Teardown: Meta Quest 3S has the LCD panels of the Quest 2

The repair portal iFixit has subjected the Meta Quest 3S to a detailed teardown analysis, including 3D scans and microscope images of individual components. And although the product name suggests a similarity to the Quest 3, which is at least 200 euros more expensive, the conclusion is clear: from a technical point of view, the 3S is just an update of the Quest 2, which is no longer available.

This is particularly evident in the LCD panels, which iFixit compared with those of the Quest 2. It is still a design with RGB strips for the individual pixels, in front of which are Fresnel lenses. The resolution of the Quest 2 and Quest 3S is 1832 × 1920 pixels per eye. As we had already noticed in our test, this makes the pixel grid more visible than in the Quest 3, which displays 2064 × 2208 pixels per eye. However, according to the teardown, Meta buys the panels from several manufacturers, so the pixel arrangement may be slightly different.

Faster SoC, larger battery

However, the arrangement of the speakers in the temples of the glasses was inspired by the Quest 3, among other things. The processor, Snapdragon XR2 Gen2, is the same in both current Meta headsets, so applications can run at the same speed. Compared to the Quest 2, the battery has been increased to 4324 mAh, while the Quest 3 has 5060 mAh. The wireless connection is also the same for both devices, with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth LE 5.2.

IFixit also sees the changes as positive because components from defective Quest 2 displays and optics can be used as spare parts for the Quest 3S. The company has not yet assigned one of its usual numerical values from 0 to 10 for the repairability of the Quest 3S.

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