Verdict: The Meta Quest 3S is the perfect choice to try out mixed and virtual reality, and I’ve been surprised by how much I actually used it. This is still a product for early adopters - but you don’t need to break the bank to get a glimpse of the future.
What we love: the best value headset out there, comfortable and fun to use
Pause for thought: There’s no killer app yet, and there’s a risk of becoming bored after a few weeks
Buy the Meta Quest 3S from Amazon ($299)
What is Meta’s Quest 3S?
The latest in Meta’s Virtual Reality headset range, the 3S aims to bring VR and what’s called mixed reality, where digital images are superimposed over the real world, to the masses. In a nutshell, it uses two small displays inside the headset to fool your brain into thinking its in a ‘real’ environment. Additionally, cameras capture a live video feed of the outside world letting it display this to mix the real and virtual worlds – known as mixed reality.
Previous headsets have been lower quality, or more expensive – the Quest 3S is Meta’s attempt to create a relatively affordable entry level headset that for $299 lets people curious about the technology try it out.
Setup
Setting up the Quest is a little confusing, due to the lack of instructions. Once you realise you need to download an app to get going, it’s pretty straightforward, although the strap design does take a bit of tweaking to get right – but unlike most other headsets, I didn’t feel any need to buy a replacement heavy duty strap. One neat touch was that my prescription lenses for the Quest 2 from honsvr.com worked perfectly in the 3S, and took about 30 seconds to swap over.
Mixed reality
One of the interesting things about the current state of headsets is the focus on mixed reality – blending the virtual with the real world. Apple’s $2500 Vision Pro is the benchmark here, and is jaw droppingly good. But the Quest 3S does a surprisingly good job here, using 2 cameras to create stereo color passthrough of your environment. I was surprised with just how good it’s cameras and software are – I actually found myself confidently walking around my apartment wearing it, much to the amusement of my wife (and bemusement of my dog).
While there is a mix of VR apps that take up your entire view and mixed apps that incorporate passthrough, you can also see the real world anytime by pressing the action Button on the bottom of the headset. It also shows the real world if you come close to a wall or furniture (it actually picked up my dog dog a few times as well).
While chips are really the last thing you should care about, the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset here is fast – at no point did I notice any kind of lag.
What can you do with it?
High-definition screens give a resolution with 1832×1920 pixels per eye, and while the Quest 3 offers a higher resolution, it’s not enough to warrant the extra cash in my opinion.
The image quality is great, and good enough for most uses. I found myself surprised at how much I used the Quest 3S as a media consumption device, watching Youtube videos and even a couple of concerts in Meta’s Horizon Worlds virtual space.
There’s a fully stocked app store for you to download games, and there are some big names in there lie Beat Saber and Fruit Ninja, which work really well in VR. However, there are a lot of pretty bad games and what are really little more than demos, so be careful when buying.
There’s also a web browser you you can watch Netflix, and apps like Youtube which let you watch your videos on a huge screen that virtually appears in front of you. It’s a really good experience, and I found myself using it more than I expected.
While games are a little hit and miss, I got weirdly addicted to Eleven Table Tennis, and also found several of the fitness apps, most notably Supernatural, were excellent and something I could imagine making me come back to the headset again and again.
There’s also an Xbox app allowing you to stream games to the headset and play using a real xbox controller, a really neat app that takes advantage of Microsoft’s cloud gaming service. I found it worked really well, and was actually far more immersive than I expected.
The hardware
The headset is light and once the strap is adjusted, easy to take on and off. Weighing 54grams, it’s balanced well so doesn’t really feel heavy on the face. You can also lie down and still use apps, which is great for watching videos.
The Quest 3S starts at $299.99, the same price as the Quest 2 at launch, and comes with 128GB of storage, or you can upgrade to 256GB for $399.99. I think the $299 option is fine for most people.
There are two controllers in the box, which are light and easy to use. The Quest 3S can also track your hands, and I found this really useful and my preferred way of interacting – although sometimes its less accurate than a controller (and many games require you to use the controllers).
Sound is delivered through two speakers in the arms of the device, and it’s surprisingly good, which is just as well as there isn’t a physical headphone jack on the device, although you can either either the USB-C charging port or bluetooth headphones.
Battery life
Meta says the 3S runs for about 2.5 hours, and I found this to be about right. It’s also pretty quick to charge, with a USB-C port on the headset.
Overall
The Meta Quest 3S is a really great way to get a glimpse of the future of this tech. Will you use it every day? Probably not. But for the odd workout, game and even virtual event, it’s a great system that really gives software developers and consumers alike a way to see what the future, when this tech is built into your glasses, is going to be like. It’s also crucially affordable enough that it’s really one killer app or game away from being an albeit rather expense impulse purchase.
