by Josh Teder

Meta Quest 3S Review: 6 Months Later

The Meta Quest 3S has mostly everything you could ask for in a headset. The same processor as the Quest 3, color pass-through, and a pretty good library of VR games and experiences. But how does this headset compare to the more expensive Quest 3? Has the novelty and use of VR continued to die down in my use of headsets? Has it actually been worth owning over the long term? And who do I think, if anyone, the Quest 3S is actually for? After 6 months of using this thing, I think I know the answer.

The Highlights: What Works Well

The first highlight of this headset is the price. For $250 to $300 here in the US, depending on what sales are going on, and you can check its current price via the purchase links in the description and pinned comment. From the controllers to the headset to the software, Meta really has done a great job continuing to improve the experience. Hand tracking and moving windows around feels better. The full color pass-through looks about as good as the Quest 3’s, albeit with a slightly lower resolution and a different lens setup, which I’ll discuss further in a moment. The color pass-through feature makes it easier to keep the headset on and move from one part of your home to another, especially when transitioning between experiences or participating in mixed reality experiences. If you need to glance at your phone briefly, you can actually get away with doing that on this headset, which was not the case with the Quest 2, the headset this one replaces in Meta’s lineup.

The magic of these devices is you can totally immerse yourself in whatever you want. From VR games to other experiences because it takes up your full view, you get a level of immersion that looking at a computer monitor or television just doesn’t give you. And now that this category has been around for quite a few years, you can find all sorts of niche and interesting things to try, from different genres of games to virtual hangouts with friends and challenges. Rhythmic fitness experiences and games are especially popular like Beat Saber or my new favorite app called Maestro which allows you to conduct a symphony through a variety of tracks from Dvořák to Tchaikovsky to my personal favorite “Duel of the Fates” by John Williams from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I actually got to see John Williams conduct this piece himself one summer up at Tanglewood. It’s kind of wild to then flip and get to feel just a little bit of what it feels like to conduct music like that that sounds so freaking epic. It’s a perfect example of an experience that’s kind of only possible in VR and a good example of just when I think I’m done with VR. I’ve tried everything I’ve wanted to try, I find something new and novel that I really dig.

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Graphics and Action Button

Another thing that makes the gaming experience pretty great for the price is this headset has the exact same chip as the Quest 3. So, gaming performance, like with the new Batman game that came out with this headset, is pretty good actually. And because it’s pushing fewer pixels, the games on this headset should actually be slightly less demanding than the ones found on the Quest 3. I’ve also found the tracking to be slightly more reliable with fewer glitches on my 3S compared to my Quest 3. Another feature I really like that Meta added to this headset is the new action button located right below the volume rocker. You primarily use this button to toggle between pass-through mode and immersive view. It’s just a bit nicer to have a dedicated button to do this versus having to remember to double tap the headset or select it in the main menu. Buttons are just kind of nice. The last highlight I’ve had with this headset is setup. It was very fast in the headset, something Meta has continued to improve over the years. And they do a good job of guiding new users through how these devices work and their features like the Guardian boundary system, which will set up automatically and prevents you from running into objects.

My Usage Reality: How Often Do I Actually Use It?

So, what have I not used the Quest 3S for over the past 6 months? Honestly, I haven’t ended up using the headset all that frequently, especially over my Quest 3 other than to try a few things or specific things for this review. My use overall has been pretty sporadic. I’m one of those users who struggles with daily or weekly usage of VR headsets in general. These things are a lot to put on your face and then you got to go get the controllers. The experience it delivers really needs to be worth it. Are the immersive experiences you can have with this headset worth the price of putting one of these things on your head and looking pretty goofy? Yes. But it gets back to the novelty versus functionality balance. It doesn’t provide me enough functionality to cause me to use it every week or sometimes even every month. But for the times I find something novel like that Maestro game for example, I’ll end up using the Quest quite a bit. Now, that’s not the case for everyone who buys one of these headsets, but I did want to mention it because declining usage after purchase is a well-documented phenomenon with these devices based on user data. For some games, VR Chat, Xbox games via Game Pass on a giant virtual display, fitness apps, that will be enough where consistent usage is not an issue. But it’s still missing one killer VR feature that I find myself using almost every week now, and that’s wanting to watch content on a giant virtual iMac-sized screen. A headset like the Vision Pro does this really well. Its displays are so good that I actually find myself wanting to watch a TV show or movie on it rather than just having the ability to do so, like with the Quest 3S, whose subpar screens look worse than my TV. I think once Meta ships a headset with displays as good as the Vision Pro’s, this will be a use case that people will use a lot.

The Downsides: What Needs Improvement

Now, let’s talk about the downsides I’ve encountered with the Quest 3S over the past 6 months. The first is that it uses the same optics as the Quest 2, and the displays aren’t as high-res as the Quest 3. If you find you really like VR and you’re spending a lot of time using it, the better optics and resolution of the Quest 3 are going to be something you’d probably want. The sweet spot for everything to look clear is much more forgiving and easier to get on the 3 than on the 3S. The next downside is weight. Although it’s slightly lighter in weight than the Quest 3, it can still feel uncomfortable and put different pressure points on your face and head as the weight distribution is slightly uneven due to its protrusion farther from your face. Motion sickness and dry eyes are other downsides I’ve experienced. Because these displays at times can get pretty bright, I find my eyes don’t blink as much as normal and boom, it’s easy to get dry eyes with wearing this headset for long periods of time, especially if you wear contacts. You can wear glasses with it, however, with the included glasses spacer, which is great, though it’s not as slickly designed as the built-in one on the Quest 3. Motion sickness is still a thing that all occasionally suffer from and it depends on what you’re doing in the headset. If you’re participating in a game or experience where there’s a lot of movement or you are physically moving around while wearing the headset, you can get motion sick and it can sneak up on you. So, by the time you take the headset off, you feel pretty nauseous. I do appreciate that Meta has a rating system for all of their games, so you can see how intense they’ll be in terms of motion. They also have a pretty generous return policy, so if you buy a game and it does make you feel sick, you can return it up to a certain point. And some games even have free trials, which is great to see.

Lastly, while not a downside per se, the battery life of the 3S is around 2 to 2.5 hours, depending on what you’re doing. Normally the battery life has been fine, but the situation where it’s been a problem is when I’m actually hosting a party and the headset is being passed around from person to person and the feed is being cast to the TV. In those situations, I’ve wanted the battery life to just be slightly better.

Final Recommendation: Should You Buy It?

So, do I recommend getting a Quest 3S? Yes. Even if it’s a device I normally would end up only picking up once in a while, I still understand why they remain popular and why you’d still want to own one. They simply offer you novelty experiences that no other gaming device can truly provide. And Meta has done an excellent job with the hardware and software to make using these devices as seamless as possible given the current hardware constraints for the price. For around $250 to $300 US, at least here in the US, it falls within a range where you can gift it to your kid so they can play VR with their friends or if you yourself want to try out VR without a huge financial expenditure.

Now, if you decide to go for one of these, another question you may have is what storage amount should you get? If you think you’re going to play a lot of games and want things downloaded to the device simultaneously, especially big titles like the Batman game that take up more storage, it might be worth opting for the 256 GB version. I have 128 GB on my Quest 3, for example, and in the span of a year and a half, its storage is almost full with the games I’ve downloaded to it.

Speaking of which, if you already like VR headsets and have regular use for them, or you just want one that’s more comfortable to wear, that’s where I’d seriously consider getting a Quest 3 at the $499 price level. And you can check out the comparison I did between this and the 3S by clicking the card here. And unlike in years past, I don’t think you need to worry about buying a Quest 3 or 3S only to have a new version come out towards the holiday time frame. At the time we’re recording this in mid 2025, based on current rumors, Meta’s next headset will be a lighter-weight device with an external processing unit and will come out in 2026 or the following year. No new Quest hardware is expected in 2025.

So, that’s been my experience with the Quest 3S, but now it’s your turn. If you have this headset or other ones from Meta, let me know what you think of them in the comments to help out anyone who’s looking at potentially buying one. And if you want to see my comparison between the Quest 3 and the Quest 3S, you can get to that by clicking here or click here for my other popular reviews like the one I did on the Apple Vision Pro and the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. And you can check out all of the products I recommend at any time by visiting 6monthslater.net/shop. And don’t forget to check out Boot.dev link in the description. For 6 Months Later, I’m Josh Teder. Thanks for watching.