Latest news with #MetaQuest3
Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- Tom's Guide
5 Meta Quest 3 accessories to upgrade your VR setup — starting from just $19
As much as I enjoy using my Meta Quest 3, it's far from perfect. Any VR user will know that the Quest 3 and Quest 3S aren't exactly the most comfortable headsets, nor do they have the longest battery life. But a few add-ons can sort that out. I've been using Meta's VR headset to try out a bunch of its unique features lately, including setting up 3 virtual monitors through a Windows PC and learning how to draw using its mixed-reality capabilities. Oh, and satisfyingly beating up some thugs in Batman: Arkham Shadow. But I wouldn't have nearly enjoyed any of that as much if I didn't have the VR accessories to give the Quest 3 (or Quest 3S) the upgrades it deserves. From head straps with battery packs that offer hours of extra playtime while giving your head miles more comfort, to cables that give you lag-free access to PC VR, these aren't just handy add-ons — many are downright essential. Whether you're looking to give your Quest 3 or Quest 3S new life or are just about to grab the best VR headsets you can get today (I highly recommend it), I've rounded up the VR accessories that you won't want to miss — and some even come with a discount. Seeing as the Quest 3 was $649, it's a great time to grab the best VR headset for $499. It's an excellent choice, and the fact it's more affordable is a definite win. It also comes with the fantastic Batman: Arkham Shadow and 3-month subscription to Quest+ at no extra cost, which we think is exceptional value. The Meta Quest 3S is the best entry-level VR headset you can get. It comes packed with the same performance as its pricier sibling with the only real difference being it uses the same fresnel lenses as the Meta Quest 2, which means lower resolution. Otherwise, if you're looking to get into VR, grab this excellent bundle deal. Now, onto the the accessories that will make using your Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S shine. Want to go beyond Meta's offering of VR games and apps? Get the PC VR experience with a gamer-ready laptop by using this INIU Link Cable. At 16 feet, you're getting plenty of length to move freely despite being tethered, and it also offers an alternative way to charge your Meta Quest headset indefinitely while it's attached. This is the Link Cable you'll want. Even been so absorbed in a VR game that you end up punching a wall? Well, I have, and it hurts, and I'd prefer not to ruin the Quest's controllers too. The AMVR Touch Controller Grip Covers are the solutions, though, and they're the best knuckle straps for the Meta Quest 3 and 3S. Expect protection and more control, and the comfortable grips make sure the controllers stick to your hands, especially when you're furiously punching the air. I'm not a fan of the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S' head strap that comes in the box. It does the job, but it can feel tight after long, active VR sessions. So, to elevate that comfort for longer VR sessions, you'll want to upgrade to the K4 Comfort Headstrap. It's extremely easy to set up, and gives you extra support when playing more movement-intensive games or apps. Better yet, it's now down to $34. Why not combine that comfort with a longer battery? That's exactly what the Kiwi Design K4 Boost Battery Head Strap offers, and you can expect an extra 3 hours of play with this fitted on. I'm a big fan of the Kiwi Design H4 Boost Halo strap, but this model is more affordable (and currently has a discount!). A set of earbuds made for virtual reality? That's what the Final VR3000 offer, and they even come with a solid microphone and plenty of comfort. We've tested the Final VR3000 Wireless earbuds, which are also a great shout if you're looking to cut the cord. But for something more affordable, and with the same immersive in-game sound quality, these wired buds will do the trick.
Tom's Guide
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
Meta Quest 3 should've killed big-screen TVs — here's why that didn't happen
When I reviewed the HTC Vive back in 2016, I thought VR headsets were about to set the world on fire. For roughly two months, the Vive was the best VR headset and I spent as much time as I could living in VR and demoing it for everyone who came over. One of the biggest features that I thought would take off was Viveport Video, a collection of 360-degree videos that offered a more immersive experience than standard 16x9 format content. Everyone wants to watch something on an infinitely big TV, right? Turns out, no. Not at all. And now I've finally got a few answers why. Now if you own a VR headset like the Meta Quest 3, you might actually use it for watching the best streaming services. However, sadly you're in the minority. According to a recent report by research firm Counterpoint, the sale of VR headsets dropped 12% year-over-year in 2024. And that was the third year in a row that sales have declined. Everyone has different numbers about the total number of units sold, but by the looks of things, it was only around 5 million units. By comparison, in 2024 the worldwide global sales of TVs reached 230 million units. And that number doesn't fluctuate by a ton each year. In 2020, 2021 and 2023, there were more than 200 million units sold worldwide. So why are TVs selling so much better than VR headsets? One very good reason is because TVs are becoming more affordable while VR headsets cost just as much as they did almost a decade ago. When you can buy one of the best TVs for under $500, you're probably not in a rush to go out and spend $500 on a stand-alone VR headset that you've never tried before. Maybe you'd jump on the opportunity to try VR if there was a good headset available for less than $100, but at that price you're going to have to buy one secondhand. In short, one reason that VR headsets haven't overtaken TVs is because of low sales and stagnant prices. There just aren't enough headsets out there and evangelists preaching the benefits about watching movies and shows in VR As it turns out, good headsets are hard to make. Or, well, at least harder to make than a good TV. Very early on in the advent of VR, it was decided that a 90Hz refresh rate is the minimum you'd want on a screen that close to your face. Any slower, and you're more likely to feel motion sick. Ideally, you'd want more than a 90Hz refresh rate, but then that will come at the cost of lower resolution. Now, I should mention that the Quest 3 defaults to a 90Hz refresh rate, but that can be changed to 120Hz in the settings. However, not every application and game takes advantage of the faster refresh rate. What that means is that some apps are going to cause less nausea than others. I've never watched a TV that's so bad that it's made me sick to my stomach. But let's be honest, any time spent feeling nauseous is bad. There's really no point when watching a TV would make you feel motion sick. The soap opera effect is unpleasant, sure, and bad motion interpolation can induce headaches. But I've never watched a TV that's so bad that it's made me sick to my stomach. Sadly, the same can't be said for VR. When watching videos alone, I'd argue that VR is as good as a cheap TV. Now, admittedly, because I review them professionally I'm always going to enjoy the better contrast of a QD-OLED screen than the LCD of a Quest 3, but good luck finding a Samsung S95F for $500. But when it comes to sharing content with someone else in the same room as you, TVs can't be beat. Sure, you can Cast some of what you're doing in VR to a TV to share with someone (and one of my favorite VR games, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, uses that to its advantage). But it's hard to share videos without introducing latency issues. For that reason, if you're in the same room, it just makes more sense to share a screen rather than Casting something so one person can watch in VR while another watches on a screen. That said, if you have a friend who lives far away, VR can be a nice meeting place to come together and watch a movie. Apps like Bigscreen make that possible, though... again, it doesn't feel like enough people know about it and quality isn't always perfect. Look, as much as I enjoy watching and reviewing them, TVs aren't perfect. Setting them up is a huge pain, and like phones and tablets, the displays themselves don't always survive for more than five or six years. I'm not rooting for the death of TVs, mind you, but a change in form factor wouldn't hurt. LG's Transparent TV is a great example of what I'd like: It's a screen that fades into the background when you're not using it. AR stands a real chance at taking down TVs... but I don't know anyone willing to shell out $3,500 for the Apple Vision Pro. In its current form — at its current price point — VR isn't going to overtake TVs. There's still too many kinks. Now, AR stands a real chance at taking down TVs... but I don't know anyone willing to shell out $3,500 for the Apple Vision Pro. Until VR becomes more user-friendly or shoots down in price, TVs will continue to be the de facto screen on which we all watch shows and movies in 2025.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ryan Reynolds Trolls Neil Patrick Harris for 'Stealing' Deadpool in New VR Game
It's official: Ryan Reynolds has been benched in favor of another actor for the latest Deadpool gig—sort of. Fortunately, Marvel fans and followers of the foul-mouthed superhero don't have anything to worry about regarding Reynolds portraying the character on the big screen. He remains the voice, personality and man behind the mask of Deadpool on that front, but it'll be a How I Met Your Mother fan-favorite handling a new voiceover gig for the character. It was recently revealed that Neil Patrick Harris will be the voice of the popular superhero in the new Meta Quest Deadpool VR game. Although Reynolds likely had no actual issue with this, he made sure to take a few jabs while trolling his fellow actor for "stealing" Deadpool, calling him a "butthole." While it's unknown if Reynolds was offered to do the VR game voiceover, it'd be surprising if the decision to go with another actor was made without his knowledge. Regardless, he obviously doesn't seem to have any real issue with it, and his sarcastic response is what fans have come to expect from the actor. Marvel dropped the trailer on its website, stating that Deadpool VR is "not for the faint of heart, so put on your big kid undies and strap in for a violent, expletive-ridden good time." The release date currently shows just "2025," and it'll be available only on Meta Quest 3/ Reynolds Trolls Neil Patrick Harris for 'Stealing' Deadpool in New VR Game first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 8, 2025
Tom's Guide
12-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
Best of AWE 2025: The top 7 XR gadgets that caught our eye
Augmented World Expo (AWE) is a show focused on the world of virtual reality headsets and smart glasses, and how those devices are changing the future. The 2025 edition was a leap forward from previous years with a massive presence from well-known tech companies like Qualcomm, Sony, and Meta. Smart glasses are getting better and better, and headsets like the Meta Quest 3 are receiving more ways to play and work. And we haven't even mentioned the various wearables that can connect with your phone or these devices. Much of the show is focused on the future of headsets and glasses, but there were a number of products that are coming soon or are available now. We were able to go hands-and face-on with several products. Here's our picks for the best of AWE 2025 that you need to know about. Yes, these are the AR glasses that Viture has been teasing for a while now. While I can't tell you much about my hands-on time until they are announced, the fact that I've immediately given them the "best of show" trophy is hopefully enough of a green flag of what you'll get here. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. And what you do get is the best screen I've ever seen with a massive 60-degree field of view — all with that same great color production that Viture is known for. On top of that, with such a huge field of view, the glasses don't look or feel significantly larger to pull it off, and there's zero fringing around the outer edges of the display. Put simply, if you've been waiting for the best external display for your eyes on long journeys, I recommend you wait for these. Snapchat had a massive presence at AWE 2025 with multiple demos of its current Snap Spectacles, including AI-enabled object recognition and linked glasses for multi-person experiences. The biggest news was that its rebranded Specs will launch in 2026. Developers have had access to the prototype versions of the new smart glasses since late 2024, with a ton of expected "Lenses" or apps already in development. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel announced that the new glasses would be lighter and a "much smaller form factor" than the current Spectacles and the dev kits that we've seen. AWE 2025 was filled with VR accessories that ranged from haptic gloves to giant mech-suit-esque apparati. Unfortunately, many were either prototypes, meant for businesses, or too big for most people to feasibly use in their homes (looking at you, MEK). bHaptics showed off its TactSuit, a series of wearable VR accessories that add haptic feedback to your VR gaming. And we got to try some, including a vest, gloves, and sleeves. The accessories work with the Meta Quest 3 headset and were a lot of fun, even during simple tech demos. They're a bit spendy, but if you're invested in VR gaming, they are worth the cost. Controlling AR content on glasses has been a bit of a minefield. Either you've got to use a secondary device like a wand (like the Xreal Beam Pro), or it's a whole hand-tracking situation that doesn't really work without more raw computation. That's where the KiWear Smart Ring comes in — accurately capturing pinch and hand movements to a degree that it all feels like spatial computing without the need for an Apple Vision Pro on your face. Whether it's pinching to select, swirling your finger around to change the volume, or turning your hand palm-up for additional interactions, it's all here with this ring. It could possibly bring on a new wave of controlling AR content. We all know that AI goes hand-in-hand with smart glasses to deliver an immeasurably better experience — take a look at the Ray-Ban Metas for example. But it can all be a bit impersonal. How do you make that AI more personalized to you? A lot of sensors, and that's what Emteq is doing. Simply put, this company has delivered a fitness and wellness tracker better than any smart watch or smart ring ever could be. With nine optical sensors, it's able to measure your facial muscles to a near-microscopic level. This has uses in being able to create an avatar for talking in video calls, but the real immediate benefit I saw is in healthcare. Not only can you use the cameras to take a picture of your food and use ChatGPT to give you a caloric breakdown of what you're about to eat, but you can also get a reading on whether you're chewing too fast, which may cause digestion problems. And then the subconscious muscle twitches in your face can give it a read on your emotional well-being too. This is true personalized AI, and a look at what smart glasses could be as real assistants. The Wizpr ring caught us by surprise as we wandered the AWE 2025 show floor. It's an AI-enabled smart ring that features a microphone you can use to speak with AI. We tested it, and you can just about whisper, as the name implies, into the ring to give it commands or prompts. On the loud show floor, we were able to ask questions like, "What's the weather like?" or "How far away is the nearest Starbucks?" and the interface appeared to hear and understand the prompts. It can also be used to control some smart home devices like lights or media in your AirPods. Snapdragon AR1+ is a turbo-boosted version of what you see in the Ray-Ban Metas, but it's so much more than that. You see, one of the common obstacles with AI in smart glasses is the time taken to receive a response from the cloud, or latency. But this is able to run a 1-billion parameter model entirely locally, which is great for both privacy and speed. On top of that, there are improvements to camera quality, display quality, and energy efficiency. This chip puts Qualcomm on a path towards smart glasses that cut the cord to any phone or additional computing puck, and sets them towards a future where your smart glasses could replace what you may be reading this on right now.
Tom's Guide
12-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
Xreal's Project Aura smart glasses are closer to Meta's Project Orion than I thought - and the specs sound wild
Xreal is having quite the summer kickoff after revealing its Project Aura Android XR smart glasses during Google I/O 2025. Xreal already makes some of the best smart glasses, and it sounds like Project Aura will be massive upgrade. The company was a keynote speaker during Augmented World Expo 2025 in Long Beach, California to share a few more details about the new glasses. There's plenty we don't know. But we do know that Xreal's Android XR specs will feature a 70 degree field of view, the largest field of view in any smart glasses. For comparison, the Xreal One and One Pro which launch on July 1 feature 57 degree FOVs, currently the widest field we've seen. Those extra 13 degrees are important, it's not the 110 FOV in the Meta Quest 3, but it will still provide a large display, hopefully with peripheral vision feeling less constrained. From speaking with Xreal's head of public relations, Ralph Jodice, and Qualcomm's VP of Product Management, Said Bakadir, we're able to confirm some details and make some educated guesses. From our talk with Jodice and what Xreal has announced between Google I/O and AWE 2025, we know that Project Aura will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip in a connected compute device. Xreal has confirmed that the glasses will run a souped up X1S custom silicon in the glasses. If you've read our Xreal One review, you'll have already seen what spatial capabilities are in the X1 chip, so that extra S is surely meant for additional depth of field anchoring features for those AR user features of Android XR. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. And on top of that, from speaking with Bakadir, I'm guessing we'll see a secondary Snapdragon XR chip driving a lot of the compute requirements of Android XR from the puck. The recently-announced Snapdragon AR1+ chip is good for on-device AI and simple local tasks, but for the fully-fleshed experience, you need something like an XR2 you find in the Meta Quest 3 to make it happen. We were also told that Aura will feature front facing sensors for gesture controls and MR experiences including a built-in camera, which you can see in the teaser image above. We got a hint at potential features with a spatial computing demo featuring the Xreal Air 2 Ultra during AWE 2025, where we played with pinch gesture controls on demos featuring an AI image generator, an NFL game recap with real time player stats and a photo/video gallery loader. It worked decently but also felt like a work in progress. Still, it points to the future of media control with smart glasses from Xreal. As an Android XR device, we know it will be "deeply integrated" with Gemini. One place to look for hints at the future of Project Aura is Samsung's Project Moohan headset, which has been equally as mum on details despite being known of for longer. We went hands on with Moohan during Google I/O 2025, and walked away impressed with both the headset and Android XR. "What's in Moohan can come to Project Aura," Jodice told me, with some shifting for the different form factors, of course. "They are the Android XR experiences," he continued. As we learn more about both Android XR devices, we should see how their developments are similar and different. For now, we don't have release dates or prices, but both devices are in the works. If you're curious about Xreal, you can pick up the Xreal One Pro for $649 starting July 1, or you can preorder it now for $599.
