We weren't wowed by our first Meta Quest Pro experience

Enlarge / Taken out of the case and ready for demonstration. Even top VR boosters may balk at the thought of spending nearly $1,500 on the Meta Quest Pro without trying it out first. Fortunately, a retail partnership means people can try out the upcoming Quest Pro at select Best Buy stores during weekend demos.

After viewing one of these demos, however, our first impressions didn't impress us. Even if the Quest Pro's new features end up justifying its huge price tag (and more time with a retail unit later this week should help fully answer that question), our retail demo didn't put forward Meta's best foot.

Where am I going?

Walking into Best Buy in Columbia, Maryland on Sunday, I found no signage suggesting there was a special virtual reality demonstration inside the store. Instead, I had to search the aisles until I found a solitary Quest display in an unloved back corner of the store, with a Quest 2 and a Quest Pro under glass. Nearby, a demo staffer leaned on a counter playing with his phone next to a demo unit in a charging stand. When I approached he said I was the first person all weekend to show interest in a demo (although another one came to see what the fuss was about while I was in the helmet).

Enlarge / The Meta Quest kiosk sitting in an unloved corner of a local Best Buy, complete with Quest Pro display.

There was no special room or specific area reserved for the Quest demo in the store. Instead, the demo staff member awkwardly guided me to a small section of bare carpet where I stood unceremoniously between a tower of retail shelves and a stack of boxed 4K TVs. When shoppers and workers eventually passed through this area during my setup, I was redirected to another carpet section even further towards the corner of the store. There I had to set up my own virtual "guardian" to mark the safe operating space and highlight walls and other obstacles for various "augmented reality" experiences.

To make matters worse, about 15 minutes into my demo, a peaceful meditation session in Tripp VR was interrupted by an abrupt "power off" message when the headset turned off. is unloaded. The demo employee apologized, saying the unit "was zero percent when I got it" and hadn't been plugged in for a very long time before our demo. I took a short break from shopping and came back to a fully charged unit, but the Quest Pro still largely missed its only chance at a first impression.

Enlarge / Like a museum piece under glass.

A quest for comfort

Demo-specific issues aside, putting on the Quest Pro is a significantly more comfortable experience than previous Quest headsets. The flimsy straps of these older units have been replaced with a thick headband and large semi-circular pads that sit across the front and back of the ski...