Fantastic as Quest 3 is, there’s no denying that its price point makes it difficult for many would-be adopters to purchase. Meta is seemingly aware of this, with the company long-rumoured to be working on a more budget-friendly option to replace Quest 2. Naturally, bringing the cost down comes with cutbacks but a new specs leak suggests the cheaper VR headset, codenamed Quest 3S, will be just as powerful but not as premium as its more expensive sibling.
Much as Quest 3 can make use of the best graphics cards to enhance its performance via PCVR, a large part of what makes the device so attractive is its tether-free capabilities. Quest 3’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset keeps VR games running smoothly and is a massive upgrade over the Gen 1 SoC found in Quest 2. Thankfully, it seems as though Quest 3S will retain this key specification.
Meta Quest 3S specs rumors
Following on from their previous leak of Quest 3S, X user Lunayian shared more details about the VR headset’s specs.
As mentioned, the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 makes a return on Quest 3S but there’s sadly no mention of DRAM or storage options. However, it’s likely that Meta will mirror the 8GB of memory found on Quest 3 to maintain performance across the two devices, backed by at least 128GB of storage.
However, games won’t look the same on Quest 3S as Meta has swapped out Quest 3’s 2,280p pancake lenses. While Lunayian claims resolution will drop to 1,920p on the cheaper headset, they stop short of commenting on whether these are pancake or fresnel lenses. The latter seems more likely, given their difference in cost.
Quest 3S refresh rates come in two flavours (90/120Hz), compared to the four offered by Quest 3 (72/80/90/120Hz). This further suggests a return to fresnel, perhaps even using the same lenses as those found in Quest 2, given the same resolution and refresh rate support.
All of these seem like sensible cuts, and I welcome the notion of a cheaper Quest 3. As someone who has spent a good amount of time playing Beat Saber on their Quest 2, I’d love to upgrade to a more powerful all-in-one system. It’s unclear when Meta plans to reveal the Quest 3S, but we hopefully shouldn’t be kept waiting much longer.
