Youtube channel!), that has shared them with me over Twitter. You can see all the leaked videos in the tweets here below:
(Before we go on: this article is based on cartoonish videos found in the firmware… so it’s all a matter of speculation! Don’t take what you read here as the sure truth of what will be announced at Facebook Connect 2)
There’s a total of five videos, in which we can see that the headset is similar to what the leaks by Samulia, Basti564, and Sadly It’s Breadly had predicted. Here in this roundup of mine you can find all the rumors we got about the Quest 2 Pro in the last weeks, in case you missed them, so you can see that this device is very similar to what it had been speculated 😉
The Quest 2 Pro seems to have a much cooler design than the Quest 2, and it has abandoned the classical shoebox-in-the-face form factor to become something more similar to huge sunglasses. This makes it much better to wear around, and it makes people appear less weird if they wear it on a plane or on a bus. Notice that the design seems an evolution of the prototype that Boz has shown last week: in the tweet below, you can see a Quest with a wire for the battery on the back and a rigid headband to support it for an enhanced comfort.
Comfortwise, it seems also much better, and it has probably drawn some inspiration from the HoloLens 2: you can see from the above image that there is a lateral crown, with a knob to close it as the fitting mechanism. The battery lies on the back, with a cushion giving comfort to the nape, and there is a wide support on the forehead. The weight seems much better distributed this way, and the absence of a top headband prevents the device from ruining the haircomb of men and women. Thanks to this new fitting mechanism, I’m sure that the Quest 2 Pro should be comfortable enough to be worn for much more than one hour, as it happens with the standard Quest 2. Plus the crown looks solid, and shouldn’t break like the one of the Elite Strap.
The controllers have their dedicated charging station, as it was leaked from the firmware, so I guess we won’t have to mess with AA batteries anymore.
They also are exactly as they were described by the leaks: there are no tracking rings, so they will perform inside-out tracking with onboard cameras. The control schema seems the same of the previous Touch: grip, trigger, 2 buttons, system button, and a thumbstick. They seem also better shaped to be hold upside down so that they can be used in Horizon Workrooms as marker pens
Notice how they look surprisingly similar to the ones shown in these leaked image from some weeks ago:
This seems to confirm that the above image is most probably the one of the upcoming controllers for Quest 2 Pro.
What intrigues me even more is the last part of the first video, where you can see the player moving at the end of the avatar selection process… and it seems that the avatar reacts with its full body to the movements of the player! Maybe with the tracking cameras + the cameras on the controllers the headset is able to somewhat reconstruct the full body pose (according to Basti564, this is the patent that explains how full body tracking is performed). That would be amazing for fitness applications like our game HitMotion: Reloaded!
And that’s it, this is what it is possible to see in these leaked videos! And it already seems amazing to me: better comfort and ergonomics, full body tracking, better controllers… these features would make the Quest 2 Pro an amazing device! And if these videos confirm that the rumors we hard some weeks ago were true… and the rumors also talked about FULL-RGB AR passthrough… oh wow, I would love if that happened, too! I just wonder what will be the price of this headset… if it is less than $600, it will be an insta-buy for me.
I can’t wait to see what will be announced at Facebook Connect 2, and you? (Subscribe to my newsletter to not miss any announcement of it)
What do you think about this new info about the Quest 2 Pro? Let me know in the comments!