The Meta Quest 3S has a big job ahead of it. It’s a more affordable take on the Quest 3, one that needs to get people upgrading from the original Quest and the super-popular Quest 2.
That last headset as sold an esimtated 20 million units since its release in 2020.
It has done more to make VR mainstream than any other single headset. But for VR to move on, the Meta Quest 2 needs to be consigned to the past.
I’ve used both headsets back-to-back. Here’s what prospective buyers need to know about how the Quest 3S does, and does not, move on from the Meta Quest 2.
Color Passthrough, But Manage Your Expectations
While the Quest headsets are great virtual reality gaming platforms, Meta wants them to be more than that. Mixed reality is at the heart of this.
It is where part of the experience can incorporate your surroundings, because there are full colour cameras on the outside of the headset.
As you can tell from their positioning, the Quest 3S cameras roughly match the position of your eyes, while there are additional tracking cameras on the side too.
The Quest 2 cameras are monochrome, and sit on the corners of the front of the headset. They are only able to provide black and white passthrough at all because their field of view is so wide.
In good lighting, the Quest 3S’s passthrough is miles better than the Quest 2’s. You can even read text messages and emails on a phone screen held in front of your face.
We’re not at the level of an Apple Vision Pro here, though. The feed will appear quite noisy and soft at times, especially if you play at night, with only modest home lighting switched on. The image of your surroundings just won’t look clear and detailed.
There’s A New Dedicated Action Button
The Meta Quest 3S has a new button, sat on its underside. Meta calls it the Action button.
Its main role is in switching between the Immersive move and the passthrough mode, where you see your actual surroundings rather than whatever virtual words the headset was projecting beforehand.
The other Quest headsets have a similar control, but it uses a gestures instead of a button. You tap the side of the headset twice instead, in the Quest 2.
The Lenses Still Have A Narrow Sharpness Window
As far as I can tell, the Quest 2 and Quest 3S have identical or at least very similar lenses. They are of the fresnel type, not the pancake style used in the Quest 3.
This also means the Quest 3S, just like the Quest 2, also has a narrow sharpness sweet spot. Both headsets are quite picky about where the lenses are relative to your eyes. There’s also very clear softness and smearing in your peripheral vision.
A big jump, or widening, in the cone of sharpness was my personal favourite upgrade of the Quest 3. It makes the fit seem less picky, and lets you look around with your eyes more successfully, rather than moving your head. This doesn’t work that well in either the Quest 2 or Quest 3S.
The Quest 3S Gets More Games, Higher-End Visuals
While there is no upgrade in optics or panel resolution in the Quest 3S, compared to the Quest 2, that does not mean you won’t see a big visual improvement in apps and games.
The newer headset has the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, in place of the XR2 in the Quest 2. These may sound similar, but the mobile phone chipsets on which they are roughly based are separated by several generations.
The Snapdragon XR2’s closest cousin is the Snapdragon 865, seen in the Samsung Galaxy S20. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen is like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, used in the Samsung Galaxy S23.
It’s three generations ahead, and the GPU of the more recent phone equivalent is up to 3.5x as powerful. Real-world performance levels are a little different in the Meta chipsets, though, as the headsets need to provide consistent, reliable performance levels. A phone’s performance will often tail off dramatically after a few minutes due to heat build-up.
As the Quest 3S has the same processor as the Quest 3, you’ll see upgraded versions of apps and games come to the newer headset. There are also already exclusive titles for the newer generation, most notably the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Shadow.
The Strap Is Still Bad
Don’t come to the Meta Quest 3S hoping for a massively improved strap. The design is only slightly different to the Quest 2’s, and is not an obvious comfort upgrade.
If you are, or will become, a VR devotee, you’ll likely want to replace it with something better before too long.
The Quest 3S Uses Quest 3 Controllers
Meta switched up to the Quest 3 style of controller, the Quest Touch Plus, for the Quest 3S. This design gets rid of the ring that sits above your hand in the older style. It’s an upgrade in some senses, but not all.
Thanks to the way the cameras work in the Quest 3 and Quest 3S, these newer controllers can be tracked more successfully when they are held up close to your body. But they are worse for tracking when held above your head.
That’s not a particularly likely place for in-game gestures, though, particularly when most developers are aiming at the Quest 3 and Quest 3S models going forwards.
However, other people have also complained about the new controllers’ suffering some tracking issues when moving your hands at high speed. That’s not good news for those who enjoy VR workouts. I haven’t had these issues, but I haven’t dabbled in VR boxing.
Verdict: Worth The Upgrade?
Meta Quest 2 owners are going to need to upgrade to at least the Quest 3S if they want to stay current with VR trends.
With the older headset you’re locked out of proper mixed reality experiences. And as the months and years roll on, we will see more games omit support for the Quest 2.
But is it truly an exciting upgrade? Arguably not, as the optical quality here is similar, and the lenses are similarly picky about head positioning, which is improved in the standard Quest 3.
