‘Using the Quest Pro Just Feels Like Work’ ⇥ theverge.com

Adi Robertson, reviewed Meta’s Quest Pro at the Verge:

But, again, the current use is limited. Meta has one confirmed app that uses foveated rendering, the game Red Matter 2, which renders at a high resolution in the Quest Pro — but is still held back by that fundamental graininess. Face tracking is primarily useful in Horizon, the Meta social platform that includes a Roblox-like recreational “metaverse” called Worlds and a personal office dubbed Workrooms. Worlds and Workrooms are available for the Quest 2 and Quest Pro alike, but Workrooms is particularly aimed at Pro users. And — there’s just no nice way to put it — it’s one of the worst apps I’ve ever used.

Some of the more enthusiastic supporters of Meta’s virtual reality efforts have pointed to meetings and Workrooms as the biggest attraction to working within a goggle-based world. But Robertson describes using the Quest Pro as a chore, writing that “it was just too painful for my head and eyes” to use for long stretches of time because of its weight and fuzzy displays.

On the one hand, even though Meta bought Oculus eight years ago, it is still early days in the world of virtual reality. On the other, Meta is selling this as a finished product, not a prototype, for $1,500 to end users. Also, while Workrooms has been available for a year, Robertson says it is so unreliable it is “like spinning a roulette wheel designed by Franz Kafka”. Meta may feel comfortable building this stuff in the open, but it means reviews which paint a bleak caveat-riddled picture.