Enlarge/ No way would Zuckerberg be photographed wearing a Vision Pro, but let’s just imagine he’s looking at a picture of one in his headset here…
@zuck Instagram | Aurich Lawson
Since the launch of the Apple Vision Pro, it’s not been hard to find countless thoughts and impressions on the headset from professionalreviewers and random purchasers. But among all those hot takes, the opinions of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stand out for a few reasons—not least of which is that he and his company have spent years of development time and lost tens of billions of dollars creating the competing Quest headset line.
For that reason alone, Zuckerberg’s Instagram-posted thoughts on the Vision Pro can’t be considered an impartial take on the device’s pros and cons. Still, Zuckerberg’s short review included its fair share of fair points, alongside some careful turns of phrase that obscure the Quest’s relative deficiencies.
To figure out which is which, we thought we’d go through Zuckerberg’s review and give a quick review of the points he makes. In doing so, we get a good viewpoint on the very different angles with which Meta and Apple are approaching mixed-reality headset design.
There’s “high-quality” and then there’s “high-quality”
Near the start of his analysis, Zuckerberg says that the “Quest 3 does high-quality passthrough with big screens, just like Vision Pro.” This is only true in the most technical sense. Saying both headsets have “high-quality passthrough” is like saying an old 720p LCD TV and a new 4K OLED both have “high-quality screens.”
Compared side by side, Apple’s array of cameras and higher-resolution displays combine for a much sharper and more dynamic view of the “real world” than the Quest 3, which barely limps over the “good enough” passthrough threshold, in my experience. That display quality extends to the “big screens” Zuckerberg mentions, too, which are noticeably clearer and easier to read on the Vision Pro.
Enlarge/ A view of my mixed reality “office” in the Quest 3 app Immersed.
Speaking of those “big screens,” the experience with 2D virtual displays is quite different in both headsets. The Vision Pro seems built from the ground up with the ability to place and resize thousands of flat iOS apps anywhere around your virtual space. Those virtual windows react to the light in the room, cast gentle shadows in your virtual view, and get occluded by objects in the real world, adding to the sense that they are really “there” with you.
The Quest, on the other hand, was built more with immersive VR experiences in mind. Yes, recent Quest OS upgrades added the ability to snap selected flat apps and system tools (e.g., the store) into place in your Quest “home environment.” But the system-level “huge floating screens” experience is still much more limited than that on the Vision Pro, which offers easy free positioning and resizing of all sorts of apps. Quest users looking for something similar need to rely on a third-party tool like Virtual Desktop, which also has its own quirks and limitations.
Meta paused shipments of its Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3 amid widespread user reports of a charging fault that renders the battery useless. Meta says it’s now manufacturing new battery straps that fixes the defect, and that replacements are being handled on a case-by-case basis.
We reported earlier this month that the Elite Strap with Battery was facing serious reliability issues among its users. For some, the $130 accessory, which provides around two hours of extra playtime and better ergonomics than the stock strap, simply refused to charge Quest 3 after a certain point, rendering it largely an expensive counterweight.
At the time, Meta Support told Road to VR that replacing faulty units with a fresh one “may not necessarily resolve the problem,” which ostensibly pointed either to a hardware fault or an issue with the Elite Battery Strap’s firmware.
Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery | Image courtesy Meta
A Meta spokesperson has now confirmed with Road to VR that it has temporarily paused sales of the device while it manufactures new ones without the fault, which the company says was indeed related to the device’s firmware.
Meta says it’s not recalling the device as such, but rather replacing affected units on a case-by-case basis, and that it’s working with retailer partners to stock new units “as soon as possible.”
In the meantime, official Meta retail partners Target and Best Buy have completely removed listings for the device. Listings are still available on a few retailers, including Amazon and directly through Meta, albeit marked as ‘out of stock’ with no indication when new stock will ship. We’ve reached out to several major retailers for a quote on availability, and will update this article when/if we hear back.
For now, you may still find the odd Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3 still on the store shelves at places such as Best Buy, although some Reddit users have reported being unable to actually buy units in-person as late as last week, as stores weren’t allowed to sell them. Until new stock arrives, users should be aware they potentially have a faulty unit.
That said, many users haven’t experienced the fault at all, so it’s still not clear what behavior can set it off. Whatever the case, US consumers have a one-year warranty to replace Meta devices, while EU consumers have two years to do so. If you have issues with your Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3, the company suggests reaching out to Meta Support for troubleshooting and/or replacement.
This isn’t the first time Meta faced manufacturing issues with the Elite Strap line. Released for Quest 2 in 2020, both the Elite Strap and Elite Strap with Battery suffered premature breakage due to design issues that caused the device’s plastic struts to spontaneously crack. Meta extended the warranty of both Elite Strap variants once it unpaused sales in late 2020, or around two months after the company initially halted shipments of faulty units.
From flagship smartphones to VR headsets, first-party accessories tend to be pretty expensive. Along with the higher price tag though, consumers typically expect exceptional quality. After all, the product’s designers had a head start, so those day-one accessories should be, if not the best out there, at very least high quality. Meta sells an array of useful accessories to fit that description, although some of its most expensive first-party stuff—namely its Elite Strap—continues to face reliability issues even today, as many users of the Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3 are reporting faulty units.
If you’re looking to use the headset long-term, ditching the default fabric strap is one of the biggest single ways to improve your overall comfort. Meta knows this, and if you’ve worn either a Quest 2 or Quest 3 with the stock strap for more than an hour, you probably know it too. Depending on your point of view, you might call it product modularity,planned obsolescence, or even exploitative accessorizing.
Since the release of Quest 2 in 2020, Meta has produced its own brand of aftermarket headstraps: Elite Strap and Elite Strap with Battery, the latter of which comes with an external battery on that back that adds around two hours of extra juice. Yes. They’re priced at an eye-blistering $70 and $130 respectively for Quest 3, and $10 bucks less for both for Quest 2 versions. They do improve ergonomics by a wide margin though, and the extra battery is nice too.
Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery | Image courtesy Meta
Granted, you definitely don’t have to buy them—one look at Amazon shows Meta’s first-party stuff is usually well and above double the current asking price for third-party alternatives—but Meta is betting you’ll at least consider it before hitting the checkout button.
And that would be fine if they didn’t break a few months out of the box like early batches of the Quest 2 Elite Straps did, or refused to work at all, which is the case for many who currently own the Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3. Again, a $130 accessory. To be fair, Meta issued a two-year extended warranty on its Elite Straps for Quest 2 because so many users were reporting excessive and unwarranted breakages of the plastic struts, but at this point the product line is starting to feel cursed.
Since its launch in October, many users across Reddit and Meta forums have reported the Quest 3’s Elite Strap with Battery isn’t working. The battery works for a bit, but then won’t charge the Quest 3 at all, rendering it essentially an expensive counterweight.
We conducted an informal poll, and 43 percent of respondents who had the strap for Quest 3 stated they’ve experienced similar charging issues, which suggests it’s not simply user error either, but rather some sort of manufacturer defect.
Image courtesy Meta
So what? The answer should be easy. Just send it back and get a new one, right? Well, Meta isn’t suggesting its customers do that.
“While we typically offer RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) for defective units, replacing the strap may not necessarily resolve the problem. We are aware of the emerging issue where the Meta Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery is not recognized by the headset or fails to charge,” Meta support told Road to VR. “Our engineering team is actively working on finding a solution for this issue. Once they have identified a resolution, we will contact you with an update.”
Some users report successfully going through the RMA process, only to have to go through it multiple times to receive a unit that actually works.
I’m on my 3rd one. First 2 failed after 1-2 days. 3rd one working so far.
I would say you should think twice about buying it, but just today Meta took down availability of its Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3 across all of its supported regions.
Image captured by Road to VR
While out of stock directly through Meta, you can still nab it from participating retailers though, like Best Buy and Target, both of which feature their fair share of 1-star user reviews citing that very issue.
For now, Meta hasn’t shared any further insight on what the problem exactly is, whether it be software or hardware related. Until the company addresses it though, we strongly advise you against buying the Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3, as it could put a serious damper on the holidays.
We’re following this story as it develops. Check back soon for updates.
It’s pretty unlikely we’ll see any deals this year on Meta’s latest and greatest VR standalone, Quest 3. Before the holiday season kicks into gear though, the company is dropping the price of Quest 2 to just $250.
Both variants are on sale from now until December 31st, dropping the 128GB version from $300 to $250, and the 256GB version from $350 to $300. It’s a limited-time deal though, so there’ no telling when the company will pull the plug.
Launched in 2020, that puts Quest 2 now at half the price of the new Quest 3, which sells for $500 for the 128GB version and $650 for the 512GB version.
Image courtesy Meta
Thankfully, with Quest 2 you can play every game on the Quest Store today. Granted, it doesn’t have the full-color mixed reality capabilities of Quest 3, but you can rest assured knowing that (at least for now) there are no Quest 3 exclusives to make you too envious. Check out the spec sheet below to get a better idea of how the headsets differ.
You can find the deal on Quest 2 over at Meta.com, but also participating retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.
And what games can you play on Quest 2? Well, you don’t need a computer—just the headset—to play a host of popular VR titles such as hit rhythm game Beat Saber, battle royale shooter Population: One, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted, Among Us VR, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, NFL PRO ERA—the list of best-selling Quest titles goes on.
You can also hook the headset up to a VR-ready computer to play award-winning games such as Half-Life: Alyx, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, Lone Echo, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice VR, and more. Make sure your computer is capable first though since PC VR games can be really resource intensive.
So while Quest 2 has everything in the box to get up playing VR games, there are a few pain points that accessories can solve—many of which can be bought from third parties and not Meta itself if you’re looking to save a buck.
Check out the specs below, but also get a look at our Quest 3 review to learn more about what separates Meta’s consumer VR headsets.
Quest 3 vs. Quest 2 Specs
Quest 3
Quest 2
Resolution
2,064 × 2,208 (4.5MP) per-eye, LCD (2x)
1,832 × 1,920 (3.5MP) per-eye, LCD (1x)
Refresh Rate
90Hz, 120Hz (experimental)
60Hz, 72Hz, 80Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz
Optics
Pancake non-Fresnel
Single element Fresnel
Field-of-view (claimed)
110ºH × 96ºV
96ºH × 96ºV
Optical Adjustments
Continuous IPD, stepped eye-relief (built in)
Stepped IPD, stepped eye-relief (via included spacer)
Quest 3 just began shipping last week and headsets are rapidly arriving in the hands of eager buyers. While the 128GB model appears to be in strong supply, the more expensive 512GB model might be more popular than Meta expected.
We checked stock availability for direct purchases from Meta.com for Quest 3 (128GB) and Quest 3 (512GB) across all regions where the headsets are sold. The latest shows that most regions estimate delivery of the 128GB model within one week, but the 512GB model won’t deliver for a week or more in most regions:
That seems surprising considering that Quest 3 is the company’s most expensive Quest headset yet, priced at $500 for the 128GB model and going up to $650 for the 512GB model.
There’s a few possible explanations for the current stock situation:
Meta underestimated demand for the 512GB model
Meta anticipated the demand for the 512GB model and set aside more of the initial inventory for third-party retailers
For some manufacturing reason, Meta couldn’t build up as much initial stock of the 512GB model, or can’t manufacture them as quickly
Of course, Quest 3 is also available in many other stores, like Amazon, Best Buy, and other regional retailers, each of which have different levels of stock.
We’ll continue to monitor the stock of both Quest 3 models to understand more about how they’re selling.
Quest 3 is here and comes with a bunch of quite helpful but often hidden features (most of which will also work on Quest 2!). Here’s a breakdown of tips and tricks you’ll definitely want to know.
If you’re new to Quest 3 you’ll almost certainly want to capture screenshots and videos of your VR shenanigans to share with friends. Luckily this is easy with a shortcut you can do even in the middle of playing a game.
Screenshot Shortcut:
Hold Meta button (menu button on right controller) then pull trigger once
Start Video Capture Shortcut:
Hold Meta button (menu button on right controller) then pull and hold trigger for a few seconds. You’ll see a message appear when capture has started.
End Video Capture Shortcut:
If you’re already recording a video, you can do the same command as Start Video Capture Shortcut to stop the recording. This works whether you started recording with the shortcut, by voice, or by through the regular capture button.
You can also take screenshots and videos with Voice Commands which we’ll cover… right now.
2. Quest Voice Commands
Voice Commands on Quest are a very helpful but highly slept on feature that will let you launch games, search the store, navigate your headset, capture screenshots & video, and more. Note: Voice Commands on Quest is only currently available to US headsets.
How to Turn on Voice Commands on Quest 3:
In your headset open your app library and then open Settings
In settings navigate to System → Voice Commands
Turn on Voice Commands switch
Turn on Voice Commands shortcut switch
How to Activate Voice Commands With Controllers
Double tap the Meta button (menu button on right controller)
Wait for an audio cue to know the headset is listening
Speak your Command
How to Activate Voice Commands With Hand-tracking
Hold your right hand up and face it toward you
Pinch and hold your fingers to open the Quest quick-menu
With your fingers still held, move your hand right to select Assistant
Release your pinch to activate Voice Commands
Tip: You can use Voice Commands anywhere in the headset, even in the middle of a game.
What You Can Do with Voice Commands on Quest:
Launch games – “Open Beat Saber“
Search the store – “Search the store for Electronauts“
3. Switch Between Controller-tracking and Hand-tracking
For the most part, Quest 3 is pretty good about understanding that setting your controllers on a flat surface means you want to start using hand-tracking. But sometimes it gets a little confused. There’s a shortcut to guarantee the headset switches from controller-tracking to hand-tracking, but you’ll need to enable it first.
How to Enable ‘Double Tap Controllers for Hand-tracking’
In your headset open your app library and then open Settings
In settings navigate to Movement Tracking
Turn on ‘Double Tap Controllers for Hand-tracking’ switch
How to Activate ‘Double Tap Controllers for Hand-tracking’
As the shortcut says, tap your controllers gently together twice and the headset will immediately switch to hand-tracking. To switch back to controllers just pick them up.
4. Force Screenshots & Videos to Actually Sync to Your Phone
When you capture screenshots and video on your headset it’s supposed to sync to your phone so you can access it through the Meta Quest app and share it from there how you please. In practice, media almost never automatically syncs for me. However, you can force individual captures to sync to your phone.
Force Screenshot or Video Sync on Quest 3
In your headset open Camera from the menu bar
Find the screenshot or video you want to sync
Click the ‘three dots’ menu on the file
Click Sync Now
Within a few seconds for screenshots, and maybe a minute or two for large videos, you can open your Meta Quest app and navigate to Gallery to find your synced media (make sure to ‘pull down to refresh’ on the gallery if your media isn’t appearing). From there you can download the photo or video onto your phone and share it as you wish. The time it takes to sync may vary depending on your internet speed.
5. Double-tap for Passthrough
This is an incredibly useful feature which is the quickest and easiest way to turn on passthrough to get a quick glimpse outside of your headset (even in the middle of a game).
Just gently double-trap on the side of the headset (you can even tap it with your controller) and the passthrough view will appear.
This feature should be enabled by default, but if it isn’t you can turn on Double-tap for Passthrough:
In your headset go to Settings → Physical Space → Passthrough
Turn on the ‘Double-tap for Passthrough’ switch
6. Turn on 120Hz Refresh Rate
By default, Quest 3 runs at a 90Hz refresh rate (which is how often the screen updates). For a smoother and lower latency experience, you can bump the refresh rate up to 120Hz.
How to Turn on 120Hz Refresh Rate on Quest 3:
In your headset go to Settings → System → Display
Turn on ‘120Hz Refresh Rate’ switch
Now the Quest menus should run at 120Hz be default, and any applications that support 120Hz will be able to use the mode too. Note that this may have a small impact on battery life.
7. Extended Battery Mode
Speaking of battery life on Quest 3, the headset has a built-in mode to squeeze the most power out of your headset.
How to Turn on Extended Battery Mode on Quest 3:
In your headset go to Settings → System → Power
Turn on ‘Extended Battery Mode’ switch
Turning on Extended Battery Mode will reduce the brightness, resolution, and likely framerate so the headset does less work and consumes battery more slowly.
8. Set Your Own 360 Background in Home
Meta offers a range of virtual environments for the Quest Home space and most use a 360 photo as their backdrop, but you can also use your own 360° photo as a backdrop.
How to Set 360 Background in Quest Home:
In your headset go to Settings → Personalization → Virtual Environment
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list of Virtual Environments
Click the arrow next to ‘Custom Skybox View’
Select one of the default skyboxes, or select your own
Note that the default Quest 3 Home environment doesn’t show the backdrop (nor do a few others). Most of the environments will show your skybox but some give a better view than others, so experiment to find which one you like the most.
9. Lock Individual Quest Apps for Privacy
Its fun to share VR with friends and family. Since many different people might use your Quest 3, it’s nice to be able to lock specific apps so another person doesn’t stumble upon your Messenger chats, overwrite your game progress, or snoop through your browser history.
How to Lock Quest 3 Apps:
In your headset go to Settings → Apps→ App Locks
Select the app(s) you want to lock
Enter a password pattern by using your finger or controllers to connect the dots in a memorable pattern
Now any time you launch that app you’ll need to put in your password before it can be used. Apps must be minimized or fully closed in order to lock after you use them. Sleeping the headset will not lock the currently active app.
10. Color Blind Mode and Text Size
Did you know that an estimated 8% of men and 0.5% of women are colorblind? That’s almost as many as there are left-handers! If you’ve never checked for colorblindness, this 30 second test is a good place to start.
Luckily Quest 3 includes some accessibility options to make it easier to use for those who are colorblind or with limited vision.
How to Turn on Color Blind Mode:
In your headset go to Settings → Accessibility → Vision → Color Correction
Turn on Color Correction switch
Select from one of four colorblind types
How to Increase Font Size on Quest 3:
In your headset go to Settings → Accessibility → Vision
Under Text Size, choose between five different size options.
Your headset will need to restart after you change the text size, and unfortunately the size change will only apply to system menus.
11. Type More Easily with Swipe Keyboard on Quest 3
Typing with your index fingers or laser pointers isn’t terribly fast. If you want to pick up the pace, you can enable a ‘swipe to type’ feature on Quest 3 that works similarly to what you see on many smartphones.
How to Enable Swipe Typing:
In your headset go to Settings → Experimental
Turn on the Swipe Typing switch
If you don’t see the option in Settings → Experimental, it may have been moved to Settings → System → Keyboard.
Now any time the system keyboard pops up, you can use swipe typing with either your finger or your controllers.
12. Share Your View with Friends to Your Phone or Browser
Whether you want to be in the headset and show something to people outside of it, or they’re in the headset and you want to be able to see what they’re doing to help them, casting is the best way. You can cast a video view of what’s happening in the headset to your smartphone or any web browser.
How to Cast Quest 3 to Smartphone:
Make sure your smartphone and headset are both connected to the same Wi-Fi hotspot
Make sure you have the Meta Quest app installed on your smartphone
In the Meta Quest app, on the Home page (‘Feed’) an image of your headset will be shown at the top of the page
Click the ‘Cast’ button next to the headset
This will begin casting from the headset. The user inside will see a small light on their screen indicating that the headset is casting.
Make sure you are logged into the same account that’s on your headset
In your headset, press the Meta button (menu button on right controller)
Select the Camera icon from the menu bar
Select the Cast button at the top
Press the menu button to return to your game
13. Launch Apps From Your Smartphone so They’re Ready When You Are
Usually when you decide to play VR you might need to do a little prep, like move a chair, take a swig of water, or fix your hair. Wouldn’t it be nice if the app you want to play could be loading in the background before you even put on your headset? Luckily that’s possible!
How to Launch Quest 3 Apps From Your Smartphone:
Make sure you have the Meta Quest app installed on your smartphone
In the Meta Quest app click Menu in the bottom navigation bar
Scroll all the way down the page and click My Library
Select the app you want to launch
Click the Launch button on the app page
I hope everyone discovered at least one thing they didn’t know about their headset in this list! Are there any great Quest 3 tips & tricks we missed? Drop them in the comments below!
Less than a week since launch, Quest 3 has already gotten the full iFixit teardown treatment, showing off just how slim (and seemingly difficult to repair) the headset really is.
iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari pried apart Quest 3, revealing the innards of Meta’s new $500 mixed reality standalone. The short of it: it’s pretty complicated to dismantle and there aren’t any repair parts as such, getting a [4/10] repairability score in Mokhtari’s video (linked below).
Getting past the user-removable bits is simple enough. Take off the headstrap and pop out the facial interface, as anyone would do to install either aftermarket or first-party accessories. Removing the rubberized face plate, which isn’t meant to be user-removable, proved challenging though, as Mokhtari snapped an internal clip with his plastic spudger, and by the looks of it, busted the top structural bridge of the face plate too.
Image courtesy iFixit
That’s some pretty thin plastic—forgivable enough since Meta likely designed the headset to make weight savings wherever possible. Still, something to watch out for.
While it’s a much thinner package than Quest 2—about 40% thinner when you don’t consider the facial interface—the headset’s new slim design is largely owed to its inclusion of pancake lenses. The inclusion of these new lenses, which use polarization-based reflection to fold the optic path into a small space, doesn’t impede the teardown process any more than larger Fresnel lenses might.
Here’s a 360 look at the headset under X-ray, courtesy Creative Electron, showing off just how tightly everything is sandwiched together:
– Things aren’t glued down thankfully, although the headset does feature a ton of screws—more than 50 by Mokhtari’s reckoning, many of which you’ll need to contend with to get to the battery.
Screws aplenty | Image courtesy iFixit, Creative Electron
Quest 3’s battery is sandwiched between the display and mainboard; while keeping the battery close to the user’s center of gravity puts less strain on the neck, it requires you to dig deep into the headset’s guts. One big benefit: Quest 3’s battery is pretty normal, unlike Quest Pro’s unique curved, back-mounted battery.
Quest Pro battery (left) and Quest 3 battery (right) | Image courtesy iFixit
Replacing the battery is technically possible, although there aren’t any official replacement parts. Getting there is apparently a bit more complicated than replacing a battery on a modern smartphone, although thankfully you won’t need heat guns or a host of dedicated tools to do so. Still, it appears to between the difficulty of replacing the battery of Quest 2 (harder) and Quest Pro (easier).
Mokhtari’s teardown delves into more of Quest 3’s pros and cons, such as the cost saving benefits of not including eye-tracking, and providing a cheaper IR-tracked Touch Plus controller over Quest Pro’s inside-out tracked Touch Pro controller. Another curiosity: Quest 3’s depth sensor fits into the blank spot where it would have otherwise gone in Quest Pro had they not scrapped the sensor right before production.
Catch the full eight-minute video below, which critically isn’t a repair guide as such. We’re hoping to see that posted on iFixit fairly soon, so stay tuned.
If you can get your hands on a Quest 3, you’ve got everything you need right in the box to start playing some of the best VR games out there. Once you’ve got a few hours under your belt though, you’ll probably notice a few things that definitely need improving, many of which can thankfully be solved with a few key aftermarket accessories.
Upgrade Your Headstrap
Meta has done it again; like Quest 2, they’ve included a cheap, floppy strap that you’ll very likely want to replace soon after popping out of your first long playsession. For many, the stock strap just doesn’t do a good enough job of distributing weight evenly and comfortably on the user’s head. Some users report the stock Quest 3 straps even cut into the base of their ears a bit too, which is bound be bothersome long-term.
It’s difficult to recommend Meta’s Quest 3 straps out of the gate: Elite Strap ($70) and Elite Strap With Battery ($130), the latter of which includes an integrated 2,330mAh battery promising two hours of extra gameplay.
Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery | Photo by Road to VR
Don’t get us wrong, they’re both comfortable and great out of the box. Meta’s one-year warranty will also likely let you exchange them too if/when they break. Beyond that, you’re at the mercy of Zuckerberg though; Meta doesn’t have a great track record with the build quality of its aftermarket headstraps, and until we put ours through its paces and we’re reasonably convinced it won’t snap in half like the first-party Quest 2 straps were prone to do, well, buyer beware.
Respected third-party accessory makers, such as Bobo VR and Kiwi Design, are slated to have their own versions soon. If you’re looking for something right this second though, a fairly inexpensive solution from MOJOXR ($25) not only has great reviews, but also supports both Quest 3 and Quest 2 thanks to an included adapter.
Provided you can 3D print your own adapter though, you may be able to use any Quest 2 aftermarket strap on the market, which should give you a little more choice in the meantime.
VR Cover or Spare Facepad
The stock facial interface on Quest 3 is actually a big improvement over the Quest 2 version. Out of the gate, its fabric weave feels better than having some sort of clammy high-density foam straight on your undoubtably greasy face, although it isn’t nearly as cleanable as, say, a silicone or removable fabric cover.
Quest 3 Silicon Facial Interface | Image courtesy Meta
Silicone covers are great for workouts since you can easily wipe them down before or after a session. Meta offers its own Quest 3 silicone facial interface ($40), which completely replaces the stock facepad. The benefit here is you can quickly swap out the stock pad when you’re done playing casual games, and swap in the silicone pad for when you’re ready for some Les Mills Body Combat, Supernatural, Beat Saber, Pistol Whip—whatever gets your heart pumping.
Realistically speaking though, you probably don’t need to shell out the better part of 50 bucks to get the job done. There are a number of third-party silicone covers on Amazon which fit right over the stock facepad, ranging from $10 to $15, and offer equal protection from face grime.
As for fabric, the trusted third-party creator VR Cover has its own machine washable fabric cover too ($30) in case you want to keep it a little more cosy than the impenetrable seal of a silicone cover. Alternatively, you can also get full facepad replacements from Meta which comes with matching floppy headstraps in Elemental Blue and Blood Orange ($50).
Make Charging Easier
Quest 3 has charging pins at the bottom of the face plate, meaning we’re sure to see a host of third-party charging docks and accessories come to market soon enough.
Quest 3 Charging Dock | Image courtesy Meta
For now, there’s really only one real solution though: Meta’s official Quest 3 charging dock ($130). While this also charges your Touch Plus controllers, keep in mind this won’t charge up any sort of external battery strap.
Always the old reliable: the second option could be to get magnetic USB-C connector cables, which allow you to attach and detach special charging cables to your headset without having to wear out the charging port. Many on Amazon can even do fast charging, although getting one with data transfer is hit and miss. Even if you could, you wouldn’t want to use Meta Link with a magnetic cable because of how easily it can detach.
Carrying Cases
Meta’s official Quest 3 carrying case ($70) is certainly a good option to keeping your Quest 3 prim and proper—if you don’t mind the hefty price tag, that is.
Quest 3 Carrying Case | Image courtesy Meta
There are definitely more cost-effective ways to spend 70 bucks though, considering Quest 3 is smaller and will most definitely fit in the carrying cases originally designed for Quest 2; there are a ton on Amazon, with many hovering under the $25 mark.
There’s bound to be an explosion of Quest 3-specific cases in the coming months, although it’s still too early to tell. Third-parties have created a ton of different case styles over the years for Quest 2, ranging from standard copycats of Meta’s own to official case to ones that even double as charging docks. More of those, please.
Long USB-C Cables for Wired PC Play
Whether you’re just looking for a way to charge during gameplay, or you want to connect Quest 3 to your computer via Meta Link to use it as a PC VR headset, you’ll need a USB-C cable long enough to get the job done.
Official Oculus Link Cable | Image courtesy Oculus
By now, you know the drill: ‘Meta first, then the actual option you’ll actually want to buy’. Meta’s Link Cable ($80) is a thin fiber-optic cable that spans 16 feet (5m). It’s a great cable since it’s very thin and fairly light at 7.9oz (224g).
That said, any 3.0 USB-C cable will work, and there are tons on Amazon that will do the job just as well at a quarter of the price. Pick one, and you’re playing Half-Life: Alyx (2020) in no time.
Wi-Fi Router for Wirelessly PC VR Games
We know who you are. You’re more of a “low contact” sort of person. You exclusively charge all of your devices wirelessly, only talk to friends through Discord, and prefer courteous bows from across the room over shaking hands. Your ‘hover over public toilets’ game is also suitably on-lock. Well, you’ll be happy to know you can play PC VR games cable-free too thanks to Air Link.
You should be able to game easily enough using Air Link on that old 2.4GHz router, although if you’re looking to get the most out of Air Link-ing your headset to a VR-ready PC for a host of PC VR games, it might be time to upgrade to a dual-band router, as Meta recommends connecting to Wi-Fi via 5GHz band (AC or AX).
Note: Virtual Desktop developer Guy Godin has reported an early issue with Quest 3 and how it connects over Wi-Fi. For now, it appears the headset has network performance issues with routers running in Wi-Fi 5 (AC) mode. The issue disappears when switching the router to Wi-Fi 6 (AX) or Wi-Fi 6e (AXE) mode.
Image courtesy D-Link
You can find dual-band Wi-Fi routers for as low as $40 on Amazon, however the more you pay, generally the better range you get. You can also get them for significantly cheaper if you don’t mind refurbished units.
Then there’s dedicated dongles, such as the D-Link Airplay ($100), which creates a dedicated Wi-Fi network between your Quest headset and your PC, skipping the whole Wi-Fi router tango entirely. Whatever the case, Meta recommends having your PC connected to a router or access point via ethernet cable, and in the same room as the headset or in line of sight. The better the connection, the lower the latency involved.
Following Quest 2 almost three years to the day, Quest 3 is finally here. Meta continues its trend of building some of the best VR hardware out there, but it will be some time yet before the headset’s potential is fully revealed. Read on for our full Quest 3 review.
I wanted to start this review saying that Quest 3 feels like a real next-gen headset. And while that’s certainly true when it comes to hardware, it’ll be a little while yet before the software reaches a point that it becomes obvious to everyone. Although it might not feel like it right out of the gate, even with the added price (starting at $500 vs. Quest 2 at $300), I’m certain the benefits will feel worth it in the end.
Quest 3’s hardware is impressive, and a much larger improvement than we saw from Quest 1 to Quest 2. For the most part, you’re getting a better and cheaper Quest Pro, minus eye-tracking and face-tracking. And to put it clearly, even if Quest Pro and Quest 3 were the same price, I’d pick Quest 3.
Photo by Road to VR
Before we dive in, here’s a look at Quest 3’s specs for reference:
Resolution
2,064 × 2,208 (4.5MP) per-eye, LCD (2x)
Refresh Rate
90Hz, 120Hz (experimental)
Optics
Pancake non-Fresnel
Field-of-view (claimed)
110ºH × 96ºV
Optical Adjustments
Continuous IPD, stepped eye-relief (built in)
IPD Adjustment Range
53–75mm
Processor
Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2
RAM
8GB
Storage
128GB, 512GB
Connectors
USB-C, contact pads for optional dock charging
Weight
515g
Battery Life
1.5-3 hours
Headset Tracking
Inside-out (no external beacons)
Controller Tracking
Headset-tracked (headset line-of-sight needed)
Expression Tracking
none
Eye Tracking
none
On-board cameras
6x external (18ppd RGB sensors 2x)
Input
Touch Plus (AA battery 1x), hand-tracking, voice
Audio
In-headstrap speakers, 3.5mm aux output
Microphone
Yes
Pass-through view
Yes (color)
MSRP
$500 (128GB), $650 (512GB)
Hardware
Even if the software isn’t fully tapping the headset’s potential yet, Meta has packed a lot of value into the Quest 3 hardware.
Lenses
Photo by Road to VR
First, and perhaps most importantly, the lenses on Quest 3 are a generational improvement over Quest 2 and other headsets of the Fresnel-era. They aren’t just more compact and sharper, they also offer a noticeably wider field-of-view and have an unmatched sweet spot that extends nearly across the entire lens. That means even when you aren’t looking directly through the center of the lens, the world is still sharp. While Quest 3’s field-of-view is also objectively larger than Quest 2, the expanded sweet spot helps amplify that improvement because you can look around the scene more naturally with your eyes and less with your head.
Glare is another place that headsets often struggle, and there we also see a huge improvement with the Quest 3 lenses. Gone are the painfully obvious god-rays that you could even see in the headset’s main menu. Now only subtle glare is visible even in scenes with extreme contrast.
Resolution and Clarity
Quest 3 doesn’t have massively higher than Quest 2, but the combination of about 30% more pixels—3.5MP per-eye (1,832 × 1,920) vs. 4.5MP per-eye (2,064 × 2,208)—a much larger sweet spot, and a huge reduction in glare makes for a headset with significantly improved clarity. Other display vitals like persistence blur, chromatic aberration, pupil swim, mura, and ghosting are all top-of-class as well. And despite the increased sharpness of the lenses, there’s still functionally no screen-door effect.
Here’s a look at the resolving power of Quest 3 compared to some other headsets:
While Quest 3 and Quest Pro score the same here in terms of resolving power, the Snellen test lacks precision; I can say for sure the Quest 3 looks a bit sharper than Quest Pro, but not enough to get it into the next Snellen tier.
While the optics of Quest 3 are also more compact than most, the form-factor isn’t radically different than Quest 2. The slightly more central center-of-gravity makes the headset feel a little less noticeable during fast head rotations, but on the whole the visual improvements are much more significant than ergonomic.
Ergonomics
Photo by Road to VR
Ergonomics feels like one of just a few places where Quest 3 doesn’t see many meaningful improvements. Even though it’s a little more compact, it weighs about the same as Quest 2, and its included soft strap is just as awful. So my recommendation remains: get an aftermarket strap for Quest 3 on day one (and with a battery if you know you’re going to use the headset often). Meta’s official Elite Strap and Elite Strap with Battery are an easy choice but you can find options of equal comfort that are more affordable from third-parties. FYI: the Elite Straps are not forward or backward compatible between Quest 2 and 3.
While the form-factor of the headset haven’t really improved, it’s ability to adapt to each user certainly has. Quest 3 is the most adaptable Meta headset to date, offering both continuous IPD (distance between the eyes) and notched eye-relief (distance from eye to lens) adjustments. This means that more people can dial in a good fit for the headset, giving them the best visual comfort and quality.
I was about to write “to my surprise…”—but actually this doesn’t surprise me at this point given Meta’s MO—the setup of Quest 3 either didn’t walk me through adjusting either of these settings or did so in such a nonchalant way that I didn’t even notice. Most new users will not only not know what IPD or eye-relief really does for them, but also struggle to pick their own best setting. There should definitely be clear guidance and helpful calibration.
The dial on the bottom of Quest 3 makes it easy to adjust the IPD, but the eye-relief mechanism is rather clunky. You have to push both buttons on the inside of the facepad at the same time and kind of also pull it out or push it forward. It works but I found it to be incredibly iffy.
Field-of-View
In any case, I’m happy to report that eye-relief on Quest 3 is more than just a buffer for glasses. Moving to the closest setting gave me a notably wider field-of-view than Quest 2. Here’s a look at the Quest 3 FoV:
Personal Measurements – 64mm IPD (no glasses, measured with TestHMD 1.2)
Absolute min eye-relief (facepad removed)
Min designed eye-relief
Comfortable eye-relief
Max eye-relief
HFOV
106°
104°
100°
86°
VFOV
93°
93°
89°
79°
And here’s how it stacks up to some other headsets:
Personal Measurements – 64mm IPD (minimum-designed eye-relief, no glasses, measured with TestHMD 1.2)
Quest 3
Quest Pro
Quest 2
Bigscreen Beyond
Valve Index
HFOV
104°
94°
90°
98°
106°
VFOV
93°
87°
92°
90°
106°
Audio
Another meaningful improvement for Quest 3 is improved built-in audio. While on Quest 2 I always felt like I needed to have the headset at full volume (and even then the audio quality felt like a compromise), Quest 3 gets both a volume and quality boost. Now I don’t feel like every app needs to be at 100% volume. And while I’d still love better quality and spatialization from the built-in audio, Quest 3’s audio finally feels sufficient rather than an unfortunate compromise.
Controllers
Photo by Road to VR
Quest 3’s new Touch Plus controllers so far feel like they work just as well as Quest 2 controllers, but with better haptics and an improved form-factor thanks to the removal of the ring. Quest 3 is also much faster to switch between hand-tracking and controller input when you set the controllers down or pick them up.
Processor
The last major change is the new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip that powers Quest 3. While ‘XR2 Gen 1’ vs. ‘XR2 Gen 2’ might not sound like a big change, the difference is significant. The new chip has 2.6x the graphical horsepower of the prior version, according to Meta. That’s a leap-and-a-half compared to the kind of chip-to-chip updates usually seen in smartphones. The CPU boost is more in line with what we’d typically expect; Meta says it’s 33% more powerful than Quest 2 at launch, alongside 30% more RAM.
Quest 3 is still essentially a smartphone in a headset in terms of computing power, so don’t expect it to match the best of what you see on PSVR 2 or PC VR, but there’s a ton of extra headroom for developers to work with.
Less than 48 hours after Meta fully unveiled Quest 3, John Carmack, legendary programmer and former CTO of Oculus, expressed doubts about mixed reality’s ability to increase headset sales.
Carmack departed Meta late last year, concluding what he called at the time his “decade in VR.” Still, it’s clear the key cohort in Oculus’ genesis story has a lot to offer when it comes to all things XR.
While Carmack doesn’t mention Quest 3 by name, it’s fairly clear he’s talking about Meta’s first consumer mixed reality headset, having tweeted a message of skepticism about the headset-selling power of MR apps:
“I remain unconvinced that mixed reality applications are any kind of an engine for increasing headset sales. High quality pass through is great, but I just don’t see applications built around integrating rendering with your real world environment as any kind of a killer app. I consider it interesting and challenging technology looking for a justification. The power of VR is to replace your environment with something much better, not to hang a virtual screen in your real environment. In all the highly produced videos demonstrating the MR future, the environments are always stylish, clean, and spacious. That is not representative of the real world user base. There is certainly some value in the efforts, but I have always thought there was much more low hanging fruit to be grabbed first.”
Photo by Road to VR
In a follow-up tweet, Carmack maintains he’s not criticizing the future of augmented reality, but rather how MR-capable VR headsets are being served up today:
“I am specifically talking about MR in todays [sic] VR headsets. The magical, all-day wear, full FOV AR headsets of people’s dreams would be great, but they don’t exist, even in labs with billions of dollars.”
Meta announced relatively few MR games for Quest 3 at its full unveiling last week, emphasizing that 50+ new VR games are coming by the end of this year, many of which will feature “MR features” of some sort.
Still, increasing headset sales to rival Quest 2 ought to be a big focus for Meta, as the company revealed at Connect 2023 that it had just broken $2 billion in Quest game and app revenue to date.
While impressive, it signifies a dramatic slowing of content sales over the past year, putting Quest 3 in the metaphorical hot seat to continue the upward trend if Meta intends on defending its $4 billion-per quarter investments in its Reality Labs XR division.
Meta announced that it’s offering new developer tools for Quest headsets to make avatars more realistic. The company also unveiled a Quest 3-exclusive upper body tracking feature that supports a much wider range of body motion.
Announced at Connect 2023 late last week, Meta showed off some new features coming both to Quest 3 and the rest of the Quest platform.
On Quest 3, Meta says it will be able to use inside-out sensor data to optically track wrists, elbows, shoulders, and torso—or something the company is calling ‘Inside Out Body Tracking’ (IOBT). The Quest 3-exclusive feature also tracks where your legs are relative to your torso, making avatars capable of bending forward and peering over a cliff.
Image courtesy Meta
By using this upper body data to extrapolate lower body actions, the company says it can make avatars replicate more natural movements than traditional inverse kinematics (IK)-based methods.
The company also announced a feature called ‘Generative Legs’, which is headed to Quest 2/3/Pro in December. The developer tool is said to create more realistic leg movement using either three-point body tracking or the Quest 3-exclusive IOBT. It’s capable of recreating more natural standing and sitting poses, a more lifelike gait when walking, and also supports jumping, ducking and squatting.
Since it’s essentially guessing where your legs might naturally be in any given situation, Generative Legs won’t account for individual leg movement like a dedicated tracker might, such as a SteamVR tracking puck or Sony’s Mocapi motion capture device—that means your avatar can’t do karate or breakdance.
Still, it’s pretty impressive how much better the whole system is in comparison to standard IK. Granted, Quest users won’t be able to pull of the fancy footwork CEO Mark Zuckerberg did on the virtual stage at Connect 2022 last year, but it’s starting to look pretty close.
Check out Meta’s Generative Legs and the new Quest 3 upper body tracking feature in action in a Meta-built showcase app called Dodge Arcade:
Meta Quest 3 brings with it new ‘Touch Plus’ controllers that do away with the tracking ring that’s been part of the company’s 6DOF consumer VR controllers ever since the original Rift. But that’s not the only change.
Editor’s Note: for some clarity in this article (and comments), let’s give some names to all the different 6DOF VR controllers the company has shipped over the years.
Rift CV1 controller: Touch v1
Rift S controller: Touch v2
Quest 1 controller: Touch v2
Quest 2 controller: Touch v3
Quest Pro controller: Touch Pro
Quest 3 controller: Touch Plus
6DOF consumer VR controllers from Meta have always had a ‘tracking ring’ as part of their design. The ring houses an array of infrared LEDs that cameras can detect, giving the system the ability to track the controllers in 3D space.
Image courtesy Meta
Quest 3 will be the first 6DOF consumer headset from the company to ship with controllers without a tracking ring; the company is calling new controllers ‘Touch Plus’.
Tracking Coverage
In a session at Meta Connect 2023, the company explained it has moved the IR LEDs from the tracking ring into the faceplate of the controller, while also adding a single IR LED at the bottom of the handle. This means the system has less consistently visible markers for tracking, but Meta believes its improved tracking algorithms are up to the challenge of tracking Touch Plus as well as Quest 2’s controllers.
Note that Touch Plus is different than the company’s Touch Pro controllers—which also don’t have a tracking ring—but instead use on-board cameras to track their own position in space. Meta confirmed that Touch Pro controllers are compatible with Quest 3, just like Quest 2.
Meta was clear to point out that the change in camera placements on Quest 3 means the controller tracking volume will be notably different than on Quest 2.
The company said Quest 3 has about the same amount of tracking volume, but it has strategically changed the shape of the tracking volume.
Notably, Quest 3’s cameras don’t capture above the head of the user nearly as well as Quest 2. But the tradeoff is that Quest 3 has more tracking coverage around the user’s torso (especially behind them), and more around the shoulders:
This graphic shows unique areas of tracking coverage that are present on one headset but not the other
Meta believes this is a worthwhile tradeoff because players don’t often hold their hands above their head for long periods of time, and because the headset can effectively estimate the position of the controllers when outside of the tracking area for short periods.
Haptics
Photo by Road to VR
As for haptic feedback, the company said that “haptics on the Touch Plus controller are certainly improved, but not quite to the level of Touch Pro,” and further explained that Touch Plus has a single haptic motor (a voice coil modulator), whereas Touch Pro controllers have additional haptic motors in both the trigger and thumbstick.
The company also reminded developers about its Meta Haptics Studio tool, which aims to make it easy to develop haptic effects that work across all of the company’s controllers, rather than needing to design the effects for the haptic hardware in each controller individually.
Trigger Force
Touch Plus also brings “one more little secret” that no other Touch controller has to date: a two-stage index trigger.
Meta explained that once a user fully pulls the trigger, any additional force can be read as a separate value—essentially a measure of how hard the trigger is being squeezed after being fully depressed.
What’s Missing From Touch Pro
Meta also said that Touch Plus won’t include some of the more niche features of Touch Pro, namely the ‘pinch’ sensor on the thumbpad, and the pressure-sensitive stylus nub that can be attached to the bottom and used to ‘draw’ on real surfaces.
