New Meta Quest 3S promises great features at an even better price

While there are many different facets of the technology world which could be deemed innovative, VR headsets certainly seem like a good bet. These futuristic devices – also known as AR or MR headsets these days – seem to have captivated the attention of the market.

At the top end, we've seen devices like the Apple Vision Pro. Get beyond the eye-watering price tag, and you'll see a device there which wants to truly change the way we work.

Of course, getting around the price of these devices is easier said than done. But that could all be about to change, as the Meta Quest 3S has just been unveiled.

Billed as an entry-level sibling to the full-fat Meta Quest 3, the Quest 3S offers a lot of the core feature set from that device. Users will find the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor inside, offering killer performance. They'll also find the same 8GB of memory.

Where you start to see some differences is in the display and the lens setup. You won't, for example, find the 4k+ Infinite Display from the Quest 3. Instead, users get the 1832 x 1920 setup from the older Meta Quest 2.

Then, there's the field of view. That's also nabbed from the older model, and is slightly narrower than the current flagship. It also comes through the older Fresnel Lens, rather than the slimmer Pancake Lens.

Talking of slimness, this is a smaller unit that the old Quest 2. Sitting at just 73.9mm thick, the device is only a fraction chunkier than the current flagship. It's also a gram lighter – good luck noticing that – and will eek out a little more battery life overall.

Of course, the biggest benefit for the Quest 3S is the full-colour passthrough taken from the flagship device. That enables a full mixed reality experience, with a focus on the kind of spatial computing we first heard about with the Vision Pro.

Actually, maybe that's only the second biggest benefit. Because it really is hard to pass up the price of this model. From just £289.99 / $299.99 (approx. AU$436) this model is a really inviting prospect. For those of us who have always been intrigued by mixed reality, this could be the perfect starting point.