Meta Quest 3S review: probably the one weve been waiting for
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Metas best decision with the Quest 3S? It comes with Batman: Arkham Shadow. Yes, the Quest 3S is Metas step-down headset from the Quest 3, but it can play all of the same games. Meta mostly made the right tradeoffs with its newer and cheaper headset, so being Batman will ultimately feel pretty similar across both devices. The Quest 3 is a better headset, to be clear. Its also $499.99. At $299.99, the 3S is the better buy.So if you dont already own a Quest 3 but want to dabble with VR, save $200, get the Quest 3S, and hop into Gotham. And then check out everything else you can play. Theres more to do than you might think.8Verge ScoreMeta Quest 3S$299The GoodSame chipset as the Quest 3Lots of games to play$299.99The BadIts still a VR headsetThe lenses and display arent quite as good as the Quest 3Its a touch heavier than the Quest 2How we rate and review productsThe Quest 3S itself is more or less the body of the Quest 2 and the guts of the Quest 3, including the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, the same cameras for full-color passthrough, and the same Touch Plus controllers. Like other Quests, its a standalone device that doesnt need to be plugged into anything to work, which I think gives it a leg up on the PSVR 2.At 514 grams, the Quest 3S is essentially the same weight as the 515-gram Quest 3. But the Quest 3S is noticeably bulkier than the Quest 3 because of the two places Meta found to save money: the lenses and displays.The Fresnel lenses make the Quest 3S thicker than the Quest 3.The Quest 3S, like the Quest 2, uses Fresnel lenses, whereas the Quest 3 uses pancake lenses. Not only are pancake lenses thinner, but they can also have better image quality and bring the headset closer to your face, which makes it feel more balanced. The Quest 3S also has the same resolution (1832 x 1920 pixels per eye) and field of view as the Quest 2, meaning you wont see quite as much in front of you as you would with the Quest 3s 2064 x 2208 resolution and slightly wider field of view.That said, Ive always felt that the Quest 2s display was perfectly fine for playing games and general web browsing, and I think its still acceptable for the 3S, especially at this price. And its been fine in Arkham Shadow. Sure, the graphics arent anywhere near as good as a PS5, but on the Quest 3S, everything looks good enough to make skulking through sewers and ducts and taking out waves of bad guys a total blast.A closer look at the lenses.Of course, the Quest 3Ss graphics arent as good as a PS5s, for a lot of reasons other than just the lenses one is a giant home console and the other is a face computer, you know? but the Quest 3S is more than serviceable. If you want Quest games to look as good as possible, you should get the Quest 3, and thats fine. But I dont think you lose all that much opting for the 3S and saving $200.I should say here that if you have a Quest 2, the Quest 3 will feel like more of an upgrade. Yes, the hardware on the Quest 3S is much improved, meaning things are generally snappier and that you can play better-looking games. But, at least for the moment, there are only a handful of games that you can only play on the Quest 3S and Quest 3 one of which is Arkham Shadow and the Quest 3 also has a visibly better display and field of view.Batman: Arkham Shadow. Image: Oculus StudiosThe best argument for the Quest 3S, and maybe for VR as a whole right now, is Arkham Shadow, which is free with the headset until the end of April. No matter which headset you play it on its bundled with both the Quest 3 and 3S theres something really cool about playing as Batman in VR. Hiding in the rafters and swooping down on a baddie is Batmans whole thing, and this game lets you do it from the first-person perspective of the Caped Crusader. Meta is bundling the game for a reason: beyond just the Arkham lineage, the game is that good. Weve been waiting for a truly great VR game for a long time, the one that sells the whole setup all by itself. Arkham Shadow might be that game.If caped crusading isnt your jam, though, youll also have access to the huge library of Quest VR games, like Beat Saber and Resident Evil 4. I really enjoyed Maestro, a recently launched music game where you conduct an orchestra. As of last year, you can also wirelessly stream VR games on Steam from a PC to your Quest headset.Being able to use multiple windows in VR is novel, but I dont actually find it practical. The passthrough is much improved over the Quest 2, though. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The VergeThe VR app situation is getting pretty good on the Quest. But while Meta has also pushed hard on the augmented reality and passthrough elements of the Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets, I havent seen any mixed reality games or apps that seem worth playing over something thats fully immersive VR.Passthrough which lets you view the world around you while you have the headset on using its cameras still seems like a small feature to me. While I love the action button on the Quest 3S that lets you easily switch between passthrough and immersive modes, its something Ive only used to type a note about a game I was playing or check Slack on my laptop before pressing it again to go back into VR. The ability to put windows wherever you want in space is nice (and is something you can do with other Quest headsets, too), but I dont do any Serious Work in a headset that would require that level of organization.And sure, you could hang out and play games in Metas Horizon Worlds. But every game Ive played in Horizon Worlds has been terrible, so I wouldnt recommend it. I could maybe give Meta a pass here if Horizon Worlds was brand new. But Meta has been pecking away at Horizon Worlds for years, and I still dont think there is any point to using it.The charging port looks like the old Oculus logo, which I think is clever. The Quest 3S doesnt fix some of the problems inherent to VR: youre still putting on a big headset that covers your eyes and largely shuts you out from the world around you. Hand tracking is just okay youre probably still going to want to use the controllers to actually interact with things while wearing the headset. After spending 45 minutes or so playing a game like Arkham Shadow, I start to feel the weight and need to pull up the headset to give my head and neck a break. The Quest 3S, at least, comes with Metas Y-shaped top strap, which is more comfortable and more configurable than the Quest 2s standard strap.I also noticed that I was largely only picking up the Quest 3S for the purposes of writing about it for work; after work or on the weekends, I preferred to play games on my Steam Deck or PS5. I think there are a few reasons for this. One is that those other devices let me more easily chat with my wife while I play, instead of shutting her out. We have a new baby crawling around, so when I get some time to play a game while the baby is asleep, Im tired enough that Im not looking for the physicality of VR. And the games, for the most part, dont interest me like the games I can play on my non-VR gaming devices. (If you read my article about regretting buying the PSVR 2, these arguments may sound familiar.)The cheaper Quest 3S doesnt solve VRs inherent tradeoffs and limitations. And if you already have a Quest 2, youre not missing out on too many games. But $299.99 for the same chipset as the Quest 3 but with slightly worse displays makes the Quest 3S the best headset to buy right now. Even if its just an Arkham Shadow machine, its probably worth it.Agree to continue: Meta Quest 3SEvery smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it contracts that no one actually reads. Its impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit agree to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people dont read and definitely cant negotiate.In order to use the Quest 3S, youll need a Meta account, which is the cross-platform account the company uses to unify your presence from Facebook to Instagram to the Quest. If you dont have or dont want a Meta account, you cant use this device.In addition to all the things you agree to when you set up a Meta account, you also agree to:Metas health and safety warningsMetas privacy settingsAn optional Share additional data to improve Meta Horizon? promptMetas hands and body privacy noticeIndividual apps also requested approvals for things like storage access, access to information about scanned rooms, and more.Final provisional tally: four agreements.
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