Meta’s Quest 3S landed in Australia in late 2024, and after a few months with the headset, it’s worth cutting through the marketing noise to give a straight assessment. At $499 AUD for the 128GB model, it sits in an interesting spot — cheaper than the Quest 3, but not exactly budget territory either.

What You’re Getting

The Quest 3S is essentially Meta’s attempt to bring mixed reality to a wider audience. It uses the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset as the Quest 3, which means performance is identical in most scenarios. Games run at the same frame rates, apps load at the same speed, and the overall software experience is indistinguishable.

Where Meta cut costs is the optics. The Quest 3S uses Fresnel lenses rather than the pancake lenses found in the Quest 3. In practice, this means a slightly thicker headset and marginally less clarity at the edges of your vision. For most users, particularly those who haven’t spent hours in a Quest 3, the difference is subtle rather than dramatic.

The passthrough cameras are also a step down. You get full colour passthrough for mixed reality, but the resolution is noticeably lower than the Quest 3. Text on your phone is harder to read, and the overall image has more grain. It works well enough for seeing your surroundings and basic mixed reality games, but it’s not the kind of experience that makes you forget you’re wearing a headset.

Australian Pricing and Availability

Here’s where things get practical for Australian buyers:

• Quest 3S (128GB): $499 AUD
• Quest 3S (256GB): $599 AUD
• Quest 3 (512GB): $749 AUD

You can pick one up from JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Amazon Australia, or the Meta Store directly. Stock has been generally available since launch, which is a welcome change from the supply constraints that plagued earlier Quest releases in Australia.

One thing to note: the Australian pricing includes a Meta Quest+ subscription for the first three months, giving you access to a rotating catalogue of games. After that, it’s $12.99 per month, which is worth considering in your total cost calculation.

How It Compares to the Quest 3

The honest comparison comes down to three questions:

Are you new to VR? If you’ve never owned a headset, the Quest 3S is genuinely hard to fault at $499. You’re getting the same processor, the same game library, and the same hand tracking. The lens and camera differences won’t bother you because you have no frame of reference.

Are you upgrading from a Quest 2? This is where it gets interesting. The Quest 3S is a meaningful upgrade from the Quest 2 in every respect — better processing power, colour passthrough, improved hand tracking, and a more comfortable design. At $499 versus $749 for the Quest 3, the savings make a strong case.

Do you already own a Quest 3? There’s no reason to consider the 3S. It’s a step sideways at best.

The Mixed Reality Story

Meta is pushing mixed reality hard, and the Quest 3S supports it fully. Games like First Encounters and apps like Spatial work as expected. The lower-resolution passthrough is a limitation, but for gaming and casual mixed reality use, it’s adequate.

For professional or enterprise mixed reality applications — think architectural walkthroughs or remote collaboration — the Quest 3’s better cameras make a noticeable difference. If that’s your use case, the extra $250 is justified.

Battery Life and Comfort

Battery life sits at roughly two to two and a half hours under typical use, which is consistent with the Quest 3. It’s not great, and if you’re planning longer sessions, the Elite Strap with Battery ($99 AUD) is almost essential.

Comfort out of the box is acceptable but not exceptional. The default strap does the job for shorter sessions, but most users will want to invest in an aftermarket or official strap upgrade within the first month.

The Verdict for Australian Buyers

The Quest 3S is the best value standalone VR headset available in Australia right now. That’s not a controversial statement — it’s the only real option in its price range that offers this level of performance and content library.

If you’re curious about VR and don’t want to spend $750 or more, the Quest 3S is the obvious entry point. The compromises Meta made to hit the $499 price are real but reasonable. You’re getting 90% of the Quest 3 experience for 65% of the price.

For enterprise buyers evaluating headsets for training or collaboration pilots, the Quest 3S also makes sense as a lower-cost way to test the waters before committing to larger deployments with more capable hardware.

It’s not perfect, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. But for what it costs in Australia, the Quest 3S does exactly what it needs to do.