We talk about the memory crisis a lot, but it's hard to ignore when it has impacted so much of PC gaming. VR headsets, too, have been caught in the crossfire, as these standalone headsets have memory and storage all of their own.
Earlier this year, Meta increased the price of the Quest 3 and Quest 3S to $600 and $350, respectively. These prices are a tough sell, especially for the second-run Quest 3S, which uses the same optics as the Quest 2. And the Quest 2 was going extraordinarily cheap in its final months.
This deal at Amazon (and closely tracked by Best Buy) puts the price back to near its original MSRP of $297. I won't pretend that's amazing news, as it shouldn't have gone up to begin with, but it's much better to buy in at the original price than personally fall foul of the memory crisis.
Besides its just-okay Fresnel optics, the Quest 3S has some key improvements over its predecessor. You can read up on most of those in my Quest 3S review, but here's the shortened version.
The Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor in this headset is one and the same as the Quest 3 chip. It also has the same amount of RAM at 8 GB, so it can play all the same games on its own internal hardware as the top-tier headset. If you prefer PCVR—and why wouldn't you—you can hook it up via a decent USB Type-C cable.
The Quest 3S also has full-color passthrough that makes for easy setup, alongside inside-out tracking.
A first timer will find everything they need here for a good experience in virtual reality. That's really who I'd recommend this headset to, as more seasoned vets will prefer the improved optics of pancake lenses and eye tracking.
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