Meta Quest 4: Everything we want from the Quest 3 successor ...
No offers foundLeaks suggest Meta plans to sell the Meta Quest 4 and Quest 4S. That's a ways off, but we already have an idea of what to expect. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Potential Release Date
We likely won't see a Meta Quest 4 until 2026, based on the three-year gap between the Oculus Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3 and, less speculatively, a recent leak that points to a 2026 release window. Still, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already hinted at Quest 4 features, and the Quest 1 and 2 were only 17 months apart — which means it's never too early to speculate.
According to The Information, Meta plans to sell a Quest 4 and Quest 4S in 2026, targeting high-end and budget VR fans simultaneously. Meta launched the Quest 3S this October, and with several Quest Pro 2 prototypes canceled, the Quest 4 could very well be its next headset.
Speculative Upgrades
Meta also reportedly wants to cut its Reality Labs budget by 20% by 2026, and with its new focus on the Meta Orion AR glasses, it's unclear how much resources will go into making the Quest 4 drastically different from the Meta Quest 3.
Below is a speculative list of what we'd love the Meta Quest 4 to deliver, from likely upgrades (based on hints from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg) to pie-in-the-sky requests — while acknowledging that the Quest 4 and Quest 4S may not be able to fit in every upgrade we want while remaining affordable.
Hardware and Features
If you compare the Quest 3 vs. Quest 3S, you'll get a glimpse of how Meta could differentiate between the Quest 4 and Quest 4S. It's likely that the Quest 4S will take after the Quest 3S with a cost-saving design, lower resolution, and narrower field of view. We can't be certain whether the 4S will use Fresnel or pancake lenses, but we suspect Meta will keep the latter as a high-end exclusive.
Both the Quest 4 and Quest 4S should share the same Snapdragon hardware, RAM, and cameras so they can both play the same hardware. That way, developers will be able to make games for both headsets simultaneously, to maximize profits.
Expected New Features
The Quest 3S introduced two new features that we think will return to the Quest 4 and Quest 4S: built-in IR illuminators to enable low-light gaming and a dedicated mixed-reality button to swap instantly between a VR experience and a full-color MR glimpse of your surroundings.
After the Apple Vision Pro launch, Mark Zuckerberg jumped on Instagram to criticize Apple's headset and say what the Quest 3 does better. In that video, he acknowledged that Apple's eye tracking is "really nice" but quickly explained that the Quest Pro had eye-tracking sensors first and that they intend to "bring them back in the future."
Eye Tracking Technology
This UploadVR report from October 2024 references a deleted listing for focus-group testing at Meta's campus in Burlingame, California for "Project Pismo," the alleged codename for the Quest 4. The listing says testers would try a "wearable tech device that will record their facial expressions and eye movements, as well as voice capture.
If this listing is real, Meta may want to test whether people would actually enjoy the benefits of eye and face tracking. For starters, they would enable more realistic avatar faces for social VR apps like Meta Horizon Worlds, so you could see people's facial expressions and if they're actually looking at you.
Qualcomm Partnership
Although Mark Zuckerberg said back in 2021 that Oculus/ Meta had custom silicon plans for the Quest 3 and 4, Meta ended up sticking with Qualcomm for the Quest 3, and it reportedly laid off its FAST silicon team last year. While Meta made a custom chip for its AR glasses, the wireless puck that powers it uses Snapdragon hardware as well.
For several reasons, Meta should continue to rely upon Qualcomm for powering its mass-produced VR headsets. So we'd expect to see the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 3 in the Meta Quest 4 and 4S, with a major performance boost over the Gen 2.
Given the recent Qualcomm-Arm legal drama and Qualcomm's recent Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile chip with its blazing clock speeds and lack of efficiency cores, it's likely that the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 3 will provide a dramatic performance boost with custom performance cores.
I had the chance to speak with Qualcomm SVP of XR Ziad Asghar during the 2024 Qualcomm Summit, and he explained why the
