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The first-generation Oculus Quest is a virtual reality headset developed by Oculus (now Reality Labs), a brand of Meta Platforms, and released on May 21, 2019. Similar to its predecessor, Oculus Go, it is a standalone device, that can run games and software wirelessly under an Android-based operating system. It supports positional tracking with six degrees of freedom, using internal sensors and an array of cameras in the front of the headset rather than external sensors. The cameras are also used as part of the safety feature "Passthrough", which shows a view from the cameras when the user exits their designated boundary area known as "Guardian". A later software update added "Oculus Link", a feature that allows the Quest to be connected to a computer via USB, enabling use with Oculus Rift-compatible software and games.
The Oculus Quest received praise for its price and convenience, and for having improved graphical fidelity and tracking over Oculus Go, but was panned for its front-heavy build and downgraded graphics quality over PC-based VR games. At launch, it also faced criticism for being limited to software available on the Oculus Store, and not having backwards compatibility with Oculus Go software. The later introduction of Oculus Link led to reappraisals of the Quest, with critics praising the device's increased flexibility, and indicating that devices like the Quest would likely supplant the PC-only Rift headsets moving forward. A successor, the Oculus Quest 2, was released in 2020.
In 2018 at Connect 5, it was announced that the new headset would be known as the Oculus Quest and would be priced at US$399. At F8 2019 it was announced that the Quest would ship on May 21, 2019. At launch, the device was priced at US$399 for the 64 Gigabyte version, and US$499 for the 128 GB version.
A successor model, the Oculus Quest 2, was announced on September 16, 2020. It was released on October 13 starting at $299 for the 64GB version and $399 for the 128 GB version. Software support for the first-generation Quest began to be phased out in 2023, with support for certain social features ending in March 2023, and updates limited to maintenance and security patches until 2024.
A diamond Pentile OLED display is used for each eye, with an individual resolution of 1440 × 1600 and a refresh rate of 72 Hz. The headset uses the "next generation" lens technology originally introduced in Oculus Go, which helps to enlarge the sweet spot of the lens. Visual artifacts such as God rays are less prominent but still visible in scenes with high contrast. It also features physical interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment.
Rather than use external sensor cameras in the play area to spatially track the headset and controllers (as was the case with the original Oculus Rift CV1), Oculus Quest utilizes an "inside-out" tracking system known as "Oculus Insight". Based on the concept of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), infrared diodes on the Oculus Touch controllers are tracked via four wide-angle cameras built into the front of the headset. This is combined with accelerometer input from the controllers and headset, as well as AI algorithms to predict the path of motion when the controllers are outside of the cameras' field of view.
The cameras are also used as part of a safety feature known as "Passthrough", which displays a grayscale view from the cameras when the player exits their defined playing area. At Oculus Connect 6, it was announced that the feature would be upgraded to "Passthrough+" as on the Oculus Rift S (which also uses Insight), making it stereoscopic and stereo-correct. A "Passthrough on Demand" feature was added in Quest system software version 15, allowing the user to quickly access the Passthrough view by double-tapping the left or right side of the headset.
Hand tracking was initially introduced as an experimental feature in December 2019, as part of Quest system software version 12. It was limited to the main user interface and selected built-in apps, such as the web browser. It was also announced that the Oculus Quest SDK would be updated to add support for the feature. In May 2020, hand tracking exited beta, and became available for use in third-party software beginning May 28.
Following the release of the Oculus Link feature, Facebook released an official -long USB-C cable designed for use with the feature. The cable is optical fiber, as the reliability of non-powered USB cables with Copper conductor wires diminishes at .
Facebook launched the headset with over 50 titles consisting of a mix of new and ported games, including titles such as Beat Saber, Moss, Robo Recall, Superhot VR, and VRChat. Some games support cross-play with their PC versions.
At Oculus Connect 6 in September 2019, it was announced that backward compatibility with over 50 Oculus Go applications and games would be added to the Quest. In addition, users who had purchased Oculus Go apps would be eligible to download Oculus Quest-specific versions of them for free through the end of 2019.
On June 13, 2021, Zuckerberg stated that Oculus Air Link, a feature from the Quest 2 that allows Link to be used over a local Wi-Fi connection, would also be made available for the original Quest.
In May 2020, The Verge acknowledged that the Quest had improved since its launch to become "the closest thing that exists to a sleek, almost mainstream VR headset", citing an expanding software library, and the ability to use the headset with a PC over USB via the Oculus Link feature (and over Wi-Fi using the Sideloading third-party software Virtual Desktop, which was not "noticeably worse" than doing so over USB in their experience). It was argued that the Quest "works so well by itself that it's a great system in its own right", while Oculus Link allowed it to double as a "credible" PC VR headset as well. While it was noted that the Rift S was less front-heavy and that its display "trades contrast for slightly higher resolution and refresh rate", it was argued that neither it or the Valve Index "works as a perfectly good standalone wireless VR headset". VentureBeat felt that Oculus was "setting the stage" for discontinuing the Rift line in favor of Quest, arguing "if Link performs as expected, most users will have little to no idea of what they're missing — Rift S' extra camera, FPS, and resolution differences won't matter much."
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