There's something to the old adage though, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". And thus, iFixit's breakdown of the Meta Quest 3S reveals some surprises—it's using a lot of the same parts as the Meta Quest 2.

The first hint of that is the headset’s Fresnel lenses, which iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari writes in a blog post are “100% compatible” with those used by the Quest 2. The headset has the older headset’s IPD adjustment mechanism, as well; and it shares the same single LCD panel, rather than using one panel per eye, like the Meta Quest 3.

It’s fair to say, then, that thanks to the newly-released Meta Quest 3S – coming in hot with the same amount of storage space wrapped neatly in a baseline $299.99 price – mixed-reality gaming is finally approachable to everyone who might have been in the market to upgrade from the Quest 2.

It's by far the best value in VR. But the question is, should you upgrade to it or go with Meta's even better model?

Meta Quest 3S is the latest iteration in the Meta Quest series that first launched in 2019 as the Oculus Quest VR headset. Even though it is not a performance upgrade over the Meta Quest 3, the intention is to make VR and mixed-reality even more accessible.

I reviewed Meta's Quest 3S, a budget VR headset with mixed reality and AI, to test its quality and value as an upgrade or a first headset.

FixIt's Shahram Mokhtari took a peek inside the Meta Quest 3S, the cheaper (but not very) alternative to the Meta Quest 3.

The Meta Quest 3S has some of the best features of the Meta Quest 3, for $200 less. You’ll just need to accept the limited memory and lenses.