Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery assessment: Overrated and damaged

The concept is nice: a cushty head strap with a battery hooked up to the again of the top that doubles the Quest 3’s battery life. And that is what the Quest 3 Elite battery strap guarantees.

Nonetheless, I can at the moment solely advise towards buying this costly accent for Quest 3.

Listed here are my causes.

Quest 3 Elite Belt with Battery: Idea

The Elite Strap for Quest 3 is identical because the Elite Strap for Quest 2, the one distinction is that the Quest 2 Elite Strap doesn’t match Quest 3 as a result of match.

The large benefit of the Elite belt is the again of the headscarf, which consists of a large, comfortable, oval elastic loop, which due to its elasticity adapts completely to totally different head shapes. To me, this is without doubt one of the most comfy designs ever made for a VR headset.

The Elite Band with Battery provides a 2,330 mAh battery that just about doubles the Quest 3’s customary runtime of about two hours. A brief USB-C cable connects the extra battery to the Quest 3.

As soon as related, I get a message on the Quest 3 about prolonged battery life, and a “cap” seems above the battery indicator within the Quest 3 Additional Battery menu. After I hover the Contact-Plus controller over the battery, it exhibits the remaining capability of the Quest 3 and the additional battery.

Wow concept.

Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery: How It Works (Not!)

In follow, this didn’t work from the start. Though the message concerning the further battery confirmed up, the indicator was lacking and after 2 hours I bought a message saying I needed to cost the Quest 3.

After charging the Elite Strap and Quest 3’s battery individually (not by way of the charging dock), it all of the sudden labored. I loved 4 hours of gameplay, at the very least just a few instances.

However then I finished. Now, after I join the Elite Strap to the battery, I get a message that further battery life is out there, however there isn’t any indicator and no charging.

Even after a number of charging makes an attempt, the issue persists: the battery now not works.

My colleague Joseph has the identical drawback, and the Reddit and Meta boards are full of comparable studies. In a survey performed by Twitter/X, RoadToVR discovered that 43 p.c of members had points with this addon.

Quest 3 Elite Belt with Battery: Again or Not?

Some customers changed the Elite strap with the battery a number of instances earlier than it lastly labored. Meta seems to concentrate on the problem, however we have now but to obtain a response to our inquiry by way of their German company. Nonetheless, Meta help for RoadToVR responded as follows:

“Whereas we usually provide an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) for faulty items, changing the strap could not essentially clear up the problem. We’re conscious of an rising problem the place the headset doesn’t acknowledge the Meta Quest 3 Elite strap with battery or fails to cost. Our engineering staff is working We’re actively engaged on discovering an answer to this problem. As soon as we discover a resolution, we are going to contact you with an replace.

So you possibly can both watch for such an replace, if an answer is discovered, or request a refund, which needs to be simple by way of Amazon — in spite of everything, this factor is damaged. If the machine has a significant drawback and a revised model is launched, you may as well exchange it beneath authorized guarantee.

Substitute Quest 3 Elite strap with battery

I switched to the common (additionally costly) Elite Strap (Amazon) and prolonged the battery lifetime of my Quest 3 with an influence financial institution. I put on it in a jockstrap (Amazon) on my again and join it to the XR headset utilizing the Quest 3’s USB-C charging cable.

The cable suits between the oval rubber loop and the white plastic body of the Elite band, so the cable runs alongside the again with out being noticeable or annoying.

With this easy and cheap setup, the Quest 3’s battery life will be dramatically elevated with out sacrificing consolation. | Picture: blended

My energy financial institution has a capability of 20,000 mAh (Amazon Germany) and an output of 65W by way of USB-C (way more than the 17.9W of the Elite Strap battery). Because of the excessive output, the Quest 3 prices sooner than it may be drained utilizing it. The ability financial institution offers at the very least 6 hours of extra runtime (I have not examined the total runtime but) — way more than the Elite Strap’s battery offers.

I extremely advocate you attempt it with an identical energy financial institution (though the 65W output will not be wanted): it’s less expensive, the voltage is barely barely larger (strap mode, cable connection), and you may as well use the facility financial institution for different functions.

Third-party head straps are additionally out there, however we’ve not examined any but, so we won’t advocate any right now.

Purchase the Quest 3 Elite strap with battery

The Elite Belt with Battery is at the moment not out there within the Meta Quest Retailer or on Amazon.