Trusted Leaker Suggests Meta’s Horizon OS Expansion to Begin with High-End ASUS Headset

Last April, Meta made waves by announcing its plan to roll out Horizon OS, a groundbreaking operating system exclusive to Quest, onto third-party headsets. Among the early adopters slated to feature this OS were XR devices from big players like ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox. Despite the buzz, Meta has kept details tightly under wraps until now. Recently, however, a well-known leaker who goes by ‘Luna’ has thrown around some interesting tidbits, hinting that ASUS could be leading the charge.

Luna, a reliable source for inside scoops on the latest in virtual reality gadgets and software, has previously unveiled several Meta projects. This includes prematurely revealing the Quest 3S name ahead of its official debut and letting the cat out of the bag about the headset’s new Action Button.

Among Luna’s treasure trove of discoveries was a setup video for room scanning on the Quest 3 before its 2023 launch. They’ve also preemptively spotlighted various Quest software innovations, such as Meta’s experiments with the Universal Menu dock, allowing apps to stay pinned for easy access.

Drawing from an undisclosed insider tip, Luna now claims the Asus Republic of Gamers headset is poised to be among the first third-party devices to hit the market running Horizon OS.

The headset, supposedly codenamed ‘Tarius,’ is expected to boast impressive specs, including both eye and face-tracking capabilities. These features are on par with the cutting-edge offerings of Quest Pro. Furthermore, there are whispers that the displays might either be advanced quantum dot LCD with local dimming or possibly micro-OLED.

If these rumors hold water, it paints a picture of ASUS not just sticking a Quest 3S with some fancy RGB lights on the shelves, but rather blazing a trail beyond Quest’s usual mid-range options. For context, Quest’s current lineup includes the $500 Quest 3 with 512GB storage and the $300 Quest 3S with 128GB.

Of course, while we should approach these reports with cautious optimism, one thing is becoming apparent: Meta’s gearing up for a strategic response to Google’s forthcoming Android XR, making its debut on Samsung’s anticipated XR headset, a project dubbed Moohan, set to hit the consumer market later this year.