The metaverse has been everywhere lately, for reasons both intriguing and for reasons
that are… less so.
Facebook’s multibillion-dollar transformation into Meta has been one of the biggest stories
in tech—met by excitement in certain corners and skepticism just about everywhere else.
So, today we’re tearing down the Meta Quest Pro to see what the cutting edge of Zuck’s
vision looks like on the inside, and what separates this new $1500 headset from the
far more affordable $400 Quest 2.
And most importantly, will you be able to replace the battery, which reportedly gives
you just 2 lousy hours of charge/use, when it inevitably dies?
Thanks to the fine folks at Creative Electron we can get an X-ray sneak peak of what we’re
about to find inside the headset.
Lots of wires, lots of screws.
It looks… complicated in there.
Meta’s selling these new controllers for $300, though one pair comes bundled with the
headset, and we’ll take a look at those later.
That means we essentially paid $1200 for this new premium headset and its freshly hyped
features including improved hand tracking, eye tracking, the new facial expression tracking,
the much touted pancake lenses, and two mini-LED panels running at a resolution of 1800x1920
per eye.
Let’s dig in and see if we’re getting our money's worth.
Virtual reality may be shiny and clean, but here in the meatspace we’re shiny with sweat—luckily
these cushions can be easily swapped out for cleaning after they’ve been soiled thanks
to clips and magnets.
The upper lightblocker is also easily removed by undoing a set of screws and peeling the
fabric away from its clips.
A little force is all it takes to unclip the rear cushion, revealing a pair of recessed
screws that hold the inner strap assembly.
As we undo the five screws leading to the battery we come across a tamper evident sticker.
It sure seems that Meta doesn’t want you poking around in the hardware you just bought.
With that, the battery housing can be separated from the head strap.
A few more screws and a couple of plastic brackets later and we can now see the mechanism
for adjusting the head strap.
This entire section comes away fairly easily allowing us to fully separate the two sides
of the head bands.
As for the battery housing, well surprise!
One more plastic cover to remove here and a single connector cable.
Disconnect it and the battery is free!
This twin cell 20.58 Wh battery is not only heftier than the Quest 2’s single cell 14.3
Wh battery, it’s also curved.
Bending batteries is typically the last thing you want to do, and while curved batteries
are rare, we’ve seen them before.
Placing the battery at the rear of the headset is the key to the Quest Pro’s “World-class
counter-balanced ergonomics.”
It not only makes the headset feel better, it also makes the battery far more replaceable
than in the Quest 2.
Its placement does beg the question: why not make removable battery packs?
Speaking of unreplaceable batteries strapped to your head…
The Quest Pro features these two little flex cables, one for each cell and, based on the
circuitry, we’re wondering if they’re meant to measure the flexing and swelling
of the cells—or could they be capacitive sensors?
If you think you know what these are, please tell us in the comments.
The next bits out are the cheek and nose rests which seem to be much less replaceable than
the other bits that rest against your head.
Let’s hope they clean up nice.
Another tamper proof sticker here tells us that Meta doesn’t want us going past this
point.
Underneath these components we spot our first of 5 IR cameras but it turns out to be a teardown
dead end.
I opt to pop out the sidearm speaker grilles next, and while they only seem to lead to
a dead end, I take the opportunity to remove the speakers.
This is a teardown after all, not a tear-mostly-down.
At this point I’m out of options and I’m forced to go for the front glass…which I
find, to my surprise, is not glass.
That’s some shiny plastic.
The glue runs deep with this device and I’m just hoping I don’t knick any cables as
I insert a card to cut away at the glue running all the way across the plastic.
It gets pretty hairy for a bit but the risk pays off.
We’re rewarded with an unobstructed view of the front assembly, and right away we can
spot the location where the rumored Time-of-Flight sensor would have been if it hadn't been cut
from the device during development.
At this point I’m gaining confidence that I can disassemble the device in one piece
as I go around removing every screw that may be a structural support.
I was stuck going round in circles for nearly 2 hours at this point.
How the heck do we get to the mainboard?
Frustration finally gives in and I yank the front plastic support off…and to my surprise
it turns out to be the answer to the riddle.
What seems like far too many screws later we can finally remove the remaining outer
plastic…once we remove this USB-C port and these two screws.
That’s it for this side for the time being, time to turn the device back over and continue
the teardown from the lens side.
Removing the lens assembly is now a simple matter of undoing several screws and removing
the lens and display panel assembly on each side.
With the ocular components out the way we’re greeted by not one but two fans placed directly
underneath each panel.
Those things must run hot.
This is the point of no return.
Disassembling the lens from the panels will end this device until we can obtain spare
parts.
The teardown gods must be appeased.
With each section separated we can take a closer look at the core improvement to this
device and perhaps the sole reason I’d even contemplate spending $1500 on this thing.
Eye tracking in all its gory glory.
And of course the pancake lenses that deliver such a crisp and clear–not to mention headache
free–VR experience coupled with the mini-LED panels that bring it all together.
It appears that these lenses are entirely made of high index plastic, not glass as one
might expect.
That’s probably because plastic is easier to mold, cheaper to produce, and weighs less
than glass alternatives.
We return to the front side of the device and find that two little plastic bobbly bits
are hiding a pair of screws securing the mainboard and cameras to the manganese frame.
This thermal paste is a good indicator that the System on Chip is nearby and the heatpipes
are a dead giveaway too.
Removing the heatsink gives us a nice view of the mainboard with the Qualcomm Snapdragon
XR2+ front and center.
With the headset in pieces we turn our attention to the Meta Pro’s controllers.
The Meta Quest Pro controllers, formerly known as Project Starlet, and they are potentially
just as interesting as the headset.
They each have a dedicated Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC to process positional data from three
integrated cameras, which results in much improved positional accuracy.
In addition to this, each controller has three haptic feedback engines, one of which is integrated
inside the trigger.
The end result is a pair of controllers that aid in the overall immersive experience.
Let’s take a peek inside to see how they achieved this.
After some gentle probing we proceed to work our way around the face of the controller
to see if there’s any give around there.
Sure enough, this entire section is glued on.
There’s a single ribbon cable to deal with and the circular plate comes away.
A few screws, a single bracket, and a couple of springs are next.
This corner camera is my next victim as it seems the most likely to come away from the
rest of the board.
The plastic supporting structure is now ready to be lifted away revealing two ribbon cables,
the second one of which connects to one of the two side-mounted cameras.
With both cameras removed, it’s time to move on to the thumbstick assembly.
So far so good.
Replacing this thumbstick shouldn’t be too big a headache if it starts to drift.
Opening it up reveals that it’s the same type of potentiometer based thumbsticks found
in the Nintendo Switch consoles.
A brush slides across the resistive elements here which then results in an output corresponding
to the position of the brush.
The analogue buttons are unremarkable with a tried and true construction common across
most controllers.
Let’s take a moment to examine this lever here which has a magnet attached to it, a
sure sign that we have a hall sensor nearby.
Turns out that what the manual calls a “thumbpad” is actually a button.
Pressing on the “thumbpad” also moves two larger magnets which in turn manipulate
the magnet on the lever causing it to move.
Clever.
Let’s dig a little deeper.
This cable should be the battery ribbon cable and we have another two cables that are connected
to two haptic engines.
A single antenna cable and three screws later and we can lift the main PCB away from the
rest of the plastic body revealing another ribbon cable and one more connector cable.
At this point I can finally see the last clip holding the two halves of the plastic handle
together.
It comes away without much fight.
This also clears enough space for me to remove the trigger mechanism.
Taking a look inside we can see the single haptic engine embedded in the trigger.
Clever placement, the feedback on the trigger finger really makes a difference in some immersive
experiences.
Right next to our haptic engine inside the trigger is a single magnet which indicates
that this is a hall sensor trigger.
As is the side trigger.
Both these triggers will be able to detect whether they’re being fully depressed or
partially depressed.
There’s a single Voice Coil Motor haptic engine in each controller and I’m guessing
this is it.
VCM’s provide a richer haptic response which translates to a more nuanced output of vibrations.
Finangling a few more cables and screws allows us to remove the battery and its plastic housing
in one piece.
This lithium ion battery is rated for 10.85 Wh.
Last but not least, we have access to our pressure sensor that doubles as a stylus pen.
Interestingly enough this doesn’t appear to be a pressure sensor at all but a simple
analogue push button.
Pressing on the rubber cover connects the two points and completes this circuit.
Simple and effective.
The Meta Quest Pro is such a complex device that the assembly process no doubt contributed
to the eye watering price tag.
146 screws, tons of cables, and what at times seemed like a counter intuitive design made
this teardown one of the hardest we’ve done in a long time.
On the repairability front, while we can praise Meta for mainly using phillips head screws,
opening a device of this complexity will almost certainly eat up hours of time for anyone
planning to do anything other than a battery replacement.
But the replaceability of that battery is also commendable—and a major improvement
over the Quest 2 battery replacement process.
While there’s a ways yet to go — many horizons that need to be explored, if you
will — it’s a fascinating, if largely unfixable device.
May well be that, at least for now, the Quest Pro’s teardownverse is more interesting
than the Metaverse.