Customer Ratings & Reviews

Let me preface this with my VR background. I have been paying attention to, but not participating in VR for about a decade. So, I know something about it and how it has changed over the years, but have never really used it. The hold up for me has been I thought the tech wasn’t quite there yet for me, and the cost was still too high. In the last decade though, and especially since the first Quest was released 5 years ago, the technology has been getting better, and the price has been going down. I did buy a Gear VR at one point, for my kids, but they never really used it. I did some of the demos, but I didn’t have a Samsung phone. Basically it just reinforced for me that it wasn’t quite ready yet. When the Quest 3 was released, I thought the technology (with pass through) seemed to be what I was waiting for, but the cost still seemed too high. With the release of the 3s, I was ready. This is the price/tech ratio I had been waiting for. Down in console price range. I was actually already considering getting one on Black Friday when the opportunity to review this became available. The recent reduction in price to the 3 may have been enough to put me over the edge on its own, but the even greater value of the 3S is just icing on the cake. I think this product at this time is at that tech/price crossover point it needed to finally make me make the leap. I have had it a few days now, and I absolutely, positively, LOVE this thing. Even so, I have no regrets for waiting either. It allowed some things I was waiting for to come to fruition and for content to get to the point where there is plenty to explore. Having been watching the space for a while, I had pretty high expectations, and knew things I wanted to test and try out. Things I had decided over the years were things I wanted, but were at various times, not seemingly ready yet. In this initial test period, I am just testing it as it comes, out of the box. No sideloading of apps or anything outside of the normal parameters of operation. Using the original strap. I want to use it as it comes in the box. Everything (well almost everything) I tried worked. I started out just with the included games. First was a game called First Encounters, which is included. This is a mixed reality game meaning, it intermixes virtual reality with a real environment. This is one of those tech advancements I was talking about. One worth waiting for, not available in the previous generation quest 2. The headset scans/records your real world environment with cameras and then passes it through to the lenses inside, and lays virtual components over the top of your real environment using its horizontal and vertical surfaces, ceiling, floor, walls, and actually things neither at ceiling or floor height like chairs or tables. You then play in what looks like your real environment, but it is really your real environment, recorded by cameras, and projected to your eyes inside the headset, with the virtual environment imposed on top. The game is an excellent demonstration of the technology, and is a pretty fun game too. Next, I tried remote desktop. This was one of the things I was really interested in once upon a time. The ability to have a large monitor anywhere I go. When I read about this some years ago (quest 2 days), it seemed like the technology was close at the time, but not quite there yet. With a specific keyboard, you could have that keyboard reproduced virtually in your virtual environment. With mixed reality though, you don’t need that anymore. You can have a screen up that you can see, but you can look down at your keyboard and see your real keyboard and your real hands, in your real environment inside your virtual environment. It is really a game changer. A Remote Desktop app was included and it just worked allowing me to cast my desktop screen into the Quest virtual environment. There appeared to be one available for sale in the store as well, which is what I think I read about years ago, but it was not necessary to buy anything. One thing I did notice though is protected content, like streaming media from a paid source, didn’t seem to make it across. Because of this, the next thing I tried was watching streaming video content from paid subscription services. I am subscribed to a lot of streaming services. At first, I installed the prime video app, and that worked fine and all, but then I decided to just try using the built in web browser. This also worked fine, with all of my streaming services. With a click of a button, you could enter theater mode and have a massive screen to watch your content on. You could even apply a curve to it to give it a wrap around feel. Now, I will say, I was able to detect what is called the screen door effect when watching movie content. This is when you can see the individual pixels of the display with lines in between. I personally did not find this super distracting, and I really only noticed it when I started watching something. Once I had been watching it a bit, or when playing games, my brain got too busy with the content to remember to pay attention to the fact that I could see those lines. If I stopped to think about it, I would/could see them again. This seemed like a small price to pay for the entry level price of the device. If you want higher resolution and better optics, the quest 3 is available for you at higher cost, but if you are like me and want to try it first to make sure you like it, then I think it is worth this to save a couple of hundred dollars. Maybe, if I had already had a Quest 3, I would notice the difference more, but still, that is a big price increase for a first timer. Lastly, I decided to try some immersive VR content. I started with the Batman game that came with this package. It worked great. It is so immersive, like nothing I had ever experienced before. You literally become the character you are playing. It is a great title to include with the quest 3s, because it really shows off what it can do stand alone. You do need a bit of an open space to make the most of it, but I fortunately had such a space. Batman and superhero games are great and all, but what I really wanted to try was using the Quest as a VR headset for PC VR games. One of my favorite games of all time is Half Life, and I knew there was a Half Life VR game, so I bought it. I followed the instructions to link my gaming PC to the headset, and it worked flawlessly. It was just amazing. Again, you absolutely become the character you are playing, and you are inside the game interacting with it. Also, I did this, and it worked flawlessly, with wifi only. Each time I would launch steamlink in the Quest it would warn me that my gaming desktop was not hard wired to Ethernet and that was not recommended, but it functioned flawlessly anyway. My gaming PC was on the other side of the house, and I played in the open area I had, completely untethered. I just see so much potential in the technology. I feel it is now well worth the current price of entry. Even the higher cost of the quest 3 seems reasonable for the improvements it brings in resolution and lenses and size and weight, but the Meta Quest 3s, at this point, seems like a no brainer. It is VR for the masses. Also, all the waiting has paid off, because there is plenty of content ready and waiting already for any of us jumping in for the first time. My only complaint, and it is a small one, is that it is not super comfortable. The headset is actually pretty heavy. I understand the 3 is a bit less cumbersome than the 3s, but again, once immersed in a game or watching a video, that aspect begins to fade away. I thought the nose notch would be like glasses and help provide support for the headset, but it is really not, it is just a cut out so it clears your nose. So, you really have to rely on the strap to hold it up. I also bought a smart strap, and I may use it later, but as I said I wanted to review this as it came out of the box. Also, the strap I bought has a battery on the back of the headband, which is probably a fine idea for longer virtual interactive sessions, but when watching media, my favorite position was just lying back on a sofa or a bed, head resting on a pillow, allowing me to keep the quest plugged in, and projecting the screen in front of me. The virtual world kind of eliminates the notion of where the screen needs to be. When in that position, the head strap that came out of the box is soft and comfortable and doesn’t get in the way, but the after market strap I bought places a battery right where your head would rest on the pillow. I think this would make an incredible gift. At the price they have managed to bring this down to, it is the same price as other popular handheld consoles. It includes a top title game, and the difference is really just the cost of a few games to be honest. I did say (almost) everything I tried worked. What didn’t work was another one of my favorite games that has a PC VR game, and that is Portal. When it would attempt to start the game, I would get an error on my gaming PC about the gaming engine it uses. I Googled it and saw a lot of other people appeared to have the same problem, but I have not looked into it beyond that.

Video quality is not great for the price, i expected more. My son liked the batman game but quickly grew board of it

Quility is not as good as the quest 2 or 3 in comparrison just cheaper model would go with the straight 3 not the s

Rough on the eyes for me. Although the gameplay is good

Comes defective on the software not able to get it work I had to replaced it for another one

It’s fun to use when you’re bored. It doesn’t have many games yet. I mean it’s hard to find a good game to play as well…

Absolute trash. Had since christmas and apparently bought to many games andnwas subsequently banned from purchasing games and even using a gift card. Dog water cantd stand meta.

When it works correctly, it is really neat! However, it wants me to reverify the account and shows the beginning and ending of the email address. When I type that address in, it tells me it doesn't exist, and I am pretty much dead in the water. It's not ideal, considering how much I paid for it... I don't feel like it has to really this hard...

Its alright. Not terrible not amazing. Good price.

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.

Not great if you wear spectacles, made me feel dizzy after using.

This is not an upgrade. I thought this would be better than the Q2. It was exactly the same with smaller controllers. Get the Q3 if you’re upgrading. I returned the 3S for the Q3 and it’s really much better.

Did not work when I tried the code I just gave up on it

I just wasn't very impressed by the product. Maybe it's because I'm an older guy, but it didn't seem very easy to use, and I didn't think it was worth the price

You are required to pay a monthly membership fee. Bought it for a hockey training game. It forced me to buy the game $30 just so I could load the game to pay $60monthly service. NOPE! Stupid purchase!

The picture quality is not that goo. If you wear glasses it’s kind of a hassle

These are not worth the price ever. They’re fun for a few weeks then you’ll never use it again.

Wonderful claims with horrible support. Geek squad could not get it connected to my PC. I will be returning it tomorrow.

Delivery service was completely unprofessional and for a company of its size, absolutely unacceptable. 2 random people showed up in a broke down car and the box my item came in smelt like an ashtray for days. I don’t even know how that’s possible. It was a Xmas present for my daughter. I have to leave it outside for a couple days to air out. Absolutely ridiculous. Get it together best buy, seriously.

It was okay not a lot of crazy games just yet but fun