Meta’s latest Budget Headset is not far off, here is what we know
It’s currently one of the worst kept secrets in the VR industry, we all know that Meta is going to be releasing the more budget friendly Meta Quest 3s soon. All sources suggest it is likely to be announced this month and available for release soon, almost definitely before the year is over.
So what do we know about Meta’s latest headset so far?
How much will the Meta Quest 3s cost?
The standard Quest 3 is an amazing headset, however its price was seen as a barrier to entry by some. The Quest 3 costs $499 for the 128GB version and $649 for the 512GB version. As the Quest 3s is going to be a more budget friendly alternative to the standard Quest 3 we can basically guarantee it is going to be cheaper. Current reports suggest that the Quest 3s is going to cost anywhere around $349-$399.
When will the Quest 3s release?
We are all expecting the Quest 3s to be announced at the Meta Connect event later this month on the 24th September. Meta featured the Quest 3 at the 2023 Meta Connect on the 25th September 2023, and officially launched it on October 10th 2023. If Meta follows this pattern again with the Quest 3s, I won’t be surprised to see the Quest 3s launch in early October. Right now my guess is October 7th, but again that is just a guesstimate.
Design and Display on the Quest 3s
The Quest 3 is 40% smaller than the previous Quest 2 headset. Due to recent leaked images of accessories for the Quest 3s, everything suggests that it will be a very similar size to the Quest 3. We should also expect it to have a similar weight to the Quest 3, which came in at 515 grams.
Reports also suggest that the display on the Quest 3s will have a slightly lower resolution than the Quest 3. However this will still be a high resolution display with rumours suggesting the Quest 3s will have a 1832×1920 on a single LCD panel.
One major concession that is expected with the Quest 3s is with the lenses. The Quest 3 uses the very highly regarded pancake lenses, and what a difference they make. However they are also expensive. So in order to get the cost down with the Quest 3s, Meta is expected to use the old style Fresnel lenses on the Quest 3s which come with the caveat of blurriness on the edges of the lens.
Quest 3s Performance
From what we have heard so far, the Quest 3s is expected to utilize the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip as the Quest 3. We have seen what that chip is capable of already with the Quest 3, and the results are impressive. It makes sense that Meta would use the same chip as it will make development easier and it makes no sense to hamstring the Quest 3s with weaker hardware.
Interestingly with the Quest 3s having the same chipset it means we should actually expect better performance on the Quest 3s as it will be outputting the games onto a lower resolution display making it less taxing. This will come at the cost of slightly lower visual fidelity, but seeing as frame rates are so important in VR gaming this is not a dealbreaker.
Quest 3s Mixed Reality Capabilities
When it comes to mixed reality, this is where we should expect some drop off with the Quest 3s. It is expected to have full color passthrough like the Quest 3, but the cameras are not expected to be as capable. However as long as it comes close to what the Quest 3 can do, you should be able to take advantage of the newest mixed reality games that you can play on the Quest 3. Meta would be shooting themselves in the foot if they did not offer this.
Quest 3s Battery Life
We haven’t heard much about the battery life on the Quest 3s yet, however we should expect it to last somewhere between the Quest 2’s 3 hour and the Quest 3’s 2 hour battery life. This is due to it running more demanding games at better fidelity than the Quest 2, but also outputting it to a lower resolution display which is less taxing on the battery.
When we hear some more official news about the Quest 3s we will be sure to let you know.
