Project Cambria leak might show us what Meta’s next VR headset looks like early
We’re under a month away from when Meta’s next VR headset is officially set to be revealed to the world, but we might already have a good look at it thanks to a substantial leak.
Meta first announced Project Cambria – the codename for its Oculus Quest 2 successor – at Meta Connect 2021 but has been fairly quiet on the device save for the occasional drip of official information. That was expected to change in October at Meta Connect 2022, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg heavily teasing its announcement across Facebook posts and a podcast appearance.
But Meta has been beaten to the punch by a leaker who claims to have found engineering samples of Project Cambria that were left behind in a hotel room. The leaked images and a follow-up video were first shared on an Oculus Quest 2 Facebook group by Ramiro Cardenas before being shared on Reddit and other platforms.
The first leak simply shows us Project Cambria’s box, which looks near identical to the Oculus Quest 2’s packaging. The only change is to the device's name – with the leak seemingly confirming the Meta Quest Pro product title – as well as the box art which shows Meta’s new headset in front of a similar swirling pink background that the Quest 2 appears in front of on its box.
Thankfully the second leak delves inside the box to give us a proper look at Project Cambria. The general shape of the headset matches up with the silhouette Meta shared when the device was first announced, but we see a few new details.
The leaked headset appears to have several cameras on its front edge, which are placed roughly where a user’s eyes would be looking though – with them most likely there to help facilitate Cambria’s AR experiences. In addition, there’s no overhead strap for the device, indicating that it might be lighter than the Quest 2 and should sit comfortably on your face without one.
There’s also a dial on top of the front face of the headset. While we don’t see what it does we hope this is the return of the original Oculus Quest’s IPD dial. This dial allowed users to gradually shift the distance between the Quest’s lenses to best suit the distance between their eyes, but the Quest 2 did away with it and instead offered users three preset distances to choose between.
The return of an IPD controlling dial should help make Project Cambria’s experiences less blurry for people who aren’t perfectly suited to Meta’s 58mm, 63mm, and 68mm presets.
Last but not least we get shown a pair of controllers that match up with what we’d heard about Project Cambria’s handsets. They look just like the Oculus Quest 2’s controllers, just in black and lacking the tracking ring – instead, it's been replaced by cameras on the controllers which we can spot on various sides of the leaked device.
Analysis: Too good to be true?
This leak is fairly substantial but as we warn with all leaks we should take what we’ve seen with a pinch of salt. And while the leaked headset matches up perfectly with what we’ve heard about Project Cambria, that's still not a guarantee that it's legitimate.
If anything, the fact that this leak doesn’t reveal anything new – like a different style box or a look at the system’s digital UI – could be a hint that it is a fake. Someone creating a viral forgery wouldn’t want to get questioned about some odd detail that we’ve never heard about before, instead, they’d show us a headset that looks exactly like what we expect so we’re more trusting of the footage.
Additionally, we can’t see any more of the supposed headset because the leaker conveniently claims that it has now been retrieved by the owner.
Thankfully we don’t have long before we find out if this leak is indeed our real first look at Project Cambria with Meta Connect planned for October 11. When the headset is officially announced you can be sure we’ll be here, ready and waiting to tell you everything you need to know about the headset.
While we wait for that announcement why don’t you try out some of the best Oculus Quest 2 games that we’ve played, you might even want to check out the Quest 2 games I’m playing in September 2022.
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