Meta reveals the budget-friendly Quest 3S VR headset

Meta has announced the budget-friendly Quest 3S VR headset at its annual Connect keynote. Rumors have been swirling for months that the company was working on a cheaper follow-up to the impressive Quest 3, and now it’s here and priced at $300.

This is pretty dang close to the original Quest 3, which costs $500. The latest headset uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen2 processor and boasts 8GB of RAM, so it can easily handle Quest 3 exclusives like the forthcoming Batman: Arkham Shadow. It offers the same full-color passthrough for mixed reality apps and games and ships with the same controllers as last year’s model. The refresh rate also hovers between 90Hz and 120Hz. 

Meta

The external sensors/cameras also seem nearly identical to the standard Quest 3. There are two RGB cameras to create the stereoscopic color passthrough and four VGA cameras for hand tracking and controller tracking. These also help determine user movements and position in 3D space. Finally, there are two flood LEDs for illumination.

So what’s the catch? Meta has to make up for that lost $200 somehow. First of all, there are no pancake lenses and there’s no 4K content. These look to be the same Fresnel lenses as found with the Meta Quest 2, with a resolution of 1832 x 1920 per eye and 20 PPD (pixels per degree.) The field of view is also slightly reduced when compared to the regular Quest 3 headset.

The storage gets a major hit. The base model comes with 128GB, though there’s a 256GB model available for $400. Meta has lowered the price of the 512GB Quest 3 to $500, from $650, so the entry-level 3S features around a quarter of the storage.

On the plus side, the battery life is actually a bit better with the Quest 3S when compared to the Quest 3. Meta says it should get around 2.5 hours of use per charge, compared to 2.2 hours with the Quest 3.

There’s also a nice little bonus for the holiday season. Customers who orders any Quest 3 or 3S model will get a free digital copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow when it’s released this October. The company did the same thing with the criminally underrated Asgard’s Wrath 2 last year. The promotion goes until April.

The Quest 3S works with most Quest 3 accessories, which is good news because it also ships with the standard, and totally uncomfortable, headstrap. That Elite Strap is a wise investment, especially the one with the battery.

Preorders are open right now and there’s a shipping date of October 15. With the pending release of the Quest 3S, Meta’s phasing out the Quest 2 and the Quest Pro. The Zuck gives and the Zuck takes.