The Meta Quest 3 costs $200 more than the Quest 3S at retail, and for good reason. Although the two share several similarities - they have the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, Touch Plus controllers with inside-out tracking, and mixed reality passthrough - the Quest 3 features far superior optics. The Quest 3 adopts a new pancake lens design that's slimmer, has a higher resolution (30% more pixels), wider FOV display, and a bigger "sweet spot". The Quest 3 also starts with more storage. I own it myself (and I reviewed it for IGN) and have logged over a thousand hours in Beat Saber alone.
TL;DR:
- Quest 3 has sharper resolution (2064x2208 vs 1832x1920)
- Quest 3 has better lens array (pancake vs fresnel)
- Quest 3 has wider FOV (104°/96° vs 96°/90°)
- Quest 3 has higher storage capacity (512GB vs 128GB)
- Same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor
- Same Touch Plus controllers
- Same 120Hz refresh rate
- Same Mixed reality passthrough functionality
- Same tetherless and tethered functionality
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
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