Oculus has announced a new headset: the Oculus Quest. It's a $399 standalone virtual reality headset launching in spring 2019.

While at the fifth-annual Oculus Connect developer conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new Oculus Quest as an "all-in-one headset". He said the Quest "will complete our first generation of Oculus products". From what we can tell, the Quest sits alongside the Oculus Go and Oculus Rift, and is not only a third headset from the company but also the beginnings of a new platform.

 

To be clear, Oculus Quest is a consumer version of what was once known as Project Santa Cruz. It features new Touch motion controllers, which have the same buttons, thumbsticks, and sensors, and it has a new technology, called Oculus Insight, which powers the headset's inside-out tracking (dubbed Guardian) and controller tracking. It also has four wide-angle cameras to offer positional tracking.

There are computer vision algorithms at work, too, which track your exact position in real time without any external sensors. Lastly, Oculus Quest includes a display resolution of 1600x1440 per eye, as well as improved built-in audio for true immersion. At launch, Oculus said the Quest will provide “Rift-quality” experiences, with a catalogue of over 50 virtual reality titles, including Robo Recall, The Climb, and Moss.

There's no word yet on UK pricing or availability.

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Oculus

The main keynote at Oculus Connect 5 was scheduled for 1pm EST (6pm GMT) on 26 September. You can watch a stream of the show below: