How good is the Meta Quest 3S battery life?
Best answer: Meta claims that the Meta Quest 3S battery life lasts 2.5 hours per charge for normal gaming. We tested our Meta Quest 3S review unit for ourselves and found that it does last 2.5 hours in ideal conditions, such as standard gaming or streaming YouTube VR.
However, when playing a graphically intense, Quest 3-enhanced game, the Quest 3S battery life fell to 2 hours, closer to how long the Meta Quest 3 typically lasts. Heavily using mixed-reality passthrough, internet browsing, or other “productivity” software will burn through battery more quickly as well.
The Meta Quest 3S (4,324mAh) has a smaller capacity than the Meta Quest 3 (5,060mAh), but the budget headset still lasts longer for day-to-day usage while using the same Snapdragon XR2 CPU and 8GB of RAM.
It’s one of the rare Meta Quest 3S vs. 3 differences that points in the cheaper headset’s favor. We suspect it lasts longer because the Quest 3S has a lower-resolution display and last-gen Fresnel lenses that don’t require as much brightness as the Quest 3’s pancake lenses.
Our Quest 3S tester Nick Sutrich spent one week with the Quest 3S and will be publishing his full review soon. Having run the headset through several power cycles, he agrees with Meta’s assessment that the Quest 3S is more efficient than the Quest 3. But he also found that when playing a AAA Quest game that we can’t discuss publicly yet, it cancelled out the Quest 3S’ battery advantage.
For context, the Oculus Quest 2 also had a battery-life max of 2.5 hours with a last-gen Snapdragon XR2 CPU, with the same lenses & resolution as the Quest 3S but a smaller capacity (3,640mAh). However, most of these old headsets have lost battery capacity over the last few years, making the Quest 3S a return to the norm.
While 2–2.5 hours of playtime is enough for many Quest gamers, others will find it insufficient for long, immersive play sessions of the best Meta Quest games.
The Meta Quest v59 update added a Battery Saver mode that sets a fixed refresh rate (72Hz), brightness (50% of max), and reduced foveated rendering. You can find it in the full settings menu under Power if you need to stretch your limited Quest 3S battery life in a pinch.
This is a temporary compromise, not a long-term solution. If battery life is a regular issue, we recommend buying a replacement head strap with a built-in battery pack. Meta sells an official one for a costly $130.
Among the best 3rd-party Quest 3S accessories, our favorite is the BOBOVR M3 Pro, which costs significantly less. It’s a huge comfort upgrade over the default Quest 3S cloth strap and adds another 5,200mAh of battery capacity, more than the Quest 3S itself has. It’ll add another couple hours of playtime to the headset. It even has a quick-swap battery design, so if you pay extra for a second battery you can keep it charged and swap it in when the first battery dies.
You probably don’t need the total 4–7 hours of playtime it potentially offers, but it gives you a buffer in case you forget to keep your Quest 3S charged and don’t want to wait two hours to start.
2.5 hours of wireless gaming
The Meta Quest 3S uses the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 and 4MP RGB cameras, enabling enhanced games and mixed-reality experiences that the Quest 2 can’t handle. With its $299 price tag, it saves you money that you can put towards a battery pack, letting you extend your Meta Quest 3S battery life another couple of hours.
Stretch out the fun
The BOBOVR M3 Pro is the first Quest 3S accessory we recommend buying because it cushions your head and keeps the front-heavy headset securely in place with an adjustable knob as you dance or bob around your living room. As an added bonus, it doubles your Quest 3S battery capacity, and the battery itself sits at the rear, counterbalancing the weight.
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