Oculus Quest revealed: UK release date, prices and specs

Oculus has unveiled a new self-contained virtual reality (VR) headset that doesn’t need a PC to operate.

The Quest is a more powerful version of the all-in-one wireless Go headset launched by the Facebook-owned company earlier this year.

Announced yesterday at the Oculus Connect 5 (OC5) annual developer conference in San Jose, California, the Quest features a series of inbuilt cameras and sensors to track user movement, says CNet. It also connects to a pair of wireless controllers that tracks the user’s arm movements.

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The headset uses Google’s Android mobile operating system, which can run many of the games designed for Oculus’s range-topping Rift headset, including climbing simulator The Climb and puzzle game Moss.

Although the Quest doesn’t require a computer to function, users will need to connect the headset to their smartphone in order to download games and apps.

To play the games, Oculus has equipped the Quest with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, which is also used in rival headsets from Lenovo and Google and which is significantly faster than the unit in the entry-level Go, says Gizmodo.

The processor is connected to a pair of 1600x1440 resolution screens - one per eye - which is a slight improvement over the 1280x1440 panels in the Go, the website adds.

“This is the all-in-one VR experience we've all been waiting for,” the conference was told by Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, who hailed the Quest as the “foundation of a new generation of VR”.

When does it come out?

Oculus says the Quest will launch next spring, although an official release date has yet to be confirmed.

How much will it cost?

Pricing for the Quest will start at $399 (£304) in the US. Although UK pricing is still to be announced, Alphr says the headset will probably cost between £349 and £399 when it arrives on British shores next year.