Meta Quest 3 128GB— Breakthrough Mixed Reality Headset — Powerful Performance

Wow oh wow. Visually, with the new lenses and higher resolution, the Q3 goggles blow away my older Quest 2 which I have since sold.Over-all, everything seems clearer to see, contrast and tonal values from dark to light are much better and everything just seems to be quite obviously, much clearer. I have no eye strain from these, even in use for well over an hour.The elastic head strap though, had to go. Gave me a slight headache. I purchased one of the fully adjustable, padded headsets for this Q3 and that comfort issue is now resolved!As for battery life, it's not that bad and it depends on what you're doing for a game or activity plus your brightness settings (higher brightness drains battery faster). I've got a small usb-c battery I used on the Quest 2 and it does help extend battery life for perhaps an hour or more over the built-in battery. A larger usb-c battery pack placed in the pocket works well too for longer use and to avoid any extra weight on the headset.As for the faster CPU in this new model,... yes, the fast response of going through menus or opening up and running apps is quite noticeable. Big improvement there.The Q3 is more fussy about what USB-C PD charger you are using (the Quest 2 was not fussy at all), and it at times refuses to charge at all (or very slowly) if using a none-Meta usb-c charger, so for now, I am using the stock charger packaged with the Quest 3. The Q3 has a small battery in it so those high wattage chargers won't really charge much faster than the stock charger will at its lower wattage spec. In measuring watts/amps during charge using a USB amp/watt/volt meter (Amazon has these!), you won't be fast charging that little battery in the Q3. But, even using the stock charger seems to charge up the Q3 quickly (and hour or more depending how far down the battery is) so no big deal.So, bottom line, if you are considering moving from the Quest 2 to a Quest 3 because you want a clearer, sharper and smoother/less pixelated image quality experience (plus far less need to tweak the googles to exact position to eliminate viewing blur like the Q2 lenses had), for that reason alone, I highly recommend the Quest 3. It's night and day better with no exaggeration.For me, the Quest 3 is a totally new and much improved VR Goggle over the Quest 2, not an upgrade, but, a totally redesigned VR goggle and the investment in this more expensive Goggle will be well worth it.Consider selling your Q2 as I did and recoup some $$ towards your Quest 3 purchase!5 Stars all around. It was a keeper for me in only the few first minutes I used it! Go for it!!!

I've been in the VR game for a while now, going all the way back to the Oculus Rift dev kit 2 days. My other current headset is a Valve Index, and I mainly bought the Quest 3 with the intention of playing the Quest-exclusive games, fully expecting it to feel like a toy in comparison.In practice, I'm in love with this thing. The displays are both high resolution and high quality, with little to no screendoor effect, and the tracking is impressively stable for something only being tracked by cameras and software. I thought the removal of the rings from the Q2 controllers would cause them to have more issues with occlusion, but I haven't noticed anything. Even the features I didn't know it had are pretty cool for the games that support them, like its mixed reality and controller-free hand tracking. But the thing that's really going to keep me away from my Index (at least for the games that aren't specifically tailored to it, like Half Life Alyx) is that I had no idea how much I needed to ditch the cable and play wirelessly until now. Being able to just walk around in my room without having to be aware of the cable behind me is such a nice feeling that it feels like I'm getting into VR for the first time again.With that said, there are some small caveats -- namely, that this is not really a $500 headset. Meta has taken on a sort of Spirit Airlines approach, where the headset itself is affordably priced in exchange for other basic things being extremely expensive "accessories". The strap is the main offender, with the default one being the rough equivalent of just tying the headset to your head. They're happy to sell you a $60 strap, or a $130 one that extends the battery, though! And while you're at it you can blow $80 on a cable for linking it to your pc if you aren't a fan of wireless tethering, a $70 carrying case, a $40 silicone facial interface for extra comfort, a $130 charging dock to replace the controllers needing AA batteries, $40 hand straps for the controllers to give them Index-esque free-hand support... To be clear, most, if not all of these have off-brand counterparts that are just as good (or better!) for a fraction of the price, but my point is this is not a fully out of the box experience for those with more discerning tastes. For parents buying them for their younger children they'll probably be thrilled with it anyways, and can safely ignore all of that, but I would wager most adults will probably end up wanting at least a new head strap of some kind, whether it's the official one or not.Ignoring the troublesome accessories, though, this is an easy win as far as I'm concerned. The only real competition is that the Quest 2 is still holding its own as well from what I hear, and for prices that seem to be as low as they could possibly be around the holiday season. I can't speak first-hand on whether the Q3 is worth a $300 difference, but I can say I don't regret buying it. I held off on the Quest line of headsets because I've never been a big fan of Meta as a company, but I have to begrudgingly admit that this is probably the best vr headset at the best price you could get right now.