Based on a couple of hours use. I'm a stickler to say the least and had been looking up potential issues before grabbing this one. My impressions:
- It's much crisper. More than I expected I'd say. The res is definitely better, As you pan your head slowly, you do see jaggies oscillating around even horizontal lines because of the angled screens. I was scrutinising that when I swapped back to the Q2 and saw just how comparatively poor the fresnel lenses are on that. In the Q2, if you look at any bright object on a dark background (eg a person icon in the social menu) slightly to one side of your fov then turn your head to make it approach the edge of your view, you'll see a ghost of the icon starts emerging, like chromatic abberation. On the q3 there's none of that business. However if you look for it you can see the pixel grid isn't horizontal/vertical. I'm sure I'll stop noticing.
- The facial interface thing doesn't fit my particular face like a glove, but the thing they say about it being less protruding is true. Because it's compact and close to your face, when you turn your head you don't get that annoying feeling of inertia as the headset keeps going after you stop turning your head. Much less, anyway. Notably it also stinks less - I ended up soaking the Q2's facial interface for a full day in soapy water when I got it. Mind you, they did recall them so they were some seriously stinky offerings. I doubt I'll need to even wash this one at all, I'm sure the VOC's will vent in the coming weeks.
- It seems to fit my glasses quite comfortably, moreso than Q2. Having said that, I think I'll try to blutak my q2 ones in, and I'll no doubt order some q3 ones.
- On that matter, I bought a 3rd party headstrap with the crank knob on the back but haven't tried it yet. I actually found the default strap more acceptable this time, because of the lower headset inertia on moving. The Q2 was really intolerable. I might even stick with it since it's light; perhaps it'll get uncomfortable after a certain period.
- I didn't notice any fan noise or dead pixels.
- Colours seem more nicely saturated. Blacks aren't super black, but I've never been a huge stickler on that.
- Menus etc are more responsive. In a game, say walkabout, you'd hit the menu button on q2 to take a screenshot or exit, and you could feel it groaning before it brings the dialog up. This one just goes zap and there it is. Not sure if loading is any better.
- Can't comment on better graphics, as I don't have anything that's been updated for Q3. I'll be trying it with PCVR though and can see the text is more readable when I look at my desktop.
- Controllers feel more nimble without the rings. Whether those tracking issues discussed online are a thing, I'll have to see.
- I had the 64gb q2, I couldn't even download the virtual environment to compare just then, so just for that fact it's nice to have the ability to install a few things.
- Passthrough is better and coloured, but I couldn't read my monitor text from the normal distance I sit at. More than enough to navigate the house or grab your drink though.
So yeah, I'll need to use it more to see if there's any yet to be discovered eye strain or other unforeseen niggles. Assuming not I'll say it's an easy upgrade. Q4 will be years off. If you're a PCVR purist you may want to await the Pico 5 max, but that's also a good year away; if you're doing it here and there, why wait.
Looking through the Q2 even after a few mins of the Q3 did make the fresnel lenses very obvious and annoying, so I think I'll be with this one until the Q4 or an affordable variant of the apple vision pro shows up.
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