This $199 Meta Quest 3S deal takes me back to the golden age of console gaming when the GameCube was new and games were all about fun and high scores

A Meta Quest 3S with the Meta Breathable Facial Interface attached, next to the Meta Quest 3S 256GB box

(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

The Meta Quest 3S was already the best deal in VR when it launched, and this year's Meta Quest 3S Black Friday deals are doubling down on that fact. The best deal I've seen so far is this $199 deal at Costco, which is not only $100 off the normal price but comes with one full year of Meta Horizon Plus, Meta's Game Pass-like subscription service. The last time I remember seeing a major console for $199 was back in the GameCube days!

Normally, all Meta Quest headsets come with 3 months of Horizon Plus for free, giving immediate access to nearly 30 games, including a rotating catalog of titles that swap out each month. That makes gaming impressively affordable and only adds to the fact that the Meta Quest 3S is the best gaming purchase this holiday.

Meta Quest 3S 128GB: $199.99, with 12 months of Meta Horizon Plus at Costco.com

The Meta Quest 3S packs in all the powerful hardware of the more expensive Meta Quest 3, just in a more price-friendly form factor.

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"The Meta Quest 3S is quite literally a Quest 3 with the Quest 2's lenses and display, better hand tracking and low light tracking, a new mixed reality button on the headset, and all the exclusive games the more expensive Quest 3 gets. Enthusiasts will want to spend the extra money to get the better display and lenses of the Quest 3, but everyone else will likely choose the Quest 3S because of the price, yet get very little trade-off in the process."

-Android Central's Meta Quest 3S review ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

A man wearing the Meta Quest 3S playing an exercise game. — (Image credit: Meta)

What is it:

The Meta Quest 3S is a portable VR gaming console. Essentially, it's a Nintendo Switch that you wear. You can cast your feed to any TV, smartphone, or tablet so everyone in the room can see what you're doing, and it doesn't need another console, PC, or wires to work. You download games from the Meta Horizon store directly onto the headset and everything runs on the headset.

The Meta Quest 3S is a more affordable version of the Meta Quest 3, offering the same powerful processing power as that more expensive headset and giving you full access to Quest 3-exclusive VR and mixed reality games. It features full-color passthrough vision, so you see the room around you even when wearing the headset, helping to avoid the "isolating" feel some VR headsets have.

Why do you need it:

This particular deal is the lowest price we've ever seen for the Meta Quest 3S, a full $50 less than the next-best price. Not only that, but Costco's inclusion of one year of Meta Horizon Plus — normally $60 a year — means you get full access to nearly 30 games from the moment you power the headset on for the first time. Plus, since that catalog of games swaps out regularly, you'll always have something new to play without having to spend any money for the next year.

Why it's better than other products:

The Meta Quest 3S offers unique types of games when compared to traditional consoles like a Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, or Xbox. While there are plenty of AAA games that core gamers will enjoy — Batman Arkham Shadow, Metro Awakening, the Arizona Sunshine series, and Assassin's Creed Nexus VR are a few examples — lots of fresh new brands have cropped up that help definine the VR experience in unique ways.

Since this is a portable gaming console, you don't need anything else to play games on it. Just charge the battery up like a smartphone, pop it on your head, and enjoy impressively immersive games that'll get your body moving in new ways.

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