It's been just over two years now since soon-to-depart CTO John Carmack told a Meta Connect audience about his vision for a super low-end VR headset that came in at $250 and 250 grams. "We're not building that headset today, but I keep trying," Carmack said at the time with some exasperation.

As part of our initial Quest 3S testing, we checked how long the Quest 3S will last. Thankfully, it appears Meta was honest when it gave its battery life estimate.

The first hint of that is the headset’s Fresnel lenses, which iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari writes in a blog post are “100% compatible” with those used by the Quest 2. The headset has the older headset’s IPD adjustment mechanism, as well; and it shares the same single LCD panel, rather than using one panel per eye, like the Meta Quest 3.

The Meta Quest 2 has been a faithful VR companion to many, but here's why it's time to make the jump to mixed reality with the Quest 3S.

Meta Quest 3S is the latest iteration in the Meta Quest series that first launched in 2019 as the Oculus Quest VR headset. Even though it is not a performance upgrade over the Meta Quest 3, the intention is to make VR and mixed-reality even more accessible.

It’s fair to say, then, that thanks to the newly-released Meta Quest 3S – coming in hot with the same amount of storage space wrapped neatly in a baseline $299.99 price – mixed-reality gaming is finally approachable to everyone who might have been in the market to upgrade from the Quest 2.

FixIt's Shahram Mokhtari took a peek inside the Meta Quest 3S, the cheaper (but not very) alternative to the Meta Quest 3.

Meta's Quest 3S blends Quest 2 hardware with Quest 3 performance, offering an affordable yet powerful VR experience.