The Meta Quest 3S will not officially be available until October 15, but I was able to try the headset on early and see how it feels, what it can do, and how it compares to the more expensive Meta Quest 3

During the hands-on session, I was able to play the new “Batman: Arkham Shadow” as well as take my time enjoying YouTube and Peacock videos Below are their impressions and a comparison with the best VR headsets

The Meta Quest 3S will be available on October 15 The base model costs $299 and comes with 128GB of storage; the 256GB version is $399; the Meta Quest 3 is $499

The Meta Quest 3S can be pre-ordered on Meta's website and at retailers such as Amazon

The biggest difference in appearance between the Meta Quest 3S and 3 is that the front face of the new model is more square, with three circles on either side arranged like the cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro Max instead of the three oval holes in the center

Internally, the Quest 3S uses a Fresnel lens rather than a pancake lens, so you don't get as wide a field of view: in practice, I didn't notice much of a narrow field of view, but I did pick up a bit more distortion in the periphery

More noticeable was the low resolution: while the Quest 3 is 2064 x 2208, the Quest 3S is 1832 x 1920 Additionally, the 3s has color pass-through, the same controller as the Quest 3, and increased RAM (Click here for a comparison of Meta Quest 3s and Meta Quest 3)

As part of the launch, Meta bundled “Batman: Arkham Shadow” with Quest 3S (and Quest 3 as well), giving us a chance to play the game for a few minutes

There is indeed a bit of a learning curve Fortunately, the game teaches you how to duck, punch, defend, grapple, and use Batman's amazing toys When fighting Gotham's criminals, you want to make sure you have plenty of space as your arms go wild

I would love to see how this game looks in the higher resolution of the Meta Quest 3, but it was clean enough on the Quest 3S More importantly, I didn't notice any lag or latency, even during the toughest sessions where I had to confront multiple bad guys at once

When you don't feel like fighting crime, Meta Quest 3S makes a pretty good virtual entertainment center Using a controller or your hands, you can resize the windows to your liking and change their position within the virtual environment In theater mode, one of the windows is enlarged to look like a giant curved display, and the surroundings are darkened as if you were in a movie theater

Here, the 3S's resolution and narrow field of view become more apparent, giving me more time to take in my surroundings than when playing “Batman” If this headset is to be used primarily for watching movies, one would want the higher resolution of the Quest 3

To really tell the difference between the two headsets, one would have to try the Meta Quest 3S along with the Meta Quest 3, but for those who have never used a VR headset, the Quest 3S is more than sufficient

Besides novelty, one of the reasons the Meta Quest 2 was so popular when it was released was its price For a detailed review, see