After a torrent of leaks, Meta has finally unveiled Quest 3S at Connect today, detailing every reason why it thinks Quest and Quest 2 owners ought to upgrade to the company’s latest and now most affordable mixed reality headset. Here’s the breakdown of Quest 2 vs Quest 3S vs Quest 3:

In terms of specs, Quest 3S is straddling somewhere between the 2020-era Quest 2 and 2023-era Quest 3, notably ditching the monochrome passthrough and last-gen Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset for full-color sensors and the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 as Quest 3. You can read our full hands-on with Quest 3S here.

To start, let’s see the basic specs side-by-side:

Quest 2 Quest 3S Quest 3

Visuals
Display 1 × LCD 1 × LCD 2 × LCD
Resolution (per-eye) 1,832 × 1,920 (3.5MP) 1,832 × 1,920 (3.5MP) 2,064 × 2,208 (4.5MP)
Pixels Per-degree 20 PPD 20 PPD 25 PPD
Maximum Refresh Rate 120Hz 120Hz 120Hz
Optics Fresnel Fresnel Pancake
Field-of-view 96ºH × 90ºV 96ºH × 90ºV 110ºH × 96ºV
Pass-through view Black & white (4 PPD) Color (18 PPD) Color (18 PPD)
Optical Adjustments Stepped IPD
eye-relief (via included spacer)		 Stepped IPD
eye-relief (via included spacer)		 Continuous IPD, stepped eye-relief (built-in)
IPD Adjustment Range 58mm, 63mm, 68mm 58mm, 63mm, 68mm 53–75mm

Performance & IO
Processor Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2
RAM 6GB 8GB 8GB
Storage 128GB, 256GB 128GB, 256GB 512GB
(128GB previously available)
Connectivity Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth unknown (likely Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth) Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth
Connectors USB-C USB-C USB-C
contact pads for optional dock
Input Touch v3 (AA battery 1×)
hand-tracking, voice		 Touch Plus (AA battery 1×)
hand-tracking, voice		 Touch Plus (AA battery 1×)
hand-tracking, voice
Audio In-headstrap speakers
3.5mm aux output		 In-headstrap speakers In-headstrap speakers
3.5mm aux output
Microphone Yes Yes Yes
Battery 1.5–2.5 hours (3,640 mAh) 2.5 hours (4,324 mAh) 2.2 hours (5,060 mAh)
Weight 503 grams 514 grams 515 grams

Sensing
Headset-tracking Inside-out (no external beacons) Inside-out (no external beacons) Inside-out (no external beacons)
Controller-tracking Headset-tracked
(headset line-of-sight needed)		 Headset-tracked
(headset line-of-sight needed)		 Headset-tracked
(headset line-of-sight needed)
Eye-tracking No No No
Expression-tracking No No No
On-board cameras 4 × IR 2 × RGB, 4 × IR
2 × IR flood LED		 2 × RGB, 4 × IR
Depth-sensor No No Yes

Price
MSRP $300 (128GB), $350 (256GB) $300 (128GB), $400 (256GB) $500 (512GB)

As you’d imagine, Quest 3S running the same chipset and offering the same color passthrough as Quest 3 will give users access not only to the back catalogue of Quest titles, but also mixed reality games and exclusives designed for Quest 3 moving forward.

Image courtesy Meta

To hit that magical $300 price point (128GB model) though, it’s relying on older Fresnel lenses as well as a the same resolution displays as Quest 2. At least in terms of resolution, the gulf between Quest 2 and Quest 3 isn’t that wide, so it’s a pretty understandable holdover.

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That means we’re again seeing some flavor of 1,832 × 1,920 (20ppd) LCD display with a 96-degree horizonal field of view (FOV), as seen on sheet below. By comparison, Quest 3 boasts dual 2,064 × 2,208 (4.5MP) LCD displays, a newer pancake lens design and 110-degree horizontal FOV.

Quest 2 (left) and Quest 3 (right) | Image courtesy Meta

With facial interfaces removed, Meta is trumpeting Quest 3S as “20 percent slimmer” than Quest 2, where as the claim for Quest 3 is 30 percent slimmer, owing to its inclusion of pancake lenses.

Strangely enough, Quest 3S is launching with the same storage options as Quest 2: 128GB and 256GB—something deemed too small for Quest 3 proper, which is discontinuing its 128GB version, leaving only the 512GB to choose from. Yeah, pricing as and availability for older models has changed a bit. Check out our full explainer on what’s staying and what’s going to learn more.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Yeshaya

    The 120hz-only option threw me off at first, but I guess if it has the same processor but only 77% of the pixels to render as the Q3 that'll naturally lead to a higher refresh rate. Would be interesting if they'd also give Q3 users the option to render at lower Q2/Q3S res for a 120hz mode, like you could with Quest Game Optimizer

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      It's very safe to assume that Quest 3S supports the same refresh rates as Quest 3, even if the table above lists only 120Hz. That's most likely because RoadtoVR haven't seen an official confirmation for 72Hz, 80Hz and 90Hz yet, so they cannot report it. It is even more safe that at least the 72Hz will be kept. All headsets feature refresh rates that are multiples of 24, because that is the frame rate of movies. Playing a movie at a frame rate out of sync with 24fps would lead to occasional stuttering, so if 72Hz is missing in the list, it must be incomplete.

      The reason why we nor only see increases of ten like in 60, 80, 90, 120 in VR, but also seemingly odd increases like 72, 96, 120, 144, is a more than 100 years old convention to play back all movies at the same frame rate as most early cinemas in Los Angeles did, at a time when there was no standard for how many frames per second were recorded. They still used hand cranked cameras for filming, so the actual recording rate depended on the cranking speed of the camera man.

    • Ben Lang

      @christianschildwaechter:disqus is correct, we had confirmation of 120Hz, but not the others. However we now know it does indeed support the same framerates as Quest 3. Chart will be updated shortly!

      • KandyCoated

        This is old technology. The newer battery saving refresh rates are variable. If no motion is detected, 48 fps is sufficient and saves a lot of battery energy.

  • Derek

    Disappointed with the significantly lower FoV… That's generally my biggest letdown with VR displays, but I suppose expanding it past 90 must still be one of the bigger costs?

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    The differing battery capacities and run times are interesting, as the show how much more power the Quest 3 consumes, assuming both batteries use the same voltage:

    Quest 3S: 2.5 hours (4,324 mAh) = 1730mA
    Quest 3: 2.2 hours (5,060 mAh) = 2300mA

    So the Quest 3 with the same processor and amount of RAM draws 570mA or 1/3rd more from its battery. Minor hardware differences like Quest 3's depth sensor vs Quest 3S's IR illuminator are probably negligible, and most of the extra 570mA draw will be for the brighter backlights, needed due to the inefficient pancake lenses losing about 90% of the light in their complex optical path using polarized light reflections/refractions.

    • rabs

      Interesting analysis.

      Though I noticed something weird in the article, I wrote that Quest 3 had a 4879 mAh battery according to Wikipia (ref to iFixIt teardown), also on the official legal documents with the battery specs "Product information sheet – Meta Quest 3"

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        Based on past UI development, business programs, HMD pricing, product line, MR demos, sales tactics, MRL projects, partnership negotiations, game announcements or strategy changes, the fundamental issue might be a different one:

        Well their they're website is incoherent.

        FTFY (/s for those who need it)

  • Michael Speth

    Where are all the PSVR2 haters who complained endlessly about Fresnel lenses. Yet with the Quest 3S, you get Fresnel with LCD …. LOLOLOLOL.

    PSVR2 has Fresnel because of the superior OLED. What is Meta's excuse for using LCD?

    • Spoorthy Vemula

      Price

      • Michael Speth

        Oh no. People were complaining about last gen optics. Price was a separate issue.

  • david vincent

    The choice of Fresnel lenses could have alowed the use of OLED screens, too bad.

  • Zodwraith

    Seeing the 3S specs just made me order my Quest3 today. I was already resistant as I've had a Samsung Odyssey+ for years and haven't wanted to give up that excellent OLED saturation and deep blacks. Especially when something is strapped to your face having greyish blacks straight up sucks. With LED you're never in the dark but in the gray.

    But it's those pancake lenses that I've been wanting for a while now not to mention we see more and more Meta exclusives every day so I finally pulled the trigger. And hey, I'll still have the OLED Samsung on hand for any dark games. It's not going anywhere.