Meta Quest 3S Review: Apple Would Never Do This

About two weeks ago, Meta released a brand new mixed reality headset, the Meta Quest 3S. It's their cheapest mixed reality headset yet, with a starting price of $299, compared to the $499 starting price of the Meta Quest 3. But don't get confused: the S in the 3S doesn't mean it's better, even if you think it is.

It's a great value for money mixed reality headset – but that's something Apple will never do.

Hardware Quality

The reason I say Apple will never do this is because of one reason and one reason only: it's too low quality.

The Quest 3S is made of cheap-feeling plastic, has a low-resolution display, and poor-quality lenses. The plastic isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it allows the headset to be lighter, but it’s definitely not a premium feel.

As for the lenses, they’re fine for gaming. When you’re in a game, which is often locked into the center of the display, you don’t notice the poor quality. However, on the home screen and other apps where you’re often looking around, you may notice that things aren’t perfectly sharp around the edges. The same can be said for the display’s resolution.

For games that don’t always have the highest resolution and don’t require perfect clarity, 1080p-class displays are fine. However, you definitely notice it in video streaming apps. It’s also noticeable in apps that display a lot of text, like a web browser or remote desktop apps. I would never use the Quest 3S as a display for my Mac, which I’d happily do with the Apple Vision Pro.

On the other hand, it’s pretty comfortable. I don’t feel much weight on my head, unlike the Apple Vision Pro.

Input Methods

Unlike the Apple Vision Pro, the Quest 3S comes with traditional VR controllers in the box, and they’re the main way you interact with the device. The Quest 3S also supports hand tracking, though it doesn’t have the magical eye-tracking feel of the Vision Pro.

Obviously, the Vision Pro costs 10 times more than the Quest 3S, so it's not a big deal – I can forgive the lack of eye tracking.

The hand tracking on the Quest 3S is a bit mediocre, though. It's not perfect, I'd say it works properly about 70% of the time. The 30% of the time it doesn't work is just annoying enough to not be worth relying on – so I usually rely on the controllers, which work pretty well.

Meta has introduced higher-end controllers on the Quest 3S (taken from the Quest 3), ditching the huge rings needed for tracking that the Quest 2-era controllers used.

Games

The Quest 3S is obviously great for VR gaming. I spent a lot of time playing Beat Saber as a quick workout, as well as games like Fruit Ninja. I also recently picked up Just Dance VR, which is also a bit of fun.

Meta also offers a Quest+ subscription for $7.99 per month with a large catalog of games that I have yet to delve into.

This is one advantage Meta has over the Vision Pro, and it’s definitely an advantage they should work to. Apple hasn’t historically done well in gaming, and the Apple Vision Pro doesn’t support traditional VR controllers, so it may be a while before Apple offers anything substantial in that regard.

Plus, Meta owns many of the big game studios that make games for the Quest, including the company behind Beat Saber. Even if Apple's Vision Pro supported VR controllers, some big games might never support the platform.

The Bottom Line

Overall, I really like my Meta Quest 3S, it's a great gaming headset, and the $299 price tag is perfect for it. The Quest 3S is essentially a Quest 2 with a faster chipset, mixed reality support, and better controllers. Meta took an already popular headset and made it even better while keeping the price the same.

The Quest 3S is not a spatial computer, though. I can't recommend it, nor can I recommend the higher-resolution Quest 3, for anything other than gaming. It’s just not good enough for that.

You might be wondering why you’d want to compare a $299 headset to one that costs 10 times as much? Well, that’s because Meta does. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has often claimed that the Quest is a better product than the Apple Vision Pro, which is simply not true. It’s a better product for gaming, and nothing else.

It’s certainly a cheaper product for experiencing mixed reality, but it’s not good for anything truly practical.

And unfortunately, Meta has canceled its Quest Pro line of headsets, so it’s unlikely we’ll see a true Vision Pro competitor from Meta anytime soon. I think it's a shame.

You can buy the Quest 3S 128GB for $299 and 256GB for $399 at the following retailers: