Quest 2 stock issues could hint that Meta is ready to move on
Could this be making room for the Quest 3 Lite?
What you need to know
- Best Buy, Amazon, and even Meta have run out of stock of Meta Quest 2 256GB units.
- Meta permanently dropped the price of the Quest 2 on January 1, 2024.
- The Meta Quest 3 Lite has been rumored to launch in 2024 at a price lower than the Quest 3.
It's been less than two months since Meta dropped the price of the Meta Quest 2, and it looks like the 256GB model could nearly be gone forever. As of this writing, Amazon, Best Buy, and even Meta have run out of the model, as first seen by UploadVR.
It seems that Newegg and B&H Photo are two of the last major retailers that still have stock, and it's any wonder with that excellent price. The Meta Quest 2 256GB model sells for just $299, making it only $50 more than the 128GB model for double the storage.
Ever since the Quest 2 dropped in price permanently earlier this year, there's been speculation that Meta was using the price drop to get rid of stock and make room for the upcoming Meta Quest 3 Lite. Now that the 256GB models seem to be going away forever, many are wondering if Meta's upcoming budget-priced headset is closer to release than originally thought.
The Meta Quets 3 Lite is said to be powered by the same chipset as the $499 Meta Quest 3 but makes concessions elsewhere to achieve a lower price tag. It's rumored that the headset will continue to use the same Fresnel (pronounced fruh-nel) lenses as the Quest 2, making the headset thicker than the more expensive Meta Quest 3.
Additionally, the Meta Quest 3 Lite likely won't ship with a depth sensor and will presumably have lower-resolution cameras. We're still expecting the headset to have a color-passthrough vision, though, as Meta continues to shift its assets to develop more heavily for mixed reality.
Get it before it's gone! The Meta Quest 2 has been one of the best VR headsets ever, with an effortless console-like setup and thousands of great games to play.
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