Oculus Quest may not have a specific release date yet, although now that both the headset and its Touch controllers have undergone FCC testing, there’s little left standing in the way of the headset’s launch this Spring.
Oculus revealed Quest in September, announcing that the high-end standalone headset would launch in Spring 2019 priced at $400. Now, filings for the controllers from Facebook have appeared at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The FCC is tasked with certifying products with electromagnetic emissions to be safe and compatible with regulations. Products utilizing radio, WiFi, infrared, etc. need certification before they can be distributed for sale. Certification by the FCC marks one of the final steps in launching a consumer electronics product.
FCC documents specifically list the controllers by name, ‘Oculus Touch Controller’, replete with model numbers XH01 (right controller) & XH02 (left controller). Despite the fact ‘Quest’ doesn’t appear in any of the fillings, the silhouetted image reveals it is indeed Quest’s Touch (as opposed to Touch for Rift).
The filing’s test reports reveal that Quest’s Touch controllers connect wirelessly via 2.4GHz radio, likely indicative of on-board Bluetooth. The headset itself is already confirmed to include Bluetooth, as well as both 2.4GHz & 5GHz WiFi.
The Quest Touch controllers were received by the FCC on December 10th, 2018, and testing was completed on December 12th.
Like many consumer electronics, the FCC has granted Facebook a 180-day temporary confidential treatment, so there’s still a few documents that haven’t been revealed including internal & external photos, the user manual, and test set-up photos.
There are a few big expos coming up where Facebook could potentially divulge a more specific release date for Quest, although our best guess is the company will likely mirror Oculus Go’s launch at F8 last year, the company’s annual developer conference. F8 2019 takes place April 30th – May 1st this year, and you can bet we’ll be there.