Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Consider supporting me on Patreon so I can continue my suffering on future XR hardware reviews ♥ bradsmells.com/patreon
@@Codybakes it's possible, you can pair bluetooth headphones to the bluetooth interface, but you really don't wanna use it over the built in mic, because it adds heavy audio delay for whatever reason. at least for sound output, i expect the same to apply to sound input. and then there are wireless headphones that connect via usb-c dongle, you can plug these into the headset, but you will lose the ability to charge the headset midgame, which also is less then optimal. i think anker made some of these. will have to look into that once i decided whether i keep my Q3. and it's really kind of shocking to me that we have to jump through these hoops. they built this awesome device that excels in so many aspects and levels, and the one where you'd expect them to really care about they completely neglect. the people responsible for this mess should reconsider their life choices.
Even with the elite strap and WHILE PLUGGED INTO THE WALL the battery dies! Now granted, I have to really be putting it through its paces for the power draw to exceed the recharge rate, but compared to my Valve Index which had infinite run time, 8 hours sucks.
@@mikejohnson3338 According to whom? I've never seen anything that supports that claim. At least, not anymore than the standard "every 20 minutes look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds" that applies to any computer use.
Please consider making that video about things VR desktop environments should have that current implementations don’t. As a FOSS developer and Linux user, this is a topic that fascinates me.
@LowlyKnight1 I actually did not have a quest 2 before this. The quest three is my first VR headset, however one of my friends has had the quest 2 for a few years and I've played on it for hours, the screen looks far less blurry, and you don't see those damn pixels lol. The resolution is better, and the UI is smoother, I'd say it's worth the upgrade, but it is pricey. Pass through is WAY better than quest 2, but it's not as good as ppl online make it out to be, same for the AR. It's good, I've played a few games that use it, but it ain't 500 good. Reminds me of the 3ds AR cards lol (the hand tracking is lit)
Is the vignette really that big a deal? Brad is the only guy I've ever seen mention it and after a quick search there are only a couple of unpopular reddit posts where people say it's bad and have even returned it because of it.
@grim436 honestly, it might be due to quality controll because mine has less vignette than the quest 2 did, the sweet spot is also way bigger, but I also read about vignette issues which made me hesitant to buy it. I also saw battery issues, which I can confirm it does die pretty quick HOWEVER I was able to get it to last way longer when I turned the brightness down to 70% (it looks just fine at 70%) I'm also looking to buy a battery pack headset but the bobo one I keep hearing about is always out of stock LOL
@@grim436 I do notice it, but it does not bother me at all. The one thing that kind of does bother me is on an all white screen. I have some minor distortions due to uneven, pixel lighting and occasional god rays when Lights are on top of me in some games.
Wow, at first I saw the length of this video and thought "1 hour? I ain't sitting through allat". But then I sat through allat. 😳 So... let me throw you a wild hypothetical (and I know this might sound like the Mad Hatter speaking here, but hear me out): If you never owned a VR headset before in your life (already some joker level clown-sanity right there), and you had to choose between a Quest Pro and a Quest 3 at the exact same price, for gaming as your main objective, which would you choose?
Wow, this is a great review. Very detailed and balanced. I'll be honest, this is the first video I've watched from you, even though you've popped up in my feed a few times, as I'd always dismissed the channel as similar to the others I've watched that are just barely regurgitating press releases, but I'm so glad to have watched this. I agree completely with your assessment. The Quest 3 is pretty much an improvement on the Quest 2 in every way, and yet it still falls short of all the things Meta aspires to (or at least how they're marketing it). Keep up the great work!
Comfort definitely is one of the biggest shortcomings of the headset. Regardless of the resolution, the headset definitely isn't comfortable enough to use it as a monitor replacement. The headset is quite heavy and particularly front heavy. Out of the box the stock strap is uncomfortable as hell, but even if you replace it with a decent strap with a counterweight, it's still too heavy to want to use it for many hours doing productivity style tasks. If you have no choice (actual VR/MR experiences) then you can tolerate the discomfort, but if all you are doing is working on a monitor anyway then it makes more sense to just do so directly rather than with a headset on.
id imagine it would be for someone who wants to do work while being at a park or something similar. still, finger tracking is iffy at best. im not sure if a wireless keyboard would connect to it
Quest 3 is a heck of a lot more comfortable than PSVR2, using the silicone interface, imo. PSVR2 hurts to wear, due to the awfully tiny sweet spot which forces you, depending on your head shape, to have the front visor resting at the bridge of your nose, and there's NO padding. It's horrible. You have to fight through the pain, and that isn't fun. What was Sony thinking!?...Releasing a tethered headset, with fresnel lenses, and the comfort level of a Medieval torture device, in 2023. They dropped the ball hard, straight out of the gate. This headset will forever remain niche with poor to mediocre sales. It's also bulky, and those giant rings encapsulating the controllers look terrible too, and i hate how it's display trades motion clarity for brightness. The reality is, it doesn't matter how many incredible games it gets(like RE Village, RE4, Moss: Book 2 etc), because it's tarnished by a handful of idiotic design/feature decisions that the vast majority will not be able to get on board with. Quest 3 nearly corrects all of my nagging issues and then some, it's practically a home run for a budget consumer headset. I just wish it had OLED-blacks, richer vibrant colours, eye tracking & Foveated Rendering to utilize more power, adaptive triggers, better haptics and more 3rd party support from JPN devs like Capcom etc. But then you're looking at well over a grand(CAD). enter the Quest 3 Pro, in 2025 i guess. ;)
I don't understand the love for the Index. I was among the very first to get it, and at that time, it was amazing. I had only ever had a Vive, so the upgrade was massive. Soon after, the Quest 1 came out and I immediately bought it. The Quest 1 was obviously not visually on the same level, but it was cool to finally have a truly standalone VR headset, so I was content with my purchase. But then the Quest 2 came out... The Quest 2 immediately made me want to completely replace my Index, but the only thing holding me back was the controllers. I needed to be able to track my hands without needing to see them, so I could not put my Index (and it's horribly horrid Knuckles) back in the box quite yet. And then the Quest Pro came out... Now I was not about to spend a ridiculous $1500 on a failed project, but those $300 Pro Controllers?... Oh yes, indeed. Now I had finally obtained the last piece of the puzzle I required to put the Index back in it's box. Now that I've upgraded to the Quest 3, there is beyond no reason to ever even think about glancing at my Index again. The Quest 3 is vastly superior in every way, especially when paired with the Pro Controllers. It disturbs me that I keep hearing people mention other headsets, especially garbage overpriced headsets like the Bigscreen HMD and the Pico. The only people mentioning those headsets, as if they are a valid option, either hate Facebook (which I'd understand) or own shares of the companies selling those garbagely overpriced headsets. I do wish the Quest 3 kept the Pro's eye-tracking though...
It took a Quest 3 to get me to put my Index away actually. Up until this, the Index WAS king. And the fact that started off as strong as it did and remained relevant for so long...yeah. Index may be a relic now, but it was a power-player worthy of serious respect.
This is a great Indepth video for the Quest 3. Virtual reality headsets are still in the early days compared to what they will be 10-20+ years from now. Much like the early days of home computers in the early days in 1980s (Apple II, C64, PC) or gaming systems (First gen 2600, Nintendo, Playstation). Or, if you look back at the first cell phones in the early 1990 that at best could store 10 contacts. In those early days the technology was too expensive or did not provide enough functionality that made the technology appealing enough for the mass public to adopt (ie The Tipping point). There will come a day where virtual reality will be huge much like the smart phone is today, but for that to happen the technically needs to improve many fold so that is far more useful and compact. It needs to be reduced to the size of typical glasses. Maybe like in the movie "Brainstorm" where the majority the hardware is not in headset, but remote device and the headset is small simple display device that does not interfere with regular activity.
I might be the only person who finds the Quest 3 stock headstrap *okay*. I can thread my long ponytail through the Y-strap easier than other options and effectively have load-bearing hair, and it's fine for 1-2 hour sessions unlike the Quest 2's stock strap. Passthrough/MR on the Quest 3 mostly only makes me jealous of the future. Technically it's a big leap, but practically it still feels mostly for popping out of VR, as opposed to enhancing your physical space with AR. Hand tracking intentionality also feels like a huge hinderance, I wish I could just pin a window to a corner of my vision and toggle hand tracking with some kind of gesture.
This is by far the best Quest 3 review out there. Thank you! I like the format and you mentioned all the important things I needed to know about the headset, how it compares to the rest of VR devices, and how to set my expectations. I wish more mainstream reviewers were doing, what you are doing ... thoughtful and detailed opinions, not just talking about specs and providing benchmark numbers, but rather giving us full picture of device potential. Please don't ever change :)
You can only compare this with the hp reverb g2 (in resolution) but with day and night sweet spot improvement and better software and tracking. With the big boys (Pimax crystal, bigscreen and varjo) less resolution but way better reliability and performance. No way I would recommend the Crystal over this for example because it's a pain in the VR. If you want to achieve excellence we're still green, we need 2 or 3 more years I think.
If you have a decent PC already, Quest 3 is worth looking into. If not, a PS5 & PSVR 1 is even a better option.....but the PSVR 2 is more current tech but the library isn't as good as its predecessor.
I'd like to know what exactly the Q3's motion persistence is. Brad said that it was rocking 85 nits with 'smooth' motion. The PS VR2, at best, with it's VR brightness slider cranked to '0' offers 65nits(20 nits dimmer than Q3) with a 2ms motion persistence. We need 1ms or sub 1ms for eye retina motion clarity, with zero motion blur.
@@ConservativeJuggaloPodcast Resident Evil 4 VR mode is coming out for PS VR2 in 6 days, nothing on Q3 will come close to touching that. R It's another high budget scarce VR anomaly that's going to have everybody's jaw hitting the floor. The pancake version of RE4R felt like such a massive step backwards compared to playing through Village on PVSR2. Thank god i drop out 3 hours in once the VR mode was announced.
Love your stuff Brad! I don’t plan to get a Quest 3 because I already have the Pro and almost exclusively play PCVR (and the Bigscreen beyond should be on its way soon) but it was definitely interesting to see your thoughts on the headset. You’re definitely my go to for anything VR, really appreciate the time you put into this!
@@RolandDobbins I personally don't like the latency, compression, or overhead running Oculus software or VD requires to play PCVR games. Plus I already have lighthouses so I'm planning for the Bigscreen Beyond to become my go-to. However if you're new to VR or don't have lighthouses I would definitely agree that the Quest 3 is the best all around value headset you can get. Those Facebook pancake lenses are pretty dang impressive.
@@masterman3349 - running Quest 3 on a clean WiFi 6e network via Virtual Desktop/OpenXR Toolkit while using the AV1 10-bit codec exhibits imperceptible latency & compression, FYI.
Excellent work as always. Just signed up to your Patreon, because you give the whole VR Community hope for the future. Truly a light in the darkness that is the road to more enjoyable VR. I still love my Quest Pro alongside my Quest 3. The main downside to the pro is no matter how much juice you can give your headset, you only get 4 hours out of the controllers. :D Having both the PRO and the 3 helps, because even if the Pro's controllers go out, I can just switch over to the 3 while the PRO takes a nap. :D The brightness of the PRO really helps things look more real from an experience standpoint. I agree the local dimming can be a mixed bag, but the overall color and brightness just adds something missing from the Quest 3 for PC VR. If the next PRO has mini OLED with these kinds of lenses, it will be a new plateau of eye candy if they can get things bright enough on the high end to go along with those discrete black levels. Whooo Boy!
They already had a lack of software.. to release new hardware without some kind of killer app to sell it is beyond understanding. And I have yet to see a single app or game that uses my pro controller features.
I'm glad you touched on how bad passthrough still looks indoors for a lot of people. There are so many spruiking that it's "amazing" yet not wanting to honestly own up and admit it's extremely grainy in most circumstances. I'd happily buy a cheaper Quest 3 that completely removed passthrough. They need to use much better camera sensors for that feature to be convincing. Would be interested in hearing your opinions on the new Varjo XR-4.
Dont get me wrong, it is pretty bad but not that bad. i tested it at the gym. besides me looking incredibly stupid i had almost no issues, the one big issue being the quest not letting me freely move the screen in youtube full screen. i could walk around i could read the machine and generally work out with little issue. Reading the phone can be an issue depending on the brightness. The way id call the passthrough is like a 90s filter
I mean it’s better than I expected but I’m new to vr so really didn’t know what to expect. Though I didn’t expect to be able to very easily find anything like my phone for example with the headset on. I thought I’d have to take it off to answer a call etc. it’s not in 4K but i can see more than fine
Keep in mind the charger it comes with (18w charger) won't even be able to keep up with the power drain during games that require a lot of power. It can draw up to 26w of power. So you would need a faster charger. At the moment I'm using my phone fast charger which is 65w but still 5 volts DC so it works perfectly to cap the charge rate of the headset which is around 30w
With USB 3.2, you have a "DisplayPort 1.4 Alternate Mode" protocol (8K 7680x4320@60Hz or 4K 4096x2160@120Hz...compressed...) + data transfer (videos and data up to 20Gbit/s) + Power Delivery up to 60W. ....Meta has just forgotten that USB overs 3.0 exist....
I gotta say I enjoy mixed reality wayyy more than I thought I would, it seemed like a gimmick but I genuinely use it over my virtual home/virtual desktop environment. Ironically because the lenses or so clear the sde is quite a bit more noticable for me but as someone who's first headset was a rift cv1 I'm not complaining lmao. One thing that I'm suprised you didn't touch on was the fan, in quiet environments I can hear it ramping up and down which actually gets a little annoying at times, but hey the performance you get in return is worth it :3
Can confirm, going through multiple units it's obvious that some have shit mura, some have absolutely none, and my latest one has absolutely ass mura on the left lens while having none on the right one...
Below, you will find a lot of rambling about the optical stack of Quest 3 / Pro. Have fun! Thank you for pointing out the state of local dimming on Quest Pro! I thought I would be the only one feeling that it's more distracting than actually beneficial. Especially night skies and space had this obnoxious aurora effect (Backlight shifting constantly because it tries to illuminate the stars). I prefer having a uniform image over these pseudo improvements. Regarding the reduced luminance, my educated guess is that the Pro gets brighter because it's intended to be used with partial light blockers only or without any blockers. Because of that you will have to deal with a lot more ambient light compared to Quest 3 which you will have to combat by increasing brightness. Also, local dimming may allow for higher luminance because it's applied on small areas, similar to peak brightness ratings in current HDR monitors. VESA HDR 1000 certification specifically requires use of local dimming to hit that peak brightness. And lastly, quantum Dot is known to be an effective measure to reduce power consumption with screens as the available light is distributed much better than without. The vignetting is real, but it's much more manageable compared to the backlight bleed the Quest Pro had around the edge of the lenses. And so is the mura effect... It's unfortunate to notice it but it seems to be an issue with all headsets and not a case of silicon lottery. That at least gives me some peace of mind, so I don't get stressed over it. Again, it might be due to the lack of the Quantum Dot layer that we are seeing this.
I tried using the Quest 2 as a monitor replacement and eventually gave up. Even with a custom headstrap, the sweet spot was bad, the front was uncomfortable, and the passthrough wasn't usable. Fast forward to the Quest 3. Those pancake optics really shine. There's no blurriness, the passthrough is excellent, and the increased resolution really helps actually make it the monitor replacement they were pushing w/ QPro. The passthrough is so usable that I've been able to cook breakfast while wearing it. The Quest 3 is definitely their best VR headset since the original Rift CV1. I mean that 100%. 1000%.
@@fffrrraannkk If you have Wifi 5 at least, there is no reason to plug it into the PC. Wired is not better than WiFi. Its pretty much the same. Just plug it into the wall.
Thanks you Brad for your very complete review! Yeah the eye tracking is a bummer, but I have great hope for their future headsets seeing how great is the Q3
Well it is now May 2024. I enjoy my Quest 3 for doing sitting down SIM Racing games. Controllers only used for menus, etc - no fast movements. The color passthrough is much better now with past 2 updates - much clearer. I connect my headset via a USB link cable and all my SIM racing games seem to have no problems. I did change my head strap to a BoboVR S3 Pro and it also provides a nice larger capacity battery for longer play times. Thanks for your Quest 3 review and take care.
I thnk the length was fine and your criticisms were justified every small detail is important when you are going to spend huge chunks of your life wearing something. don't feel too bad for length and "nitpicking" I like the thorough investigatino into the quality of quest 3, people think people have to talk about the positives more but most of the time things get better when you correct the negatives.
Huge miss is lack of eye tracking... FoV rendering is huge boost to performance and it would not only open more PC to VR but also quest native games would benefit from it.
Best intro! I can recommend this review to my friends still on the fence with VR because that "Honeymoon" phase is over by now. Love how you say that off the bat.
I think I disagreed with a point or two, but overall your ability to remain unbiased is incredibly valuable. Keep being you, loved this video and it was very informative.
- VRPanda has my favorite head strap solution for Quest Pro. The BoboVR head strap for Quest 3 has been the best for me so far compared to the elite strap. - I continue to feel that software is the problem. We keep getting newer fancier headsets, but no reason for most people to get one or use it regularly. - MR use cases still seem extremely limited. - No face tracking, no eye tracking, no body tracking, poor quality microphone, not good for social VR.
Thanks althought its not much, but I do value all your honest reviews and Valve Index users orientation. This and the BSB still feel like midgen compared to Aero & Crystal, but these as well have their pros/cons like the Vive/Oculus had at the time until the Index came out and oh my how perfect it was/is
Let's talk about the software flaw of when you're trying to watch a movie or video on the browser and the headset loses tracking due to an inactivity and then a white head tracking dot shows up in the middle of the screen that you cannot be removed. How am I supposed to watch movies and videos comfortably???
I think i totally agree with this review, except for 1 thing. I also thought that having the battery not in the back was a bad idea, but the Quest 3 is so power hungry, that you really need at least a 10000mah powerbank in the back. The irony is that when you have that powerbank in the back, the headset becomes perfectly balanced and actually feels lighter on your head. So at hindsight it was a really good move.
I find Quest 3's tracking volume to be a massive improvement over Q2's, especially for close-ups like bows and longguns. For some climbing use cases, Q2 will be better, but that's about it. As for QPro controllers, Q3's are lighter and have better latency, while sometimes QPro controllers will drift. (Not sure if that got fixed, only seems to happen in large spaces.) I end up using both depending on what I'm doing.
The QPro controllers don't drift, but after turning them on or coming out of standby, they can sometimes be misaligned. Sometimes it corrects itself after maybe 10 seconds, other times it requires a restart.
@@fen4554lately my Pro controllers simply disappear... holding Oculus logo on right controller centers the menu, but the controller itself is not displayed. Then other times, controller is displayed, but the pointer isn't. I might have to factory reset to see if it fixes it. Orher than that... if lighting is low, I get a warning that the controller is overheating and will shut down for 5 minutes. I get that while watching Netflix. Light is on my right side, but if controller is on my left, it gives the error. Move the controller to my right side... error goes away.
Not sure if I've missed it but pricing for this thing is NOT OK given the garbage stock strap and awful battery life. Elite strap with battery 150 bucks = absurd. I ordered the bobovr strap which of course isn't in stock anywhere. Until then, it is more of a sidegrade than upgrade to my (halo strap) quest 2. Yes, the lenses are better and I do notice the FoV increase, but the resolution is still subpar for things that are off in the distance. In the meta home environment I barely see a resolution difference between quest 2 and 3. This thing has way too many shortcomings and feels rushed.
Completely agree on the lack of non-gimmicky, non-sandbox, non stand-in-one-place Mixed Reality apps. As a developer, I'm trying hard to invent things in MR (within its current limitations) that you can't do in other mediums (including VR). Here's a short video I think works: th-cam.com/video/wMDg6I2ZfJg/w-d-xo.html
The pinching to select definitely needs to be improved. As you said, it moves the cursor right as you're about to select something. Even if you hover the cursor you'll see it wiggle about quite wildly, making it very difficult to be accurate with selections. I do however still love the convenience of hand tracking instead of having to pick up the controllers, especially when not gaming.
So...if you switching from pico 4 to quest 3 you won't see "the upgrade" I'm still struggling with artifacts on quest 3 something that they could fix bcs they know from the quest 2... Super hot (like compared to pico 4 is extremely hot) I don't know why I find pico 4 more smooth while pcvr... Even using VD. Headstrap is killer like for real you won't use more than 20 min with the original strap... Battery consumption is 3 time more than pico 4( you need at least 3 bobo batteries to fully charge) I will continue in the dilemma whether to keep them or sell them... Sadly
I can highly recommend installing the Quest Game Optimizer. You can squeeze out much more perfomance out of this chip. Just wish it was built on a more efficient node.
I honestly think the way they did the cheapest strap coming with the Quest 3 and let you add whatever you want later was the best option, sure they could have given you some kind of battery in the back with a strap that come with it, I think that would have added some kind of cost, but mostly I think the way they do it now, with what is the most minimal battery limit in the front, and where most people will add a optional strap with another battery in the back that gives users a crazy amount of option for customization is a very good trade off and one that probably gives then the least amount of support hassle mixed with people upset with the fast the battery that comes with it at least gives you enough time to play a game, but also time to swap a to a second battery. I think it was a perfectly fine design choice, and just shows that really no matter what you do you wont please everyone.
This video also coincides with my experience Q3 a lot like. Lens are very impresive and the performance boost is great but held back by short battery life, and subpar software experience. The silly stock strap while usable unlike the quest 2 its still the worst head strap included with any heatset which doesn't help retention.
Great review! Pretty much agree with everything. I still have only used my quest 3 for about 2 hours. My ipd is 72 and for some reason this thing hurts my brain more that the quest 2 did. Makes no sense.
Hi Brad, awesome video! I love your in depth reviews and could listen to it hours on end. Maybe a podcast isn't the worst idea. Heard there is a lot of money in podcasting right now. Maybe spotify is looking to bloster their tech portfolio with one of the most hardcore VR tech pros ;)
To get WiFi PCVR working you really need a 5Ghz router right next you with no other devices on the 5Ghz band, with your PC plugged into the router via Ethernet. 6E and 7 will of course improve the situation.
I still love my Quest Pro for gaming and more VR-specific applications. But the Quest 3 has much better pass-through and tracking, so for mixed reality prototyping specifically, the Quest 3 is much better.
The best in-depth review by far 💚 Can’t see myself buying any VR/XR/MR/AR headset, visor or goggles without watching your reviews! I definitely want to delve into VR after trying out a friend's psvr2. I want the best of the best and have been waiting for the Apple ProVision. However, whilst it seems it will definitely do mixed reality, movies, puzzles, meditation, and productivity, etc., the best (which as a filmmaker/video editor, is most of what I will use it for), I would still like to do some gaming and I have a good feeling it won't play nice with the Meta or PCVR storefront and apps. So considering getting the Quest 3. Seems to be the best and the best bang for the buck out now. In the near future I would definitely love a Quest 3 Pro and Valve to release their second rendition. Another viable combo seems to be the Quest 3 for fun and the Immersed Visor for productivity. But there are no reviews on the Visor and I want to see how it stacks up and compares to the Apple ProVision.
I agree that blooming from zone-based backlight systems is significantly more distracting than a uniform lcd backlight, but at the end of the day, micro oled is king.
I'm so surprised Meta has not release something comparable to apple's roomplan API. It's not perfect but it can auto detect a lot of common things in rooms like furniture, windows etc and it makes it much more comfortable to develop dynamic AR experiences that take these detected elements into account.
1080p 2D digital screens is a deal breaker for me in AR. (Not that I wouldn't buy a head set like the Q3 for amazing VR). I was pretty disappointed that there is no software/hardware support for 1440p screens in general.
I know that my opinion probably goes against the flow, but honestly I prefer the soft strap. Yes, the other straps might add some comfort, they also turn an already largish device into an unwieldy monstrosity. A Quest (1, 2 or 3) with a soft strap can be turned into a brick sized package and stowed into a corner of a backpack or suitcase. Once you add an "elite" strap all portability goes out the window IMO.
My rift s never felt unbearably painful after 30 minutes with the stock strap. The soft strap can thankfully be a bit more comfortable by wearing a baseball cap backwards whilst wearing it
Regarding SDE and aliasing: had 4 Quest 3 devices due to screen issues (dead pixels mainly) and can tell you that SDE and aliasing is not a 'feature' of the Quest 3 but rather your display lottery chance of getting one without.. meaning that 3 out of 4 had NO SDE and aliasing for me, kust the last device I received..Difference between the first 3 and the last device are night and day. I really believe they use different display batches with or maybe with or without diffusion layer (3th device had a wave like pattern on the edge that looked like foil curled up partly on the display). Maybe worth investigating!?
so I can continue my suffering on future XR hardware reviews You're so distinctive. You're a natural born comedian. like you. You already made millions, man.
I'm a software engineer and this still can't replace my monitors. When you deal with so much text, it causes a lot of eye strain. being able to have the image directory, colors/fonts folder, virtual device, terminal and code open at all times sounds really nice, but with the eye strain and also the neck movement with a brick on your face, it is a better experience to use even just one monitor
Glad you mentioned the screen dimming around the edges. I'm adjusting and no longer notice it every time, but coming from the Quest 2 it was one of the first things that I noticed. It's in almost exactly the same location as the fresnel banding on the Quest 2, so it's still a 100% an improvement, just different.
Also, re: adding "virtual" monitors, I use hdmi plugs. Windows thinks it's a real monitor. This was the only way to get my headless VR machine to work for a long time.
The pro's issue is it was marketed completely wrong. It's passthrough is barely better than the pico4. But where I'm loving my pro, is with sims and dcs in particular as the eyetracking allows me to apply active foveated rendering is saving 60% actual rendered resolution. The open nature of the pro also allow for much easier use of my various buttons and physical controllers.
Another great video, Brad - love the insights 😎. Wondering, and not sure if anyone else was thinking - if you had to play Alyx, PCVR with a high end PC (4090, etc.), would you want to play it on a Quest 3 or a Pico 4? I've gone DK1->DK2->Quest1-> Quest 2 -> Reverb G2 -> Pico 4 and that's where I am - love the Pico 4 (for SteamVR with Virtual Desktop) and am still undecided about whether the Quest 3 is a worthy upgrade in terms of PCVR experiences through SteamVR. I keep searching for channels/videos with a trustworthy and objective comparison/review of those for things like Boneworks, Vertigo 2, etc. and I just couldn't find the definitive answer. Thoughts?
@@rangerkayla8824 Ok amazing, that makes sense - thanks for weighing in 🙏💪. So I'm thinking it's incremental but not mind-blowing. Like, Reverb G2 was a lot better than Quest 2, but the heat and the narrow sweet spot slayed me. Then Pico 4 came out and just loved the controllers, the face fan was nice, the optics/lenses/sweet spot were great. And it just left me thinking like only the a Varjo headset with controllers and inside-out tracking would probably replace it.
@@SETHalpine So, that's exactly my thought too - I saw the announcement of Pico 5 and am excited, but what's going to drive all those pixels? Do we need an RTX 7090 and WIFI 7.0 before we can see decent refresh and low latency? Will framegen and other predictive tricks keep it smooth? How is the software, upscaling, and hardware going to all stay in sync as we pursue VR 'nirvana'?
@@jamesyoungerdds7901 2160x2160 for Pico 4....supersampling applied of 140% to correct the lens flaw = 2560x2560 expected for the regular pico 5 So you don't really need more to drive all theses pixels, you "just"need screen without lens... And it's already exist, Silicon On display technologies allows very small micro led CURVED screen >5k without the use of lens. And it's better and cheaper than the others type of screens And foveal rendering will make the job for higher resolution (Vision pro, samsung Glasses, Pico 5 max pro)
Loved your video. I was thinking how come the Brad's not talking about the Audio. But you did! The very last moments. You covered everything and some. Know one does hardware like you. Keep it going!
Brad, thank you so much for your coverage of the quest. I'm an index user but you've convinced me to get the quest 3. It seems just close enough that I'm getting my early adopter tingles. I just have to see for myself! :) Do you (or anyone) have a recommendation or two for the back strap w/battery(counterweight)? 128GB vs 512GB? Is it worth the price for the additional space?
Bobo vr 3 Or something like that. Don’t go with the pro meta version, that’s for sure. That’s garbage, it can be kinda comfy but it brakes really easly and it is very overpriced
You’re doing pcvr a lot so probably 128GB. I assumed you don’t have money to throw, if not you would not be asking that question obviously…. If you have money to throw then…..
Couldn't the vignetting be corrected by brightening the edges and darkening the center of the display? Think of it as an inverse curve. It wouldn't be able to get all the way to the edges but as an option it should be able to create a larger region of constant brightness. I was more concerned with the vignetting at the edges when I first wore the Quest 3. I find that over time, I notice it less.
Thank you very much for one more great video. While I do share most of your points I do have a different experience with MR. But that's because regarding VR/MR I seem to be on the lucky side of life. All my interests are matching perfectly for VR/MR. I've been interested in stereoscopic pictures/videos since the 70ths. So I'm fascinated by VR on its own. I don't like shooters but simulations. Racing simulations are a perfect match for VR. I love to play table tennis. ElevenVR is a perfect combination of my interests. The simulation is very realistic. The virtual movement is identical to the real movement. It gets even better now that I can play it in MR since I don't crash into my walls while chasing hopeless balls. Miracle Pool is more calm but very similar in the MR experience. Having a huge pool table on demand in your living room is really cool. The MR home environment alone adds benefit. Being able to pick your drink or swapping the batteries of your controllers with the headset on adds a lot of benefit. And last but not least I always dreamed of previewing my CAD-designs in MR. It allows for having a first impression whether the design matches the environment and allows to easily check whether I got all the tiny details correct. I'm sure there is more to come. And I don't only think of ikea allowing you to virtually place all their furniture in your house. BR
Layered textures are essential for what we expect out of game visuals these days and its good to finally see them on stand-alone. Whether for decals to give objects some extra detail, or for sheen to give objects a shiny appearance. Quest 3 is a headset that I would want if Meta could get their act together and stop crippling their own devices with company shennanigans. Also not quite sold on picking up a headset just for Sidequest.
26:00 While I agree that a battery should be in the back honestly that would cause a lot of complications where if it is in the back already then you couldn't really get 3rd part hot swapable batteries to be able to play for extended sessions where if you have 2 hot swapable batteries you can always be charging one while you play with the other and as that one gets low you can simply swap it out while the headset doesn't loose power. A smaller battery in the front and a larger battery in the back would allow for counter balance because if you just remove the one from the front and add one to the back then it would be back heavy because most the weight of the headset is the battery.
On the counterweight thing, I've been cinching a 20,000 mAh Anker battery on the back of the Quest 2 elite strap with a couple of cable ties and a pair of thick rubber bands to keep it from slipping for like 3 years now. It works like a charm - it's the perfect amount of weight to offset the front bulk and provides hours and hours of hot-swappable juice.
I found that my virtual desktop had passthrough, so I spent hours trying to make a kind of green screen effect on some 3d undersea documentaries. I had glimpses of what it could be like if done with proper software, when the screen itself disappeared the 3d whales and dolphins seemed to be swimming freely around and through me. Because the whole image was green screened and my quest 2 is black and white the objects where faint and uncoloured, but if someone brings out a software that can automatically do proper green screen on the fly then that would be a big seller I think.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Consider supporting me on Patreon so I can continue my suffering on future XR hardware reviews ♥
bradsmells.com/patreon
👍
Is there a 3rd party mic that you could use? Not sure if it’s possible or not.
Nice TED talk haha
@@Codybakes it's possible, you can pair bluetooth headphones to the bluetooth interface, but you really don't wanna use it over the built in mic, because it adds heavy audio delay for whatever reason. at least for sound output, i expect the same to apply to sound input. and then there are wireless headphones that connect via usb-c dongle, you can plug these into the headset, but you will lose the ability to charge the headset midgame, which also is less then optimal. i think anker made some of these. will have to look into that once i decided whether i keep my Q3.
and it's really kind of shocking to me that we have to jump through these hoops. they built this awesome device that excels in so many aspects and levels, and the one where you'd expect them to really care about they completely neglect. the people responsible for this mess should reconsider their life choices.
Good on you, dude, appreciate your work and those of your collaborators hugely, have a good one!
I appreciate that this review is longer than Quest 3 battery lasts.
LOL ! harsh, but oh, so true. Actually watching this during a recharge break.
Same here. :D @@arupian666
Even with the elite strap and WHILE PLUGGED INTO THE WALL the battery dies! Now granted, I have to really be putting it through its paces for the power draw to exceed the recharge rate, but compared to my Valve Index which had infinite run time, 8 hours sucks.
I appreciate the limited battery. It reminds me to limit my sessions to 30-45 minutes. Longer sessions aren't good for you!
@@mikejohnson3338 According to whom? I've never seen anything that supports that claim. At least, not anymore than the standard "every 20 minutes look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds" that applies to any computer use.
Please consider making that video about things VR desktop environments should have that current implementations don’t. As a FOSS developer and Linux user, this is a topic that fascinates me.
The Quest Pro IS a monitor replacement... If you're monitor is a 1024 x 768 TN LCD from 2003.
I am watching this on my quest three right now. Always great content from you, Brad. Keep up the good work.
Lol same 😂
@LowlyKnight1 I actually did not have a quest 2 before this. The quest three is my first VR headset, however one of my friends has had the quest 2 for a few years and I've played on it for hours, the screen looks far less blurry, and you don't see those damn pixels lol. The resolution is better, and the UI is smoother, I'd say it's worth the upgrade, but it is pricey. Pass through is WAY better than quest 2, but it's not as good as ppl online make it out to be, same for the AR. It's good, I've played a few games that use it, but it ain't 500 good. Reminds me of the 3ds AR cards lol (the hand tracking is lit)
Is the vignette really that big a deal? Brad is the only guy I've ever seen mention it and after a quick search there are only a couple of unpopular reddit posts where people say it's bad and have even returned it because of it.
@grim436 honestly, it might be due to quality controll because mine has less vignette than the quest 2 did, the sweet spot is also way bigger, but I also read about vignette issues which made me hesitant to buy it. I also saw battery issues, which I can confirm it does die pretty quick HOWEVER I was able to get it to last way longer when I turned the brightness down to 70% (it looks just fine at 70%) I'm also looking to buy a battery pack headset but the bobo one I keep hearing about is always out of stock LOL
@@grim436 I do notice it, but it does not bother me at all. The one thing that kind of does bother me is on an all white screen. I have some minor distortions due to uneven, pixel lighting and occasional god rays when Lights are on top of me in some games.
Wow, at first I saw the length of this video and thought "1 hour? I ain't sitting through allat". But then I sat through allat. 😳
So... let me throw you a wild hypothetical (and I know this might sound like the Mad Hatter speaking here, but hear me out):
If you never owned a VR headset before in your life (already some joker level clown-sanity right there), and you had to choose between a Quest Pro and a Quest 3 at the exact same price, for gaming as your main objective, which would you choose?
Q3, ur welcome
brandly this isnt decard news???? wtf
The steam deck oled was the Deckard.
@@njiok100Don't thin so....
@@njiok100🤣
Erm, yah.
laugh all you want but the Deckard isnt coming out@@ia8789
Wow, this is a great review. Very detailed and balanced. I'll be honest, this is the first video I've watched from you, even though you've popped up in my feed a few times, as I'd always dismissed the channel as similar to the others I've watched that are just barely regurgitating press releases, but I'm so glad to have watched this. I agree completely with your assessment. The Quest 3 is pretty much an improvement on the Quest 2 in every way, and yet it still falls short of all the things Meta aspires to (or at least how they're marketing it). Keep up the great work!
Comfort definitely is one of the biggest shortcomings of the headset. Regardless of the resolution, the headset definitely isn't comfortable enough to use it as a monitor replacement. The headset is quite heavy and particularly front heavy. Out of the box the stock strap is uncomfortable as hell, but even if you replace it with a decent strap with a counterweight, it's still too heavy to want to use it for many hours doing productivity style tasks. If you have no choice (actual VR/MR experiences) then you can tolerate the discomfort, but if all you are doing is working on a monitor anyway then it makes more sense to just do so directly rather than with a headset on.
id imagine it would be for someone who wants to do work while being at a park or something similar. still, finger tracking is iffy at best. im not sure if a wireless keyboard would connect to it
@@user-br3oe1lc5ywireless keyboards can connect to it
Quest 3 is a heck of a lot more comfortable than PSVR2, using the silicone interface, imo. PSVR2 hurts to wear, due to the awfully tiny sweet spot which forces you, depending on your head shape, to have the front visor resting at the bridge of your nose, and there's NO padding. It's horrible. You have to fight through the pain, and that isn't fun. What was Sony thinking!?...Releasing a tethered headset, with fresnel lenses, and the comfort level of a Medieval torture device, in 2023.
They dropped the ball hard, straight out of the gate. This headset will forever remain niche with poor to mediocre sales.
It's also bulky, and those giant rings encapsulating the controllers look terrible too, and i hate how it's display trades motion clarity for brightness. The reality is, it doesn't matter how many incredible games it gets(like RE Village, RE4, Moss: Book 2 etc), because it's tarnished by a handful of idiotic design/feature decisions that the vast majority will not be able to get on board with. Quest 3 nearly corrects all of my nagging issues and then some, it's practically a home run for a budget consumer headset.
I just wish it had OLED-blacks, richer vibrant colours, eye tracking & Foveated Rendering to utilize more power, adaptive triggers, better haptics and more 3rd party support from JPN devs like Capcom etc. But then you're looking at well over a grand(CAD). enter the Quest 3 Pro, in 2025 i guess. ;)
I don't understand the love for the Index. I was among the very first to get it, and at that time, it was amazing. I had only ever had a Vive, so the upgrade was massive. Soon after, the Quest 1 came out and I immediately bought it. The Quest 1 was obviously not visually on the same level, but it was cool to finally have a truly standalone VR headset, so I was content with my purchase. But then the Quest 2 came out...
The Quest 2 immediately made me want to completely replace my Index, but the only thing holding me back was the controllers. I needed to be able to track my hands without needing to see them, so I could not put my Index (and it's horribly horrid Knuckles) back in the box quite yet. And then the Quest Pro came out...
Now I was not about to spend a ridiculous $1500 on a failed project, but those $300 Pro Controllers?... Oh yes, indeed. Now I had finally obtained the last piece of the puzzle I required to put the Index back in it's box.
Now that I've upgraded to the Quest 3, there is beyond no reason to ever even think about glancing at my Index again. The Quest 3 is vastly superior in every way, especially when paired with the Pro Controllers. It disturbs me that I keep hearing people mention other headsets, especially garbage overpriced headsets like the Bigscreen HMD and the Pico. The only people mentioning those headsets, as if they are a valid option, either hate Facebook (which I'd understand) or own shares of the companies selling those garbagely overpriced headsets.
I do wish the Quest 3 kept the Pro's eye-tracking though...
It took a Quest 3 to get me to put my Index away actually. Up until this, the Index WAS king. And the fact that started off as strong as it did and remained relevant for so long...yeah. Index may be a relic now, but it was a power-player worthy of serious respect.
Thanks again for your detailed assessment
This is a great Indepth video for the Quest 3. Virtual reality headsets are still in the early days compared to what they will be 10-20+ years from now. Much like the early days of home computers in the early days in 1980s (Apple II, C64, PC) or gaming systems (First gen 2600, Nintendo, Playstation). Or, if you look back at the first cell phones in the early 1990 that at best could store 10 contacts. In those early days the technology was too expensive or did not provide enough functionality that made the technology appealing enough for the mass public to adopt (ie The Tipping point). There will come a day where virtual reality will be huge much like the smart phone is today, but for that to happen the technically needs to improve many fold so that is far more useful and compact. It needs to be reduced to the size of typical glasses. Maybe like in the movie "Brainstorm" where the majority the hardware is not in headset, but remote device and the headset is small simple display device that does not interfere with regular activity.
I might be the only person who finds the Quest 3 stock headstrap *okay*. I can thread my long ponytail through the Y-strap easier than other options and effectively have load-bearing hair, and it's fine for 1-2 hour sessions unlike the Quest 2's stock strap.
Passthrough/MR on the Quest 3 mostly only makes me jealous of the future. Technically it's a big leap, but practically it still feels mostly for popping out of VR, as opposed to enhancing your physical space with AR. Hand tracking intentionality also feels like a huge hinderance, I wish I could just pin a window to a corner of my vision and toggle hand tracking with some kind of gesture.
This is by far the best Quest 3 review out there. Thank you! I like the format and you mentioned all the important things I needed to know about the headset, how it compares to the rest of VR devices, and how to set my expectations.
I wish more mainstream reviewers were doing, what you are doing ... thoughtful and detailed opinions, not just talking about specs and providing benchmark numbers, but rather giving us full picture of device potential. Please don't ever change :)
You can only compare this with the hp reverb g2 (in resolution) but with day and night sweet spot improvement and better software and tracking. With the big boys (Pimax crystal, bigscreen and varjo) less resolution but way better reliability and performance. No way I would recommend the Crystal over this for example because it's a pain in the VR. If you want to achieve excellence we're still green, we need 2 or 3 more years I think.
It is not. He skipped FOV talk
If you have a decent PC already, Quest 3 is worth looking into. If not, a PS5 & PSVR 1 is even a better option.....but the PSVR 2 is more current tech but the library isn't as good as its predecessor.
I'd like to know what exactly the Q3's motion persistence is. Brad said that it was rocking 85 nits with 'smooth' motion. The PS VR2, at best, with it's VR brightness slider cranked to '0' offers 65nits(20 nits dimmer than Q3) with a 2ms motion persistence.
We need 1ms or sub 1ms for eye retina motion clarity, with zero motion blur.
@@ConservativeJuggaloPodcast
Resident Evil 4 VR mode is coming out for PS VR2 in 6 days, nothing on Q3 will come close to touching that. R It's another high budget scarce VR anomaly that's going to have everybody's jaw hitting the floor. The pancake version of RE4R felt like such a massive step backwards compared to playing through Village on PVSR2. Thank god i drop out 3 hours in once the VR mode was announced.
Thanks for making actual useful content. The VR click bait fluff video world is really getting old. Subscribed.
Almost like the company's motto used to be "Move Fast and Break Things"
Love your stuff Brad! I don’t plan to get a Quest 3 because I already have the Pro and almost exclusively play PCVR (and the Bigscreen beyond should be on its way soon) but it was definitely interesting to see your thoughts on the headset. You’re definitely my go to for anything VR, really appreciate the time you put into this!
Quest 3 is definitely worth it for PCVR.
@@RolandDobbins I personally don't like the latency, compression, or overhead running Oculus software or VD requires to play PCVR games. Plus I already have lighthouses so I'm planning for the Bigscreen Beyond to become my go-to. However if you're new to VR or don't have lighthouses I would definitely agree that the Quest 3 is the best all around value headset you can get. Those Facebook pancake lenses are pretty dang impressive.
@@masterman3349 - running Quest 3 on a clean WiFi 6e network via Virtual Desktop/OpenXR Toolkit while using the AV1 10-bit codec exhibits imperceptible latency & compression, FYI.
@@RolandDobbinsif you can get virtual desktop to run well ...
@@bullshitdepartment - runs great for me on a clean WiFi 6E network.
Excellent work as always. Just signed up to your Patreon, because you give the whole VR Community hope for the future. Truly a light in the darkness that is the road to more enjoyable VR.
I still love my Quest Pro alongside my Quest 3. The main downside to the pro is no matter how much juice you can give your headset, you only get 4 hours out of the controllers. :D Having both the PRO and the 3 helps, because even if the Pro's controllers go out, I can just switch over to the 3 while the PRO takes a nap. :D The brightness of the PRO really helps things look more real from an experience standpoint. I agree the local dimming can be a mixed bag, but the overall color and brightness just adds something missing from the Quest 3 for PC VR. If the next PRO has mini OLED with these kinds of lenses, it will be a new plateau of eye candy if they can get things bright enough on the high end to go along with those discrete black levels. Whooo Boy!
The lack of first-party software is baffling. The lack of cohesion between competing ideas (hand tracking versus controllers) is baffling.
They already had a lack of software.. to release new hardware without some kind of killer app to sell it is beyond understanding. And I have yet to see a single app or game that uses my pro controller features.
I'm glad you touched on how bad passthrough still looks indoors for a lot of people. There are so many spruiking that it's "amazing" yet not wanting to honestly own up and admit it's extremely grainy in most circumstances. I'd happily buy a cheaper Quest 3 that completely removed passthrough. They need to use much better camera sensors for that feature to be convincing.
Would be interested in hearing your opinions on the new Varjo XR-4.
Dont get me wrong, it is pretty bad but not that bad. i tested it at the gym. besides me looking incredibly stupid i had almost no issues, the one big issue being the quest not letting me freely move the screen in youtube full screen. i could walk around i could read the machine and generally work out with little issue. Reading the phone can be an issue depending on the brightness. The way id call the passthrough is like a 90s filter
I mean it’s better than I expected but I’m new to vr so really didn’t know what to expect. Though I didn’t expect to be able to very easily find anything like my phone for example with the headset on. I thought I’d have to take it off to answer a call etc. it’s not in 4K but i can see more than fine
Not gonna lie, you cant get much better for the same price.
They have access to better cameras, but what you are describing is a $400 camera for a $500 device.
Keep in mind the charger it comes with (18w charger) won't even be able to keep up with the power drain during games that require a lot of power. It can draw up to 26w of power. So you would need a faster charger.
At the moment I'm using my phone fast charger which is 65w but still 5 volts DC so it works perfectly to cap the charge rate of the headset which is around 30w
With USB 3.2, you have a "DisplayPort 1.4 Alternate Mode" protocol (8K 7680x4320@60Hz or 4K 4096x2160@120Hz...compressed...) + data transfer (videos and data up to 20Gbit/s) + Power Delivery up to 60W. ....Meta has just forgotten that USB overs 3.0 exist....
I gotta say I enjoy mixed reality wayyy more than I thought I would, it seemed like a gimmick but I genuinely use it over my virtual home/virtual desktop environment. Ironically because the lenses or so clear the sde is quite a bit more noticable for me but as someone who's first headset was a rift cv1 I'm not complaining lmao. One thing that I'm suprised you didn't touch on was the fan, in quiet environments I can hear it ramping up and down which actually gets a little annoying at times, but hey the performance you get in return is worth it :3
Not all Quest 3 have Murra,
if your unit have some, send it back !
Can confirm, going through multiple units it's obvious that some have shit mura, some have absolutely none, and my latest one has absolutely ass mura on the left lens while having none on the right one...
Please tell me one of these days we can watch you and John Carmack talk about the future of XR!!
That would be neat. Carmack is about as futurist as it gets as far as technology.
Below, you will find a lot of rambling about the optical stack of Quest 3 / Pro. Have fun!
Thank you for pointing out the state of local dimming on Quest Pro! I thought I would be the only one feeling that it's more distracting than actually beneficial. Especially night skies and space had this obnoxious aurora effect (Backlight shifting constantly because it tries to illuminate the stars). I prefer having a uniform image over these pseudo improvements.
Regarding the reduced luminance, my educated guess is that the Pro gets brighter because it's intended to be used with partial light blockers only or without any blockers. Because of that you will have to deal with a lot more ambient light compared to Quest 3 which you will have to combat by increasing brightness. Also, local dimming may allow for higher luminance because it's applied on small areas, similar to peak brightness ratings in current HDR monitors. VESA HDR 1000 certification specifically requires use of local dimming to hit that peak brightness. And lastly, quantum Dot is known to be an effective measure to reduce power consumption with screens as the available light is distributed much better than without.
The vignetting is real, but it's much more manageable compared to the backlight bleed the Quest Pro had around the edge of the lenses.
And so is the mura effect... It's unfortunate to notice it but it seems to be an issue with all headsets and not a case of silicon lottery. That at least gives me some peace of mind, so I don't get stressed over it.
Again, it might be due to the lack of the Quantum Dot layer that we are seeing this.
Loving this review. Solid. Agree !
I tried using the Quest 2 as a monitor replacement and eventually gave up. Even with a custom headstrap, the sweet spot was bad, the front was uncomfortable, and the passthrough wasn't usable.
Fast forward to the Quest 3. Those pancake optics really shine. There's no blurriness, the passthrough is excellent, and the increased resolution really helps actually make it the monitor replacement they were pushing w/ QPro.
The passthrough is so usable that I've been able to cook breakfast while wearing it.
The Quest 3 is definitely their best VR headset since the original Rift CV1. I mean that 100%. 1000%.
When you're plugged into your PC are you limited by the Quest's battery, or does the PC keep it charged?
@@fffrrraannkk I just have the Quest 3 plugged into the wall using a 25w charger
Absolutely agree and the lenses deserve the majority of the praise here. They are simply SO good.
@@StarCenturion Thanks
@@fffrrraannkk If you have Wifi 5 at least, there is no reason to plug it into the PC. Wired is not better than WiFi. Its pretty much the same. Just plug it into the wall.
Thanks you Brad for your very complete review! Yeah the eye tracking is a bummer, but I have great hope for their future headsets seeing how great is the Q3
Well it is now May 2024. I enjoy my Quest 3 for doing sitting down SIM Racing games. Controllers only used for menus, etc - no fast movements. The color passthrough is much better now with past 2 updates - much clearer. I connect my headset via a USB link cable and all my SIM racing games seem to have no problems.
I did change my head strap to a BoboVR S3 Pro and it also provides a nice larger capacity battery for longer play times.
Thanks for your Quest 3 review and take care.
I thnk the length was fine and your criticisms were justified every small detail is important when you are going to spend huge chunks of your life wearing something. don't feel too bad for length and "nitpicking" I like the thorough investigatino into the quality of quest 3, people think people have to talk about the positives more but most of the time things get better when you correct the negatives.
I'm not a rich guy by any means but I really appreciate your work. 😘
Love the video, love the shirt. Love you, Brad!
Huge miss is lack of eye tracking... FoV rendering is huge boost to performance and it would not only open more PC to VR but also quest native games would benefit from it.
Great video Brad! Love to see an honest technical video review of this headset! Keep up the awesome work!
Best intro! I can recommend this review to my friends still on the fence with VR because that "Honeymoon" phase is over by now. Love how you say that off the bat.
I think I disagreed with a point or two, but overall your ability to remain unbiased is incredibly valuable. Keep being you, loved this video and it was very informative.
This is one of the best breakdowns for the Quest 3 I’ve ever seen. Thanks so much for your insight! 🙏🏼
- VRPanda has my favorite head strap solution for Quest Pro. The BoboVR head strap for Quest 3 has been the best for me so far compared to the elite strap.
- I continue to feel that software is the problem. We keep getting newer fancier headsets, but no reason for most people to get one or use it regularly.
- MR use cases still seem extremely limited.
- No face tracking, no eye tracking, no body tracking, poor quality microphone, not good for social VR.
Been looking at the quest 3. Have index and quest 2. Going to sit this one out jack
I might have fallen asleep for some parts of this but I did enjoy the raw honesty on display, that is, Brad on display, yes, show us more of you Brad.
Thank you for your in depth review of this! I appreciate it!
Thanks althought its not much, but I do value all your honest reviews and Valve Index users orientation. This and the BSB still feel like midgen compared to Aero & Crystal, but these as well have their pros/cons like the Vive/Oculus had at the time until the Index came out and oh my how perfect it was/is
Let's talk about the software flaw of when you're trying to watch a movie or video on the browser and the headset loses tracking due to an inactivity and then a white head tracking dot shows up in the middle of the screen that you cannot be removed.
How am I supposed to watch movies and videos comfortably???
"Its not a reason to but this" THANK YOU!!!!! Someone with credibility actually saying it
I think i totally agree with this review, except for 1 thing. I also thought that having the battery not in the back was a bad idea, but the Quest 3 is so power hungry, that you really need at least a 10000mah powerbank in the back. The irony is that when you have that powerbank in the back, the headset becomes perfectly balanced and actually feels lighter on your head. So at hindsight it was a really good move.
True not having a battery on the front would make the weight feel back heavy
I'm here for Brad's hair.
I find Quest 3's tracking volume to be a massive improvement over Q2's, especially for close-ups like bows and longguns. For some climbing use cases, Q2 will be better, but that's about it. As for QPro controllers, Q3's are lighter and have better latency, while sometimes QPro controllers will drift. (Not sure if that got fixed, only seems to happen in large spaces.) I end up using both depending on what I'm doing.
The QPro controllers don't drift, but after turning them on or coming out of standby, they can sometimes be misaligned. Sometimes it corrects itself after maybe 10 seconds, other times it requires a restart.
@@fen4554lately my Pro controllers simply disappear... holding Oculus logo on right controller centers the menu, but the controller itself is not displayed. Then other times, controller is displayed, but the pointer isn't. I might have to factory reset to see if it fixes it. Orher than that... if lighting is low, I get a warning that the controller is overheating and will shut down for 5 minutes. I get that while watching Netflix. Light is on my right side, but if controller is on my left, it gives the error. Move the controller to my right side... error goes away.
Not sure if I've missed it but pricing for this thing is NOT OK given the garbage stock strap and awful battery life. Elite strap with battery 150 bucks = absurd. I ordered the bobovr strap which of course isn't in stock anywhere. Until then, it is more of a sidegrade than upgrade to my (halo strap) quest 2. Yes, the lenses are better and I do notice the FoV increase, but the resolution is still subpar for things that are off in the distance. In the meta home environment I barely see a resolution difference between quest 2 and 3. This thing has way too many shortcomings and feels rushed.
1 hour???? Hold on lemme grab some popcorn real quick
Completely agree on the lack of non-gimmicky, non-sandbox, non stand-in-one-place Mixed Reality apps. As a developer, I'm trying hard to invent things in MR (within its current limitations) that you can't do in other mediums (including VR). Here's a short video I think works: th-cam.com/video/wMDg6I2ZfJg/w-d-xo.html
I use 2 4k monitors and my laptops 1440 monitor. So this is no go for monitor replacement. Kids however…love it as a starter
The pinching to select definitely needs to be improved. As you said, it moves the cursor right as you're about to select something. Even if you hover the cursor you'll see it wiggle about quite wildly, making it very difficult to be accurate with selections. I do however still love the convenience of hand tracking instead of having to pick up the controllers, especially when not gaming.
So...if you switching from pico 4 to quest 3 you won't see "the upgrade" I'm still struggling with artifacts on quest 3 something that they could fix bcs they know from the quest 2... Super hot (like compared to pico 4 is extremely hot) I don't know why I find pico 4 more smooth while pcvr... Even using VD. Headstrap is killer like for real you won't use more than 20 min with the original strap... Battery consumption is 3 time more than pico 4( you need at least 3 bobo batteries to fully charge) I will continue in the dilemma whether to keep them or sell them... Sadly
I can highly recommend installing the Quest Game Optimizer. You can squeeze out much more perfomance out of this chip. Just wish it was built on a more efficient node.
I honestly think the way they did the cheapest strap coming with the Quest 3 and let you add whatever you want later was the best option, sure they could have given you some kind of battery in the back with a strap that come with it, I think that would have added some kind of cost, but mostly I think the way they do it now, with what is the most minimal battery limit in the front, and where most people will add a optional strap with another battery in the back that gives users a crazy amount of option for customization is a very good trade off and one that probably gives then the least amount of support hassle mixed with people upset with the fast the battery that comes with it at least gives you enough time to play a game, but also time to swap a to a second battery. I think it was a perfectly fine design choice, and just shows that really no matter what you do you wont please everyone.
This video also coincides with my experience Q3 a lot like. Lens are very impresive and the performance boost is great but held back by short battery life, and subpar software experience. The silly stock strap while usable unlike the quest 2 its still the worst head strap included with any heatset which doesn't help retention.
Yeah, the hand tracking really does leave a lot to be desired. Thanks a lot for this awesome video.
Great review! Pretty much agree with everything. I still have only used my quest 3 for about 2 hours. My ipd is 72 and for some reason this thing hurts my brain more that the quest 2 did. Makes no sense.
I am interested in seeing him do a video of what his dream headset would be if he could design one.
Good insights
1 hour? YES!!
Thanks!
Hi Brad, awesome video! I love your in depth reviews and could listen to it hours on end.
Maybe a podcast isn't the worst idea. Heard there is a lot of money in podcasting right now. Maybe spotify is looking to bloster their tech portfolio with one of the most hardcore VR tech pros ;)
To get WiFi PCVR working you really need a 5Ghz router right next you with no other devices on the 5Ghz band, with your PC plugged into the router via Ethernet. 6E and 7 will of course improve the situation.
I still love my Quest Pro for gaming and more VR-specific applications. But the Quest 3 has much better pass-through and tracking, so for mixed reality prototyping specifically, the Quest 3 is much better.
The best in-depth review by far 💚 Can’t see myself buying any VR/XR/MR/AR headset, visor or goggles without watching your reviews!
I definitely want to delve into VR after trying out a friend's psvr2. I want the best of the best and have been waiting for the Apple ProVision. However, whilst it seems it will definitely do mixed reality, movies, puzzles, meditation, and productivity, etc., the best (which as a filmmaker/video editor, is most of what I will use it for), I would still like to do some gaming and I have a good feeling it won't play nice with the Meta or PCVR storefront and apps. So considering getting the Quest 3. Seems to be the best and the best bang for the buck out now.
In the near future I would definitely love a Quest 3 Pro and Valve to release their second rendition.
Another viable combo seems to be the Quest 3 for fun and the Immersed Visor for productivity. But there are no reviews on the Visor and I want to see how it stacks up and compares to the Apple ProVision.
I agree that blooming from zone-based backlight systems is significantly more distracting than a uniform lcd backlight, but at the end of the day, micro oled is king.
Zero issues with stock strap here, totally unnecessary for me to get a counter weighted strap.
Stay in the future mate 😊
I'm so surprised Meta has not release something comparable to apple's roomplan API. It's not perfect but it can auto detect a lot of common things in rooms like furniture, windows etc and it makes it much more comfortable to develop dynamic AR experiences that take these detected elements into account.
1080p 2D digital screens is a deal breaker for me in AR. (Not that I wouldn't buy a head set like the Q3 for amazing VR). I was pretty disappointed that there is no software/hardware support for 1440p screens in general.
I know that my opinion probably goes against the flow, but honestly I prefer the soft strap. Yes, the other straps might add some comfort, they also turn an already largish device into an unwieldy monstrosity. A Quest (1, 2 or 3) with a soft strap can be turned into a brick sized package and stowed into a corner of a backpack or suitcase. Once you add an "elite" strap all portability goes out the window IMO.
My rift s never felt unbearably painful after 30 minutes with the stock strap. The soft strap can thankfully be a bit more comfortable by wearing a baseball cap backwards whilst wearing it
Regarding SDE and aliasing: had 4 Quest 3 devices due to screen issues (dead pixels mainly) and can tell you that SDE and aliasing is not a 'feature' of the Quest 3 but rather your display lottery chance of getting one without.. meaning that 3 out of 4 had NO SDE and aliasing for me, kust the last device I received..Difference between the first 3 and the last device are night and day. I really believe they use different display batches with or maybe with or without diffusion layer (3th device had a wave like pattern on the edge that looked like foil curled up partly on the display).
Maybe worth investigating!?
Excellent collected thoughts, really appreciate the work you put into this review Brad!
so I can continue my suffering on future XR hardware reviews You're so distinctive. You're a natural born comedian. like you. You already made millions, man.
This was a pretty good review, no worries about the length and I hope VR manufacturer are seeing this, since you made so many good observations there.
looking good brad
I'm a software engineer and this still can't replace my monitors. When you deal with so much text, it causes a lot of eye strain.
being able to have the image directory, colors/fonts folder, virtual device, terminal and code open at all times sounds really nice, but with the eye strain and also the neck movement with a brick on your face, it is a better experience to use even just one monitor
Glad you mentioned the screen dimming around the edges. I'm adjusting and no longer notice it every time, but coming from the Quest 2 it was one of the first things that I noticed. It's in almost exactly the same location as the fresnel banding on the Quest 2, so it's still a 100% an improvement, just different.
Also, re: adding "virtual" monitors, I use hdmi plugs. Windows thinks it's a real monitor. This was the only way to get my headless VR machine to work for a long time.
I am new to vr and is thinking about getting the quest 3. Iv never used one before but i very interesting. What do you think
The pro's issue is it was marketed completely wrong.
It's passthrough is barely better than the pico4.
But where I'm loving my pro, is with sims and dcs in particular as the eyetracking allows me to apply active foveated rendering is saving 60% actual rendered resolution.
The open nature of the pro also allow for much easier use of my various buttons and physical controllers.
Another great video, Brad - love the insights 😎. Wondering, and not sure if anyone else was thinking - if you had to play Alyx, PCVR with a high end PC (4090, etc.), would you want to play it on a Quest 3 or a Pico 4?
I've gone DK1->DK2->Quest1-> Quest 2 -> Reverb G2 -> Pico 4 and that's where I am - love the Pico 4 (for SteamVR with Virtual Desktop) and am still undecided about whether the Quest 3 is a worthy upgrade in terms of PCVR experiences through SteamVR. I keep searching for channels/videos with a trustworthy and objective comparison/review of those for things like Boneworks, Vertigo 2, etc. and I just couldn't find the definitive answer. Thoughts?
@@rangerkayla8824 Ok amazing, that makes sense - thanks for weighing in 🙏💪. So I'm thinking it's incremental but not mind-blowing. Like, Reverb G2 was a lot better than Quest 2, but the heat and the narrow sweet spot slayed me. Then Pico 4 came out and just loved the controllers, the face fan was nice, the optics/lenses/sweet spot were great. And it just left me thinking like only the a Varjo headset with controllers and inside-out tracking would probably replace it.
Just wait Pico5...Quest 3 doesn't worth the money...Especially compared to Pico 4
@@SETHalpine So, that's exactly my thought too - I saw the announcement of Pico 5 and am excited, but what's going to drive all those pixels? Do we need an RTX 7090 and WIFI 7.0 before we can see decent refresh and low latency? Will framegen and other predictive tricks keep it smooth? How is the software, upscaling, and hardware going to all stay in sync as we pursue VR 'nirvana'?
@@jamesyoungerdds7901 2160x2160 for Pico 4....supersampling applied of 140% to correct the lens flaw = 2560x2560 expected for the regular pico 5
So you don't really need more to drive all theses pixels, you "just"need screen without lens...
And it's already exist, Silicon On display technologies allows very small micro led CURVED screen >5k without the use of lens.
And it's better and cheaper than the others type of screens
And foveal rendering will make the job for higher resolution (Vision pro, samsung Glasses, Pico 5 max pro)
Thanx!
Loved your video. I was thinking how come the Brad's not talking about the Audio. But you did! The very last moments. You covered everything and some. Know one does hardware like you. Keep it going!
my quest 3 is ordered but 2 week feels like an eternity, it will be my first VR experience
Brad, thank you so much for your coverage of the quest. I'm an index user but you've convinced me to get the quest 3. It seems just close enough that I'm getting my early adopter tingles. I just have to see for myself! :)
Do you (or anyone) have a recommendation or two for the back strap w/battery(counterweight)?
128GB vs 512GB? Is it worth the price for the additional space?
Bobo vr 3
Or something like that. Don’t go with the pro meta version, that’s for sure. That’s garbage, it can be kinda comfy but it brakes really easly and it is very overpriced
You’re doing pcvr a lot so probably 128GB. I assumed you don’t have money to throw, if not you would not be asking that question obviously…. If you have money to throw then…..
Couldn't the vignetting be corrected by brightening the edges and darkening the center of the display? Think of it as an inverse curve. It wouldn't be able to get all the way to the edges but as an option it should be able to create a larger region of constant brightness. I was more concerned with the vignetting at the edges when I first wore the Quest 3. I find that over time, I notice it less.
Thank you very much for one more great video. While I do share most of your points I do have a different experience with MR. But that's because regarding VR/MR I seem to be on the lucky side of life. All my interests are matching perfectly for VR/MR. I've been interested in stereoscopic pictures/videos since the 70ths. So I'm fascinated by VR on its own. I don't like shooters but simulations. Racing simulations are a perfect match for VR. I love to play table tennis. ElevenVR is a perfect combination of my interests. The simulation is very realistic. The virtual movement is identical to the real movement. It gets even better now that I can play it in MR since I don't crash into my walls while chasing hopeless balls. Miracle Pool is more calm but very similar in the MR experience. Having a huge pool table on demand in your living room is really cool. The MR home environment alone adds benefit. Being able to pick your drink or swapping the batteries of your controllers with the headset on adds a lot of benefit.
And last but not least I always dreamed of previewing my CAD-designs in MR. It allows for having a first impression whether the design matches the environment and allows to easily check whether I got all the tiny details correct. I'm sure there is more to come. And I don't only think of ikea allowing you to virtually place all their furniture in your house.
BR
i really appreactiate your hard work in really testing the device in real life first. i value your view highly. thank you!
Great review Brad.
They have updated the mic's code and made it better and useable since your video
Wish I could upgrade to quest 3. 😊
Layered textures are essential for what we expect out of game visuals these days and its good to finally see them on stand-alone. Whether for decals to give objects some extra detail, or for sheen to give objects a shiny appearance. Quest 3 is a headset that I would want if Meta could get their act together and stop crippling their own devices with company shennanigans. Also not quite sold on picking up a headset just for Sidequest.
Thanks for the great review. For me the weight and no eye tracing are deal breakers.
26:00 While I agree that a battery should be in the back honestly that would cause a lot of complications where if it is in the back already then you couldn't really get 3rd part hot swapable batteries to be able to play for extended sessions where if you have 2 hot swapable batteries you can always be charging one while you play with the other and as that one gets low you can simply swap it out while the headset doesn't loose power. A smaller battery in the front and a larger battery in the back would allow for counter balance because if you just remove the one from the front and add one to the back then it would be back heavy because most the weight of the headset is the battery.
On the counterweight thing, I've been cinching a 20,000 mAh Anker battery on the back of the Quest 2 elite strap with a couple of cable ties and a pair of thick rubber bands to keep it from slipping for like 3 years now. It works like a charm - it's the perfect amount of weight to offset the front bulk and provides hours and hours of hot-swappable juice.
I'm an index user and I just ordered a beyond I can't wait
Great review Brad!
I found that my virtual desktop had passthrough, so I spent hours trying to make a kind of green screen effect on some 3d undersea documentaries. I had glimpses of what it could be like if done with proper software, when the screen itself disappeared the 3d whales and dolphins seemed to be swimming freely around and through me. Because the whole image was green screened and my quest 2 is black and white the objects where faint and uncoloured, but if someone brings out a software that can automatically do proper green screen on the fly then that would be a big seller I think.