Out of the box, this headset is complete and ready to go to get started in a new VR adventure. I have to say that it's definitely come a long way in recent time, and this is the perfect headset to get started, whether it's for gaming, or exploring the VR world (the metaverse) and meeting new people in Meta Horizon.

It includes Batman Arkham Shadow (which is a lot of fun to play) and a trial subscription to Meta Quest plus which I think is great to help give you a taste of different games each month. The headset comes with a power adapter and touch controllers.

For comfort, I'd say the head straps that come on it are good and certainly good enough for longer sessions, but I'd recommend getting a set of straps that make it more comfortable to wear for longer periods and outside of that good pair of ear buds will make the experience even more immersive. The through vision is actually pretty good and enables you to see the real environment you are sitting in with the VR environment overlayed. Some games and apps take advantage of this which is pretty good, but it also makes it easy to see your phone or other things in the real world when you need to without taking it off.

The quality of the displays is definitely good enough to get started in VR though with the fresnel lenses some people I have had try my headset out do have a hard time adapting to looking into the headset with them, but these actually are pretty good and produce a good image and despite not being as good as the Quest 3, I'd say they are still good enough, with the main difference being that the overall quality of the image isn't as sharp but still is good. The optics with the pancake lenses and higher resolution displays make images sharper with less artifacts but the 3s fresnel lenses are really actually pretty good, certainly for a beginner/starter headset that you want to try without sinking half a grand into it. I didn't have any trouble adapting and found that once I got "into" a game or experience that I really don't notice any of the side effects of the lenses (the flares or artifacts on the very outside edge of an image).

Head and motion tracking is pretty good, but I do find that having to keep the controls in front of the headset annoying, but it does work well. The headset is quick to lose track of motion though if the controls are not kept out in front of you. That said, once you are used to that, it's not bad and this isn't just unique to the 3S but the Quest 3 as well and I think the tracking is pretty much the same for both.

Battery life is pretty good, I have found that I'm able to easily use it for more than an hour and even two hours, depending on the content. I usually try to limit my sessions to an hour or so, which the battery life so far seems to be just right for.

Overall, this is a ton of fun, and I'd recommend getting one and really giving it a chance. The first time I tried the 3 I wasn't sure about it, tried it a few times and then let it set. I recently came back to it just before getting this one and started to explore the Meta Horizons app, more experiences and gave the subscription a try and am glad I did as I have discovered a whole new world in the virtual world.

In terms of storage, 128gb is a lot but some games are larger, and any stored media definitely takes up space, so I'd recommend not storing media like videos in the storage and you'll have plenty for a good number of games, but I'd opt for the larger storage if you can.

The Meta Quest 3 is the third iteration of the Oculus Quest, which was the first standalone VR headset untethering you from a PC. With Meta at the reins, the VR space has grown as has their product improvements and refinements.

Having owned the original Oculus Quest and the successor the Meta Quest 2, I have spent countless hours playing various standalone virtual reality games and experiences. While I enjoyed those headsets, the novel experience wained and I found myself picking them up less and less. The Quest 3, originally released in 2023, iterated on the successful design, and on paper it didn’t seem like enough of an improvement for me to pick up at the increased price. Now a year later, Meta has reduced the starting price of the Quest 3 and introduced a cheaper alternative the Quest 3S.
With the Quest 3 being a year old, it may seem dated, but now is the time to buy what is currently the best value in VR.

To start, the optical stack of the Quest 3 is far superior to the previously used fresnel lens. The clarity was immediately noticeable as was the greatly improved sweet spot that lenses provide. The IPD adjustment is smooth, and can be easily adjusted between 58-70 with a dial on the bottom. This fine tuning combined with the pancake lenses of the Quest 3 is night and day compared to my Quest 2, though I may be overly sensitive to blur. I may have been drawn to the Quest 3 over the 3S due to the pancake lenses but after using the headset I realize I underestimated the benefit mixed reality (MR) brings to the table. Though the passthrough cameras are a little grainy, especially in low light, the quality improvement and addition of color makes it far more useable coming from the Quest 2. I find myself leaving passthrough on as my preferred environment as I feel it is a more comfortable experience and makes it feel more natural. It is still enjoyable to jump into an immersive VR game or experience, but I also now like using the browser or watching youtube in a passthrough environment over a virtual one.

Hand tracking is much improved and is now quite useable for navigating the device and using first party applications like the browser or applications that have been updated to support hand tracking. Naturally there are limitations and it will never replace controllers but I am pleasantly surprised the progress that they have maid so far. The included touch plus controllers are a better design now that Meta has integrated the tracking into the face of the controllers instead of relying on tracking rings. They still operate on a single AA battery each and have excellent battery life, unfortunately the headset itself still only manages a little over 2 hours depending on use. Fortunately the accessory market for the Quest 3 is flush with options now that the device is fairly mature, and there are numerous battery strap options. The included head strap is actually better than previous designs and fairly comfortable for short usage. I actually prefer the ease of slipping it on for a quick session and the soft strap design allows the Quest 3 to be fairly compact for storage. The facial interface now has four depth adjustments to accommodate different faces or glasses wearers and is also removable as well. Meta sells a variety of facial interfaces including a new open facial interface that improves the mixed reality experiences and offers better breathability.

Compared to my previous experience with Quest devices, the Quest 3 is by far the best so far. Meta has done a great job and improved upon their design while also branching more into MR which is an interesting look into the future. Even looking just at the VR segment, the Quest 3 is the most popular headset on the market. Though the hardware isn’t capable of PCVR yet, the overall experience Meta has fostered with the Quest is hard to deny.

Setup: First of all, you do not need a Facebook account in order to set up the Meta Quest. You do need to download the Meta Horizon app and register with Meta (provide an email, generate a login username and password). As a whole, the setup is quite simple and straightforward. It comes with a free 3-month trial of Meta Quest+ (after the 3 months it’s $7.99/mo); you’ll need to provide a credit card number to be put “on file” for future purchases (regardless of whether you plan to or not). I also purchased a $25 gift card for other games and apps I may want to try in the future, which I placed on file as well. You can also download free apps such as the YouTube app. The Meta Quest+ subscription gives you access to a catalog of games, and gives you two free games to download per month. You can also access a web browser, which is what I used to go on streaming websites that have no apps available for the Meta Quest, such as Spectrum—I watched some TV shows that way. There’s also the free download of the Batman: Arkham Shadow game which comes with the Meta Quest 3S.

The setup walkthrough also provides you with a very helpful tutorial which showed me how to use the controllers, how to use my hands instead of the controllers, navigate between various activities (such as going back and forth between apps, open windows, etc.), how to use the virtual interface, how virtual boundaries are created, and how to switch from total transparency mode to immersive mode. I had been worried that it would take forever to set up the Meta Quest 3S, much less learn the aspects of the hardware and software, but really it was not too bad or overly complicated.

Fit: The fit of the headset quite surprisingly was pretty good for both adults and kids—my husband and I both have used it, as well as our grade school aged and middle school aged kids. The strap that goes around the back of the head adjusts similar to…I would say it’s very similar to the way some bicycle helmets can be adjusted to different sized heads, where you can tighten or loosen the fit via two sliders. There’s also a top strap that goes over the top of your head that can be tightened or loosened via a velcro closure. Once you do it a couple of times, it’s pretty easy to remember how to adjust everything quickly when different people want to use the Meta Quest headset. The straps are made of a nice fabric-type elastic material that has a good stretchy give, yet feels stable and sturdy enough to keep the headset from moving or shifting around while it’s on your head. The lenses can also be adjusted—there are three different widths to choose from, for example for my grade-school aged kid, he uses the most narrow width, while my husband and I need to use the middle-sized width between the lenses. When you try to see anything on the screen in the headset and it looks blurry, you know you need to adjust the lens spacing. And here’s a huge plus to anyone who wears glasses—there’s an included “glasses spacer” which you can quickly and easily click onto the headset, that creates added space for your eyeglasses. My kids and I all wear glasses daily, so we make use of the glasses spacer and we can vouch that it definitely works. Overall, the fit of the headset is comfortable—but not for extended periods of time. It does get top-heavy after a while, and this depends on the comfort level of the individual. My grade schooler needs to take a break (well, I make him take a break!), every 15-20 minutes or so, and even then he gets a bit sweaty underneath and around the headset parameters. I can go a bit longer, maybe about an hour or so. Everyone’s mileage will vary.

As for the hand controllers, again, you can use your hands and go physical-controller-free, but it is by no means an easy task. It’s very hard to get used to, and most of the time I just give up and pick up the controllers because then it’s a sure thing that I can precisely pick and click and navigate around the experiences. The controllers are very ergonomically good and intuitive to use. They are battery operated but you can buy separate accessories that provide a rechargeable station with rechargeable batteries, similar to the ones that can be bought for game consoles’ controllers. There is a way to see the batteries’ levels, as well as the headset’s battery level. The headset has a rechargeable battery that you charge using the included 18w charger with USB-C adapter, but you can use any USB-C adapter you already have at home too as long as the power brick is 18w or above. I will have to say that the headset battery runs out pretty quick, especially when you’re doing more intensive activities (such as my son playing the Batman game).

I do recommend purchasing one accessory for sure—a case for storage and transport. The Meta Quest is not like a gaming console that is continuously sitting in one place; it’s wireless and meant to be moving around, and it’s good to have all the pieces (headset, two controllers, power adapter, charging cable) all in one place, especially when traveling.

Overall, I give the Meta Quest 3S 4/5 stars. It is obviously exceptionally good for the price—I have tried another virtual headset that is quite a lot more expensive, and it is predictably a lot better quality-wise (both hardware and software), but you just cannot beat this headset for the price! On the other more expensive headset, I am fully immersed in the experiences and it is overwhelmingly breathtaking and just…out of this world. But with the Meta Quest, there is what I call a “nose gap” in the headset where I constantly see the ground below my nose and where the light from my surroundings is very noticeable because it unerringly enters the interior of the headset. And this is no matter how snug and tight I put the Meta Quest on my head. Also, during most of the various experiences I do on the Meta Quest, there are always blurry edges, kind of like smudges that also constantly take me out of the immersive experience. In addition, when I go into some of the 360-degree experiences, even when I carefully set boundaries all around me and stay within those boundaries, sometimes I see these virtual “squares” that pop up here and there (kind of like I’m in a Star Trek holodeck and the glowing squares are where the computer didn’t create the virtual scenes yet? Or there’s a “glitch” in the holodeck program?). That also never happened with the other very expensive virtual reality headset that I tried. But again, to reiterate—for the price, this Meta Quest 3S is very much worth it! For my family’s first foray into the virtual reality world, it has been great and continues to entertain us daily. Playing games, going to different places around the world, watching television and movies—all on a virtual huge screen that looks even bigger than a movie theater screen!—I definitely recommend this for any individual or family, young and old and in-between.

It seems that a lot of people purchased this device after testing the MQ3 and this is not my case, I would like to start this review by saying that this was the first VR Headset I have ever had the opportunity to use. I don’t know how other headsets compare to the Meta Quest 3s, so I will be rating this device from the perspective of someone who is brand new to VR and evaluates the specifications available.

After the disclaimer, for a first-time virtual reality user, the Meta Quest 3s “is really wacky and cool and zany”. Perhaps, the sense of VR blowing my mind and exceeding expectations is also a clear definition.

The quality details, start from the off-boxing. When you first open the box, you clearly see how much effort was taken to use as little waste as possible as you have a paper covering outside of a cardboard box with a little tab that you can pull to get to the device. That little pull of the tab makes it open up like you are uncovering a secret weapon that my 14 y-o son described as something “a spy would use, it just feels awesome”. In that box, there is the Meta Quest 3s headset and the two “Meta Quest Touch Plus controllers” sitting in a little carrying area that you could later use to put the stuff back in when you're done using it. There is also a glasses spacer included that you can add if you have glasses (like me) which makes the experience that much better. In fact, the spacer makes the experience also nice for those that don’t have glasses (like my 14 y-o), and makes unnecessary the readjustment each time we change the user. In the box, there is a USB-C power adapter and charger. You are able to use the headset while it is plugged in which is great. However, you will need your own 5ft cable because the one in the box is so short that you are only really able to use it if you are sitting down.

One none, probably expected, please do not search for a carrying case that is not included. But as I said above the bottom part of the box could keep your equipment organized.

Power it on, the headset itself has a USB-C port for charging, and power button on the left, and a button to turn on “pass-through mode” and “immersive” mode, as well as a volume button right next to it. The eye areas are adjustable to fit the distance between your eyes, and the strap meant to hold the headset in place can be adjusted in many different ways, as well as taken off entirely. The Strap can also be twisted up and down in comparison to the headset, and it seems like Meta put a lot of effort into making it accessible for everyone. An important detail is that the battery after a full charge, can keep you gaming and exploring for 2.5 hours, and that soon you will consider expanding with other available devices in the market.

You are entering a Meta, product so be aware that the first time you put it on, a little tutorial plays to get you accustomed to using the device and it makes you set up with “Meta Horizons”. This brings me to my second complaint with Meta Quest; the overwhelming reliance on “Meta Horizons”, Meta’s new form of competition with VR Chat! It feels like they were trying to make a VR version of Roblox, all the way to the literal UI. Honestly, I could care less about Horizon Worlds, why did you force me to sign up with it, Meta? They make you build an avatar that you need to use in the immersive mode, which is just your own personal island in Horizon Worlds.

Anyways, the Meta Quest 3s has two different ways you can control your environment, with the “Touch Plus controllers” or by gesturing with your hands. The controllers are very nice and comfortable, with wrist straps to make sure you don’t throw them at your TV. Each controller has a trigger, a grip button, two action buttons (X and Y on the left and A and B on the right), a joystick, and a button that brings you to the menus (the “Meta” button on the right which brings you to the out of app menu which will be the hub for the entire device, and a general menu button on the left which will usually allow you to bring up the in-app menu for whatever you are in).

When it comes to the “gesturing with your hands part”, I find the whole thing to be incredibly finicky. For starters, only a few apps will be able to understand it, so let's say you are using your hands to control the menus, and suddenly you now want to go to Meta Horizon Worlds. Please get ready to go find the controllers you left somewhere around you because despite coming with the headset, Meta Horizon Worlds requires you to use the controllers. Honestly, though, I kind of am fine with that, because the hand controls are so difficult to control. First of all, you can control things with your hands by pinching at stuff from a distance, or physically reaching out and touching the menu. When you keep spending time in the product, options I start to hate because one when you pinch at a distance, the pointer will be a little bit above where you think are pinching, two, you need to show the cameras that you are pinching by turning your hands towards your face, and three, if you try to reach out physically, you will be either just barely missing the button you were trying to press, or right there touching it, but the headset isn’t registering the button pushes. And remember the controllers? Meta understood that of course, it isn’t going to be possible to incorporate every single button push, so it only requires special button pushes for the two menu buttons. Would you guess that those gestures are also pinching with your hands, making it barely indistinguishable between trying to pull up the menu and trying to push a button in front of you.

Anyways, back to what I’ll be calling, “The Meta Menu”. The Meta Menu is how you control everything about your headset; from the browser to the app store, and from the settings to whatever games you want to play, everything you need to find will be on that little line of apps somewhere in front of you. You can move it around, make it bigger or smaller, get rid of it entirely, leave it in another room, whatever you can think of, you can do it with that menu. In the menu, there is also something called the “Library”, where you can find all the apps on the device. The Meta Quest 3s comes with 12 apps pre-installed that range from something needing to do with device management, Meta news about different events, and just other random things like a fitness app that tracks the physical activity you have done and a TV app where you connect your streaming service accounts and you can watch TV shows and Movies. I find the Library to be very helpful.

Alright, I’ve been trying to put this off for a while now, but here it goes. In a lot of the advertising for this device, I’ve been hearing the term “Mixed Reality”. When I hear mixed reality, I get ready to think that I’m just walking around my house, thinking nothing is wrong, but then suddenly I can bring up a web browser and look something up. When I hear “Mixed Reality” I also think about being immersed in my reality, but now there is a large screen in front of me that I can use to watch Netflix. But in reality, the camera quality on the front of this thing is not so good, like I could barely read the words of this review while wearing this, and I don’t feel like I’m in my home, but now with screens around me, I feel like I’m looking at a screen that has more high-quality screens around it. I don’t feel like my reality is mixed, I feel like I’m watching a heavily edited video from 2017. In that regard, I believe it hasn't been able to achieve its goal of having a “Mixed Reality Headset” in a very strict sense, it was just able to make a headset that has a virtual world that looks like your room.

Please note that I am a geek, active video gamer with a 14 y-o son who helps consistently in the testing of the product. All above doesn’t make this a bad or limited device. ALL the opposite, besides everything that I have mentioned, I have loved using this thing. For me, and for my fourteen-year-old, this is my generation’s Wii, a device that has been able to break the idea of what is possible, bring something brand new that nobody has been able to think of, and will truly break the gaming world as we know it. We are witnessing history in the making and the continuum evolution of the devices, bringing more and more people and the development of the technology is glorious.

Two final elements, that are to highlight for the new users like me. The kit comes with the Batman Arkham Shadow game, which progressively introduces you and your body in a game in a very immersive way. Please check your boundaries properly to have a safe gaming experience, notably during the fights and action parts.
Add to that, the 3-Month Trial of Meta Quest+ is the best way to test games for free during the first periods of your new ownership.

Highly recommended for the entire family with hours and hours of games and experiences.