Meta’s $300 Quest 3S trades a worse display for a lower price

Enlarge / Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg announces the Meta Quest 3 headset. (credit: Meta)

At a Connect conference keynote today, Meta officially unveiled the Quest 3S headset, a cheaper version of last year’s Quest 3. The new spin-off device will be available in stores Oct. 15 for a price starting at $300 (for 128GB of storage).

That lower price for the Quest 3S comes with a few compromises compared to its predecessor. The biggest is the display, an LCD panel which matches the 1832×1920 per eye resolution of 2020’s Quest 2. That should be a noticeable downgrade from the two 2064×2208 pixel LCD displays on the Quest 3. The 3S also mirrors the Quest 2’s use of fresnel lenses, a downgrade from the pancake lenses on the Quest 3 which allowed for improved clarity and less bulky lens housing.

The Quest 3S also promises just a 96 degree horizontal field of view, down from 110 degrees on the Quest 3, and 90 degrees of vertical field of view, down from 96 degrees on the Quest 3. That should lead to a noticeable, relative “tunnel vision” effect that requires a lot more head movement to center an object in your VR vision.