Affordable But Terrifying: My Queasy Experience with Cheaper Healthcare Options

Mixed Reality Headsets: The Quest 3S Experience

It’s been a while since I’ve donned a virtual reality headset, and I have the Oculus Quest 2 at home, which I haven’t used as much lately since most of my computing is now done on a foldable Android device. However, my demonstration with the Meta Quest 3S at Meta Connect made me reconsider whether there’s a place for this kind of experience in my life.

A More Affordable Option

Meta announced the Quest 3S headset, starting at $300, which is slightly more affordable than the regular Quest 3. It runs on the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 platform, but with a lower resolution and field of view compared to its predecessor. The Quest 3S seems to be positioned toward people like me who haven’t used headsets in a while and might consider an update. It offers a full-color mixed reality passthrough, allowing me to move around easily during the demonstration by simply flipping it to that mode.

My Experience with the Quest 3S

At the beginning of my time with the Meta Quest 3S, I was convinced I missed this experience. But by the end, I remembered why I don’t pick these things up too often. I get nauseous. During my 32-minute demo, I politely asked to tap out and take the headset off so I could breathe in the real world.

The Sickness Factor

What sent me over the edge was the Horizon Worlds Music Valley Experience. It features Sabrina Carpenter, who croons in the distance as you approach her "stage." As you get closer, your view becomes more immersive, and it virtually feels like you’re encroaching on an actual person’s territory. It was a little too close to Sabrina for me. At one point, another avatar entered the area and started dancing with me, which was sweet but made me feel queasy.

Other Experiences

I had success with other parts of the Quest 3S’s experience. I watched the beginning of the Celine Dion special on Amazon Prime, which sounded great. I sat in a field of daisies in an 8K, 3D YouTube video, which was chill. I moved around some windows and poorly stacked them for the heck of it. I even tried to play an Xbox game, but the demonstration controller wasn’t working. I did manage to hop into Just Dance, but by that point, I was nearing the end of my tolerance.

Lessons Learned

The sickness hit the heaviest in Horizon Worlds because it lacked a stable horizon, the kind that you can stare at to help equalize you on a rocking boat, for instance. However, I didn’t expect that reaction while sitting in a chair. That’s likely all I will do the next time I don a headset: sit down. Meta may have figured out a way to dial down the price on the Quest, but it must still figure out how to sell sensitive stomachs like mine in virtual and mixed reality.

Pricing and Availability

The new Meta Quest 3S starts at $300 for 128GB of storage and goes up to $400 for a 256GB variant. You can preorder it now, and it’s officially on sale October 15.