The next generation of Meta’s virtual reality devices has arrived, and those to get their hands on the Quest 3 first are eager to share their findings. While the new flagship doesn’t quite pack the power or price of the $999 Quest Pro, the Quest 3 offers a welcome improvement over the Quest 2. It isn’t perfect, with almost all reviewers lamenting the lack of improvement on battery life and somewhat sketchy mixed reality implementation. That said, the consensus seems to be that this is the best virtual reality device currently on the market, especially for $500. Upgraded displays, a lighter, more comfortable design, and great performance are some of the Meta Quest 3’s best features. Here’s what people are saying:
From Ars Technica (Kyle Orland)
At first glance, the physical design of the Quest 3 doesn’t look like it should lead to a different fit and feel than the similar-looking Quest 2. After spending a good deal of time in the new headset, though, I was surprised at just how much more comfortable it was for long sessions. Much of this comes down to the Quest 3’s use of lenses with pancake optics, which allow for a much thinner display housing that rests in front of your eyes. (MORE@ARS TECHNICA)
From The Verge (David Pierce)
The new Touch Plus controllers look and feel just like the old controllers, minus a large tracking ring at the top. They’re lighter and smaller as a result, but other than smacking them together a little less than I used to, I haven’t noticed much difference in actual use. And while losing the rings hasn’t made the Quest 3 worse at tracking the controllers, it also hasn’t made it better: the headset still struggles to follow the Touch Plus controllers when they’re even slightly out of your field of view. (MORE@THE VERGE)
Cheaper model of Apple Vision Pro would cut features, retail for around $2,000
From ZDNET (June Wan)
I didn’t think that audio would be one of my favorite aspects of the Quest 3, but that’s certainly the case. The new headset features 3D spatial audio, a surround sound technology that takes virtual and mixed reality experiences to another level. This upgrade was most apparent in my demo of Dungeons of Eternity, when the dungeon master was showing me the ropes in the introduction sequence and I was too busy wandering around, looking at how the textures of the cave were rendered. (MORE@ZDNET)
From CNET (Scott Stein)
The Quest 3 is the first VR headset to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset, which upgrades graphics, adds better camera support for mixed reality and turbocharges performance in general. It’s promising hardware, though right now it’s hard to tell how good it can be. The mixed-reality effect of layering in graphics works well enough to be convincing, but it’s far from perfect. Virtual things can run “behind” recognized objects and furniture that have been meshed, but sometimes they overlap weirdly. You also need lots of space (and clean walls) to make mixed-reality effects look totally convincing. (MORE@CNET)
