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Metaquest 3S
Angled profile of Meta Quest 3S showing USB-C port
The Quest 3 also loses the nifty dial for adjusting lens spacing, instead requiring you to manually push the lenses into three positions to get closer to the optimal pupillary distance. This requires putting on and taking off the headset several times (exactly the kind of friction that easily frustrates VR newbies), but at least you only have to sort it once. However, if you’re sharing your headset with family members, it can be an even bigger problem.
Meta added an action button to quickly switch between a mixed reality mode that shows a camera feed of the room and a fully immersive VR view. This is completely absent from Quest 3. Instead, you need to tap the front right corner to jump into mixed reality. Having a dedicated button is simply great for ease of use, especially for new VR users, so I don’t mind breaking the curves of the Quest 3S’s design a bit.
The Quest 3S uses the same touch controller as its more expensive sibling, and it’s still great. Gone is the clunky motion tracking ring of previous models, and it’s now just a lightweight controller that fits your hand like a glove. The joystick feels smooth and precise, and the buttons provide surprisingly responsive feedback. However, this is nothing new. I’ve been impressed with Facebook’s gamepad ever since the first Oculus Touch controllers were released in 2016.
Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar
The most important thing about the Quest 3S is the hardware that Meta has carried over from more expensive headsets. It has a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, which the company claims offers twice the graphics performance of the Quest 2 and 8GB of RAM. This is only a slight increase from the Quest 2’s 6GB of memory, but it’s essential for storing more detailed textures.
Developers no longer have to worry about how their games will run on the slower Quest 2, and can simply build to a single hardware spec. Ideally, fewer headaches for developers would lead to more software appearing in the Meta Quest store. And we hope the wealth of new apps will encourage people to buy the headset. That leads to more app sales. This is a virtuous cycle, and could potentially bring the consumer VR market out of the death spiral it has been in for years.
Photo credit: Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
In use: nimble and functional VR
The first thing I noticed when I put on the Quest 3S was, “Wow, it sure is fast.” Going through the headset’s onboarding process, downloading a few apps, and navigating the Meta home environment was simply snappy and responsive. That’s something I also remembered with the Quest 3, but it feels like an even bigger revelation in a $300 headset. I didn’t experience any of the lag or occasional slowdowns I’m used to with the Quest 2.
The actual VR experience was also detailed and immersive. I didn’t notice much of a drop in resolution from the Quest 3, but I quickly realized that the cheaper Fresnel lens led to more artifacts. Edges looked a bit blurry, halos could occasionally be seen forming around objects, and divine rays from very bright objects often appeared in games like Pistol Whip. The pancake lens on the Quest 3 is definitely less susceptible to the same visual issues and looks much sharper.
But the problem is, I don’t think Fresnel lenses will make much of a difference for VR beginners. I’ve been enjoying VR headsets for years, living with the same artifacts. And if by adopting a cheaper lens, Meta can bring the price of the Quest 3S down to $300, it’s worth it. The biggest barrier to the VR world is not fidelity, but cost.
Once I started spending a fair amount of time inside the Quest 3S, the visual issues became less noticeable. I was much more interested in conducting a perfect symphony with Maestro. Maestro did a great job of simulating a live orchestral experience thanks to the headset’s precise hand tracking and immersive audio. It was also fun to pick up random pens from the desk and turn them into virtual batons. Games certainly seem a little clearer on the Quest 3, but many people won’t directly compare the two headsets.
I also played Mobile Suit Gundam Silver Phantom for an hour. It was more like an interactive animated movie than a game, but I was hooked enough that I started ignoring the Quest 3S’s artifacts. None of that matters if you’re immersed in a truly amazing VR experience. Naturally, we also checked out classic games like Pistol Whip and Superhot, which are still fun to play after all these years.
Unfortunately, the Quest 3S doesn’t solve the problem of looking like a complete clown while using VR. That was especially true while playing I Am Cat, a game where you have to climb walls, dig up toilets, and thoroughly scare an old woman inside a virtual house. I had so much fun, but my 6 year old daughter started to worry that I had gone crazy.
In the end, I streamed the game to the Meta app on my iPhone and screen mirrored it to my Apple TV, giving her a live view of everything I was watching. Of course, that prompted her to come up with all the ways I could wreak havoc on cats in VR. (Pro tip: You can also feed your grandma a cat poop sandwich.)
Like previous Meta standalone headsets, the Quest 3S can also stream more intensive VR experiences from your gaming PC, either wirelessly or via a USB-C cable. I was able to connect to my rig via Wi-Fi and play Half-Life: Alyx for 15 minutes with no noticeable lag. Granted, it wasn’t as great as what you see on the Valve Index, but it still costs $1,000 for the entire setup. And of course, Index doesn’t have the option to play wirelessly without a PC. After pairing an Xbox controller, I was also able to stream non-VR Xbox cloud gaming titles like Halo Infinite and Fortnite. W2D gaming isn’t ideal for playing on a VR headset, but the ability to virtualize a huge screen can be valuable, especially if you don’t have a large TV.
Meta positions the Quest 3 as a mixed reality device, but thanks to its color camera and more capable room mapping, I didn’t find it as useful as the Vision Pro. This is a headset that you can wear for hours at a time as you move around your home. The Quest 3’s camera is too blurry to use for long periods of time, and the Quest 3S suffers from the same problem. While it’s fun to play the Meta’s First Encounters demo and watch aliens invade your house or jam with Synth Riders, the Quest 3 and 3S headsets are much better at truly recreating reality. A camera is required.
This is also why I couldn’t stand cloning my PC using Meta’s remote desktop app for very long. The virtual display looked pretty clear, but it was difficult to focus on it alongside the blurry view of the office. I’d rather take off the Quest 3S and work while looking at the monitor.
Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar
As an entertainment device, Quest 3S lets you enjoy movies, TV, and 360-degree videos from the comfort of your seat. Home theater professionals may find that video doesn’t leak as sharply as the Quest 3, and the contrast and black levels are light years away from the Vision Pro’s MicroLED display, but for most people The Quest 3S has no problems at all. It’s definitely better than watching something on your laptop or tablet (or, guess what, your phone).
Throughout my week of testing, the Quest 3S typically lasted about 2 hours and 20 minutes before needing a charge. This is slightly better than what we saw with the Quest 3, where the battery could drain in just 2 hours. The Quest 3S’ lower resolution display is less demanding on the GPU, so this is one area where it could have an advantage. You can always connect a 10,000 mAh external pack to expand the Quest 3S’s 4,324 mAh built-in battery, or leave it connected to a charger for long play sessions.
Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar
Pricing and competition
Quest 3S pricing starts at $300 with 128 GB of storage, which can be doubled to 256 GB for the $400 model. If you need 512GB of space, the $500 Quest 3 is your only choice. However, considering the optical advantages of more expensive headsets, the $400 Quest 3S isn’t exactly a smart buy. If you need more than 128 GB of storage, you might want to save until you get the Quest 3.
In the world of cheap standalone VR headsets, Meta still doesn’t have much competition. HTC’s Vive Focus 3 lineup, including the new Focus 3 Vision, starts at $1,000 and is geared more toward enterprise and business customers. The HTC Vive’s storefront also has far fewer games and apps than Meta’s, making that platform less meaningful to the average user.
Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar
summary
The Meta Quest 3S is the best $300 standalone VR headset we’ve ever seen. It is comfortable to wear and provides a crisp VR experience. It’s so good that you probably won’t notice that it’s not as sharp as the Quest 3 or that it has more visual artifacts. Once you truly immerse yourself in VR, those issues disappear.
Alongside the company’s Ray-Ban smart frames, Orion augmented reality glasses, and the billions of dollars already spent on VR, Meta clearly believes the future of computing is in your face. . But even lightweight smart glasses are still glasses, and many people avoid wearing them by pressing contact lenses against their eyes instead. We don’t know exactly how the general public will react to true AR glasses. But really that’s a question for the future. For now, you can just enjoy the Quest 3S, which is great VR for a relatively cheap price.
