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 1. Gaming
 2. Virtual Reality


META QUEST 3: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

By Michael L Hicks
Contributions from
Nicholas Sutrich
last updated 3 days ago

Don't call it a VR headset. Meta has designed the Quest 3 with mixed-reality in
mind, for 1/7 the price of Apple Vision Pro.

 * 
 * 
 * 


(Image credit: Meta)
Jump to:
 * Price and availability
 * Design
 * Specs
 * Games
 * Accessories

After months of anticipation, the Meta Quest 3 has arrived with some significant
upgrades over the Oculus Quest 2. Months ahead of the Apple Vision Pro, the
Quest 3 strikes a balance between targeting VR gamers and the new frontier of
mixed reality.



The Quest 3 is capable of rendering your living room in full color and with
enough detail to read your phone screen. While this has exciting applications,
more Quest 2 fans will be interested in its hardware improvements to graphics,
resolution, field of view, audio, and more. 



Android Central's Nick Sutrich already had the chance to test the Meta Quest 3
for himself; you can read his Quest 3 hands-on to see all of his initial
impressions. 

Below, we'll focus instead on all of the raw numbers, prices, accessories, and
so on, to help you decide if it's worth upgrading to the new headset.

RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU...Android Central




META QUEST 3: PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

The Meta Quest 3 arrives on October 10 and can be pre-ordered starting today.
The base 128GB Quest 3 costs $499 / £479 / €549, while the 512GB model is $649 /
£619 / €699. Quadruple the storage is a nice perk, considering your Quest 2 game
library will carry over; unfortunately, contrary to pre-launch rumors, this
headset won't have extra RAM.



All Quest 3 buyers will get the epic open-world RPG Asgard's Wrath 2 for free
once it launches in December. Plus, all 512GB Quest 3 buyers will get six months
of free Meta Quest Plus, an $8/month subscription that gives you two Quest games
for free, as chosen by Meta. 

Most Quest 3 store links aren't currently live as of this latest update, but the
Meta Store lets you pre-order now. You should also be able to pre-order the
Quest 3 on Best Buy, Target, Amazon, and Walmart. You can see our page on how to
pre-order the Quest 3 for the latest information!


META QUEST 3 DESIGN



(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

The most visible change to the Meta Quest 3 stems from its new pancake lenses,
which deliver stronger magnification by a reflective design that uses less
space. This makes the Quest 3 headset 40% skinnier in front. 

Even though its weight (515g or 18.1oz) is slightly heavier than the 503g Quest
2, the weight distribution is much more balanced, meaning it's not all resting
on your forehead and slowly creating pressure. It feels lighter, which we
discovered in our hands-on testing: we called it "supremely comfortable" with
better ventilation.

A subtle but vital upgrade is how you can change how close or far the lenses sit
from your eyes, a function built into the facial interface. You'll choose
between four options, with the furthest setting leaving enough room for you to
wear glasses without a spacer. 

Plus, there's the underrated perk that the full-color mixed-reality means you
have fewer reasons to take off the headset and worry about adjusting the fit.
You can simply double-tap the side to leave your game, see your surroundings,
and resolve whatever real-world issue is happening. 



(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

Like the Quest 2, the Quest 3 ships with a cloth strap by default, rather than
the built-in Elite Strap you get on the Quest Pro. Unlike the single Quest 2
strap, which could slide to one side of your head, the Quest 3 uses a split
overhead strap design that gives you much better support and weight balance. 

You may still want to pay for an Elite Strap — the Quest 3 is just as modular as
the Quest 2, making new accessories easy to install — and get the knob for a
tighter fit and the battery pack. Our tester found that these straps do "rub on
the top of [his] ears." But this default strap no longer feels unusably loose
and lacking support like it did last generation; it'll definitely stay on your
head.



Moving on to the Meta Quest 3 display, it uses an LCD, a cost-saving measure
that'll make its colors less vibrant than the PSVR 2's OLED. Putting that aside,
though, it's still a significant visual upgrade over the Quest 2: 2064 x 2208
pixels per eye instead of 1,920 by 1,832 pixels. That gives you an extra 445
pixels per inch (1,218) or 4 pixels per degree (25).

The PSVR 2's 2,000 by 2,040 pixels (800ppi) falls short, too, and that headset
uses fresnel lenses that have a trickier "sweet spot" than the Quest 3's pancake
lenses. For comparison, Meta claims that the new lenses increase visual
"sharpness" by 25% by creating "significantly fewer stray or scattered light
artifacts." Take this with a grain of salt until we can test this more
thoroughly, but we hope it's true.



(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

Truly, unless you're waiting for the Apple Vision Pro — expected to have over
3,000 ppi — you can't do much better than the Quest 3 here for visual
quality. Especially if you don't want to spend thousands of dollars.

Although this has more to do with the Quest 3 cameras than the display, we'll
also point out that the passthrough resolution is 18 pixels per degree. That's 7
ppd fewer than standard VR, but 10X better than the Quest 2 and 3X better than
the Quest Pro, enough to make your surroundings fully visible while wearing the
headset. In our tests, we found we could easily read our phone or smartwatch
screens without having to remove our headsets. 

As a final Quest 3 design point, the newer headset has a redesigned
interpupillary distance (IPD) wheel with thirteen spacing settings at 1mm apart.
The Quest 2 supported 56–70mm IPDs with three fixed settings, leaving plenty of
users stuck with a less-than-ideal distance. Now, anyone from 53–75mm can use
it, and finding the right lens spacing will be easier. 


META QUEST 3 SPECS

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Meta Quest 3SpecificationsChipsetSnapdragon XR2 Gen 2RAM8GBStorage128GB ($499);
512GB ($649)Display Resolution2064 x 2208 pixels per eye (LCD); 1,218 pixels per
inch; 25 pixels per degree Display refresh rate90Hz; 120Hz (experimental)Field
of view110º horizontal; 96º verticalPassthrough resolution18 pixels per
degreeLensesPancake (40% slimmer than Quest 2)IPD range53mm-75mmHeadset
dimensions184 x 160 x 98 mm, 515gController dimensions126 x 67 x 43mm,
126gConnectivityBluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6E, USB-CBattery life2.2 hours (average)

Qualcomm finally announced the long-leaked Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 alongside the
Quest 3. Compared to the Gen 1 chip found in the Quest 2, it reportedly offers
2.5X GPU performance, 8X better AI performance, and 50% better GPU efficiency,
while powering up to 10 cameras at once. 

These are all idealized numbers; in practice, the Quest 3 has twice as fast
graphics performance and faster load times via 8GB of RAM. It also has six
camera sensors, two RGB cameras, and a depth sensor. 

Although the GPU may be running more efficiently, this doesn't actually help the
Quest 3 last any longer than the Quest 2; it merely offsets the increased
performance. According to Meta, it averages 2.2 hours per session for general
use, 2.9 hours for streaming media, 2.4 hours for gaming, 2.2 hours for social
use, and 1.5 hours for productivity.

Recharging the Quest 3 takes two hours. The headset comes with an 18W power
adapter and charging cable in the box. 

Qualcomm says this chip works with the new Wi-Fi 7 standard, but Meta has only
promised Wi-Fi 6E router support thus far.

Meta improved the speaker quality for the Quest 3, claiming it hits a 40% louder
volume with increased bass compared to the Quest 2. You still have the 3.5mm
headphone jack for private audio and sparing your neighbors, but otherwise, you
may not need to buy Quest 3 headphones if you're happy with the built-in
solution. 


META QUEST 3 GAMES



All of your Quest 2 games will transfer over to the Quest 3, as your account
won't change. Our old list of the best Quest games still applies to the new
headset, and we can hope to see faster loading times for those games, too.

Meta has promised that Quest 3 owners will get over 100 "new or enhanced" games
by the end of 2023. What this really means is that all of the upcoming Quest 2
games will be released simultaneously on the Quest 3, only with better
graphics. 

On top of that, some older titles will receive Quest 3-exclusive patches to take
better advantage of the increased power, adding new textures and mixed-reality
enhancements. We've already tested some new Quest 3-enhanced games and were
blown away by the improvements in quality. The current list of enhanced games is
only about 50, but we expect many developers will update their games in the near
future. 


META QUEST 3 ACCESSORIES



The official orange Meta Quest 3 face gasket (Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich /
Android Central)

Thus far, Meta has announced these official Quest 3 accessories:

 * Meta Quest 3 Silicone Facial Interface ($40)
 * Meta Quest Active Straps for Touch Plus Controllers ($40)
 * Zenni VR Prescription Lenses for Meta Quest 3 ($50)
 * Meta Quest 3 Elite Strap ($70)
 * Meta Quest 3 Carrying Case ($70)
 * Meta Quest Link Cable ($80)
 * Meta Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery ($130)
 * Meta Quest 3 Charging Dock ($130)
 * Meta Quest Touch Pro Controllers ($300)

Most of these names will look familiar. You'll buy these Quest 3 accessories to
improve the battery life, store and charge the headset, play PC VR games, and so
on. One new thing to note: you can now buy straps and facial interfaces in new
colors like orange and blue, not just the usual white. 

Most of your old Quest 2 accessories won't work with the Quest 3. Thanks to the
redesigns to the new headset, most of this old tech won't fit properly. We know
that some 3rd-party accessory makers like BoboVR have promised to release mod
kits to make your old accessories work, but there's no guarantee every brand
will do this.

So far, we know that your old Link cables should continue to work, if you don't
want to rely on Air Link and the new Wi-Fi 6E capabilities for wireless PC VR.
And if you own the Quest Pro controllers (normally $300), you can use those in
place of the Quest 3 Touch Plus controllers. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Meta Quest 3 costs $200 more than the Quest 2 did at launch. In exchange, it
delivers significant visual, performance, and comfort upgrades across the board,
maintains its wireless design despite the increased power demands, and adds
mixed-reality apps. 

Full-color mixed reality allows you to tap out of games and clearly see your
home space instead of a nauseating black-and-white blur. You can incorporate
your surroundings into games like Supernatural, so you never need to worry about
accidentally punching a wall. And some MR games make your physical space part of
the experience, such as a cute laser-dodging minigame.

All of these are excellent perks that VR superfans will appreciate. But are they
enough for first-time VR users who bought into the Quest 2 to come back for
more? We'll have to see what happens after the Meta Quest 3 arrives on October
10. 

Meta Quest 3
View at Meta



The Meta Quest 3 VR headset delivers powerful Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 performance,
a more balanced and comfortable design, full-color mixed reality, and one of the
best VR displays we've ever seen. It arrives on October 10. 




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Michael L Hicks
Social Links Navigation
Senior Editor, VR/AR and fitness

Michael spent years freelancing on every tech topic under the sun before
settling down on the real exciting stuff: virtual reality, fitness wearables,
gaming, and how tech intersects with our world. He's a semi-reformed
Apple-to-Android user who loves running, D&D, and Star Wars. Find him on Twitter
at @Michael_L_Hicks.

With contributions from
 * Nicholas SutrichSenior Content Producer — Smartphones & VR

More about virtual reality

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