It has been 6 months since I bought a Meta Quest 3, and while its novelty has worn off in a similar way to the Quest 2, there's still something kind of magical about these devices. One of the biggest takeaways I've had after 6 months with the Quest 3 is how much more solid of a product it is compared to the Quest 2. It's more comfortable thanks to a slimmer profile and upgraded materials for the facial interface, and the cooling feels better on this than the Quest 2, though it's actually slightly heavier at 515 grams compared to the Quest 2's 503 grams. Though you'd never know it because the weight distribution is more even. One of the standout features of the Quest 3 is its better optics and displays. The screens are not only higher resolution with better colors compared to the Quest 2, but they also feature an entirely new pancake lens design. I cannot stress enough how big of an upgrade these lenses actually are. They just make everything look sharper and clearer, and you don't have to line up your eyes with this tiny little sweet spot to get a perfectly crisp image. One of the big changes Quest 3 brought to Meta's headset experience is full-color pass-through, and yes, it is good enough now that you can even read notifications on your phone, look at your smartwatch, or even look at a computer screen all without having to remove the Quest headset. The full-color pass-through makes wearing the headset feel a bit less isolating, and certainly, it's easier to move around your space, especially when you compare it to the black and white-looking infrared image out of the Quest 2's pass-through. The Quest 3 also improved the way virtual boundaries are handled. Its auto-boundary detection is really fast for room boundaries. It'll automatically draw a suggested boundary and quickly allow you to adjust it, all without needing to set up the ground level every time, which speeds up the process. Some other improvements I've appreciated 6 months later with the Quest 3 are its sound. While it doesn't sound amazing, it does sound noticeably better than the Quest 2 with less distortion. I also like that the glasses spacer is now integrated into the Quest 3's facial interface compared to the removable one on the Quest 2, which you could easily lose. I also think that Meta did a really good job slimming down the controllers by removing the tracking ring and upgrading their haptics. However, for experiences with fast movements like Beat Saber, I did initially experience tracking accuracy issues which others seem to have reported as well, but more recently when I retested this, I didn't have any issues. When you take all of these hardware improvements together, it really does feel like a third-generation product, meaning that the company fixed most of the issues with the first generation and has built a pretty substantial business and ecosystem around it. That's how the Quest 3 feels, especially when you look at the software experience. There are now so many games and experiences to try out. Unfortunately, most games and experiences don't have a free trial or demo, so the only way to try them is to actually purchase them, though Meta thankfully does have a pretty decent return policy. You can request a refund within 14 days of purchase as long as you haven't engaged with the content for more than 2 hours. Meta also launched a Quest Plus subscription along with its headset, and this subscription will give you two handpicked titles every month plus a revolving catalog of games you can play instantly, helping you try more experiences with your Quest over time and keeping things feeling fresh. Speaking of games, here are some of the ones I've really enjoyed over the past 6 months. "Vader Immortal" continues to be a highlight. It was the first immersive experience on the Quest where I really got how powerful this medium can be for immersive storytelling and experiences within games. They feel more real than when playing a computer or console game. You can see how tall or how short characters really are. Darth Vader is really &%$#@& tall! LEGO Bricktales is another standout experience. It presents you with a giant virtual Lego set, and you move around your little Lego brick character to explore new worlds. It's one of the most compelling augmented reality games I've experienced and is quite fun. Some other interesting and notable experiences have been "Nano," where you're shrunk down to the microscopic level so you can travel through people's bodies and investigate a mysterious virus while also learning a bit about how cells work. One of my favorite immersive experiences is "I Expect You to Die," a puzzle-solving game in which you play a spy who's put in a variety of situations. And there are always multiple ways to solve the puzzle but also multiple ways to end up dead. And this game has particularly been fun to play at parties where you can cast your Quest 3's display to a TV using Google's Chromecast. You can cast your headset's feed to the Quest app on an iPhone and AirPlay the iPhone screen to a TV, but it doesn't look as good and can be kind of laggy. Now, aside from the improved optics and displays, games look better on the Quest 3 thanks to the improved performance Meta gave it. The Quest 3 features the new Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip which in games like "Red Matter 2" really shows off what this headset is capable of. You see way more reflections and details, and it overall just looks stunning. Meta has also improved the software experience of the Quest 3 and the Quest 2 for that matter thanks to regular software updates. These updates not only include new major features but also performance enhancements like the recent pass-through video upgrade. Meta has also made it easier to move around windows in your environment, and its hand tracking is actually pretty good. And you can now enlarge the size of content screens more easily. Though I haven't really found myself using this headset to look at a bunch of virtual 2D screens until comfort for long sessions with this headset on improves. This is something where I think it actually just looks better in social media ads versus how useful it is in real life. The Quest does offer free immersive 3D content though, which is a viewing experience made specifically for these headsets. There are actually quite a few videos to choose from, but so far I haven't seen anything here that can match Apple's immersive video format. Though to be fair, both formats feel more like demos than something that's going to keep you coming back to these headsets again and again. And because the Quest 3 has the screen door effect where you can kind of make out pixels, plus the weight of it is why I really wouldn't recommend watching TV shows and movies on it either. And the same is true for virtual desktops. You can connect your computer to the Quest 3 wirelessly via Meta's Remote Desktop app available for Mac and PC which allows you to see your computer's entire display virtually, which overall works pretty well. I can see text clearly and even use multiple screens from my Mac in Horizon Workrooms, which is cool but also at times a bit glitchy. Now before we get to some other updates Meta made to this headset, here's a quick word from this video's sponsor, Uplift Desk. I bought an Uplift Desk several years ago, and I can't imagine working without one. The desks come with an array of powerful features like easy height adjustment, and I love the control panel I chose where you can save up to four different height settings. 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Visit the link in the description below and find the desk that's perfect for you. Every product ordered through that link helps support 6 Months Later, and thanks to Uplift Desk for sponsoring this video. A few other updates Meta made over the past 6 months are a lying down mode, which will reenter the display wherever you're looking when lying down. You can also play spatial videos from an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max on the headset, but the videos don't honestly look very good on Quest. As I said in my first video on the Vision Pro, I think this format has a lot of promise but there's still a long way to go. Just this week, Meta announced the ability to view panoramic photos from an iPhone on the Quest 3. This was one of those wow experiences I had when using the Vision Pro for the first time, so I'm glad to see it'll be available on Quest as well. Now besides games, there are other experiences to try out on the Quest like fitness apps like Supernatural or Fit XR, which have monthly subscriptions can help you get your rate up as well as do different workouts, punch 3D virtual objects, and listen to different music. It basically gamifies cardio and other workouts. I personally have tried both but didn't find them as compelling as my Apple Fitness Plus workouts on my TV because I've mainly been focusing on strength training with weights. The last big advantage of the Quest 3 and Quest line in general is Meta's approach to their devices and ecosystem. Meta is taking a much more open approach to its headsets compared to Apple's closed ecosystem model, and Meta's approach has a lot of benefits. Just last week, Meta announced they're opening up their OS, which is partially based on Android, to other hardware partners like Lenovo, Microsoft, and Asus. They're also opening up the Quest Store to Steam and Xbox Game Pass. This is going to result in even more games and experiences that you can play on Quest as well as a larger variety of hardware you can potentially choose from. And today you can already sideload apps onto the Quest through apps like SideQuest and use Steam Link to connect to your gaming PC to play higher-end games with better graphics. That's all the good stuff with the Quest 3, but what about the downsides? The first one I found is this headset at times can still feel glitchy. When you look at a virtual window with pass-through mode, sometimes that window can kind of slightly shift or jump, and that can cause disorientation. The same thing happens if you have some virtual windows open and start walking around, you'll get some stuttering which can lead to motion sickness. Motion sickness can be experienced in any kind of headset like this, especially with experiences where you're moving a character or just the view but you yourself physically are not moving. Thankfully, Meta does have a rating system that'll tell you how comfortable a game or experience will be to play in regards to motion sickness. Another discomfort you'll want to watch out for when using a headset like this is eye strain. I've just noticed when you put one of these on and have a screen close up to your eye you'll have a tendency to blink less, and I especially noticed that when wearing contacts. Now another issue I've had with this headset over the past 6 months is on occasion this headset will just constantly disconnect from Wi-Fi. I'll hard reboot the headset which temporarily fixes things but then I'll run into the same issue all over again. It could just be my router but given that it's the same router I used with the Quest 2 without any issue I'm inclined to think it's more likely an issue with the Quest 3 and others have reported similar issues as well. Another big downside with a Quest is how to authenticate into the headset. Unfortunately, there's no iris scanner or fingerprint sensor on the top for a more seamless authentication experience. You're stuck using a password unlock which I find to be a real pain to use. I end up just turning this feature off entirely. Now the last downside is repairability. Even though the Quest 3 is a cutting-edge piece of hardware, I'd like Meta to at least make the battery user-replaceable. Now let's talk recommendations. When you combine all of the new hardware and software features with Meta's more open operating model, the Quest 3 and its ecosystem start to look compelling. But are there a sufficient amount of good games and experiences for you to want to keep putting the Quest 3 on your face? Well, at $299 I think the Quest 2 made it easier to say yes to that question, and that was a device I found myself using pretty much every week for the first year I owned one. But then as the pandemic waned more, I found myself using it less. With the Quest 3, even though it can do more, I personally haven't found myself using it as much as I did the Quest 2, partially because Beat Saber got stale for me. The games on the Quest I really need to try out aren't typically ones I found myself personally drawn to spending my time on every week over my gaming PC. Though to be fair, I'm not a very broad gamer. I tend to find a few games and stick to those and buy hardware specifically for those games, so some of this might just be a me problem. Let me know in the comments what your experience with Quest and other headsets has been, and if you have a Quest 3, what have you thought of it so far. So is it worth it? In general, the Quest 3 is a great device that I can confidently recommend for certain use cases: for those who want a great gaming device that can put them inside of the game, or those who want immersive fitness experiences, as well as those who want the best optics and gaming experience in any Quest headset to date. And for Quest 2 users who use their device regularly, I do think Meta has packed enough upgrades into the Quest 3 to make it worth it to sell your Quest 2 and upgrade to the three. The Quest 3 retails for $499, and I've left links below to check its price compared to the Quest 2 as well as links to the Quest 3 accessories which include multicolored facial interfaces. And yes, Quests do have multi-user support, a nice carrying case, and a charging dock, though the dock feels a bit pricey at $129. Now what about how it compares to the Vision Pro? Is the Quest 3 actually the better product? Well, I didn't want this video to go like another 10 minutes. I did a video on that topic though you can get to by clicking here. And if you're trying to figure out if you want to buy the Quest 2 or Quest 3, how they compare, or you just want to see my full 6 months later review of The Quest 2, you can get to those videos by clicking here. If you like this video, make sure you hit that thumbs up button below, and don't forget to subscribe to the channel for more videos on VR headsets and Meta products, like my upcoming review of The Meta Rayband smart glasses. For 6 months later, I'm Josh Tedar. Thanks for watching.