Deep into Black Friday, Amazon has finally provided a great discount on a Meta Quest 3 512GB VR headset. You can grab it for the current retail price of $499.99, but Amazon is tossing you an extra $75 in Amazon digital credit. This is very comparable to the extremely popular Meta Quest 3S VR headset offer, which has been going around since the beginning of the week. I’m not complaining because Meta reduced the official retail price from $649.99 to $499.99 only less than two months ago. The additional $75 credit is simply icing on the cake.
Meta Quest 3 VR Headset with Batman: Arkham Shadow
Bonus $75 Amazon Digital Credit
The Meta Quest 3 is the best standalone consumer-oriented VR headset available right now. It builds on Meta’s heritage of providing a low-cost headset that does not require an expensive gaming PC, but can benefit from one if one is available. That’s a distinguishing characteristic that sets it apart from practically every other VR headset on the market, except from its own predecessors. It’s not the best deal on a VR headset. That title belongs to the Meta Quest 3S. However, the Quest 3 has enough features to make it the preferable choice for seasoned VR enthusiasts seeking a superior visual experience.
What truly distinguishes this offer from all other VR deals (such as the PlayStation VR2) is that the Meta Quest 3 may be played totally untethered. That means you can play games like Beat Saber and Pistol Whip without needing a strong gaming PC or a PlayStation 5 console. You’ll be hard-pressed to find another standalone VR headset at this price.
To sweeten the deal even more, every Quest 3 purchased this month includes the Batman: Arkham Shadow VR game and a three-month trial of Meta Quest Plus. We stated, “Batman: Arkham Shadow makes most of the Arkham series’ defining gameplay work respectably well in VR, and its mystery story pays off.”
Cheaper Alternative: Meta Quest 3S VR Headset
Bonus $75 Amazon Digital Credit
The Quest 3S is a significant advance over the original Quest 2 in every regard, and it does it without increasing the price. It includes many of the same features as the Quest 3, including as updated Touch controllers, an upgraded Snapdragon APU, and full-color AR passthrough. In AG4Tech’s 9/10 Quest 3S review, Gabriel Moss noted that “raw processing power, full-color passthrough, and snappy Touch Plus controllers make the Quest 3S a fantastic standalone VR headset that also brings entry-level mixed-reality gaming to the masses for – arguably – the first time.”
How Is the Quest 3S Different from the Quest 3?
The Quest 3 costs $200 more than the Quest 3S. Given that the price difference is 40% of the Quest 3S’s price, that’s a significant sum, but in my view, it’s worthwhile. The following is a list of the spec comparisons:
Quest 3S vs. Quest 3 Similarities
- Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor
- Touch Plus controllers
- 120Hz refresh rate
- Mixed reality passthrough (same cameras, different layout)
Quest 3S vs. Quest 3 Differences
- Lower per-eye resolution (1832×1920 vs 2064×2208)
- Fresnel lens vs. pancake lens
- Lower FOV (96°/90° vs 104°/96°)
- Smaller storage capacity (128GB vs 512GB)
- Longer battery life (2.5hrs vs 2.2hrs)
With inferior optics, the Quest 3S essentially has the same Touch controllers and extremely identical internals. That is more important than the paper indicates. The visual quality of the display has a big impact on how much fun you get out of your VR headset. You lose your sense of immersion if the image you perceive is distorted or fuzzy.
“The Quest 3 continues Meta’s legacy of offering a cost-effective headset that doesn’t require an expensive gaming PC, but can still benefit from one if you have it,” stated Eric Song (yeah, that’s me!) in his Quest 3 review. Apart from its own antecedents, that is a distinctive characteristic that makes it stand out from practically every other VR headset available. The $200 generational price increase is more than justified by the sheer number of improvements. The Quest 3 establishes a new benchmark for virtual reality and mixed reality gaming, and everyone else is prepared to spend the money.
Will the Deals Change for Cyber Monday?
I’ve found that a lot of the Black Friday offers, including ones that were sold out or expired, will be back for Cyber Monday 2024. In order to have at least some inventory on hand for every sale event, retailers typically release their best-selling items in batches. However, I also anticipate a ton of brand-new, unheard-of offers. Black Friday was traditionally referred to as the “retail holiday,” when the best bargains could be found in-store, and Cyber Monday as the “online holiday,” when the best bargains could only be discovered online. It is still true that many online-only merchants still view Cyber Monday as the year’s biggest sale event rather than Black Friday, even though the lines have blurred in recent years. Anticipate some incredible sales from traditional retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart as well as from online-only sites like Amazon, Newegg, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Actually, Amazon has already shifted to Cyber Monday in order to be proactive.
