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The most important spec of any VR device is its display. Since the Quest 3S has the same display as a Quest 2, this is more of a Quest 2+ than a Quest 3 Lite.

The current best deal seems to be a used or refurb Quest 3 for $450.

The display is the most important spec for a subset of users. A 25% improvement in PPD is a big deal for productivity applications, but it just isn't particularly noticeable if you mainly play Beat Saber and Gorilla Tag.

In every respect other than the display, the 2s is basically a Quest 3 - you get stereo colour passthrough, the newer Gen 2 SoC, more RAM and the ringless controllers.

> ringless controllers

I was never bothered by the Q2 controller rings. On the contrary: they saved my knuckles from punching straight into my ceiling (oh how I miss Echo VR!)

nice, you call it the 2S
I used to think display resolution mattered more to the general public, but even today you have people plenty happy with FHD computer monitors they look at all day.

TVs also aren't usually great, and people look at them all day long for years without much complaints.

All to say, there's definitely a market for a VR headset with a "good enough" display with more focus on processing power and other capabilities.

That said, the bump in battery/processor, tracking for controllers, and passthrough should be nice for folks that more wanted something to try in the vein of the 2, versus the "step up" to the 3
It would have been, had I not watched a graphics comparison between the 2 and 3. Now I have no choice but to replace my 2 with a 3.
The lenses is the most important "spec". Also the hardest to put numbers on, have to be experienced.
Yet who owns OLED TVs? Most people don't care unless it's affordable
The killer app for these cheap headsets is streaming software, like ALVR or Virtual Desktop. I've been playing No Mans Sky and VTOL VR (with Proton!!!) and streamed to my headset with surprising stability and little latency.

The standard native Quest games are okay, but my OG Quest 1 really shines when you use it to play wireless PCVR streamed over Wifi. I would not be surprised if this was the main use-case for these headsets nowadays.

The latency is brutal though, compared to content running on-device or a headset with regular display input. I'm particularly prone to motion sickness though - it might be an acceptable tradeoff if you're not.

(Image compression over wireless or even USB is noticeable as well, but I can overlook that for the price.)

Spec comparison page: https://www.meta.com/quest/compare/
So it looks like it's basically the same as the Quest 3 except for the screen resolution and the use of different lenses (instead of the pancake lenses). Everything else seems similar or even better (and there's a new button to transition from AR to VR akin to the one on the Apple Vision Pro).

At half the price, the Q3S seems to be a nobrainer no?

1832 x 1920 is the same resolution from the Quest 2, and fresnel lenses may come from that as well.

That effectively means it's Quest 2 optics with a Quest 3 GPU and color passthrough.

The premium Quest 3's lenses and displays are no doubt better, but for the entry level hardware this is still a good upgrade.

The better GPU will mean it doesn't need to lean as hard on "foveated rendering" where the center of the screen is at high resolution and everywhere else is blurry and upscaled with unreadable text. I say "foveated" in quotes because it doesn't know where your eyes are looking, only how your head is oriented, so if you want to see something in detail you need to point your face at it.

The downgrade in lens type is a huge difference in user experience. Pancake lens is strictly superior than fresnel in almost all aspects, unless you want OLED. In the case of 3S you don't get OLED anyways, so it's a pretty big downgrade.
Lower resolution, lower FOV and Fresnel lens...

Not really nobrainer if you want the best experience. And things like these could make or break the VR immmersion.

I don't use my Quest 2 because it's so annoying trying to keep the screen in focus with the fresnel lenses.
And they are still featuring beat saber as their killer app.
I'll never buy another VR headset without pancake lenses.
I've returned my Quest 3 because it gave me a headache, dry eyes and the passthrough was not at all like advertised.

Saw of people watching there phone screen, that was not possible with my unit.

Did you find it headache-inducing compared to other VR headsets or just in general?
Those symptoms affect relatively few people, and usually not in the long term. Thankfully, I am not one of them.
yeah a lot of the videos and comments are so misleading. There were reports of people completely resetting their devices for 20+ times just to try to improve passthrough. Even with good pass through its not worth wearing a helmet still
Some people are quitters and some people push through the initial discomfort
Can this headset only run meta apps or you can connect it to your machine and is it as a vr headset in like steam ?
You can run apps from meta store, sideloaded apps from https://sidequestvr.com/ and use Steam link/Air Link/Virtual Desktop to wirelessly play PC VR.
I use a Quest 3 and do almost all of my gaming with Steam + Virtual Desktop and wireless PCVR. Including games available natively on the Quest like Beat Saber. (It's a lot easier to mod the PC version.)
There are only seven titles in the library on the website, which is a bit underwhelming. Would I be able to play my Quest I titles, too (like Trevor Saves the Universe and Superhot)?
The Quest 3S should be compatible with the full library of Quest titles.
interesting tradeoff wrt to the display. i can understand why it was made and why xr was prioritized over better visuals. it would've been a sell for me if they went with the newer lens at least.
> Log into your Meta account to continue

Pretty crazy I have to login to view this. I despise the internet's evolution where everything expects an account.

That's weird, I specifically never log into meta properties outside of the browser's dedicated containers and this page gave me no prompt whatsoever.

Perhaps it's detecting a previous session that timed out or some other liminal state ?

"Log into your Meta account to continue"

Nope.

The specs are impressive. I feel like we're seeing a sci-fi future develop before our very eyes.

Unfortunately, I am starting to think we will get to "The Matrix" only instead of using us for harvesting our heat energy, Meta will just make us view ads all day.

In the Matrix books, the machines actually used the brain power of humans, rather than their energy. The makers of the movies just thought people would be too stupid to understand that.
Nitpick: In the matrix they harvest bioelectricity, not heat. Not that it makes any more sense.
If you view ads all day you won’t be buying anything
Link is gated behind a facebook/meta account.
You can "Decline optional cookies" and browse without being logged in, at least in Europe. (Just tested in a private window, FB/Meta is only allowed in a separate container on my computer.)
As is the Meta Quest 3S.
will the external cameras finally be available to apps? they're crowing about mixed reality, but previous quest can only do passthrough - even the most basic use of the external cameras is extremely limited and requires workarounds.
They announced a passthrough API for next year, so yay to that. That's def going to open up even move possibilities.
Quest 3 has had full passthrough AR for a year now
The display specs are pretty impressive. Mostly superior to the Valve Index, which costs $500 without the controllers ($1000 with the controllers and trackers) versus $320 for the Question 3S (including controllers!).
The Valve Index is five year old hardware inexplicably still being sold at its original launch price to this day, it really isn't relevant anymore.

Even the Quest 2 had a higher display resolution, four years ago, for $300 at launch.