What you need to know
- The Meta Quest 3, announced on Wednesday, has a new design compared to the Quest 2, causing old accessories not to work with the new headset.
- Larger Quest 3 arms ensure that old head straps and battery packs will no longer work.
- Quest 2 controller mods and straps won't work on the ring-less Quest 3 controllers.
- Some third-party accessory makers are adapting old accessories to work with the Quest 3.
The new Meta Quest 3 is the most comfortable VR headset we've worn, thanks to some key redesigns to the strap, facial interface, lenses, and overall weight. We're thrilled with the updates, but there's one key downside: your old Quest 2 accessories probably won't work with the Quest 3.
As our Quest 3 hands-on details, the new headset has revamped pancake lenses with better ventilation and a face gasket that lets you adjust depth, leaving room for glasses without needing a spacer.
Nick Sutrich, who tested the Quest 3 at a press event prior to Meta Connect, told me that old Quest 2 face covers likely won't fit the Quest 3 because of these changes.
This also applies to any Quest 2 Elite Straps or alternative models you may have. Meta told us that the Quest 3 has 40% larger speakers than the Quest 2 built into its thicker arms; that means Quest 2 straps aren't the right size to support the new headset without some kind of modification.
That applies to the BoboVR M2 Pro battery strap, our current #2 pick for the Quest 2. But BOBOVR posted on Twitter/X that, along with a new M3 Pro strap for the Quest 3, it would "launch the M2 to M3 Retrofit kit, which will help you smoothly transition from M2 to M3, saving you money." We'll have to see if other popular accessory brands like KIWI or GeekVR offer a similar option in the coming days.
As for any Quest 2 controller straps, they're mostly designed to stay on by looping around the tracking ring, which is no longer present on the Quest 3 controllers.
Finally, while the Quest 3 has a USB-C port like the Quest 2, the slot is placed inside of the arm instead of beneath it, which means official charging docks like the Anker Charging Dock may not fit the Quest 3 properly (though we're not certain of this yet).
In terms of what Quest 2 accessories will work, you still have a single 3.5mm headphone jack instead of the dual jacks on the Quest Pro — meaning your old headphones should transfer over. And since the Quest 3 has a similar USB-C port, your current Link cable should work, too.
When the Quest 2 launched, accessory makers for the original Quest tended to resell old accessories for the new headset without updates — frustrating consumers who bought them and found they didn't work seamlessly. It's very possible that we'll see the same in the near future, with Amazon listings adding "Quest 3" to Quest 2 accessories to chase your money.
That's why you need to be careful not to be duped. Look at the "Date first available" field on Amazon and see if the accessory was sold before September 2023; if it was, you should be cautious about buying it without some reassurance from the manufacturer that it will still work properly on new hardware.
Ultimately, it's a shame that the Quest 3 — already more expensive than the Quest 2 — will require spending more money on accessories like battery packs and Elite Straps, too. But at least the newly improved design means it probably won't need accessories as much as the Quest 2 did.
The Meta Quest 3 VR headset offers a more powerful Snapdragon chipset with 33% more RAM, a much lighter design, full-color mixed reality, and plenty of design upgrades, making it an overall better experience than the Quest 2 in key ways.
