Meta Quest 3 Is Still Searching for the Reason for Its Existence
Virtual reality suffers from an identity problem. Users’ first impressions are usually impressive, but once the “wow” effect of entering a fully immersive 3D world wears off, you’re left with the question: “But what is this for ?”
The Meta Quest 3 VR headset doesn’t provide a conclusive answer, but it does offer some intriguing glimpses into our possible virtual reality future. Ultimately it works better as a toy than as a tool, but it’s an insanely great toy.
What’s improved in Quest 3?
The Meta line of VR headsets is the only major standalone VR hardware, so the Quest 3’s main competition is the latest generation of Meta VR hardware, and the Quest 3 is better than the Quest 2 in every way except price (Quest 2’s new base price is $299.99 while the Quest 3 is $499.99 The 3’s higher display resolution is 2064×2208 per eye with a 90Hz refresh rate, compared to 1832×1920 on the Quest 2. (The Quest 3 even supports 120Hz, but Meta notes that’s currently only experimental version.)
The Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor is faster than the original Quest 2 processor. It has 8GB of RAM compared to the Quest 2’s 6GB. The new pancake lenses are much better than the Fresnel lenses on the Quest 2. The headset is thinner and more comfortable to wear. The controllers are lighter and have improved tactility. It even looks cooler.
But the Quest 3’s most striking improvement over the Quest 2 may be its set of six front-facing cameras, which will take you from the blurry black-and-white image of the Quest 2 into a possible future where augmented reality exists alongside virtual reality.
Quest 3 Specifications
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Processor: Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2
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RAM: 8 GB
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Screen resolution: 2064×2208 per eye
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Refresh rate: 72Hz, 80Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz (Experimental setting only)
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Field of view: 110 degrees horizontal, 96 degrees vertical.
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Lens adjustment: Allowable IPD range: 53-75mm.
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Cameras: 4 IR cameras and 2 RGB cameras.
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Audio: Stereo speakers compatible with 3D spatial audio, 3.5mm audio jack.
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Memory: 128 GB or 512 GB
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Battery life: 1.5–2.9 hours depending on usage (according to Meta)
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Charging time: 2.3 hours via 18W power adapter.
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Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 6E
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Headset weight: 515 g.
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Virtual reality effect “thank God it’s all over”
As advanced as Quest 3 is, it faces a major problem that I call the “thank God it’s over” effect. I’ve had amazing experiences in VR —fake fishing with my kid on Father’s Day, watching Dr. Phil reruns with strangers, pornography —but as much as I love VR, every time I take the headset off, I feel a palpable sense of relief .
For me and others I’ve talked to, immersing myself in virtual reality is a mind-boggling psychological challenge. Part of this is due to the bright colored lights bombarding your eyes. Part of this is due to the supernatural nature of the experience itself. There’s also a feeling of mild nausea caused by the microsecond delay in movement (and I’m actually not as prone to VR sickness as many are). The sheer weight and comfort of feeling like the thing is strapped to your face can be off-putting. It all creates a claustrophobic, unsettling experience that some primal part of me constantly wants to escape from. Eventually, even the thought of sticking this thing to my face becomes a deterrent, and my shiny VR gear is relegated to the closet, only to be seen by friends who have never used VR before.
A gentler immersion in virtual reality
The Quest 3’s cameras go a long way toward easing that “I’ve got to get out of here” feeling. When you fire it up, instead of being completely inside the car, your lobby is a full-color, real-time video feed from your living room. It’s blurry, but much less unpleasant than being immersed in the complete separation of reality of “immersive” virtual reality. From here you can enter the virtual space, knowing that tapping your helmet will take you back to the living room, or stay in this half-indoor-half-outdoor world for augmented reality. experience.
The front-facing cameras also allow you to track hand and finger movements, although I prefer controllers in most situations—pressing a button is easier than remembering which gesture does what. The improved controllers are lighter and more compact than the Quest 2, and don’t have that weird ring from the previous generation. For new non-gamer users, they are more convenient and intuitive.
Technology that makes people less sick
A faster processor, better resolution, and additional RAM mean the Quest 3 is able to keep up with your facial movements and display graphics at higher frame rates and lower latency. In theory, this means it’s less likely to make you sick than previous generations of Quest. In practice, I didn’t notice much of a difference; I still get a little nauseous, especially when moving quickly – stationary VR apps like Beat Saber remain the best VR experiences. In addition to its motion sensitivity, Quest 3’s graphics and computing performance are far superior to those of Quest 2: images are brighter, the field of view is 15% wider than the previous generation, and games and apps load noticeably faster.
The physical design of the Quest 3 headset is much better
The design of the Quest 3 headset is a significant improvement over the Quest 2. Even though the Quest 3 is slightly heavier than the Quest 2 (515g vs. 503g), the weight is distributed better, making the headset more comfortable, thinner, and more durable. more stretched out, which reduces the feeling of imbalance that can make VR slightly unpleasant. There are also much-needed vents to reduce lens fogging when gaming gets intense.
The improvement in weight distribution isn’t something you’ll notice in 30 seconds, but when you wear it for an hour or so, it’s a huge improvement that surprisingly makes VR feel less claustrophobic. Not for long, anyway. Even with the improved ergonomics, the Quest 3 still makes me feel uncomfortable and hot: “Why is this thing strapped to my face?” feeling after extended use, although less than other headsets I’ve tried.
The improved head strap is easier to adjust to fit your face better. In the case of the Quest 2, buying an upgraded headband was almost mandatory, but here the strap, ready to use right out of the box, works great. (That said, it would be nice if the Quest 2 accessories were compatible with the new headset, but I imagine the design change makes that impossible.)
Glasses wearers are also in luck: while you can purchase prescription lenses for the Quest 3 (another must-have for the Quest 2), the adjustable glasses spacer is built in and fits all but the largest glasses.
That’s all great, but what’s so great about Quest 3?
From a technology and design standpoint, the Quest 3 is an impressive package, but none of that matters if you can’t use it for anything. To get a feel for the Quest 3, I put it to the test using it for gaming, productivity, and communication. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the game was the winner.
Meta Quest 3 is a top-notch augmented and virtual reality gaming console.
The Quest 3 is great for gaming. I checked out Assassin’s Creed: Nexus as a “traditional” VR game and Drop Dead: The Cabin to take a look at the possibilities of mixed reality gaming. Both are great examples of the entertainment that can be had in virtual reality.
Without going into too much “game review” detail, AC: Nexus is great. Many VR games are still glorified tech demos, but the Nexus feels close to the real thing. It’s not there yet, but it’s close. Nexus is short and simple compared to “real” Assassin’s Creed games, but its 16 levels are impressively immersive. The combat, parkour and stealth really work, and the Quest 3’s improved hardware allows the game to run like clockwork. Graphically it may be on par with the PlayStation 3 game, but you won’t be able to get inside the PS3 game.
But my favorite experience was with Drop Dead: The Cabin . It’s a pretty standard shoot-a-lot-of-zombies game, but the home invasion mode shows off the possibilities of AR gaming. You map the room you’re playing in, and the game overlays fictional elements onto your home. The screenshot above doesn’t really do justice to the impressive technical specs – you should see it in motion. It has the feel of a classic arcade game with simple play and ever-increasing difficulty, making it ideal for the short playtime and lack of complexity found in VR games.
The Quest 3 also works great when connected to a PC and used as a VR monitor. You’ll need a fairly powerful computer, but if you have one, you can physically or virtually connect your Quest 3 to it to play more advanced games than a standalone headset allows, like Half-Life: Alyx . PC connectivity may be the Quest’s killer app, and it makes the $500 price seem less outrageous. The Vive headset, which doesn’t work as a standalone device, costs nearly twice as much and performs comparable.
Can you be productive with Quest 3?
To see if I could do anything “useful” with my Quest 3, I installed Pianovision and tried to learn some music. The idea is solid—a virtual piano tutor lets you learn to play the piano, Guitar Hero style—but it doesn’t work very well in practice. You can use Pianovision to learn how to play “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, but the fiddly settings required to overlay the virtual keyboard over the real one are annoying and I never managed to get them right. Even worse, the delay between pressing a key and hearing the note is noticeable, making it completely useless for truly learning music (unless you want to play to the beat). Playing on a non-existent “keyboard” is another option, but the finger recognition isn’t good enough to make it work, and the lack of ability to feel the keyboard makes it extremely difficult to play on. In other words, this whole thing is more trouble than it’s worth.
I also can’t justify using the Quest 3 for productivity reasons. I was able to use Virtual Desktop to control my Mac from the cyber universe, which is cool, but the virtual keyboard is as clunky and slow as an air piano, and using the Quest controller as a mouse doesn’t work very well. or. Like the virtual piano, it’s a significantly worse experience than simply using the real instrument, and any benefits it offers are negligible – a lot more work for little reward.
There are collaboration possibilities with Quest 3, but I don’t know how realistic they are at this point. Thinking that someone you work with will have a VR headset and be willing to put it on when you could be holding a meeting on Zoom instead is ridiculous.
Can you use Quest 3 to make new friends?
There are two main channels that people use to communicate in virtual reality: Meta Horizon Worlds and VRChat . They’re both terrible, but each offers their own unique flavor of horror. The tightly controlled social spaces and user-created worlds of Horizon World are a wasteland, while the generic style of VRChat attracts a lot of people but is extremely annoying. Almost everyone in both places is 10 years old, and these are not those 10 year olds who have good parents. So pick your poison: a handful of 10-year-olds annoying you in an orderly, corporate-controlled space, or 5,000 10-year-olds spamming and screaming on VRChat . I spent several hours searching for human connection in these two social spaces, and my overall verdict is that I never want to do anything like that again for the rest of my life.
Can you use Quest 3 to get in shape?
If you think VR fitness might be for you, the Quest 3 provides an overall better experience than the Quest 2, thanks largely to its improved headgear. Vents in the headset reduce vision fogging when you sweat, and improved ergonomics make the overall experience more comfortable. However, the Quest 2 is $200 cheaper than the Quest 3, and while some virtual reality fitness programs (including my favorite Thrill of the Fight ) have new playthrough options if you’re buying it as a workout gadget, The improvements the Quest 3 offers over the Quest 2 probably aren’t worth it.
Bottom line: It’s a toy, but a really great toy.
My favorite app for both Quest 2 and Quest 3 remains Richie’s Plank Experience . This tech demo, released in 2016, puts users in an elevator that rises many floors into the sky. The doors slide open and reveal a plank of wood hanging in the air. That’s all. The fun comes from letting other people try it and watching them experience the terrifying sensation of being on a board balanced 200 feet above the street. It’s not helpful, deep, or life-changing, but it’s fun.
While the Quest 3’s technological and ergonomic improvements point to the possibility that VR will become useful in the future, for now it’s just a cool new thing that will make you say “wow” or “I’m going to fall off this building.” cheap thrills, but sometimes cheap thrills make life feel worthwhile, so if you’re looking for a fun gift for the techie in your life or just want to blow your grandpa’s mind, the Quest 3 should top your gift list. If you’re going to live in a virtual world, you may have to wait a few years.