If you can get your hands on a Quest 3, you’ve got everything you need right in the box to start playing some of the best VR games out there. Once you’ve got a few hours under your belt though, you’ll probably notice a few things that definitely need improving, many of which can thankfully be solved with a few key aftermarket accessories.

Upgrade Your Headstrap

Meta has done it again; like Quest 2, they’ve included a cheap, floppy strap that you’ll very likely want to replace soon after popping out of your first long playsession. For many, the stock strap just doesn’t do a good enough job of distributing weight evenly and comfortably on the user’s head. Some users report the stock Quest 3 straps even cut into the base of their ears a bit too, which is bound be bothersome long-term.

It’s difficult to recommend Meta’s Quest 3 straps out of the gate: Elite Strap ($70) and Elite Strap With Battery ($130), the latter of which includes an integrated 2,330mAh battery promising two hours of extra gameplay.

Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery | Photo by Road to VR

Don’t get us wrong, they’re both comfortable and great out of the box. Meta’s one-year warranty will also likely let you exchange them too if/when they break. Beyond that, you’re at the mercy of Zuckerberg though; Meta doesn’t have a great track record with the build quality of its aftermarket headstraps, and until we put ours through its paces and we’re reasonably convinced it won’t snap in half like the first-party Quest 2 straps were prone to do, well, buyer beware.

Respected third-party accessory makers, such as Bobo VR and Kiwi Design, are slated to have their own versions soon. If you’re looking for something right this second though, a fairly inexpensive solution from MOJOXR ($25) not only has great reviews, but also supports both Quest 3 and Quest 2 thanks to an included adapter.

Provided you can 3D print your own adapter though, you may be able to use any Quest 2 aftermarket strap on the market, which should give you a little more choice in the meantime.

VR Cover or Spare Facepad

The stock facial interface on Quest 3 is actually a big improvement over the Quest 2 version. Out of the gate, its fabric weave feels better than having some sort of clammy high-density foam straight on your undoubtably greasy face, although it isn’t nearly as cleanable as, say, a silicone or removable fabric cover.

Quest 3 Silicon Facial Interface | Image courtesy Meta

Silicone covers are great for workouts since you can easily wipe them down before or after a session. Meta offers its own Quest 3 silicone facial interface ($40), which completely replaces the stock facepad. The benefit here is you can quickly swap out the stock pad when you’re done playing casual games, and swap in the silicone pad for when you’re ready for some Les Mills Body Combat, Supernatural, Beat Saber, Pistol Whip—whatever gets your heart pumping.

Realistically speaking though, you probably don’t need to shell out the better part of 50 bucks to get the job done. There are a number of third-party silicone covers on Amazon which fit right over the stock facepad, ranging from $10 to $15, and offer equal protection from face grime.

As for fabric, the trusted third-party creator VR Cover has its own machine washable fabric cover too ($30) in case you want to keep it a little more cosy than the impenetrable seal of a silicone cover. Alternatively, you can also get full facepad replacements from Meta which comes with matching floppy headstraps in Elemental Blue and Blood Orange ($50).

Make Charging Easier

Quest 3 has charging pins at the bottom of the face plate, meaning we’re sure to see a host of third-party charging docks and accessories come to market soon enough.

Quest 3 Charging Dock | Image courtesy Meta

For now, there’s really only one real solution though: Meta’s official Quest 3 charging dock ($130). While this also charges your Touch Plus controllers, keep in mind this won’t charge up any sort of external battery strap.

Always the old reliable: the second option could be to get magnetic USB-C connector cables, which allow you to attach and detach special charging cables to your headset without having to wear out the charging port. Many on Amazon can even do fast charging, although getting one with data transfer is hit and miss. Even if you could, you wouldn’t want to use Meta Quest Link with a magnetic cable because of how easily it can detach.

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Carrying Cases

Meta’s official Quest 3 carrying case ($70) is certainly a good option to keeping your Quest 3 prim and proper—if you don’t mind the hefty price tag, that is.

Quest 3 Carrying Case | Image courtesy Meta

There are definitely more cost-effective ways to spend 70 bucks though, considering Quest 3 is smaller and will most definitely fit in the carrying cases originally designed for Quest 2; there are a ton on Amazon, with many hovering under the $25 mark.

There’s bound to be an explosion of Quest 3-specific cases in the coming months, although it’s still too early to tell. Third-parties have created a ton of different case styles over the years for Quest 2, ranging from standard copycats of Meta’s own to official case to ones that even double as charging docks. More of those, please.

Long USB-C Cables for Wired PC Play

Whether you’re just looking for a way to charge during gameplay, or you want to connect Quest 3 to your computer via Meta Quest Link to use it as a PC VR headset, you’ll need a USB-C cable long enough to get the job done.

Note: to play PC VR games via Link, you’ll need a VR-ready PC.

Official Quest Link Cable | Image courtesy Oculus

By now, you know the drill: ‘Meta first, then the actual option you’ll actually want to buy’. Meta’s Link Cable ($80) is a thin fiber-optic cable that spans 16 feet (5m). It’s a great cable since it’s very thin and fairly light at 7.9oz (224g).

That said, any 3.0 USB-C cable will work, and there are tons on Amazon that will do the job just as well at a quarter of the price. Pick one, and you’re playing Half-Life: Alyx (2020) in no time.

Wi-Fi Router for Wirelessly PC VR Games

We know who you are. You’re more of a “low contact” sort of person. You exclusively charge all of your devices wirelessly, only talk to friends through Discord, and prefer courteous bows from across the room over shaking hands. Your ‘hover over public toilets’ game is also suitably on-lock. Well, you’ll be happy to know you can play PC VR games cable-free too thanks to Air Link.

You should be able to game easily enough using Air Link on that old 2.4GHz router, although if you’re looking to get the most out of Air Link-ing your headset to a VR-ready PC for a host of PC VR games, it might be time to upgrade to a dual-band router, as Meta recommends connecting to Wi-Fi via 5GHz band (AC or AX).

Note: Virtual Desktop developer Guy Godin has reported an early issue with Quest 3 and how it connects over Wi-Fi. For now, it appears the headset has network performance issues with routers running in Wi-Fi 5 (AC) mode. The issue disappears when switching the router to Wi-Fi 6 (AX) or Wi-Fi 6e (AXE) mode.

Image courtesy D-Link

You can find dual-band Wi-Fi routers for as low as $40 on Amazon, however the more you pay, generally the better range you get. You can also get them for significantly cheaper if you don’t mind refurbished units.

Then there’s dedicated dongles, such as the D-Link Air Bridge ($100), which creates a dedicated Wi-Fi network between your Quest headset and your PC, skipping the whole Wi-Fi router tango entirely. Whatever the case, Meta recommends having your PC connected to a router or access point via ethernet cable, and in the same room as the headset or in line of sight. The better the connection, the lower the latency involved.

Other Accessories to Consider


Did we miss any big ones? What are your favorite Quest 3 accessories? Let us know in the comments below!

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  • ViRGiN

    Meta provides 2 year warranty on EU, and have a lengthy record of replacing stuff long after warranty.

    • Lucidfeuer

      Are you at least paid? You know you could be and are missing out if not…

      • ViRGiN

        Yes, and I’m not afraid to say it. Valve has been paying me monthly for the past several years. Why? Gaben cut you out of the deal?

  • Rudl Za Vedno

    They have one thing in common: all of them are overpriced junk. You can get these accessories for half the price from 3rd party developers like BoboVR, KIWI design, VR cover etc.

    • Orogogus

      Was that a response from just reading the article title? The whole article (except for the part about the charging dock) basically says, this is the overpriced official part, and these are what you’d actually want to buy. Bobo, KIWI and VR Cover are all mentioned.

  • psuedonymous

    “Meta’s one-year warranty will also likely let you exchange them too if/when they break. Beyond that, you’re at the mercy of Zuckerberg though; Meta doesn’t have a great track record with the build quality of its aftermarket headstraps, and until we put ours through its paces and we’re reasonably convinced it won’t snap in half like the first-party Quest 2 straps were prone to do, well, buyer beware.”

    It’s worth noting that the Quest 2 Elite Headstrap has had its warranty coverage for the snapping issue extended indefinitely. If you launch-day strap snaps today, you can still get a free replacement.

    • Sven Viking

      Also apparently the snappy part of the strap is thicker on the Quest 3 version.

  • ApocalypseShadow

    Like plastic micro transactions. Instead of making the headset comfortable, you can make it that way for even more money increasing the cost of the headset.

    But PS VR 2 was expensive./S

  • Nothing to see here

    The accessories are really overpriced. Wait for a less expensive third party alternative for the charging dock and silicon facepad. There are already really good well padded head straps with batteries available on Amazon for around $60 or less.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      They are overpriced, but I’m sort of fine with that. Meta doesn’t even try to make money from their HMDs, and we all benefit from their advanced VR hardware and software at low prices. Making back some money from accessories is acceptable, as long as these aren’t essential and thus hidden update costs, and as long as we can pick alternative solutions from other vendors.

      Meta doesn’t prevent other companies from introducing compatible products that compete with their own. Compare that to Apple, who patented their MagSafe magnetic power adapters, didn’t license it to anybody, and even sued a company that bought original Apple power adapters to cut off the MagSafe plug and attach it to a power bank for MacBooks, for patent violation. We’ll soon see if they allow AVP prescription lens inserts from other parties than their partner Zeiss, who will charge USD 300-600 for a pair. Meta plays very fair with the accessories, allowing competition and those that do a little research to get much cheaper alternatives, while providing decent quality for users that prefer to buy original accessories from the HMD manufacturer itself, be it for convenience, quality, service or appearance.

      • Sven Viking

        Meta plays very fair with the accessories, allowing competition…

        They’d have difficulty preventing competition on physical accessories to be fair.

        • Christian Schildwaechter

          Not really. All you need is a proprietary snap-on mechanism that can be protected, claiming intellectual property. King C. Gillette invented the double-edged safety razor blade around 1900, when looking for a disposable product that customers would have to buy over and over again, and of course patented it.

          But patents run out, so today the Gillette company sells a large number of different multi-blade cartridges with limited compatibility even within their own product lines, all proprietary and protected. And they regularly change them a bit, thereby perpetually stopping competitors from offering compatible blades, even though it’s basically the same plastic hook mechanism. Meanwhile you can still buy the safety razor blades introduced in 1901 from different vendors at much lower prices.

          As long as the specific shape of an object with a certain functionality can be protected, locking out the competition is very easy. Just look at Apple’s proprietary lightning connectors that required companies creating compatible accessories to pay for a “Made for iPhone” license. Apple now finally dropped on the iPhone 15, but only after the EU introduced legislation requiring phones to come with a standard connector, currently USB-C.

          • Sven Viking

            It didn’t stop unlicensed Chinese Lightning cables etc., but good point.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            Apple went beyond just asking manufacturers to get a license, and integrated an authentication chip into every Lightning cable to prevent unauthorized use. Those not willing to pay first had to crack the authorization scheme, which didn’t take long, and unlicensed cables appeared just weeks after Lightning was introduced.

            AFAIK the authentication chip had no real function besides protecting Apple’s high prices for cables and adapters, though I’m sure that, according to Apple PR, it protects customers from unsafe accessories that might damage their devices. It didn’t rely on strong cryptography, so they probably expected it to be broken, with its main use being to allow suing (larger/Western) companies for including unlicensed authentication chips, proving they had knowingly tried to circumvent Apple’s licensing. Apple put in quite some effort to make sure they got paid for everything.

        • ApocalypseShadow

          He says he’s fine with overpriced because whataboutism. Went directly after Apple.

          Apple haven’t released Vision Pro yet to say they will lock out 3rd party accessories. But he uses an old example to downplay them to uplift Facebook overpricing. Can’t make this up. And I don’t even like Apple products.

          Apple doesn’t have a lock on iPhone cases for better protection or grip. They don’t have a lock on screen protectors or Bluetooth earbuds. They don’t have a lock on charging cables, docks, etc. But he wants to use his example as “what about Apple.”

          Total nonsense.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            What he could have done is agree on the prices being more than is necessary

            Which part of my comment starting with “They are overpriced” didn’t agree on the prices being higher than necessary? My argument was just that selling at high margins is a legitimate business practice, as long as companies don’t try to suppress competition that could underbid them.

            I am an Apple product fan and user, and this is one of the rare cases where I point out that Meta is doing something in a better/more fair way than other large companies. Usually it is reversed, and I refer to Apple to point out the desolate state of the Quest UI and the apparent lack of a coherent UX philosophy at Meta.

      • Arno van Wingerde

        I am totally fine with the pricing of Meta Quest3 accessories – I just would not buy them, so if the raise the price by a factor of 10 that is still fine…

    • ViRGiN

      ah yes, battle tested less than a week from quest 3 release. you get what you pay for.

      • Sven Viking

        In Quest 2’s case for extra money I got extra snapping features. They did replace it but I was without a headstrap for two months waiting for the replacement to arrive.

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    If you want to get the cheap USD 25 MOJOXR head strap fitting both Quest 2 and 3 linked above, append the /dp/B0B2DVBXGM/ product key to the URL that RoadToVR accidentally cut off, or replace the underscore in amazon_com/MOJOXR-Adjustable-Compatible-Accessories-3rd-Party/dp/B0B2DVBXGM/ But you’ll have to hurry, apparently there are only two left in stock.

    • Sven Viking

      Also apparently the snappy part of the strap is thicker on the Quest 3 version, so hopefully that’ll help.

  • Cl

    I finally was able to give my quest 3 a good test. Here are thoughts so far about visuals and accessories

    I think the fov is to the point where I don’t mind it. With quest 2 I’d always think about how I wish it was bigger.

    Can still see a bit of SDE, but it’s not bad enough to mind it.

    Clarity accross view is great, but when you look to the left and right you can see the space in between the lenses with one eye. I never noticed this in other headsets. It’s kind of like how you can see your nose irl, but only when you pay attention to it.

    Active strap is great the way it connects to the controllers. Attaches to my hand at the perfect spot. Expensive, but worth it.

    Silicone gasket is actually pretty nice and you can wipe it off easily for different users. I’ll need to try it longer, but I might just leave this one on.

    Elite non battery headstrap. Better than the stock strap… but the front heaviness is an issue. I recommend getting the battery strap to balance the weight. Also the runtime is short without the battery… get a battery headstrap.

    Travel case. Very durable and I like how the zipper is oriented so you can hold your quest in there, close it up and leave it a bit open so a charging cable goes right to the charging port. If the zipper was the other way you couldn’t do it easily.

  • David G

    I don’t mean to be too nitpicky but there are some errors in this article — the Quest UI sometimes refers to Link as “Quest Link” or “Meta Quest Link” but never “Meta Link”. The wireless dongle is also not called “Airplay”.

    Neither of these are a big deal of course and this is otherwise a great article for new Q3 buyers, just makes the author sound slightly less knowledgeable than they are.

    • ViRGiN

      Right on point.
      Then again, this is the website that considers product a high end only when it costs $800+, making Quest 3 not a high end headset by their definition.

      • Arno van Wingerde

        Ah… but you can buy the 512 GB Version, add lenses and charging station and THEN it becomes high end!

  • EziQ

    LOL – Can’t be more META FANBOY then this – Title ”The Best Meta Quest 3 Accessories & Why You’ll Want Them” and ONLY showcase meta accessories. ahahah – What a joke.

    • CrusaderCaracal

      Maybe because, considering it’s only been out for a few weeks, pretty much the only accessories that are out right now are made by Meta? There’s random chinese brands on amazon but they’re all circulating the same 2 designs, and they have pretty much no sales. Untill reliable brands we know, like AMVR or Bobo or Kiwi, make a headstrap this is what we’re gonna use

      • Arno van Wingerde

        What the article should have pointed out more clearly is: these are from Meta, not necessarily better than other brand, but comparing with Quest accessories they definitely more (over) expensive, so it is better to keep your money in your wallet until the other brands have accessories for the Quest3.

  • R0D1MUSPRIME

    Quest 3 charge dock does in fact charge the quest 3 elite strap battery just through the dock. You can charge independently with the usb-c port on the bottom of the strap as well.