Even Though It Was More Affordable, It Still Made Me Uneasy

It’s been quite some time since I last donned a mixed reality headset. Although I have the Quest 2 at home, I haven’t been using it much lately, as my computing has largely shifted to a foldable Android device. However, my recent experience with the Meta Quest 3S at Meta Connect made me rethink the potential place this technology could have in my life. The only downside? It still makes me feel queasy.

Meta’s launch of the Quest 3S headset, priced starting at $300, is intriguing. It’s a bit more budget-friendly than the standard Quest 3 and is powered by the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 platform. While you do save money, there’s a trade-off in resolution, as the Quest 3S doesn’t provide as expansive a field of view. That said, it does offer a wider perspective than the Quest and Quest 2 models. Meta seems to be aiming this release at users like me—those who haven’t picked up a headset in quite some time and might be considering an upgrade. The headset boasts a full-color mixed reality passthrough, making it easy to navigate between realities during my demonstration by simply switching modes.

At the start of my Meta Quest 3S trial, I found myself thinking I had missed this kind of experience. Yet, by the end, I was reminded why I don’t frequently use VR headsets—I get motion sickness. Whether it was due to not having eaten or the room’s intense heat that was to blame, about 32 minutes into the demo, I found myself asking to remove the headset to regain my equilibrium in the real world.

Horizon World’s Music Valley Experience was the tipping point for me. Here’s where interaction with Sabrina Carpenter, whom I vividly remember from her Disney Channel days, felt all too real. You get so immersed in the experience that it’s almost as if you’re stepping into someone else’s personal space. It was too close for comfort.

At one juncture, another avatar joined me, dancing alongside and guiding me through the virtual playground. We navigated to a floating alien spaceship emitting musical notes. Maneuvering my joysticks as make-shift claws to catch these notes proved challenging, and it was during this task that my stomach started to rebel.

There were moments where the Quest 3S experience shone. I watched the opening segment of a Celine Dion special on Amazon Prime, where her voice was as enchanting as ever. Sitting in a field of daisies in an 8K, 3D YouTube video was pleasantly tranquil. I rearranged virtual windows and stacked them in a haphazard manner just for fun. However, my attempt to play an Xbox game was thwarted by a faulty demonstration controller. I did manage a session of Just Dance, but by then, my VR tolerance had nearly reached its limit.

The motion sickness hit hardest in Horizon Worlds, largely due to the absence of a stable point to help anchor my balance, similar to how one might use the horizon on a watercraft. Strangely enough, I didn’t think sitting in a chair could trigger such a reaction. In the future, that’s likely what I’ll do: sit still when using a headset. While Meta has succeeded in lowering the Quest’s price, they still need a solution for those of us with susceptible stomachs in virtual and mixed reality realms.

The new Meta Quest 3S is available for preorder, starting at $300 for the 128GB model and going up to $400 for the 256GB version. Official sales begin on October 15.