Meta Quest 3S: Specs, details, everything we know so far

Meta’s next headset is the Quest 3S. Here’s everything we’ve heard about the Quest 3S, including how it’s likely to compare to the Quest 3 and Quest 2.

There has been strong evidence over the past 15 months that Meta is preparing to release a cheaper alternative to the Quest 3 to replace the Quest 2 in its lineup.

S here is being used in the same sense as Xbox Series S, to mean a cheaper model, not in the same sense that Apple used for the iPhone.

In March 2023, a leaked Meta hardware guide mentioned this cheaper headset, and last week Quest’s official store listed the “Meta Quest 3S,” a name first seen in an apparent leak three months ago that purported to show headphone design.

Read on for a full rundown of every credible Quest 3S leak and rumor so far, revealing the trade-offs it makes for a lower price.

Why do you need a cheaper headset?

The Quest 2 launched at $100 less than the original Oculus Quest, so Meta discontinued it right away. The Quest 3 on the other hand costs $500, so Meta has continued to sell the Quest 2.

Since the launch of the Quest 3, Meta has repeatedly dropped the price of the Quest 2, first to $250 and then in March to just $200. In April, it even slashed the official prices of Quest 2 accessories by more than 50% compared to their original prices.

In February, the larger 256GB Quest 2 model was completely out and removed from all retailers, suggesting that production of at least that model has ended.

The Quest 2 is now just $200

The official price of the Quest 2 has dropped again, now to just $200. And when purchased at Walmart, it includes $50 Quest Store credit.

In recent weeks we’ve also seen the announcement of the first major VR games coming to Quest 3 but not Quest 2, including Alien: Rogue Incursion from Survios and Batman: Arkham Shadow from Meta-owned studio Camouflaj.

Meta’s continued cuts to the prices of Quest 2 headsets and accessories, the disappearance of the 256GB model, and the announcement of a first-party game that doesn’t support it strongly suggest that the headset is nearing the end of its time in market.

Batman: Arkham Shadow Is The Biggest Quest 3 Exclusive Yet

Batman: Arkham Shadow is a brand new entry in the Arkham series, coming exclusively to Quest 3.

But as it stands, if the Quest 2 were off the market, the price of entry for the Meta Quest platform would become $500, the 128GB model of the Quest 3. So to continue growing the VR market as quickly as possible, Meta should ship a cheaper headset that can run the same content as the Quest 3.

A leaked Meta roadmap confirmed a cheaper headset coming this year

In March 2023, about ten months before Quest 3 shipped, an internal meeting of the Meta VR and AR hardware roadmap was leaked to The Verge.

In addition to detailing the Quest 3, which had yet to be announced at the time, and the Quest Pro 2, the leaked meeting revealed that Meta also planned to ship a more “accessible” headset in 2024.

Meta is said to be planning cheaper headphones for 2024

Quest 3 Lite? Quest Go? Meta plans a cheap “accessible” headset for 2024, according to a Meta roadmap leaked to The Verge.

Here’s how Meta’s VR replacement Mark Rabkin described the headset in that leaked meeting:

“The goal for this headset is very simple: to make the biggest impact we can at the most attractive price point in the consumer VR market.”

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman described its appearance and price

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has a strong track record of reliably reporting Meta and Apple’s hardware and software moves in advance. For example, he reliably reported many details of the Oculus Quest 2 and Apple Vision Pro before they were officially revealed or even acknowledged to exist.

Just days before the Quest 3 was launched, Gurman reported that Meta’s next headset will be a “mixed reality headset” that “looks a lot like the Quest 3, but uses less expensive components.”

His report claimed that Meta is aiming for a $300 price point and was at least “considering” shipping the headset without a controller to sell separately. Note, however, that in recent months Mark Zuckerberg has praised the Touch Plus controllers as a major reason he thinks the Quest 3 is superior to the Apple Vision Pro.

A Chinese analyst claimed to use Fresnel lenses with the XR2 Gen 2

A week after Gurman’s report, a Chinese analyst who has accurately reported the details of the Meta and Pico headphones in the past published his claims about the headphones.

‘Quest 3 Lite’ can reach $200-300 using Fresnel lens

The Chinese analyst claims that the ‘Quest 3 Lite’ could launch in the first half of 2024 at $200. Read the claimed specs here:

The analyst was the first to report that it will use the new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip from the Quest 3, but paired with the old fresnel lens from the Quest 2 to achieve a lower price.

He claimed that the product launch was somewhere between $200 and $300 and could even arrive in the first half of 2024. If he’s right about the last part, expect an announcement later this month.

The Wall Street Journal PROVEd These specifications

In November, The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta plans to bring a cheaper version of Quest 3 to China through a deal with Tencent.

The deal with Tencent was previously reported by Chinese news outlet 36Kr and the Wall Street Journal itself, although in those earlier reports the headset was reported to be the Quest 2.

XR2 Gen 2: Quest 3’s new GPU more than twice as powerful

Quest 3 is the first headset to feature Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip, with up to 2.5x more GPU performance and 8x AI performance. More details here:

The November Wall Street Journal report described this cheaper version of the Quest 3 as using less expensive lenses than the Quest 3 but a more powerful GPU than the Quest 2, seemingly agreeing with the Chinese analyst’s claims.

or The Meta Market Research study about it apparently came out

Back in March we saw what may be the only actual images of the Quest 3S, in an apparent leak of a Meta market research study.

A three-year-old reddit user with a posting history that appears to be that of a real human shared two screenshots that they said came from a presentation Meta shared with them on Zoom as part of a market research study. The title of the presentation is visible as “Quest Design System Research_V2_Final_Phase2_Stim (FR)”. The presentation is in French, as noted by the FR at the end of the title.

One of the slides shows the Quest 3S to have the same resolution as the Quest 2, suggesting it will use the same single LCD panel. It also looks significantly thicker than the Quest 3, supporting claims by the Chinese analyst and The Wall Street Journal that it will use a fresnel lens.

Both slides show the headset as having two sets of three sensors on each side of the front. Apparently two of these sensors are the infrared fisheye camera used for tracking and a color camera for the mixed reality transition. But what is the third?

In October, Quest firmware developer Samulia revealed a new headset codenamed Panther. Samulia previously revealed many of the Quest Pro’s specs a year before it launched, as well as the Quest 3’s resolution and 3D room mesh capabilities. The reference to Panther was in a debug feature for its “simulation” in Quest 3 (which was codenamed Eureka). Applying this setting, according to the debug log text, prevents the depth projector from being used. This strongly suggests that the Meta is testing to achieve the room configuration capabilities that the depth projector currently enables without it.

Thus, the third sensor can simply be an infrared illuminator, allowing the Quest 3S to have a clear view of your surroundings while setting up the room, regardless of lighting conditions, without having the same cost as a depth projector. But that’s just speculation – we just don’t know what it is yet.

Some time after the reddit post was made, the user deleted it. Meta has not commented on the situation.

We did not report this leak at the time because we as a team did not unanimously agree that it was likely to be legitimate. But we’re including it now because the Quest 3S moniker seems to have now been confirmed.

The Official Quest Store Listed Quest 3S

Last week, the official Quest store began listing support for the Meta Quest 3S on multiple app store pages, including the upcoming Alo Moves XR.

This metadata was removed a few hours later, suggesting that it was accidentally activated early by Meta.

This store listing appears to directly confirm the name of Meta’s upcoming headset is the Quest 3S, and potentially corroborates the March market research leak.

Summary (TL;DR)

Putting all the evidence together, it’s likely that production of the Quest 2 has ended and Meta is currently clearing stock to prepare for the launch of a similarly priced direct replacement called the Quest 3S.

The Quest 3S will apparently feature the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip as the Quest 3, so it can run the same content with the same graphical fidelity, but it uses the old fresnel lens from the Quest 2 to achieve a price somewhere around 300 dollars.

	Research 2	Quest 3S	Research 3
chipsets	Snapdragon XR2 (7 nm)	Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 (4 nm)	Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 (4 nm)
lenses	Fresnel	Fresnel	pancakes
I pass through	Very low score Black and white	Decent score? tint	Decent Res tint
Entry price	Starting: $300 Current: $200	~$300?	500 dollars

It will almost certainly also support color mixed reality, but potentially with a slower and less accurate room setup process.

In fact, the Quest 3S will be a cheaper Quest 3 with a larger design, inferior lens clarity and lower resolution. A cheaper and lower quality – but not fundamentally different – device. It will allow more people to enjoy Quest 3 VR graphics and greatly expand the room-aware mixed reality market.