I ordered both the headset and the strap. According to UPS, both arrive on the 11th. (I’ll be off at work 
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There’s a rumor that they might do a SKU without the hand controllers to make it even cheaper. Could be interesting to cockpit people.
I watched Norm’s review and was good. Notes from my perspective:
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He struggled with the Quest Pro comparison, as the Pro has local dimming and nicer blacks but 3 has a better resolution and an interesting panel layout to make the best of the great lenses/panels. He didn’t like the 3 only had 8 GB of RAM for local mobile games, and that the battery life was similar at 2 hours.
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The mixed reality and pass-through stuff looked good. I can see that being useful not to have to take off the headset sometimes. I was surprised he was good with glasses rather than the zenni new prescription option. The passthrough was good enough to type with.
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For accessories he thinks the stiff ‘elite strap’ is probably needed, but to skip the dock as not great value.
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For pure PCVR he said to maybe look at the Pro instead, or the Bigscreen Beyond and any mythical Valve new headset, so might be worth waiting for a bit unless you’re heavily invested in the Meta ecosystem already.
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It just so happened that I watched the videos and didn’t, rare for me, require the synapse synopsis. But usually I am begging for someone to do one. I HATE watching videos. And your synapse synopsis was a perfect encapsulation of the review. So, even though I personally didn’t need it, thank you!
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I know it was a typo and you wanted to write synopsis, but for a brief moment I wondered whether you were trying to be self-deprecating and basically write “I didn’t have to use the single brain cell I have” in a clever way.
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I can’t even blame autocorrect! (I don’t use it). In my defense, caffeine dosing didn’t commence for another hour.
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Since I use the charging doc with the Quest Pro, I appreciated his critique of the Q3 charging doc. I’ll pass on it. It’s too expensive, given that my Q3 will probably spend 90% of its life connected to a USB cable. To that end, I’m wondering if Eneloop 2000 MaH Ni-MH batteries are an option for the controllers. Seems like a good compromise of using rechargeables over the charging doc.
Otherwise, there were a lot of positives. I 'm really looking forward to the improved GPU and passthrough performance. Meta continues to refine the UI and improve functionality.
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woot! A gift from Zuck!
First impressions
I unboxed downstairs away from the PC. Setup took a minute or two. I already had the Quest app on my phone and am fully connected to the Matrix (Facebook) node. I know that it is possible to setup and use unplugged to the mothership but I cannot speak to how that works. I did not try the included strap. The Elite strap is very comfortable. After wearing for an hour there were no areas that were uncomfortable and no noticeable pressure points. The temperature around my face was slightly warmer than ambient and seemed on par with the Quest 2. Passthrough is terrific! On the Quest 2 it is only good for gauging the approximate location of your beer. Now it’s, as @chipwich has already described for the Pro, good enough to use a phone. I’ve NEVER used a VR headset to browse or view. So this was a first. I sat on the couch and, much to my wife’s amusement, watched Japanese learning videos (cijapanese.com) on a giant screen super-imposed just above our sleeping cat. It was great fun! This is AR at its most basic level. But with that early taste I finally see what Apple is shooting for.
Setting up on my PC entailed clearing the Quest 2 off my desk, plugging in the 3 and drawing a fake boundary around my desk. Open the Oculus Windows app and pairing the headset. That’s it. Now my only concern was if X-Plane would change up the settings on my Touch controllers as I fly only with them and rudder pedals. Nothing changed. Other than the pairing with the app nothing on my PC cared an iota that I had switched Meta headsets. Visually it’s fine, obviously better, but not revolutionary. I still don’t know what pancake lenses are. This has them. My Quest 2 did not. If there is a difference, I am too dumb to see it. One thing that is way better is using the headset with glasses.
I sometimes did that with the Q2 but only when the thought of contacts killed me. Glasses were not comfortable with the Q2. With the Q3 glasses are perfectly comfy. And with the Elite strap, donning and removing with glasses on is quick. The FOV is 10-20% better and that was my only real visual complaint with the Q2. I flew from JFK with everything set to max except for anisotropic filtering (high) and shadows. Performance felt identical with ortho and max objects. NYC was the same. I’d say it looked 10% better and ran about the same. It might well have run 10% worse but it just wasn’t noticeable. I tend to overlook faults with new toys which is why I’d make a terrible reviewer but probably (and sadly) a world-class influencer.
Now for DCS…
DCS Rotorheads server. Definitely better and smoother. Can’t explain that. Maybe just less server lag than normal. But Syria with 45 players was very smooth, bright, and more detailed. The sound is great; better than the already quite OK Q2. SRS players said that the mic was good also.
Augmented Reality. The headset comes with a minigame where a little UFO crashes through the ceiling to equipe you with a toy gun. Seconds later little furries start breaking through the walls and you have to shoot them, encapsuling them in little balloons to be collected by the UFO. At one point I was on my knees shooting under our grand piano. A little taste of the future. I let my daughter try. While she was laughing and shooting, I thought “how cool this would be at a party if others could watch!” I opened the app on my phone and clicked “Cast”, not knowing what it was but guessing correctly that it was screen sharing.
IL2. Just finished a Flying Circus session with IRFC (Ad Astra server). Noticeably better! Slightly sharper, clearer and smoother. I could spot planes earlier than before. To the point that the headset is almost a cheat.
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Oh boy! Happy New Headset Day!
cant see any cheap quest2 entries here in the marketplace yet, whats going on guys !?
After 3 years of sweating in mine, I am a bit too embarrassed to sell it.
I can believe you. that is one of the negative things I did notice while using VR. sweating enough without it already 
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Come on, guys, anybody who buys a cheap used one can easily replace the headband.
It’s the faceplate and padding, not the band.
I’m offering a free disposal service for overly-sweaty VR headsets, in order to help others avoid any unseemly embarrassment. 
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There are literally dozens of both expensive and cheap options out there, available in stores ranging from Walmart and Bestbuy, to Amazon.
Thanks @HiFlyer. I was just riffin’ with @NEVO. Didn’t mean the “sweat” comment to be taken seriously.
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Was not sure. I have bumped into people over the years who can be squeamish about things like that…
The Quest 3 was delivered yesterday, regardless of the mixed up tracking, so I have some initial thoughts. I grabbed the kids’ Q2, cleaned it up, including removing all of the fingerprints and greasy smudges on the lens for a quick 3 way comparison. As always, YMMV.
My system specs are R7 5800X3D / 32GB / RTX3090ti
Q3 vs QPro vs Q2
Comfort: The Q3 is more comfortable out of the box than the Pro, but less accommodating to eyeglasses IMHO. I’ve had my Pro for 11 mos, so plenty of time to tweak the fit and upgrade the strap and pads. I can highly recommend the Globular Cluster Comfortable Kit. Now the Pro slides on like a pair of 15 year old Levis. I’ll tinker with the Q3 a bit to improve its fit for my glasses or get a set of snap-on corrective lenses. The Q2 was the least comfortable of the 3 when new, but the upgraded strap and larger face gasket makes it fairly comfortable. Conclusion: they all need tweaking for comfort, but the Q3 is the most comfortable as delivered. Note: the blue accessory strap is different from the default strap and face plate in color only.
Image: The newer two headsets are really close. In the hair splitting category, the better resolution of the Q3 delivers a minutely better image than the Pro. If I look for it, I see a tiny amount of SDE in the Q3 on bright objects, but that goes away if you zoom in. Normally, I wouldn’t give it a thought, but some people are sensitive to such things, so thought it worth mentioning. Both headsets have a massive sweet spot and an excellent image compared to their predecessor. But the Q2 still hangs in there pretty well as a lower resolution, but very usable entry level headset. By a mosquito wing width, the Q3 over the QPro. As they sit now, I’ll probably reach for my Pro, due to its superior comfort
Passthrough: as expected, in order of best to worst, Q3, QPro, and Q2. The 3 is sharper than the Pro, as it should be given its 3 lenses on the front. But as good as it is, don’t expect to have a perfect view of your monitor or phone’s screen. Its nice to have the improved image, but not a game changer as the two newer headsets felt over the Q2’s B&W low res output. All 3 headsets use the convenient double-tap method for toggling passthrough.
Performance: EDIT: TO BE UPDATED
Hope this helps.
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IMHO, if I’m sweating, my computer is a lot more uncomfortable. Maybe I’m not flying/fighting hard enough.
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