When you consider the Meta Quest 3S and its compromises, a few key questions arise.

Meta continues its reign as the XR industry’s dominant player, with its most recent moves signaling a shift into a new era for the company—and thus the industry at large. This year saw the introduction of the Meta Orion AR glasses prototype and the Quest 3S headset—two pieces of hardware that are not only crucial

The first hint of that is the headset’s Fresnel lenses, which iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari writes in a blog post are “100% compatible” with those used by the Quest 2. The headset has the older headset’s IPD adjustment mechanism, as well; and it shares the same single LCD panel, rather than using one panel per eye, like the Meta Quest 3.

If the Apple Vision Pro’s eye-watering £3,499 price tag has got you questioning the affordability of mixed reality tech, you’re not alone. Apple’s struggling to shift its expensive headset, and Meta’s taking its chances to get ahead.

I reviewed Meta's Quest 3S, a budget VR headset with mixed reality and AI, to test its quality and value as an upgrade or a first headset.

It's by far the best value in VR. But the question is, should you upgrade to it or go with Meta's even better model?

The Meta Quest 3S contains many of the Quest 3’s signature features, including color passthrough, speedy performance, a compact design, and a robust app library — all for $299. Though it’s not as comfortable to wear and its battery life isn't the best, its low starting price makes it an enticing product for those curious about VR.

As part of our initial Quest 3S testing, we checked how long the Quest 3S will last. Thankfully, it appears Meta was honest when it gave its battery life estimate.