Meta Quest 3: Is It Worth It?!

The Meta quest Quest 3 a standalone virtual reality headset that promises to bridge our physical reality with a virtual one it's pitched as the Pinnacle of consumer VR experiences in 2023 a pillar of innovation for mobile gaming interactive Leisure and media consumption remote work and much much more but who is this jack of all trades really for and does it live up to the hype let's crack open the box and find out as you lift the lid you're immediately met with the Sleek headset complete with the standard cloth head strap and face pad pre-installed two meta touch Plus controllers each thoughtfully equipped with a doublea battery and wrist strap for safety an 18w power adapter with a visually appealing but unpractical cylindrical design and a USBC cable for charging the headset the headset's white body accented with black glass-like Stacks give it a futuristic cyberpunk aesthetic the quest 3's frame and panels are crafted from plastic and the areas that need to be feel reinforced but while it feels premium in the hands the internal components and housing seem too fragile to survive a drop of any meaningful distance on the face plate you'll find four cameras arranged Ed in two vertical Stacks two infrared cameras handle spatial and positional tracking and two 4 megapix RGB pass through cameras are your windows to the world allowing you to see your surroundings in color from within the headset a key feature of this device we'll explore later nestled between these camera Stacks is another stack that houses an infrared depth sensor and a noise cancelling microphone on the bottom corners you'll find two more spatial tracking cameras these are pivotal for upper body tracking allowing for torso elbow wrist and hand tracking a lot of this magic isn't yet available and will be unlocked in a future update along with an algorithm to guess your leg position for simulated full body track alongside the bottom Edge are an ipd adjustment wheel a volume rocker and a three pin Pogo receiver for a charging dock and the voice microphone on the left side is a dedicated power button and a indicator led the headset connects to the headstrap Via two hinge arms which allow for tilt adjustments the left hinge includes a USBC port for charging and data transfer and the right hinge houses a 3/2 mm headphone jack each arm integrates speakers which deliver surprisingly good 3D spatial audio while they sound sound good I feel most users will default to headphones or earbuds for the most immersive experience wired options are vital because Bluetooth connections suffer from a pretty large audio delay on top the headset is a bar to secure the head strap via a velcro Loop the strap splits into a y- shape in the back which you can pull apart to tighten or push together to loosen the head Bar's horizontal grip on your head the quest 3 weighs in at 461 G without the head strap 520 G with and is obviously front heavy that said I've worn it through intense gaming sessions and in 6 to 8 Hour stationary work sprints without any neck strain or discomfort there's admittedly a bit of weight resting on your cheekbones and pressure on your forehead an aftermarket head strap will provide better weight balance and comfort but the default strap is by no means uncomfortable inside is a cushion face pad it's depth adjustable for glasses wearers and easily removable for cleaning or replacement a necessity given its ability to absorb dirt and sweat it snaps into the plastic lens housing that embeds a light sensor to detect when the headset is on your face and the infamous pancake lenses these lenses have fueled the hype train for the quest 3 and justifiably so they not only help reduce the headset's thickness to 2 in or just under 4 in with the face pad installed but they also deliver a sharper image with a larger sweet spot and minimal Distortion custom inserts with prescriptions can be snapped in front behind the lenses lie two LCD displays with a resolution of 264 x 228 pixels per eye meta TS this is a 4K infinite display but to manage expectations it's not as sharp as a traditional 4K display the pixels per degree are less than half at 25 pixs per degree of what's needed for a Flawless image the screens are close to your eyes and Amplified by lenses so you can see individual pixels and there's a bit of a screen door effect the displays can run up to 120 HZ virtual reality check it's unlikely that quality Standalone experiences are capable of running at a 4K resolution on a mobile chipset and definitely not at 120 frames per second the field of view is impressive at 110° horizontally and 96° vertically it doesn't cover the full fov of the human eye but it's immersive enough that you'll forget about about the binocular effect once you're engrossed in the virtual world similar to how you don't typically notice objects in your peripherals when you're focused on a task directly in front of you the screens are bright and colorful though the LCD nature means blacks have a backlight glow about them the face pad does an excellent job at blocking out external light which allows the screen's vibrancy to shine the lenses smudge easily from my forehead or fingers when slipping in and out of the headset so keeping a microfiber cloth handy is a must powering the quest 3 is a Snapdragon xr2 sock a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor and adreno 740 GPU with 8 GB of RAM and I have to admit the performance that can be generated in such a small form factor genuinely excites me for the advancement in wearable tech and mobile Graphics rendering considering these specs with six cameras a depth sensor dual screens pancake lenses and two tracking controllers all packed into a wireless mobile form factor the quest 3's price point is shockingly competitive to a degree it feels like they could be selling at cost or a loss the quest 3 comes in two models 120 GB priced at $499.99 and 512 GB priced at $649.99 USD out of the box the operating system consumes 18 gbt and leaves you with under 110 gigs of usable space on the 128 GB model if you remove the pre-installed apps most current games and experiences range from 500 megabytes to 12 GB I was originally of the mindset that 120 GB would suffice for most solo users with fast internet connections as it's easy enough to delete games and reinstall while the 512 GB model seemed ideal for families that need multiple profiles serious Gamers or content creators that need space for recording their gameplay but here's the catch all of these experiences were developed around the quest 2's capabilities and the quest 3 is capable of much more we can already see the storage creep with a new Assassin's Creed Nexus that's over 17 GB and Asgard WTH 2 which is expected to exceed 25 GB while the extra storage might not seem worth an additional $150 it might be a practical choice that future proofs your headset is its Clear apps are going to continue to increase in size it's puzzling why meta didn't opt for a 256 GB based model I chose the 128 GB version anticipating I won't use most of the Standalone experiences after the initial novelty wears off and will be Tethered to my PC 90% plus of the time afterwards but as Standalone titles evolve it's obvious I'm going to hit a ceiling of only three asset Rich games installed at a time also let's not forget the not so hidden costs the true price of owning a quest 3 goes beyond its MSRP once you consider the extras like a comfortable head strap battery pack Link cable or router for p CVR headphones active straps for the controllers prescription inserts for glasses wearers and eventual face pad Replacements these accessories while optional significantly enhance the experience on top of that while free apps do exist most range from $10 to $50 or have a subscription model baked into the app I spent over $175 to get the essential and most popular Standalone experiences just to complete this review and that was with 25% referral coupons I'll include links to all the apps featured in this video in the description below so that you can also save 25% on each of your purchases and that cost doesn't include my separate PC VR purchases so expect to pad at least $250 to your purchase price to have the complete experience the quest 3's battery is just over 19 wat hours or 4,800 milliamp hours and like smartphone batteries its session time will vary based on the intensity of the apps that you're running in my experience in Standalone mode with Wi-Fi on the battery lasts just under 2 hours for lighter activities like meditation apps web browsing and media management for gaming it dips to about one to 1 and 1/2 hours and even shorter for mixed reality experiences playing the new Assassin's Creed I barely squeeze out an hour of play time for intense Games The Limited battery life might be a blessing in disguise forcing you to take breakes from the headset baking your eyeballs with heat from the sock and light from the screen but generally speaking it's not enough and feels like a significant limitation of the device even for casual use in Virtual workspace apps like immersed VR or media watching apps like big screen the battery drains in about an hour Which is far from ideal you'll want to invest in a a headstrap that has a battery pack attachment meta Elite headstrap felt overpriced so I went with the Bobo VR M3 Pro which includes a battery for only $45 it doubles my session time and is way more comfortable and provides a better weight balance than the default cloth head strap included with the quest 3 I'll drop a link in the description and pin comment below for those interested in picking up one of course you can also just stick a power bank in your pocket or spark a new age VR fashion trend and bring fanny packs back for stationary experiences it's easy to plug in for extended sessions I've managed full 8h hour work dayss an immersed V over Wi-Fi plugged into a fast charger and it's by far the most impressive use case of the headset so far the quest 3 takes around 1 hour and 45 minutes to charge from empty to full on a 65 wat fast charger for me it maxes out at 23 Watts when the device is not active and much less when it's active I presume due to heat management meta has included battery optimization features allowing you to dial down your performance and refresh rates to extend your session but let's be real you don't buy a nextg headset to compromise on Graphics if you're interested in battery life and the best battery Solutions let me know in the comments below if there's enough interest I'll buy a bunch of them and dedicate a video to comparing them the user interface of the quest 3 Strikes a balance between simplistic and futuristic it's simpler to use than a smartphone the primary toolbar and menu interaction is your first taste of mixed reality magic it appears as a 2d flat plane floating in your 3D space you can effortlessly move it around and walk around it you can extend it out to three Windows to hold a browser the app library and a settings screen a into a triple monitor setup toggling the distance View mode transforms it into a band of screens that wrap around you if you wander into another room or end up behind it you can simply press the meta button on your right controller to spawn it in front of you and it can be accessed in pass through mode your virtual home from within any app or even mid game allowing you to tweak your settings quickly Google something chat with friends or manage media on the Fly the UI despite its initial wow factor stumbles with the absence of basic quality of life features which makes it feel dated and clunky there's no dedicated app Library so you're left with the list of all installed items including system functions organized by recent use the absence of sorting filtering or grouping means you either scroll endlessly or use the search function which feels archaic in the context of a virtual reality headset the quest store also misses the mark on user experience want to find all the mixed reality experiences to take advantage of that one feature heavily promoted by meta well you can't filter by experience type so you must scroll and hunt for the Mr badge manually The Meta Quest touch plus controllers are a prime example of an intuitive design featuring an analog joystick two play buttons and a menu on the face plate all within easy reach of your thumbs the handle houses a trigger button for your index finger and a grip trigger on the inside both positioned where your hands naturally rest the ergonomic design is spoton offering a comfortable and natural feel even for someone like me who dislikes the way typical Gaming controllers feel in the hand powered by a single double A battery they are light and include wrist straps for safety I think this is where another third party accessory is warranted active straps that hug your hand to the controller so you don't have to hold on constantly the quest 3's tracking capabilities defied my expectations with its accuracy and responsiveness especially considering the compact array of only four cameras aligned towards the bottom of the headset when in VR the controllers become an extension of your hands and feel as if they're mirroring your movements in real time which isn't new tech by any means the generated pointers to interact with objects are accurate even during High fideli scenarios that demand heavy processing the tracking remains buttery smooth the visual representation of the controllers adds a layer of immersion in realism that really ground the experience however when you shift a pass through mode the illusion slightly falters here you can spot latency between your real movements and their virtual counterparts the delay becomes visible as the controller struggle to keep Pace revealing the fine line between virtual precision and real world latency controller tracking Works through a constellation of infrared LEDs and a specific pattern on the face plate which are tracked by the cameras this setup generally works well except in scenarios where the LEDs are obscured from the cameras think high above your head down at your sides or if you turn the controllers away from the cameras this is where clever prediction algorithms and hand tracking come into play hand tracking allows for the controllers to be tracked in uded situations by using your hand positions as a backup where this technology gets next level is that you can set down the controllers and only use your hands to interact with menus and apps your hands can be used as pointers much like the controllers and you can use gestures to interact with elements for example pinching your index finger and thumb together is typically used to execute a trigger press is it provides tactile feedback you can literally reach out and pinch virtual objects to move them around and this integration gets cooler still as it can track individual movements of all your fingers allowing you to sign and make full hand gestures the inclusion of depth tracking allows you to press virtual buttons where the lack of tactile feedback is supplemented with a visual cue and a sound which is more than enough to convince your brain that you've touched something this degree of tracking enables you to type using a virtual keyboard and it works surprisingly well my level of enthusiasm of this feature feels goofy but more so it feels incredible to be able to navigate menus by pressing virtual buttons and pinching virtual objects to move them around of course there are flaws there are moments when my hands seem to get lost especially when working in VR and looking up at a virtual screen presumably because the cameras can no longer fully account for my hands positioning which results in a tracking error message or flicking of the virtual hands in front of my eyes additionally the hand tracking isn't very precise with gestures or predicting my intent and will misinterpret natural resting hand posture is intentional gestures leading to unintended interactions with elements it also doesn't seem to do well with top down depth of a finger moving up and down down vertically presumably because not all finger positions can be seen from the camera's perspective another hiccup arises in mixed reality where your physical hands always appear behind virtual objects if you reach out to interact with something in Mr your hand disappears behind it momentarily breaking the immersion and causing a disconnect between your brain and the virtual world a virtual render of your hands is supplemented in most cases spatial tracking is another impressive feat of the quest 3 array with six degrees of freedom it captures both rotational head movements and translational body movements with within your space the headset can automatically scan your surroundings in real time to create a guardian boundary a virtual barrier to keep you from extending out of bounds in the Reel and potentially hurting yourself it can detect the floor objects within and wall to map an area you simply look or walk around your space once completed you can make edits to block off spaces you don't want to accidentally wander into or correct areas where it's scanned incorrectly the quest 3 keeps track of this boundary and your position within it when you're in VR and cross this boundary a grid wall appears to warn you and the area you're sticking out from turns red if you cross fully through the barriers the pass through cameras are activated so you can see your real surroundings mixed reality takes big advantage of this room mapping feature which we'll dive into in a second as I cross the 45-day barrier with the quest 3 it strikes me as a jack of all trades it's versatile tackling a diverse range of use cases with a level of competence and doesn't seem to excel in any one of them this trait gives it a unique position as the perfect entry-level VR headset as it offers a broad but balanced experience during this month of testing I've experimented across various use cases mixed reality productivity social Leisure and gaming if you found value in this video so far hit the like button below so that more people can see it first up is mixed reality and it was clear from my first encounters that these realities mix about as well as oil and water the technology underpinning mixed reality is genuinely impressive most notably how spatial tracking magic Maps your environment to create a virtual mesh of your surroundings in real time yet the novelty Fades quickly and you realize mixed reality like the quest 3's full body tracking has got no legs the overemphasis of mixed reality in meta marketing makes the lack of substantial content even more jarring it feels like we're left with more of a promise than a reality if Mr is your main draw to the quest 3 you may want to hold off until the ecosystem matures or meta relases an Emulsion blender take first encounters the flagship mixed reality game pre-installed on the quest 3 it's a need experience that uses your ceiling to drop a spaceship into your play area and spawns multiple waves of fluffy ball monsters hungry for your ankles that burst through your walls your objective is to capture as many as you can to get the highest score possible within the allotted time frame in doing so you can also break the walls to peer out into the virtual world the virtual part of the game is vibrant and engaging but it's let down by the pass through camera's low resolution and poor light handling which leads to a fuzzy and underwhelming representation of your real world surroundings and far from the crisp visuals showcased in meta's marketing the cameras which are apparently 16 me pixels bend down to 4 megapixels have tiny sensors that struggle to get in adequate light in most environments pass through mode which can be activated at any time with a double tap on the headset allows you to exit a virtual experience the quality is about passable for quick practical uses like grabbing a drink from the fridge without having to take your headset off but fall short of being genuinely useful for interactive Mr experiences I think if you were to wear this to an optometrist and run the Snell and eye test you'd be pronounced legally blind if you're interested in a deeper dive into the camera quality I've made a video to help set expectations around the experience to combat meta unrealistic marketing now back to the balls of fluff trying to bite your ankles after the timer runs out the game is over and that's it there's no replayability as the gameplay Loop genuinely is not fun The Experience lies solely within its novelty the only replay value that I found is when friends or family who've never seen it before come over and you'd like to share that novel experience and I've not had a single person Express the urge to play it a second time the bottom line is that it's essentially a tech demo that showcases the ability to break planes of a cube in mixed reality naturally you head to the quest store to see what else exists only to discover another sore Point not only can you not filter by mixed reality experiences but the store is nearly void of them apps like piano Vision where you mimic playing a piano to guitar Heroes notes are conceptually brilliant however the limitations of hand tracking causes the experience to fall short by resulting in misn notes and erroneous hits while it can be made functional by connecting a physical MIDI controller to your PC this workaround defeats the purpose of a mixed reality experience especially considering you can download melodics on your PC and get real learning material and look slightly up at the screen tabletop games and puzzles emerge as the only viable Mr experiences but also start to tow the line between AR and Mr Dio a tabletop role playing game is a primary example of an experience that utilizes what little value can be squeezed from mixed reality in its current state you can place the game on top of a physical surface and move around it creating an immersive play area right in your living room it can also be anchored in space for local multiplayer experiences despite the spatial tracking potential the automated Guardian system of the quest 3 lacks object recognition instead you can manually draw virtual boundaries to block out Furniture like coffee tables couches desks Etc and apps can utilize those to place Decor on top of or collide with to provide an immersive Ambience deio takes advantage of this by placing candles on top of objects and themed posters on your walls meta's marketing of more interactive mixed reality experiences called augments haven't yet been released I found some apps that have already explored this concept by allowing you to place trophies and other objects around your play Space while it looks cool the real world application feels limited why place a virtual poster on the wall to interact with to join a game when you can access everything directly on a menu in front of you and why do you need a virtual screen to scroll Instagram reels when we can just use our phones the future of mixed reality on the quest 3 feels uncertain it's evident that this feature isn't quite consumer ready so why is it here unless meta has a card up their sleeve with this incoming augments update my paranoid skepticism suggest they're relying on our camera data to run through AI in order to push forward the potential and unfortunate trajectory I see in our world where user data is a valuable commodity is the integration of ads into our personal spaces my guess is they're collecting maps with the inside of our homes to train through AI to both Inspire their next line of smart home or virtual products and so they can better detect objects in real time where I see this ultimately ending is an empty candle on your tabletop and a pointer over it asking you to purchase a refill or maybe it notices an empty Corner in your house house and will occupy that space with an ad for best house plans if you're a tech Enthusiast or an MR developer the potential of the quest 3's mixed reality features probably excite you and I think you're going to have a lot of fun however for the average consumer the current state of the quest 3 just isn't fleshed out enough and I fear you're going to run out of things to do after the novelty wears off and you've tried everything for the first time I was intrigued by the quest 3's potential for productivity through the use of virtual screens both Tethered to my PC and wirelessly working anywhere from my home the quest was marketed as a productivity machine for $1,500 and the quest 3 has the same Optics better pass through quality hand tracking and Hardware encoding during my first month with the quest 3 I embraced this new mode of work having five virtual displays at my fingertips while turning my head to look out the window of a space station orbiting Earth or looking down to see my keyboard and peripherals in the real is beyond awesome the experience has been surprisingly usable and I've had a lot of fun experimenting and setting up the perfect workspace I found myself able to complete lengthy work Sprints from a virtual office without any major hurdles or discomfort the social aspect in multiplayer lobbies adds a level of selective co-working by allowing for casual interactions and focused group work sessions the vibe is very transient and people seem to pop in for short Sprints of 30 to 60 minutes and leave as a reminder the quest 3 is a jack of all trades and its approach to Virtual productivity has limitations for heavy PC or workstation users it's simply not a perfect substitute for physical multim monitor setups the most notable challenge is the limited resolution of the L CD panel despite their 2.5k resolution the effective resolution of virtual screens feels closer to 1080p while higher resolution displays can be spawned you'll find that they need to be scaled up or pulled within close proximity to be readable you can see individual pixels in most cases and it can be difficult to read lots of text through the diagonal screen door effect which also causes aliasing on the edges of screens and UI elements it strains my eyes quicker than traditional displays so this could be attributed to the proximity of the screens to the eye the level of brightness and amplification by the lens the Optics while mostly clear exhibit a halo effect at the periphery which also impacts readability there are many virtual desktop applications that can display virtual screen but meta work rooms and immersed VR stand out as the multi-display productivity apps I found that the meta work rooms experience is more restrictive at up to three fixed resolution screens that can't be moved while immersed VR provides a more flexible and individualized setup with support for higher resolutions and up to five displays that can be positioned however you please immersed VR feels more tailored to individual use but still supports all the collaborative Enterprise features that work room seems to specialize in I'm able to set up portals to see through the virtual world to the real I've been putting one off to the side where I set my drinks and the keyboard pass through window to see my keyboard and peripherals I chose the Standalone Quest 3 over a tethered solution like big screen due to the similar resolution lower price higher refresh rate and ability to Go Wireless but for this use case the extra weight and the heat generated from the onboard s so make it less ideal for prolonged productivity it use ultimately neither's resolution is sufficient for them to serve as a permanent solution for daily work especially for those of us accustomed to higher resolution displays immersed is actually creating their own headset the visor with a 4K resolution OLED panel per eye I'm excited to see whether that's going to be enough and have placed a pre-order for those of you interested in this evolving space of Mr XR headsets I'll be trying to get my hands on as many as possible I've got the xrail air2 pros in hand now so subscribe below if you're interested in future reviews exploring the social potential of the quest 3 led me to some unexpected letdown meta's persistent promotion of transformative social experiences set expectations for bustling virtual lobbies and engaging shared experiences however the reality of meta Horizons fell short they've built a virtual Ghost Town tiny unpopulated lobbies frequented only by curious VR newcomers or children the sense of emptiness extends to most thirdparty social spaces too even on the quest 3's launch day where I envisioned there being an influx of new users to interact with a significant limiter of social experiences is the quest 3's microphone quality the audio quality is terrible and the popping from Air pushing into the sensor is unbearable to listen to it diminishes my desire to communicate as I don't want to inflict that pain onto any other users in the virtual world so there's yet another add-on that you need to buy in order to have a baseline experience on the platform there's a notable exception to these desolate social scenes and that is VR chat as a veteran in the VR social space VR chat hosts more populated lobbies however I still argue that most lobbies are empty with only a handful of instances sporting 10 plus users where most of them feel AFK and are seemingly dominated by a younger crowd it's reminiscent of AOL teen chat rooms from my childhood while it's great to see a younger generation engaging in this awesome medium the platform lacks a dedicated adult Centric environment most of my interactions with adults have been through the immersed VR experience during work hours I've recently discovered Niche subcommunities that cater to more mature audiences where virtual events are organized through through Discord the virtual club scene is one example that I've experimented with through tube VR and ghost I'll put both on screen here for you to check out these clubs offer live DJ sets and virtual lobbies where users can enjoy music and socialize and in some instances are meshed with IRL events however the quest 3 struggled quite a bit in these hi traffic environments in Standalone mode I was running anywhere from 15 to 30 FPS Max through the full 2 to 3 hours I was present with only like 15 people rendered in my view at a time next event I'll try jacking into pcvr to see how much of a performance Improvement there is my experience hints it a rich potential for socializing in VR waiting to be fully tapped into by those willing to explore or create communities but at the surface level it's completely empty the quest 3 excels in catering to a diverse audience through the sheer number of leisurely activities available from watching movies to meditating and exercising to solving puzzles and browsing the web there are nearly an infinite number of things to do and if you can't find something you can literally download apps to create your own virtual reality experience media consumption is the standout feature in my opinion watching your favorite movies or YouTuber on a colossal screen defies reality and feels incredible it's the one area where the limitations of the resolution screen door effect and ability to see individual pixels don't detract from The Experience virtual screens appear surprisingly crisp and clear and provide an unparalleled cinematic experience however the quest 3 just can't avoid faults in any category and here the catch is lens glare when viewing high contrast and scenarios the most basic example being white text on a black background the lenses suffer from a distracting glare that also lights up the back of the lenses to make it look like you're looking through smudged glasses it taints an otherwise immersive experience as so many movies Implement high contrast scenes their support for Native apps like YouTube Amazon Prime Netflix peacock and more which offer standard functionality and unique virtual environment but the real experience lies in thirdparty applications big screen a free app offers an easy entry into virtual media consumption and natively integrates some streaming services like YouTube Disney plus twitch and Pluto with a focus on multiplayer lobbies with seats for communal viewing however its beta status is evident it often fails to load media sticks me under the floor or crashes Skybox a $10 app swaps the broken multiplayer experience for a premium media Centric experience it lacks direct streaming service Integrations but you can load them up all the same and stream from a remote PC connection and it can seamlessly stream content from your local Plex server both apps allow for you to customize your viewing environment from cozy living rooms to Grand IMAX scale theaters support 3D content and enhance immersion with the use of spatial audio and dynamic screen lighting that fills your virtual environment you can Center the screen to your viewing angle meaning you can lay down fully in bed and look up at the ceiling to watch a movie mixed reality media is a narrative meta has run with after a trend of users posted themselves on social media networks watching YouTube while doing the dishes while it's possible the reality is not as appealing as everyone makes it out to be media apps don't support mixed reality modes so you need to dock either a browser or an app to The Meta UI panel there are many issues with this approach there's no way to Anchor this panel to your degrees of freedom so it's stuck in space and you have to carry it around if you wish to move piling further it gets hot especially when you're exerting energy and heat when doing chores it's simply impractical for anything beyond stationary activities like packing e-commerce orders Beyond media the quest 3 offers a canvas for creativity apps like gravity sketch and open brush the successor to Google's tilt brush allow you to paint draw and model in 3D space in both virtual reality and mixed reality the speed and scale at which you can build things is mind-bendingly cool and it does a great job at demonstrating the vast potential of virtual creativity meditation and relaxation apps are a dime a dozen and typically boil down to the same experience which is admittedly quite nice offering relaxation or guided virtual flights through stunning Landscapes or tunnels of moving geometric patterns or calming activities you can participate in to wind down before bed if you want to burn a few calories the quest 3 offers an array of workout app whether smashing virtual rocks boxing or following guided workout intervals there's plenty to keep you active I'd suggest buying active controller straps for this use case and taking it slow to give your neck time to acclimate to the weight of the headset gaming on the quest 3 is available in two modes Standalone where games are run entirely within the headset and pcvr which leverages the power of a PC to render the game and stream the video to the headset in real time engineered with a mobile first approach the quest 3's primary function is as a standalone gaming console as of this review it seems to be the only Standalone hmd from which the graphics are just good enough where I feel most users won't feel like they need a high-end PC to enjoy the experience though it does still require some tinkering to get the best experience while the visuals may not Astound with ultra realism they're more than sufficient to immerse you in captivating Virtual Worlds unfortunately there weren't many new games coupled with the quest 3's launch which was a bit disappointing that said games like the newly released Assassin's Creed Nexus showcase impressive mobile VR Graphics there's a clear difference in level of Det detail rendering distance and lighting Over The Quest 2 and it doesn't seem like it has been fully optimized yet for the quest 3 the extensive library of existing games from The Quest 2 era should have an inherent boost to Clarity and sharpness from the upgraded Optical stack of the quest 3 along with a slight bump in resolution though many titles still need to push updates and optimizations to take advantage of the new hardware you can Google to find a list of games that have been updated for the quest 3 it's no surprise that games with High Fidelity Graphics which struggle to render in nearly 4K at even 30 to 4 FPS but the resolution of the quest 3 still felt lower than expectations set by the paper specs as it turns out the default render resolution in Standalone mode is 20% lower than the LCD panels themselves and there's a lot of Illusions dancing behind the scenes to compensate to make the experience feel like a smooth one in order to fully unlock the potential of Standalone games you'll need to manually tweak settings or buy a $10 app called the games Optimizer to Super sample the resolution manually set your FPS and overclock the CPU or GPU all of which come at the offset of a faster battery drain which isn't great to begin with I didn't want this video to become a review of each of the individual games I tried so I will condense my entire Standalone gaming experience the good many of the VR mechanics are truly immersive and engaging though these aren't unique to the quest 3 the quest 3 undoubtedly handles them better it's capable of handling realistic physics which are convincing objects in your hands can collide with the world and NPCs and the force of actions can be determined by the acceleration of your controllers intricate actions like inventory man management opening and drinking consumables casting spells and throwing objects all feel and look authentic Gunplay mechanics like reloading a magazine and stabilizing a weapon with both hands and weapon mechanics like holding a bow and drawing an arrow are all remarkably immersive the game library is diverse there's a wide range of games catering to various interests and age groups from high octane FPS Shooters and RPGs to puzzles and sports there's something for everyone the graphics are satisfactory while they aren't on par with high-end PC CVR they are good enough to support immersive gameplay the magic behind the scenes to project rendered scenes feels smooth and there's not a lot of glitching there are enough multiplayer experiences and since most lobbies are limited in slots fill times are quick which makes the ecosystem feel populated the bad mechanics are fairly inconsistent and newer mechanics like parkour and Assassin's Creed often malfunction which leads to more frustration than enjoyment hand-to-hand combat can feel awkward I'll go as far as to say janky especially in games with enabled weapon and body physic the controllers often lose tracking during intense actions which is particularly noticeable in combat scenarios a significant number of games rely heavily on their novelty Factor lacking a compelling gameplay Loop that encourages repeated play and many of the mixed reality experiences as I discussed earlier feel underdeveloped and are riddled with bugs or fall into the previous novelty category and the Ugly the wireless connectivity seems to contribute to noticeable latency in multiplayer games as all parties are Wireless the latency is high enough in many cases to where it affects the gameplay quality visual Fidelity of most Standalone experiences suffer from cartoony low Fidelity graphics and low frame rates I think it's good enough for most casual users especially if one can find experiences that tickle their fancy but for anyone seeking high quality experiences connecting the quest 3 to a capable PC elevates the experience to an entire new level the richness and realism offered by pcvr highlights the future potential of virtual reality as a PC can render much more intricate scenes at higher frames per second at resolutions above native resolution for sharper visuals on top of the more realistic Graphics you can access the library of experiences unique to pcvr including the infamous halflife Alex and also non-vr games like Skyrim Fallout and cyberpunk which have VR ready mods halflife Alex which lived up to the hype as a VR experience and looked fantastic on the quest 3 demonstrates the stark contrast between Standalone and pcvr it's nearly a 4-year-old title at the time of this review and it's clear that mobile Graphics are going to need another five plus plus years to catch up to this level of fidelity Sim racing is a scenario I've dreamed of since I was young playing pole position on the Atari 7800 and VR might be what pushes me over the edge to building a dedicated Sim racing rig it's really that fun PC VR games can be streamed both wired and wirelessly since the quest 3 doesn't support direct display input games are rendered by the PC and pushed through to the headset as a compressed video stream and this compression is noticeable especially when looking into the distance where the level of detail falls off as the compression takes over large areas I've tried Quest link virtual desktop and the newly released steamlink and have streamed wirelessly for most of my testing from a dedicated router and the latency is not perceptible while I intended to be Tethered to my PC a majority of the time for the best quality experiences I still wanted the flexibility of going Wireless or fully Standalone when I want to wander about travel or lay in bed and the quest 3 offers all of that with arguably one of the best Optical experiences currently on the market now the age-old question is it worth it to recap the quest 3 is a jack of all trades capable of catering to a broad spectrum of VR experiences its versatility and range is incredible but this lack of specialization left me questioning who the device was intended for as a tech Enthusiast that has been lurking at the edge of VR for years a lot of the experiences I had truly tickled that perspective Chunk in my brain that few substances can reach and did so at a level of visual quality that felt satisfactory in Standalone mode generally the quest 3 feels like a perfect jumping inpoint to virtual reality and with PC VR compatibility offers both a confirmation of vr's current standing and a glimpse into its future potential but as a futurist with lofty expectations the quest 3 left me feeling like I'm still an early adopter of VR even though this is a third generation consumer device of a 10year movement VR veterans are raving about the new pancake lenses and while they Mark a significant improvement over the Quest 2 it feels like we're still leaps away from a Flawless viewing experience for daily Integrations that actually move the needle in our lives and I fear I may have crossed cross that threshold to where I won't ever get to experience the virtual reality that I long for existential crisis accepted let's break down whether the quest 3 is worth it both objectively and subjectively objectively the quest 3's price to Performance ratio is astonishing for only $500 the array of included features from the amount of Hardware in the pristinely engineered mobile form factor to the software ecosystem suggests that meta is selling at a loss an independent supply chain analyst and a tech Enthusiast came to the same conclusion and estimated that the quest 3 production cost hovers around $430 which doesn't account for R&D software shipping or other indirect costs and suggests their subsidized around $200 but for the consumer the true cost of a quest 3 extends Beyond MSRP due to all the accessories add-ons and apps necessary for what should be the Baseline experience you may have noticed a pattern in this review and that is that every turn there's an additional purchase needed to unlock the device's full potential I'd expect to pad your purchase price by $250 subjectively if your interest spans across multiple VR use cases be it any combination of gaming productivity mixed reality creativity Leisure or media consumption then it's a no-brainer the quest 3 is the best bang for your buck headset on the market and that doesn't seem like it's going to change for a long long time I fall into this category as a tech Enthusiast and will add to that that it feels like the perfect entry-level VR headset as you get to experience everything the VR ecosystem currently has to offer with one of the best visual experien is available which to me is like the most important piece of the VR puzzle if you're specifically interested in mixed reality I'd suggest holding off the current offerings simply don't match the hype or marketing surrounding the headset's capabilities there's very few apps or games that utilize mixed reality and i' argue that none of them do it effectively it's purely a novel experience and I'd wait for future developments to see if meta's augments bring anything real to the table or if another developer releases something worthwhile if you're eyeing the quest 3 primarily for productivity and virtual screens then it's not worth it unless you've set proper expectations or are combining it with another use case on this list the experience is awesome and immersive but the headset's limited resolution simply can't replace a multiscreen workstation plus it's too bulky and generates too much heat for the low resolution experience offered and the closeness and brightness of the screens will strain your eyes in half the time as regular displays I'm not sure there's any alternative on the market that could Faire better as the resolution seems to be the primary limiting factor for me I've benched this use case Cas and I'm holding out for the immersed visor which has a 4K OLED per eye for gamers and Social Butterflies the quest 3 is nearly perfect and is totally worth it it's by far the best bang for your buck especially for PC VR experiences it's a playground worth exploring and the visuals are better than I expected based on previous VR headsets for Standalone just remember to buy the games Optimizer app for the best experience for media consumption while awesome cinematic experiences can be spawned it gets a little Tossy if you can mix and match with any of the other Quest 3's use cases then it's surely worth it as watching movies is a great secondary use case however if it's your only use case then something lighter that generates less heat like xreal air glasses or any tethered hmd with OLED screens to get those deep blacks is probably a better bet otherwise a TV or phone is still perfectly viable for budget conscious consumers I suggest waiting for a future generation while I'm glad I finally took the dive I believe it only worked out for me because I'm a tech Enthusiast that couldn't hold my curiosity in any longer the question 3 still feels like a luxury early adopter Gadget and probably isn't the best investment at this time if you take a step back and look around the level of adoption is increasing rapidly and it feels like another company is announcing a wearable headset nearly every quarter and the VR landscape will likely evolve even more rapidly as 4K micro OLED screens are more easily mass-produced and get cheaper if you're interested in seeing more VR and AR headsets subscribe below for future reviews as I'm planning to test as many as I can get my grubby little hands on and for a deeper dive into the quest pass through camera quality check out my video here

Channel: ALINE tech

Views: 196,581

Keywords: quest 3 review, meta quest 3, meta quest 3 review, quest 3 headset, quest headset, quest 3 passthrough, quest 3 mixed reality, quest 3, quest 2 vs 3, best vr headset, oculus quest 3, quest 3 gameplay, quest 3 games, best quest 3 games, best quest games, quest 3 news, vr games, vr gaming, quest 3 unboxing, best vr headset 2023, mixed reality, quest 3 piano, quest 3 vs psvr 2, quest 3 battery, quest 2 vs quest 3, virtual reality, quest 2, meta quest, oculus quest

Id: f42UgKbaq_s

Length: 40min 1sec (2401 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 11 2023