Meta seems determined to spend more money than you can reasonable picture in your mind every month on its VR and XR efforts. Most of that these days is likely going into developing new smart glasses that can tell you if you need to pick your nose or not, but some of its multi-billion-dollar spending ends up in its VR headsets, the most recent of which is the Quest 3S.
Right now, you can buy the Quest 3S over at Amazon for $249. That's the sort of price tag that makes you think, 'hmm, yeah, I could give that a whirl'. Rather than, 'hmm, yeah, I'll have to sell the car.' It's a reasonable price for a reasonable headset.
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You see, the Quest 3S might be the newest headset from the company, and it might sound like the fanciest, but it's actually not the best. That's the Quest 3. The Quest 3S merges the lenses and picture quality of the now-extinct Quest 2 with the processor and game support of the Quest 3. So, more powerful chip, lower-quality lenses.
The lenses aren't a huge issue. They're a bit muddier than the modern pancake lenses used in the Quest 3 and other popular modern headsets, and the lack of pancake-edness means the headset sticks out from your face more, too. But, it's sporting perfectly serviceable picture quality, especially for experiencing your first VR experiences. Most of my time spent in VR has been on a Quest 2 and look at me, I came out mostly fine.
When I was writing my Quest 3S review, it still had the Quest 2 to contend with. That headset lingered around for a while after the release of its replacements, and often sold for very little cash. It was tough to beat. Though the processor in was getting long in the tooth and, now that it's gone for good, the extra features of the Quest 3S are welcome bonuses.
Extras such as full-color passthrough, a few Quest 3/S exclusive titles, and a snappy interface. Meta is also switching over to a new Meta Horizon Engine soon to help improve things further in terms of your everyday experience on its platform.
But honestly, the main thing I like about both Quest 3 and Quest 3S is the ease of use. I've tested heaps of headsets over the years, from Valve, HTC, Meta (Oculus), Samsung, ByteDance, HP, Pimax, Sony... you name it. But I often find myself coming back to the easiest to set-up. Of the headsets I own, that's generally a Quest, which I tend to fall on for most of my VR adventuring.
Why bark on about ease-of-use? That matters once the shine wears off your new purchase. A VR headset is for life, not just for Christmas, and I've seen far too many gathering dust on shelves at friends' and colleagues' houses. Untethered and unwanted. I don't want to see that happen again, so you'd better grab a VR headset that's actually usable and ready to go in a couple of minutes.
With inside-out tracking, swappable AA batteries in the controllers, and passthrough to make setting up your playspace a breeze, the Quest 3S does a good job of cutting out the nonsense when setting up VR.
It's worth saying that I would go for a Quest 3 if I had the choice today, as the headset is really great and the lenses are lovely and crisp. However, the Quest 3S is a lot cheaper, especially with this deal at Amazon. It's half the price, and much cheaper than even a renewed Quest 3. That's pretty convincing for a fresh starter in VR, and makes this a good way to get into VR without dropping a mighty amount of cash.
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