spatialcomputing.info

Meta is widely expected to reveal the Quest 3S headset next week during the Meta Connect event. The company aims to introduce a new headset with mixed reality capabilities similar to Quest 3, but at a cheaper price. An apparent leak suggests the headset could be its most affordable yet.

According to Reddit user Vast_Front259, an Amazon ad seen on the Peacock streaming service shows the Quest 3S with 128GB of storage priced at just $300. This comes before the headset has been formally announced, which would mean the ad aired ahead of schedule.

While the ad looks legitimate, the Reddit user in question does not have a strong account history. The video that plays before the price is a previously released ad that only shows the Quest 3 in the video itself. So we remain somewhat skeptical, but nothing about this leak is fundamentally implausible.

If Quest 3S is priced at $300, it would be the most affordable Quest headset yet.

The original Quest headset was launched in 2019 for $400.

And while Quest 2 actually launched at $300, Quest 3S is expected to run on a newer processor and have mixed reality capabilities that are much closer to Quest 3—and it should run upcoming Quest 3 ‘exclusive’ content that Quest 3 cannot. So Meta has never offered a headset with such capabilities and performance at this price.

And let’s not forget about inflation. Quest 2 launched in late 2020 at $300. If Quest 3S is indeed priced at $300 in 2024, that would be just $250 in 2020.

Quest 3 launched in late 2023 for $500. And while it’s clearly Meta’s best Quest headset yet, the price and lack of killer apps for its mixed reality capabilities gave it less traction than it might have had otherwise. As far as we know, Quest 3 still hasn’t outsold the much more affordable Quest 2.

At $300, Quest 3S could finally hit the price point needed to bring Meta’s mixed reality features to the majority of Quest users—finally giving developers more incentive to build rich mixed reality content.