A place to discuss any and all things Virtual Reality. Hey guys, I had the opportunity to test the Meta Quest 3 VR headset in London. Together with 12 other creators, I each had 45 minutes to test it in different games and applications. Of course, this short time is not enough for a full review, that will come a little later.. Mixed reality The Quest 3 is a mixed reality headset that is not only VR, but also integration into the real environment. For example, I was able to play a robot fighting game in multiplayer where there was a floating platform and I could see the other players at the same time. The passthrough function, which makes the real environment visible through the glasses, was ok, but the lighting conditions in the location were poor, so you could see some pixels. I’ll test it again at home as soon as I receive my test device. However, the tracking of the mixed reality environment was very good and stable. Setup The Quest 3 setup is very simple. You create an account with Meta using the Meta app on your smartphone, you have to be 13 years old and then connect it to the headset. You can then set up the play area using a laser pointer or have the room scanned by the new depth sensor. Design The design of the Quest 3 is fine in my opinion. The headset has three slots at the front for cameras and the depth sensor. The material of the headset and the controllers appeared to be of high quality. Performance The performance of the Quest 3 is very good thanks to the Snapdragon XR2 Gen2 processor. I was able to play games like Assassin’s Creed Nexus and Red Matter 2 (Q3 Edition!) without any problems. The loading times were also very short. Comfort The comfort of the Quest 3 is good. The headset is not lighter than their predecessor, but thanks to the pancake design the front unit is not so bulky and therefore feel much more comfortable and lighter. The standard strap is sufficient, but the Elite strap offers more comfort, which I was also able to test. Image quality, lenses and FOV The Quest 3’s image quality is better than I thought. The resolution of 2064×2208 per eye is higher than the Quest 2 and the pancake lenses are very clear, I didn’t notice any godray effects and the sweet spot was easy to find, I didn’t see any blurring at the edges. The field of view is a bit larger than on the Quest 2, but these days it doesn’t blow you away if you had a Valve Index or Pimax 8KX on your head. 90Hz or 120Hz experimentally was enough for me personally. I was very impressed by Red Matter 2, where I was able to try out a tech demo where you could instantly switch to the old Quest 2 mode at the push of a button. The difference was extreme and the Quest 3 version actually reminded me of PCVR! IPD The IPD distance can be continuously adjusted from 58-70mm using a wheel underneath the headset. Glasses wearers can use the eye distance adjustment integrated in the facial interface to achieve an optimal image. Controllers The Quest 3’s controllers are well designed and feel good in the hand. They are without tracking ring and cameras, which makes them lighter. The tracking is achieved using a combination of IR and hand tracking, so I was even able to “claw-grib” the controller without losing tracking. However, there were some issues with the front controller when I held them in front of each other. This could possibly be due to the poor lighting conditions that prevailed there. I will try it again at home. Sound Since the environment there was very loud, I couldn’t really test it. What I heard was ok, but I can’t form a proper opinion yet, please wait for my full review. Charging and battery life The Quest 3 can be charged with an optional charging dock or via USB-C. Battery life is approximately 2.5 hours and 4.5 hours with the Battery Elite Strap. The charging time from 0% to 100% is 2 hours. This information comes from Meta, I will check it myself in the full review. Miscellaneous The Quest 3 supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. It is compatible with PCVR and can be connected via cable or Air Link. Game selection The Quest 3 is backwards compatible and you can play over 500 games from the Meta Store. According to Meta, 50 new games and 50 updates will be released in 2023, including mixed reality updates. In addition, all Meta-PCVR and SteamVR games can be played with the Quest 3 as long as you have a gaming PC. Conclusion After my short session with Meta Quest 3, I’m quite impressed. The headset is very well organized and offers good performance. Mixed reality is a cool feature that I’m excited to see what’s next. The display, lenses and comfort were really good and especially Red Matter 2 really impressed me. But now it’s up to the developers to use the power of the Quest 3, because it is definitely possible to create really good, high-quality games and apps on the Quest 3.I will upload a full review of Quest 3 to my YouTube channel “VoodooDE VR -english version-” very soon, I will get the headset in week 40 2023 (next week).I also made a video of my first impressions:https://youtu.be/5jp39CYwfd8 GreetingsThomasVoodooDE VR