September 17, 2020 – Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, has announced on the back of the launch of the Oculus Quest 2 that its Snapdragon XR2 Platform is powering Oculus’ latest virtual reality (VR) headset. The company stated that the Oculus Quest 2 is a culmination of years of collaboration between Qualcomm Technologies and Facebook to create the advanced and immersive solution for gaming and VR experiences for consumers to-date.
Purpose-built for extended reality (XR), the Snapdragon XR2 Platform unlocks improvements including twice the CPU and GPU performance compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 835 Mobile XR Platform, which powers the original Oculus Quest headset. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon XR2 Platform delivers significant performance enhancements in Oculus Quest 2, including:
- Powering the highest resolution display yet in any Oculus headset, with 50% more pixels than the original Oculus Quest headset;
- Delivering more than 11x the AI processing than the 835 Mobile XR Platform, the Snapdragon XR2 Platform allows more perception algorithms to work concurrently with many other tasks, resulting in more immersive experiences for the end user;
- Incorporating the Engine for Visual Analytics (EVA) computer vision dedicated processor which helps to offload key VR-related tasks for tracking to enable low latency and reduce overall power consumption;
- Heterogenous compute architecture that is designed to help preserve Oculus Quest 2 battery life of 2-3 hours of playtime;
- Wi-Fi 6 performance of the Qualcomm FastConnect 6800 connectivity system that enables Oculus Quest 2 to achieve truly wireless VR with faster download speeds.
“We built the Snapdragon XR2 Platform from the ground up and designed it to push the boundaries of what is possible in XR and enable our customers to create a new generation of experiences and devices,” said Hugo Swart, VP and head of XR, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Qualcomm Technologies’ worked closely with the team at Facebook to enhance and tailor the Snapdragon XR2 feature-set in Oculus Quest 2 and today marks an incredible milestone in VR. We look forward to our continuous collaboration with Facebook to offer the best possible, all-in-one VR experiences to the mass consumer.”
With a wide ranging catalog of premium and unique gaming experiences at the heart of Oculus Quest 2, the product also provides a variety of engaging non-gaming experiences for users, including fitness apps, entertainment and virtual social venues to connect with friends. The device is also geared towards business use, with enterprise and productivity applications that can assist companies with collaboration and training, despite distance.
“For Facebook, this collaboration represents our commitment to accelerating the VR industry,” said Rafael Camargo, VP of Hardware for Facebook Reality Labs. “We won’t just wait for the key technologies that power next-gen VR experiences to develop over time. We want to be part of defining the future and helping it to move faster, and we’re proud to be doing this hand-in-hand with our innovative partners at Qualcomm Technologies.”
For more information on the newly announced Oculus Quest 2, click here.
Image credit: Qualcomm
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.