The price of Quest 3S has seemingly been leaked by an early ad, revealing it will start at $300 for the 128GB model.
Reddit user Vast_Front259 posted a recording of the Peacock running on their phone that they say they took with their laptop webcam because the streaming service’s DRM prevents screen recording. It’s a Quest 3 ad we’ve seen before, but at the end a render is shown of it alongside Quest 3S, Meta’s repeatedly leaked next headset, alongside the text “Starting at $299.99”.
The smallprint below the renders reads “Meta Quest 3S 128GB is $299.99. Content sold separately.” below an Amazon logo. Listing the storage suggests that like Quest 3 and Quest 2, multiple storage variants of Quest 3S will be offered.
This apparent leak comes less than a week before Meta Connect, the company’s annual conference where it’s expected to launch Quest 3S.
Quest 3S: Meta’s Leaky Next Headset
Details and images of Quest 3S have been leaking repeatedly for months now.
The headset’s design first appeared in a leaked presentation from a Meta “Design System Research study” back in March, though at the time many dismissed this as fake.
A Quest 3S was seemingly present in the background of a video posted by Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth in June, and Bosworth even replied at the time with a teasing confirmation.
In late July a VR headset accessory maker shared what appeared to be the first clear image of Quest 3S, and earlier this month an official render of the headset was found in the Meta Quest Link PC files as Chinese accessory makers started selling accessories for the headset, complete with apparent images of it.
Leaked Quest 3S Photos Reveal Battery Size & Missing Port
Even more Quest 3S photos have leaked. They confirm it lacks a headphone jack and reveal its battery size.
Last week official Meta support pages started referencing Quest 3S, with one describing it as having a new button to toggle passthrough. And the day after, nine images leaked showing the headset from the front, top, bottom, rear, and both sides, confirming it lacks a headphone jack, as well as an image of the regulatory tag revealing its battery size.
Quest 3S: What Exactly Is It?
A wide range of leaks and reports, including Meta’s hardware roadmap leaking in 2023, reveal Quest 3S is a cheaper version of Quest 3 intended to replace Quest 2 in Meta’s lineup.
Quest 3S will reportedly feature the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset and color passthrough mixed reality capabilities as Quest 3, but use the old fresnel lenses and single panel from Quest 2 to achieve a price between $300 and $400.
XR2 Gen 2: Quest 3’s New GPU More Than Twice As Powerful
Quest 3 is the first headset to feature Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset, with up to 2.5x more GPU performance and 8x AI performance. More details here:
Effectively, Quest 3S should be a cheaper Quest 3 with a bulkier design, inferior lens clarity, and lower resolution. A lower quality device, but with the same content, features, and capabilities. It should let more people enjoy Quest 3 VR graphics, and vastly expand the room-aware mixed reality market too.