There's something to the old adage though, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". And thus, iFixit's breakdown of the Meta Quest 3S reveals some surprises—it's using a lot of the same parts as the Meta Quest 2.

FixIt's Shahram Mokhtari took a peek inside the Meta Quest 3S, the cheaper (but not very) alternative to the Meta Quest 3.

IFixit has taken apart Meta's new VR goggles and comes to the conclusion: The Quest 3S is an updated Quest 2, but that's not a big disadvantage.

The first hint of that is the headset’s Fresnel lenses, which iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari writes in a blog post are “100% compatible” with those used by the Quest 2. The headset has the older headset’s IPD adjustment mechanism, as well; and it shares the same single LCD panel, rather than using one panel per eye, like the Meta Quest 3.

The Meta Quest 3S has some of the best features of the Meta Quest 3, for $200 less. You’ll just need to accept the limited memory and lenses.