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Nov 01, 2024

Meta Quest 3S review: The best entry-level VR headset | CNN Underscored

My friends are surely tired of hearing me breathlessly sing the Meta Quest 3’s praises. This virtual reality headset turned me into an athlete, and, in my opinion, is the only device that’s

My friends are surely tired of hearing me breathlessly sing the Meta Quest 3’s praises. This virtual reality headset turned me into an athlete, and, in my opinion, is the only device that’s successfully made VR into a true pick-up-and-play adventure thanks to a great user experience and even better games. But while the Quest 3 isn’t Apple Vision Pro expensive, its steep $500 asking price still solicits plenty of grimaces from folks when they recommend I check one out. That’s where the Meta Quest 3S comes in.

This $300 version of Meta’s flagship headset is remarkably similar to its $500 counterpart, from its smooth performance and cool mixed-reality capabilities to its best-in-class library of games and apps. So what exactly are you giving up at this lower price? And is the Quest 3S the best VR headset to start — or extend — your VR journey with? I’ve spent many hours with one strapped to my face, and am ready to give you some answers.

The Meta Quest 3S retains everything great about the Meta Quest 3 for a much lower price, so long as you can live with some visual and storage downgrades.

Save for a few cosmetic and functional differences, the Meta Quest 3S looks and feels nearly identical to the Meta Quest 3 — and that’s a good thing. It doesn’t quite have the same slim profile as its pricier sibling, instead adopting a longer, flatter design that reminds me of the Quest 2.

If I were choosing based on looks alone, I’d actually go with the Quest 3S. I like its subtle, honeycomb-like front camera arrays up front, which give it a cleaner overall look than the tall camera columns on the Quest 3. Most importantly, the Quest 3S feels just as great to wear as the standard model does (it technically weighs a single gram less), and I didn’t experience much head fatigue after extended sessions spent gaming, browsing and working up a sweat in Supernatural. Meta’s entry-level headset packs the exact same Touch Plus controllers as the Quest 3, which feel comfortable, are much more svelte than the Quest 2’s and have detailed haptic feedback that really shines in action and shooting games.

Fortunately, the Quest 3S works with almost all of the best Meta Quest 3 accessories for customizing, protecting and transporting your headset. I can’t imagine using my Quest without my Kuject adjustable head strap (which provides much better comfort, balance and sweat protection than the included fabric strap), and was pleased to be able to pop it right onto my Quest 3S. Same goes for my Kiwi controller grips, which I’d recommend to anyone trying to do any sort of exercise on this thing.

Budget versions of flagship products typically don’t add features, so you can imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered the Quest 3S’ new action button that allows you to switch between mixed reality and fully immersive VR with a single click. The Quest 2 and 3 require you to double-tap the side of the headset to switch modes, which generally works well enough but has failed on me enough times to be a slight annoyance. I’ll always take button controls over tap controls, and am already getting plenty of use out of this perk every time I need to warp back to the real world to grab a sip of water mid-workout.

I often describe the Quest as the Nintendo Switch or iPhone of the VR world; most people can pick one up and figure out how to use it pretty quickly. That’s especially true of the Quest 3S, which has the same seamless setup process and user-friendly interface as its more premium sibling. Within a few minutes of logging into my Meta account — which you can now create without needing a Facebook account — and having the headset automatically scan my living room to create my virtual playspace, I was back with the same library of games and apps that I love using on my Quest 3. Even better, they all ran just as smoothly on the cheaper headset.

Whether I was zipping and gliding around Gotham City in Batman: Arkham Shadow, working up a sweat in Supernatural or having a shootout with skeletons in Pistol Whip, the Quest 3S remained snappy and smooth. When I fired up mixed-reality games like Lego Bricktales or needed to zip back to the real world to check on my dog Marie, the Quest 3S’ full-color passthrough cameras allowed me to see my living room just as clearly as I’m used to on my regular Quest 3.

While it can still be buggy at times — certain apps and menus occasionally load too slowly for my tastes — I’m impressed by how far the Quest’s overall user interface and multitasking chops have come over the years. I was able to browse my Instagram feed, watch a YouTube video and check out the app store all at once, all while freely moving my windows around like I was in Stark Tower. It’s not quite as smooth or capable as what you can do on an Apple Vision Pro, but it comes impressively close at about a tenth of the price.

This mostly frictionless performance is made possible by the same Snapdragon VR2 processor you’ll find in the standard Quest 3, as Meta’s not making any sacrifices when it comes to speed. The same goes for battery life. The Quest 3S is actually rated for slightly more runtime than its pricier counterpart (2.5 hours versus 2.2 hours of general use), and in my testing time so far, seems to hold a charge a bit longer than the standard model. If you use your Quest like I do — mostly popping in for half-hour chunks to get a workout in — you should only have to plug either headset in a few times a week.

Great VR hardware is useless without great VR games — so it’s a good thing the Quest 3S has access to some of the best. This budget headset can play all of the best Meta Quest 3 games, from immersive first-person blockbusters to cool new ways to work out and be entertained.

There’s truly something for everyone here; Staples like Beat Saber and Pistol Whip are pick-up-and-play arcade perfection, Resident Evil 4 dishes out console-quality zombie action and Vader Immortal lets you swing a dang lightsaber in VR (and who doesn’t want to do that?). As someone who watched most of the WNBA Finals from the real-life nosebleeds, I had a pretty great time sitting courtside for a game in the Xtadium app. I’ve already raved exhaustively about how Supernatural has made me love working out, and there are lots of other great apps like FitXR and Les Mills Bodycombat that make exercise fun — and a lot more convenient than going to the gym.

The Quest 3S also includes a copy of the newly released Batman: Arkham Shadow, which successfully translates the beloved Arkham series’ satisfying combat and traversal into an immersive first-person adventure. It’s been pretty hard to put down; few things scratch my nerd itch like getting to punch dudes in the face and grapple-hook my way around Gotham City like I’m Batman. It’s a heck of a game to get free out of the box, and is one of several titles that are exclusive to the Quest 3 family — meaning even this budget headset will keep you future-proofed for a good while. The 3S also has all of the same mixed-reality capabilities as the standard model, meaning you can fight off the undead in your real-life living room in Zombies Noir or play virtual tabletop games like Demeo.

And that’s just what the Quest 3S can play on its own. Own a good gaming PC? You can connect your Quest either wirelessly or via USB-C and use it as a full-on Windows virtual reality rig for playing even higher-end VR games like Half-Life: Alyx and Star Wars Squadrons. Got an Xbox controller and Game Pass Ultimate subscription handy? You can fire up the Xbox Game Streaming app and play games like Halo Infinite and Forza Motorsport on a big virtual screen that goes wherever your headset does. You will not run out of stuff to play on this thing anytime soon.

The Meta Quest 3S fills a crucial void as the affordable member of the Quest lineup, especially now that the discontinued Quest 2 (the previous holder of the friendlier $300 price tag) is increasingly harder to find and is already starting to lose some software support. It’s simply great having a $300 headset to recommend to folks again, especially when the experience is so close to what you’ll get on the $500 model — though there are a few notable caveats.

The Quest 3S performs almost identically to the Quest 3 for nearly half the price, so there has to be a catch, right? There is, and it mostly comes down to visual fidelity. Meta’s new entry level headset has a lower display resolution (2064 x 2208 versus 1832 x 1920) and a narrower field of view (96 degrees horizontal/90 degrees vertical versus 110/96), and having tested it extensively alongside the Quest 3, there’s a noticeable difference.

This gap in resolution was most stark when browsing the home screen; text and app icons that look especially crisp and clear on the standard Quest 3 look blurry and pixelated on the Quest 3S. The downgrade was also somewhat noticeable in certain games — the colorful blocks of Beat Saber and beautiful virtual vistas of Supernatural just weren’t as sharp — but I mostly forgot about that once I was in the heat of gameplay.

The Quest 3S’ comparably low resolution might not stick out as much if this is your first VR headset — or if you’re upgrading from a Quest 2, which has the same visual specs. But if you want the best possible image quality while exploring Asgard or kicking back in your own personal movie theater, the Quest 3 is still your best bet.

While the Quest 3S is Meta’s most affordable headset, it’s not exactly the best value when it comes to the storage you get for your money. The starting $300 model gets you 128GB of free space. That’s not bad in my experience (Quest games generally don’t take up as much storage as big console blockbusters) but also limiting enough that I’ve occasionally had to delete games to make room for new ones. Upgrading to the $400 Quest 3S gets you 256GB of storage, but at that point, you might as well pay an extra benjamin for the $500 Quest 3 which now starts with a significantly higher 512GB — and gets you better image quality. I wouldn’t consider the Quest 3S’ relatively low storage a dealbreaker, but it’s definitely worth keeping in mind if you’re someone coming from a Quest or Quest 2 and already have a hefty software collection to bring with you.

For a large chunk of people, the Meta Quest 3S is the new VR headset to buy. It performs just as well as its pricier counterpart, has access to the same superb games and mixed-reality experiences and has similar (if not occasionally better) battery life. Toss in a free and very fun Batman game, and that’s a heck of a value for 300 bucks.

That said, if you plan on spending long hours engrossed in triple-A games like Asgard’s Wrath 2 or plan on using this as your movie-watching device on trips, you’ll probably find the $500 Meta Quest 3’s superior lenses and higher storage capacity to be worth the splurge. But for anyone getting their first virtual reality headset — or upgrading from a Quest 2 or older — the Meta Quest 3S is a great way to get immersed in the most fun VR platform out there.

Mike Andronico is CNN Underscored's senior tech editor, overseeing coverage of smartphones, computers, audio and just about anything else you might find in the electronics aisle. You can find him hunting for retro video games, hanging with his French bulldog and playing with his band, Ghost Tour.