Meta’s cheaper Quest 3S might just be an upgrade

Meta yet announced the very heavily leaked Quest 3S VR headset, and the leaks were right: it’s a $299.99 headset that looks similar a premix of the Quest 2 and Quest 3. But present that the specs are official, I tin archer you that it’s a batch person to the Quest 3 than expected for a refresh that’s astir fractional the price. If you don’t person a Quest headset already, the 3S is perchance a precise compelling purchase.

The Quest 3S offers the aforesaid mixed world features and show arsenic the Quest 3 — it adjacent has the aforesaid Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 spot — meaning you tin play each of the aforesaid games and experiences connected either device. The Quest 3S uses the aforesaid Touch Plus controllers arsenic the Quest 3. And the Quest 3S is really rated for a higher artillery beingness than the Quest 3: Meta says the 3S gets 2.5 hours of mean usage versus 2.2 hours for the Quest 3.

There are a fewer differences. The Quest 3S is somewhat larger than the Quest 3. It has its beforehand sensors arranged successful 2 triangular formations versus the Quest 3’s 3 pill-shaped cutouts. It lacks the Quest 3’s extent sensor. And possibly astir notably, the 3S uses lower-resolution displays than the Quest 3 — the aforesaid 1832 x 1920 per-eye solution arsenic the older Quest 2 — and the Quest 3S has a narrower tract of view, too.

But successful a demo of the Quest 3S yesterday, arsenic I lurked done dank sewers successful Batman: Arkham Shadow and struggled done immoderate atrocious games successful Horizon Worlds (a replica of the bureau from The Office, whoopee!), I didn’t find myself missing the Quest 3’s upgrades. And the headset felt good connected my caput during my half-hour demo acknowledgment successful ample portion to its Y-shaped divided strap — I would person happily worn the headset for a batch longer if Meta had fto me.

The 3S besides has an “Action Button” for switching betwixt passthrough and immersive modes that I didn’t get to test. You tin already power betwixt immersive and passthrough connected the Quest 3 and Quest Pro by turning connected a “Double Tap” feature, but having a dedicated fastener mightiness mean you’ll power backmost and distant much regularly to get a presumption of the existent satellite astir you.

Quest 3S preorders unfastened contiguous up of the headset’s merchandise connected October 15th. Meta is besides bundling Batman: Arkham Shadow, which comes retired connected October 22nd, if you bargain either the Quest 3 oregon Quest 3S.

With the Quest 3S, Meta’s VR headset lineup is beauteous clear. There’s the 128GB Quest 3S for $299.99, the 256GB Quest 3S for $399.99, and the 512GB Quest 3 for $499.99. The 512GB Quest 3 primitively outgo $649.99 erstwhile it launched past year, and present Meta is readying to merchantability its leftover 128GB Quest 3 headsets, which started astatine $499.99, for $429.99.

Now that the Quest 3S is portion of the lineup, Meta besides plans to extremity income of the Quest 2 and the Quest Pro. “We’ll beryllium selling our remaining headsets done the extremity of the twelvemonth oregon until they’re gone, whichever comes first,” the institution says successful a blog post.

With the Quest 3 and the Quest 3S, Meta has a beardown lineup. Even though VR headsets stay comparatively niche — and the company’s metaverse ambitions haven’t adjacent travel adjacent to fruition — if you’re caller to VR, Meta offers large hardware and a ton of VR experiences to get mislaid in. And possibly champion of all, you won’t person to pay $3,499 to get started.