How much would you pay for a VR headset? Apple says $3,499. Meta, meanwhile, has a starting price of $199 — the cost of a Vision Pro battery replacement. The Meta Quest 2 got a surprise price drop below $200 on Thursday, fueling speculation that a new headset might be on its way soon.
The Meta Quest 2 has been CNET’s Editors’ Choice VR headset for years, mainly because it’s totally standalone, plays a ton of games, can also be used for surprisingly effective fitness apps, can be used as a work device (with mixed results) and can connect to PCs as well. The Quest 2’s price dropped to $250 over the holidays, but a new price drop now puts it at $199. That’s for a model with 128GB of storage, which is enough to download dozens of apps. We loved it at $250, and that feeling’s even stronger now. One word of caution, though: A newer model with a low price could be right around the corner.
Walmart is offering an additional deal of $50 Meta Quest store credit along with the lower price, making it an even better buy.
Will Meta be readying a replacement soon? Reports are growing that a lower-cost version of the newer Meta Quest 3, which arrived last fall, will offer up mixed reality features while cutting a few Quest 3 functions, and possibly being sold without controllers. However, even if that does happen, it’s hard to believe it’ll be anywhere near as affordable as $199.
The Quest 2 debuted in 2020, and its display resolution and passthrough cameras aren’t as good as the Quest 3. But it still does a lot of things remarkably well: even if Meta never released another game or app for the Quest 2, it would be a fantastic buy at $199 for anyone interested in exploring hundreds of compelling games and apps. The Quest 2 also supports hand tracking, which means it works with or without its included controllers.
