Meta’s entry-level VR headset used to run $299, but after a $50 price increase, this is a deal now.
Meta’s entry-level VR headset used to run $299, but after a $50 price increase, this is a deal now.
by
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
is a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021.
The Meta Quest 3S VR headset with 128GB of storage is $296.79 (about $53 off) at Amazon. This is Meta’s entry-level VR headset, which launched back in 2024 for $299.99 before getting a price increase this year to $349.99. So it’s not exactly the most exciting deal, but it’s about as good as you’re likely to find these days for a new unit.
The base model Quest blends a bit of the higher-end Quest 3 and older Quest 2 for a Goldilocks-style compromise. Like other Quests, it’s a standalone unit that operates wirelessly — until it’s time to charge it, of course. It plays a wide selection of games from the Quest store, like Batman: Arkham Shadow and Supernatural (once it relaunches), and if you don’t mind some added latency, you can wirelessly stream Steam games from your PC.
$297
If you bought a Meta Quest 2, you’re a prime candidate for the Quest 3S. It’s a faster, more comfortable VR headset that runs the same chipset as the pricier Quest 3. While its screen resolution hasn’t improved, nearly everything else about the hardware has. Read our review.
While the much pricier Quest 3 uses lighter, flatter pancake lenses for its optics, the 3S uses fresnel lenses just like the Quest 2 generation. But other than that, it’s got many similarities as the $600 Quest 3: the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, the same cameras with color passthrough video, and the same controllers. What you pay much more for in the Quest 3 is higher image quality, thanks in part to those refined optics and a higher resolution per eye. But the Quest 3S still looks fine with its 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye.
It’s a shame we’re no longer seeing the previous kinds of low prices the Quest 3S used to fall to, like when it was $249 around Black Friday, but with the way things are going this is as good as it gets for now.
Verge Shopping
Sign up to get the best deals on products we’ve found and tested sent to your inbox.
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
Verge Shopping
Sign up to get the best deals on products we’ve found and tested sent to your inbox.