Meta Quest 3 512 GB – The most powerful Quest – Ultimate virtual reality experience – Get a 3-month trial of Meta Horizon+ included

Very good overall experience, but a couple of areas could be improved. The main unit itself feels high quality and performs very well. Setup was straightforward, and once everything is adjusted properly, the overall experience is very enjoyable. The device works smoothly and does exactly what it is designed to do. Build quality of the core components feels solid and reliable. However, the facial foam and head strap are not the best quality and not very comfortable for longer use. They feel quite basic compared to the main product. Most users will probably want to buy third-party replacements for better comfort and fit. I have also added a photo of the headset with some third-party accessories installed, in case it helps others considering similar upgrades. Pros: * Good build quality for the main unit * Easy to set up and use * Performs very well overall * Reliable and well designed Cons: * Facial foam quality could be better * Head strap is not very comfortable * Likely need third-party accessories for improved comfort Overall, still very positive and enjoyable to use, just be aware you may want to upgrade the comfort accessories.

So this purchase is my introduction into the VR world, I have to say i'm blown away by it. The level of immersion far exceeds my initial expectations. There are 2 cons to this headset, which i will get out of the way. The 1st is battery life. For gaming on the big AAA VR titles, you are looking at around 2 and a half hours... other lighter use, maybe longer. The 2nd is the weight and bulkiness. The headset strap isn't the best and at times wearing the headset feels cumbersome. There are plenty of after market ones that solve the above 2 cons.. decent headstraps with built in battery to extend use. I purchased a link cable with built in charging and I'm quite happy having the headset charging while I'm using it so i dont have to worry about the battery running out. Now onto the positives; Game selection is vast through the Meta Quest store, a lot of big titles are there, these will cost you around 20-50 pounds, depending on the title. There is a subscription for Quest + which gives you around 20 titles to download and play for free. Linking to PC to 'stream games' from Steam is fairly straight forward and can be done 'Wirelessly' through steam link or link cable. Wirelessly streaming games from your PC means you don't have to be in the same room as your PC, it just depends on your internet speed and wifi connection to your network. There can be small amount of lag due to latency issues but nothing to make it unplayable. Link cable requires you to be in the same room to your PC and will require an aftermarket link cable purchase. There is far less latency issues using the cable. The Headset itself has an excellent resolution and reading other reviews seems to be one of the best. Which means the area for the sweet spot is quite large so its easy to adjust the fit to your head and no blurr/fuzzy edges. There is a little light bleed from around the nose guard, but again nothing that spoils the immersion. The Controllers require batteries, they do come with batteries supplied, however its something to bear in mind. Aftermarket charging stations along with rechargeable batteries seem to be a fix to that, however in the time ive had mine, I've gone through 1 battery swap on the controllers. Storage is great, apps aren't massive downloads so on the 512gb storage you can fit plenty of apps/games without worrying about clearing space. The Quest 3 can also be set up for full body tracking with the use of additional hardware and apps and connection to a pc. Ive not explored that area yet, so a simple google should explain everything you need to know. Overall, Id highly recommend the Quest 3 for VR / PCVR experience. Those that want a standalone VR experience but also the PCVR experience, for the money, its the best option right now.

I've had an OG "Oculus" 64Gb Quest 2 for 3.5 years now which I used for both native and PCVR gaming and was pretty happy with it. I wanted a Quest 3 but wasn't prepared to pay the £619 RRP. I decided to wait until it was under £500 before taking the plunge. Once the 3S was announced they dropped the price of the 512Gb model (whilst discontinuing the 128Gb and Quest 2) to a very reasonable £469 with Batman Arkham Shadow and 3 months free Quest+ subscription. I was impressed with the jump in hardware quality verses the Quest 2. The pancake lenses and resolution being immediately noticeable, as well as a much snappier overall response from the CPU/GPU. Being a PCVR gamer too I'm used to high end graphics and can honestly say the graphics on the Quest 3 are very impressive for the hardware limitations. Batman Arkham Shadow and Asgard's Wrath 2 for example, look fantastic. Even older titles that looked washed out on Quest 2 look significantly improved, with a lot of them getting "upgrades" for Quest 3. I'd say it's on a par with Xbox 360 graphically. It misses out on the usual GPU intensive additions such as high end textures, shadows/lighting etc. which are to be expected, but still very impressive for mobile hardware. Air Link/Steam Link/Virtual Desktop all work as expected for PCVR gaming and again, the pancake lenses really make everything look so much crisper than the blurry Quest 2 lenses with their tiny sweet spot. These are the positives of the Quest 3. The negatives are mainly to do with what I'd deem as mandatory third party additions: 1. Head strap with battery (this is pretty much essential if you want to play for a long time without interruption and proper comfort). If you have to make one extra purchase, this would be top of the list. 2. Facial interface (whilst improved vastly over the Quest 2, it's still not comfortable enough and also has no nose guard to block light which breaks immersion). 3. Grips (the wrist grips aren't really that good, so proper grips are also required) 4. Prescription lenses (not everyone needs glasses, but if you do, these are much better than wearing glasses, even with the built in spacer and they slot in perfectly). I've been using it a full month now and it's been great, it's such an improvement over Quest 2 and feels like Meta are really going in the right direction with VR. I hope this continues and they keep pushing the hardware, because it's certainly putting out some great VR gaming experiences so far, with Metro Awakening (which supports cross-buy) on the horizon (at time of review), for example. UPDATE: The only other negative is Meta's obsession with Horizon Worlds, which imo is very poor, they seem to be pushing this "app" more than the actual "games" the platform was built upon. I uninstalled it (but it appears it's going to be baked into the forthcoming v76 build whether you want it or not!). UPDATE: Six months later and it's definitely still a worthy purchase. If you sideload Quest Games Optimizer, you can immediately improve graphical fidelity, by instantly improving resolution and/or CPU/GPU performance with profiles. A real game changer, with just the resolution increase alone. You can also sideload ports of older games via SideQuest, such as Doom 3, Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 3 etc. so even more options for gaming. Due to the extra cost of third party peripherals, I would give it 4.5 stars overall (Updated April 2025)

Having been a VR enthusiast since the Rift development kit days, I have been through a few headsets at this point. And this is the best all rounder I've owned so far. My only negative comments would be that it (like it's predecessor the Quest 2) is not very comfortable and therefore additonal comfort items like a new face cover and headstrap such as the Bobo VR M3 is basically a required purchase. The same applies to an extra battery as the battery life is not great if you don't add some extra power. With the negatives out of the way, the positives are plentiful so I'll just summarise a few: - The new pancake lens are great and so clear. I only realised just how clear when I put back on my old Quest 2 and it looked awful by comparison! - The resolution has been bumped up a bit and at this point it's perfectly fine for reading pretty much anything in VR and the resolution is nice enough that 4K movies now look somewhere between 1080p and 4K to your eye. Pleasing image quality, if not quite at Blu Ray levels just yet! - On that point, you can also play 3D movies in your Quest! :) - Quest 3 has received upgrades to its connectivity so you can now play even better wireless PCVR via Wifi 6E. Lots of technical detail behind that, but it's quite critical to anyone that is investing in the headset to play with a PC - However, I'm also pleased to say that the Quest 3 is quite a capable standalone device now too. The new chipset means it can actually play reasonably complex games (e.g. Assassin's Creed Nexus) at a nice quality and decent framerate. To be honest, the Quest 2 just wasn't powerful enough. It really struggled with anything beyond simple stuff like Pistol Whip or Walkabout Minigolf. Quest 3 however, actually feels like something you would choose to play bigger games in! - Final comment: If you install the OculusGameOptimizer, you can get even nicer resolutions and framerates (at the expense of battery life) and I highly recommend any Quest 3 users look into that option! All in all, I'm very pleased I upgraded to the Quest 3. It's really re-energised by passion for VR!

Bought this instead of the 3S because of the fabled pancake lens quality, and don't regret it. Build quality is solid, but comfort was a big issue for me. I simply couldn't get it comfortable around my face with the stock head strap. Since the headset has a good amount of weight on it, you need to really tighten the head strap to prevent sagging - this doesn't work well for me thanks to my high cheekbones - physically hurting my face too much to keep it on for long sessions. Thankfully this was solved with a third part head strap, which I highly recommend, especially ones with battery packs. I ended up using it for work as well so being able to wear it for long sessions is a must. Speaking of long sessions, the battery life is ok out the box. I think given the stock head strap's comfort issue for me, I wouldn't even last a whole session anyway. But I think with accessories it's very easy to get a lot of life out of the headset wirelessly, with my 3 battery packs I can work all day in them easily. The pancake lenses do offer a more natural viewing experience, doesn't suffer from Chromatic Aberration like the fresnel lenses in my other current console headset. That said the resolution is still not high enough for my liking for working and reading on it, particularly when the text is further away. I don't think this is an issue if your primary goal is to game on this headset though. Sound quality was a surprise to me, it's definitely as good as my daily driver fruit branded ANC earbuds, with the 'advantage' of being completely open eared meaning I can still hear sounds around me. Very impressed. The controllers is where things starts slipping down for me. The lack of rechargeable battery out the box is disappointing, but I've already ordered a charging dock with rechargeable batteries so not an issue long term. They're also smaller than I expected - which both a positive and negative depending on situation. The controller slipped out of my hand the first time I tried Beat Saber, there just isn't enough natural grip for it - which surprised me due to how popular the Quest 3 is for the game. I've ordered some grips compatible with the aforementioned rechargeable batteries, so hope that will led to most successful sessions! The safety wrist straps were also a bit disappointing to put on, due to how easy the best current gen console VR's straps are to tighten with one hand. I don't use them besides when playing Beat Saber occasionally. Tracking with the controller however feels good. I think they just work as I expect them to, so no real notes. I was even able to draw a boundary behind me without turning around and it tracked fine, so kudos to the algorithms! Hand tracking / gestures on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired, with jitters, lag, awkward angles required, and movement on pinch leads to a lot of frustrating experiences. Even putting in my pin number to unlock feels like a real chore. One use case I have with hand gestures is to put the browser on the wall whilst I cook, and be able to scroll through the steps without touching anything. It worked to a point, until it picked up random gestures when I was flipping the food on my wok, doing weird stuff to my browser window as a result. I think this is something that could definitely benefit from software tweaks, the Immersed app has a quick gestures to enable and disable hand tracking - disappointed that something like that doesn't exist in the OS itself. App choices is hopefully something that will get better as time goes by. I've not really tried many games yet, but I've had a productive time using Immersed for work, will no doubt try others in time. The lack of options for password management (I saw LassPass on the app store) does limit things a bit. I use 1password and very strong passwords and it was quite cumbersome to log into anything. And no I will not use the built in password manager and end up having duplicated credentials in two different password managers. Ultimately I think it's a good piece of kit that needs additional accessories to fully fulfil its potential, so 4 out of 5 stars from me.

What should other customers know? I originally bought the Meta Quest 3s but upgraded to the full Quest 3 soon after — and it was absolutely worth it. The improvement in clarity, lenses, and field of view (FoV) is instantly noticeable. The pancake lenses offer a sharper, cleaner image with less distortion, and the wider FoV genuinely adds to the immersion. The mixed reality passthrough is a big step up too — now in full colour and much clearer. It’s really useful for navigating your space or blending your room into gameplay without feeling gimmicky. Performance is excellent: apps load quickly, tracking is rock solid, and the new controllers are accurate and feel great in hand. For standalone VR, this feels like a premium leap forward. Strap Comfort & Battery Life: That said, I’d strongly recommend upgrading the head strap. The stock one isn’t terrible, but in my experience it doesn’t sit well on the head — it puts a lot of pressure on the face, the adjustment is fiddly, and the elastic design isn’t the most comfortable for longer sessions. It’s fine for casual use, but if you plan to play regularly or for extended periods, it's worth looking into an alternative. I upgraded to a head strap with a built-in battery, which made a huge difference. It’s much more balanced and comfortable, and the added power means I can play wirelessly for longer. While being plugged in is fine for some use cases, the extra freedom from the battery is great — especially for active or room-scale games. Final Thoughts: If you’re coming from the 3s or an older Quest model, the full Quest 3 is a serious upgrade in every way that matters — visuals, immersion, speed, and comfort (with the right strap). It’s the best standalone headset I’ve used so far, and a clear sign of how far VR has come.

I've upgraded from a Quest 2 to a Quest 3. Quest 3 has better lenses/gpu/cpu so much better image quality and performance. Indeed, vs. the Quest Pro, I believe the only loss is eye tracking and the 3 is better specified than the pro in many respects. So, bang for buck, the '3' wins over all currently available standalone headsets. I currently use the stock head strap on the 3, which is much more comfortable than Quest 2. The only disadvantage vs. Quest 2, apart from the large price premium, is slightly lower battery life. But (a) I prefer playing VR in 30-60 minute bursts and (b) there are workarounds with third party headstraps/batteries if needed. As an Oculus Quest product, you have access to a huge number of games and experiences in the Quest Store, some of which (not many, yet) have already been enhanced to take advantage of the Quest 3's improved graphics power. I played through Red Matter 2 on Quest 2, which at the time was the 'reference' title for what could be graphically achieved on a standalone VR headset and was blown away. But with the Quest 3 enhancements it's even more stunning. At present, there are not too many titles that take advantage of the Quest 3's graphics or mixed reality capabilities. These will come, I'm sure. In the meantime, existing titles will look sharper on the 3 purely because of the improved lenses and processing power. I bought the 512Gb version because I had run out of space on my 64Gb Quest 2. You would think 128gb would be enough for a '3' but bear in mind that when games incorporate Quest 3 graphics enhancements they will require more installation space. You can offload games you're not currently playing to reinstall on your device later but reinstallation takes time, quite a lot depending on the speed of your internet connection and the size of the game. Finally, and I think this only applies until 26th Jan 2024, getting the triple-A new title 'Asgard's Wrath 2' free with the headset, is great. It is an amazing game that has blown me away with its scale and quality. So, in conclusion, a fantastic VR experience. It's quite a price hike vs. the '2', especially now the '2' has been reduced. If you want the best, most future-proof headset which will run all current and future (next 2-3 years minimum) games then get the '3'. For a first-time, toe in the water experience maybe the '2' at its new low price is worth considering. The 3 came out around 3 years after the 2, so assuming the same release cycle getting the '2' now, enjoying it and then getting the '4' in 3 years is an option!

Normally I don’t write reviews, but I feel so strongly about this Quest 3, If felt I had to. I researched this for a few weeks, mostly on YouTube. I’ve been taking 360-degree photos for years now and I wanted a device that would do them justice, so I purchased this 512GB Quest 3 as it had dropped in price due to the new 3S model just announced. I had watched video’s on how to connect it to a Windows PC and Mac, and it looked really good. I mostly use a Mac so I downloaded SideQuest and was ready to go. You have to follow a set of instructions the first time. You have to register as a developer to gain access to the quest on the meta site. When the Quest was connected to SideQuest I had to three folders of images to put onto the Quest. The first folder went on, the program crashed half way through the second folder. I tried again and the same thing happened. I downloaded a £7.99 app called SKYBOX VR which had a 4.5-star rating. Only 4 out of my 100 images in the first folder were viewable. When I loaded the first image, SKYBOX crashed and a message came up stating not enough memory to run the app. I manged to get another image working, by which time the battery was down from 100% to 58% with only 30 minutes use. I then used a windows PC to connect the Quest. According to Meta, you plug the Quest in and it comes up as an external hard drive in Windows, and you just drag and drop files. I tried several times and even reset the quest to factory default and tried again after about 30 minutes of updates. All the quest would do is charge when connected to the PC. I then read a review of the SKYBOX app where a customer explained that the App now allows a user to plug in an SSD and play files from that. I thought great, this is the answer. I plugged in my Samsung T7 1TB SSD. It came up in the app, I selected a 360 image and the App crashed again. I uninstalled and reinstalled and the same thing. I then tried a 1080p HEVC video. It started to play, then after 20 seconds, it started to buffer every other second. Meta goes on about how powerful the Quest 3 is, and it can run complex 360 games and so on, but it can’t play anything that I’ve thrown at it. A standard 1080p video and a 36mp 360 image should not be a problem. I have a Doogee T30 pro tablet which was £159.99. This tablet plays all my 360 photos and 1080p HEVC files. It even plays 4K HEVC video files and its processor is about a third of the power of the Quest 3, so something is very wrong somewhere! I tried their standard player that is built in the Quest and the video still buffers, so I have given up and Amazon can have it back. Being a technology geek, I am absolutely amazed at what I have experienced compared to everything I have watched about the headset online. Meta say they have invested billions into VR. I would say get a refund! I also found the battery life very, very poor. The resolution is nowhere near a 4K TV, not even close. The headset is front heavy, and I found it pulling down on my face, and every time I would take the headset off my glassed would come off my face with the headset, even though the spacer was set to the maximum, that should allow for my glasses. The headset would steam up, this maybe me, being frustrated at dropping £500+ for something that just didn’t do what I wanted it to do. I spent several hours trying to get this working, and it's the most frustrated I have been for many years. The unit has been designed not to be repaired. If you need the battery replaced, it is the last thing an engineer can get to. He has to strip down the whole headset down. Meta have gone out their way to make this process as difficult as possible. Over the two days I had it, I charged the battery four times, this is how bad the battery life was. The battery will be knackered after a year I recon with average use. Meta could have quite easily put the battery on the back of the head strap, like a lot of the third party accessories that are available for the Quest. This would balance the device better. They could have made the battery quick release, so you could hot swap them. The reason they did not is make more money! They want you to buy one of these every 2 years. Buying something new should be a pleasurable experience, but this was hell! VR is not for me in 2024.