The clearest Quest 3S photos yet have leaked. They confirm it lacks a headphone jack and reveal its battery size.
The nine images were shared to the Virtual Reality Channel of Arcalive, a South Korean forum site somewhat similar to Reddit. It's unclear where they originate from, but the background setting resembles what we've seen before in regulatory testing labs.
The images show the headset from the front, top, bottom, rear, and both sides. This comprehensive view confirms that it's the first Meta headset to lack a 3.5mm headphone jack. This seemed apparent from previously leaked renders, but these photos confirm it.
It means that to get higher quality and private audio without compromising latency, Quest 3S owners will have to purchase USB-C audio solutions, precluding charging while playing.
It's a situation not unique to Meta though; Pico 4 and 4 Ultra don't have headphone jacks, and nor does Apple Vision Pro. In fact, low latency private audio on Vision Pro is only possible via Apple's own AirPods Pro 2.
One of the new Quest 3S images also shows the headset's regulatory label, revealing its battery capacity is rated at 16.74Wh. That places it between Quest 2 and Quest 3. But don't expect it to have notably more battery life than Quest 2 or less than Quest 3.
The much higher resolution color passthrough means Quest 3S should draw more energy than Quest 2, but since fresnel lenses are more optically efficient than pancake lenses, it won't need to run the display panel as bright as Quest 3. All things considered, we'd expect Quest 3S to have a very similar battery life to Quest 2 and Quest 3.
| Location | Capacity | |
| Apple Vision Pro | Tethered | 35.9Wh |
| Pico 4 Ultra | Rear Padding | 22Wh |
| Meta Quest Pro | Rear Padding | 20.6Wh |
| Pico 4 | Rear Padding | 20.4Wh |
| Meta Quest 3 | Visor | 18.9Wh |
| Meta Quest 3S | Visor | 16.7Wh |
| Meta Quest 2 | Visor | 14Wh |
Another of the leaked photos suggests Quest 3S will come with an 18W charger, the same as Quest 3, and another shows a hand controller that looks to be identical to Quest 3's Touch Plus controllers.
This leak comes less than two weeks before Meta Connect, the company's annual conference where it's expected to launch Quest 3S.
Quest 3S: Meta's Leaky Next Headset
This is far from the first time we've seen leaked images of Quest 3S, despite the headset not yet being announced by Meta.
The headset's design first appeared in a leaked presentation from a Meta "Design System Research study" back in March, though at the time many dismissed this as fake.
A Quest 3S was seemingly present in the background of a video posted by Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth in June, and Bosworth even replied at the time with a teasing confirmation.
In late July a VR headset accessory maker shared what appeared to be the first clear image of Quest 3S, and last week an official render of the headset was found in the Meta Quest Link PC files as Chinese accessory makers started selling accessories for the headset, complete with apparent images of it.
David Heaney
Yesterday official Meta support pages started referencing Quest 3S, and one described it as having a new button to toggle passthrough. These pages have since been updated to remove these references.
Quest 3S: What Exactly Is It?
A wide range of leaks and reports, including Meta's hardware roadmap leaking in 2023, reveal Quest 3S is a cheaper version of Quest 3 intended to replace Quest 2 in Meta's lineup.
Quest 3S will reportedly feature the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset and color passthrough mixed reality capabilities as Quest 3, but use the old fresnel lenses and single panel from Quest 2 to achieve a price between $300 and $400.
David Heaney
Effectively, Quest 3S should be a cheaper Quest 3 with a bulkier design, inferior lens clarity, and lower resolution. A lower quality device, but with the same content, features, and capabilities. It should let more people enjoy Quest 3 VR graphics, and vastly expand the room-aware mixed reality market too.
