The Meta Quest 3S is a relatively affordable virtual reality headset (Image: Meta)
My fists are flying as I punch my way through a gaggle of bad guys, landing blow after blow in a combo move. I then grapple up a ladder and run along a dank underground corridor before getting to a ledge, where I jump off and glide down thanks to my cape. I start swinging my fists again.
“Henry, just step a little to your left.”
A kind voice has reminded me that I am not Batman, and I have edged too close to a shelving unit. But for ten minutes, I was Batman. Then I could take off the headset strapped to my noggin and squint around the demo room to determine how many embarrassing photos had been taken of me by Meta staff while I was immersed in the VR world of Batman Arkham Shadow on the new Meta Quest 3S.
The 3S is the latest ‘mixed reality’ headset from Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook. It costs £289.99, the cheapest Quest yet, but Meta insists it has very similar specs and performance to the £469.99 Meta Quest 3 that launched in October 2023.
Using the Quest for gaming is often quite the workout (Image: Meta)
Mixed reality is the term used as you can view apps in either virtual reality (VR) where everything around you is a virtual world, or augmented reality (AR) where some screens or graphics are projected in front of you, but you can also see the world around you thanks to cameras projecting your surrounds live back through the headset.
Compared to Apple’s £3,499 Vision Pro, the Meta Quest 3S is positively pocket change. It is also admittedly a lot less powerful than its Apple rival, but in a couple of hours trying out several different VR modes on the Quest 3S I’ve been left impressed. I don’t particularly want to do work in VR, and Meta has seen to it that I don’t have to, as the main draws for this headset are gaming and entertainment, though access to your email inbox is possible.
Compared to Apple’s £3,499 Vision Pro, the asking price for the Meta Quest 3S is positively pocket change
As well as taking swings at henchmen in Batman, I also got my virtual boxing gloves on in the game FitXR. This was the most immersive demo I had, with a 360 degree view of a cityscape as I saw my fists with gloves on as I raised my hands in front of me. The Quest 3S straps onto your head (and can fit over glasses, unlike Vision Pro) and comes with two controllers that you grip and use for motion within games as well as their physical button controls. Think of it like a more advanced version of the Nintendo Wii, which popularised motion control gaming with the famous Wii tennis and bowling games in the early 2000s.
By the end of the short game I was a little out of puff, as when you have targets flying towards you and need to duck out of the way of obstacles, the Quest 3S could prove itself as a genuine way to workout at home rather than the gym.
It’s not all about fighting and punching though. You can also take a relaxing yoga session thanks to the immersive nature of VR and the headset’s built-in speakers next to your ears piping in the instructions. A YouTube VR app is also available, with a catalogue of free 360 degree videos that drop you into calming landscapes from around the world.
I also did a terrible job at mixing tunes on a virtual DJ deck and was shown how you can settle in for the night on a comfy chair and watch a film on (what looks like to you) a huge cinema screen. You can even dim the virtual lights.
Would you wear this? (Image: Meta)
Such immersion is possible thanks to the Quest 3S’s 1832 x 1920, 773 pixels per inch display. It has 20 pixel per degree, which looks impressive when you have everything set up nicely, but the display is where the 3S compromises compared to the sharper, wider display on the pricier Quest 3, which has a 110 degree horizontal and 96 degree vertical field of view compared to the Quest 3S’s 96 and 90 respectively. The Quest 3 has superior ‘pancake’ lenses too that give a sharper experience. The Quest 3S shows a little blurring of images on occasion, but something has to give at this price.
That said, Meta has used the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor on the 3S as the 3, as well as the same 8GB RAM. At less than £300, the Quest 3S feels appealing and more affordable to people who aren’t too sure about virtual reality but would be willing to spend roughly the price of a games console to give it a go, play casual games, and watch films and TV shows.
The real trick for Meta will be to see if developers want to bring headline grabbing games and apps to the Quest platform
Netflix doesn’t make an app for the Quest platform but you can access it via the Quest’s browser in HD, and there is an official Prime Video app. You can even tap into 2D gaming with Xbox Game Pass, linking your Xbox controller and playing through all your favourite console games without the need for a TV. And because this is a Meta product, there’s decent Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp integration.
One niggle is the paltry two hours of battery life, meaning unless you get a long cable to stay plugged into the mains you’re not going to get through most modern blockbusters before needing to charge.
The real trick for Meta will be to see if developers want to bring headline grabbing games and apps to the Quest platform and if the hardware is powerful enough to run them. The Quest 3S costs less than half of a new PS5 Pro which could make it a popular choice, but it remains to be seen if it will become as popular as games consoles, let alone our phones and laptops.
The Meta Quest 3S goes on sale on Tuesday 15 October for £289.99. This model has 128GB storage, while a 256GB model will cost £379.99.
