You might consider the metaverse dead and buried, but Meta hasn’t given up hope just yet. In fact, it’s making it a whole lot easier for newcomers to jump right into the metaverse (or, more likely, Batman: Arkham Shadow) with the newly-announced Meta Quest 3S – a cheaper version of the regular Quest 3.
So, what’s the catch? You’d be forgiven for thinking Meta would gut the original Quest 3, stick in a less-capable chipset and call it a day because, well, this is Meta we’re talking about. But it hasn’t done anything of the sort. The Quest 3S features “the same mixed reality capabilities and fast performance as Meta Quest 3.”
An upgrade in Meta’s clothing
With the Quest 3S sticking with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip and 8GB of RAM, owners will be privy to all the same benefits that Meta introduced with the Quest 3 last year. That means full-colour video passthrough, and access to the same games (seriously, check out Arkham Shadow) including those free updates that were once Quest 3-specific.
Meta’s even bumped up the battery life of the 3S to 2.5 hours with a smaller 4,324 mAh battery over the Quest 3’s close-to 5,000mAh battery which roughly nets 2 hours on a good day. The only downside of the 3S? It features weaker displays, mimicking the 1,832 x 1,920 per-eye resolution found in the Quest 2.
Meta’s continued to bolster the Quest ecosystem, and those updates are heading to the Quest 3S from day one. It’s added a Travel Mode to freak out your parents on the back of a long drive, as well as “improved Passthrough’s contrast and colour,” and even thrown spatial audio into the mix.
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Improved support for “essential 2D apps” like YouTube, Instagram and, of course, Facebook, though it didn’t expound on the point longer than it took to type “we’ve rebuilt Meta Horizon OS for spatial computing.” Meta’s promising some updates over the year too, like adding train support for Travel mode, improving the experience for horizontal operation, and better Meta AI integration.
The Meta Quest 3S even uses the same Touch Plus controllers, which come included in the $300 (R5,100) price tag, as does a copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow, a charger and your choice of 128/256GB storage. Pre-orders open today before the headset begins shipping on 15 October, though don’t expect local availability to follow quite so soon.