It's been just over two years now since soon-to-depart CTO John Carmack told a Meta Connect audience about his vision for a super low-end VR headset that came in at $250 and 250 grams. "We're not building that headset today, but I keep trying," Carmack said at the time with some exasperation.

Meta's Quest 3S blends Quest 2 hardware with Quest 3 performance, offering an affordable yet powerful VR experience.

I reviewed Meta's Quest 3S, a budget VR headset with mixed reality and AI, to test its quality and value as an upgrade or a first headset.

The Meta Quest 3S is a remarkable virtual reality headset that transports you to immersive digital worlds. However, to truly maximize your VR experience,

This awesome bundle includes the max-capacity 512GB version of the Meta Quest 3 headset and its associated controllers, which normally sells for $650, but is now available under $500 at Amazon. The added Batman: Arkham Shadow and 3-month trial of Meta Quest+ is an additional $70 value dropped in for free.

As part of our initial Quest 3S testing, we checked how long the Quest 3S will last. Thankfully, it appears Meta was honest when it gave its battery life estimate.

FixIt's Shahram Mokhtari took a peek inside the Meta Quest 3S, the cheaper (but not very) alternative to the Meta Quest 3.