Meta has announced the Quest 4, the next generation of its standalone virtual reality headset, featuring full-color passthrough cameras, 5K per-eye resolution, and a new Snapdragon XR chip that delivers console-quality graphics without any external hardware.
The headset weighs just 310 grams, making it lighter than a pair of ski goggles. The pancake lenses provide a wider field of view at 120 degrees, nearly matching human peripheral vision. Eye tracking is built in, enabling foveated rendering that focuses processing power where you are looking.
Mixed reality is the Quest 4's headline feature. The color passthrough cameras are sharp enough to read text and identify faces, making it possible to use virtual monitors, play board games on your real desk, and interact with virtual objects placed in your actual living room.
Gaming performance has improved dramatically. The new chip delivers roughly triple the GPU performance of the Quest 3, enabling titles like Resident Evil Village and Assassin's Creed Nexus to run at higher resolutions and frame rates.
Battery life is rated at three hours for gaming and four hours for media consumption, an improvement of approximately forty-five minutes over the Quest 3. The headset charges via USB-C and supports quick charging, reaching fifty percent in just twenty minutes.
The Quest 4 launches November 1st at $499 for the 256GB model and $599 for the 512GB model. Meta has confirmed backward compatibility with the entire Quest 3 library, with enhanced performance for many existing titles.