Meta Quest 3S is a pared down mixed-reality headset priced at $300

A year after launching the Meta Quest 3 mixed-reality headset, Facebook’s parent company is introducing a new model called the Meta Quest 3S that offers many of the same features for less than half the price.

Available for pre-order now for $300 and up, the new model could is the cheapest member of the current Meta Quest lineup, even though it has the same processor and controllers as the Meta Quest 3, which sells for $500. So what compromises did Meta make to bring the price down?

In a nutshell, two things: the displays and storage.

While the display resolutions don’t look all that different on paper, Meta refers to the Quest 3 as having a 4K, screen while the Quest 3S has a FHD display. But a look at the refresh rates, field of vision, and lenses suggests that while the Meta Quest 3 is available with up to twice as much storage as a top-of-the-line Quest 3S, the bigger difference is that everything should look a bit better if you opt for the more expensive model.

Still, with the same Snapdragon XR Gen 2 processor and 8GB of RAM in both models, you should be able to run the same apps and games on both devices. And despite using a slightly smaller battery in the Meta Quest 3S, the company says you can expect slightly longer battery life from this model, presumably because the new displays consume a little less power.

When the Meta Quest 3 first launched last summer, it was available at two price points: 128GB of storage for $500 and 512GB for $650. Meta says it’s removing the 128GB model from its lineup and dropping the price for the 512GB model to $500.

Meanwhile the company is ending sales the older Meta Quest 2 headset and the premium Meta Quest Pro.

via Meta