Quest Pro Headset Evaluation

Since I think it’s important to actually try something if you are going to disparage it, I splashed out on Meta’s new Quest Pro headset to see what the state-of-Meta metaverse and content was like. This first piece is dedicated to unboxing and the hardware. Subsequent pieces will cover the basic operating environment, then Meta’s software and finally third-party apps that I have tried.

Summary: Looks cute, but spoilt by low affordance

The all-black design looks nice, and the headset fits reasonably well. Unfortunately the affordance and general usability do not match that, best being described as awkward and ill thought through. Sufficiently annoying to dramatically reduce uptake and present a huge support and training cost for any enterprise seeking to adopt this device broadly. Maybe long-term gamers would not notice the issues, but those of who do not game will struggle. Once in use the screens are quite good, much better than the previous phone-based headsets, but nothing spectacular. The sound is good and immersive.

Unboxing

The surprisingly large box arrived faster than the Meta site predicted. The outer box was a tight fit around the inner box, which in turn was difficult to extract from its card slip case. The materials appeared to be mainly recyclable, although there was no confirmation labels on it that I could find.

The first thing I noticed is that there is no “getting started” guide or anything similar visible in the box. Just the headset and the two controllers. On closer inspection of the black-on-black interior there was a small box with a slim booklet in it, as well as a power supply, USB-C cable, some rubber covers and a cleaning cloth. I knew that there should also be a charging plate but that was really well hidden. You have to pull a small tab on the volcano-like thing that supports the headset in the carton, the top comes off, and there is the plate. None of this is described in the little booklet.

Black on black

Everything is black. Clearly someone had been forced to provide some help as the controllers both have a sticky label on them which is also black, but at least has the power on/off iconic and the critic message 2s and 2 with two Chinese (I think) characters on it. Since these fall between two buttons we’re left to guess that holding down the one with the Oculus logo or what I found later is a menu button, depending on controller, will turn something on or off. Since this headset is completely branded up as Meta, you really have to know that the stretched O is the Oculus logo as there’s nothing to tell you that.

Good luck finding the tiny, barely raised and unlabelled black-on-black on/off button for the headset. At least the black-on-black volume controls have + and - minus on them to hint at their function. There are other mechanical controls on the headset but they have no labels and certainly on my headset, one of them appeared to be stuck.

The controllers are not labelled left or right, and each have a joy stick, two trigger-like buttons, two function buttons that are labelled A and B on one side and X and Y on the other, as well as the one with what you discover is the Oculus logo and the menu. It is worth noting that the labels on these buttons are dark grey on black, and hence very low contrast. This would be impossible to read for people with reduced vision, difficult enough to distinguish in low light, and quite impossible when using the headset in “pass through” mode which I will describe later. I only discovered I was holding the controllers in the wrong hands when using a third-party app that showed a different model with large L and R on them.

Minimalist support nightmare

Presumably the layout of these devices is familiar to gamers and those with previous generations of Oculus or Quest headsets. Those of us who are not gamers and have only used the Samsung and Google phone-based headsets are left guessing. This is particularly difficult when you can’t actually see your hands or the controllers since your are embedded in a virtual world. If Meta are serious about using these devices for enterprise applications or indeed any form of work, they must realize that many if not most of their potential users will be encountering these capabilities for the first time and need more information, clearly labelling. The alternative is a huge support cost, rapid abandonment, or most probably both. There is absolutely nothing intuitive about these controllers; the behaviors are entirely learnt.

Stand back

Once things have been unpacked and you’ve pressed a finger nail on the on/off button you probably want to put the expensive toy you’ve just bought on your head right away. Now you can’t see anything and don’t know where you’ve put the controllers! You quickly learn that you have to hang the controllers on your wrists before putting on the headset, an operation which needs both hands as the headset is really quite large.

When starting a session, therefore, you need to access the controllers first to hang them from your wrists or put them in an easily-accessible place. But getting them off the stand first is difficult as the headset sits over them, requiring you to lift up the headset, put it somewhere else, and remove the controllers from their power connectors.

When finishing a session, you go through the reverse difficulty: you have to take off the headset and put it somewhere that is not the charging stand as you cannot put the controllers in second. Putting the controllers into the cute-but-impractical dimple is already difficult enough; they don’t slide into place easily.

Head feel

A sliding mechanism means that the headset sits reasonably well on my large head. I’ve no idea how people with smaller heads would fare. The design and feel is very similar to the Microsoft HoloLens, although somewhat lighter. The headset fits over my glasses, although I can also use it without them.

Unlike every other VR headset, this one lets light in at the sides by providing a squintable view to the real world. It also provides a digital “pass through” mode, but I’ll cover that in software. The ability to sort of see your surroundings is necessitated by having to find the controllers and all too often fumble about looking for a pen and paper to write things down. The real world intrudes alarmingly often into operations.

There are three adjustments possible, one at the rear that tightens up the fit onto your head, one at the front that appears to be meant to move the lenses back and forth but as mentioned above my seems to be stuck. The last adjustments are effected by pushing the internal lenses which seems like a great way to put corrosive greasy fingerprints on them.

Screen and sound

Once fitted and turned on, the screens are quite bright and reasonable resolution. The colors are nicely intense, and certainly have potential when the software uses them. Different apps seem to run at different resolutions, with some quite grainy and others much better. Probably the assets had not been migrated for the new device.

The sound is one of the best aspects of the device, being clear and immersive. There is no discernable source which is exactly what you want. Sadly it’s pretty much the only thing of the experience that works to that level.

The Innards

Should you wish to see the insides of the device, check out this video from iFixit: https://youtu.be/LDUJLnrCgow.