I’ve been testing VR Headsets for years, but before a recent trip from London to Miami I had never taken one with me on a flight – and until some important things change, I probably won’t take one with me again, based on my experience.
Usually I love my Meta Quest 3-I think everyone should own one, or a Meta Quest 3S, considering how excellent these VR machines are for their price and after seeing stories of Meta’s success in offering them as entertainment at Lufthansa Airlines, I thought I had also had an excellent time flying with one.
However, my problems started before we started – in fact, they started before I even left home.
What would I download?
Checking Metas App Store I was surprised to find any ‘Fly-approved’ category ‘that would easily give me software recommendations. And search for movie transfers was much more a challenge than I expected.
While Quest supports streaming platforms like Netflix, the browser-based (rather than app-based) reveals its mistakes clearly. In this form it is an online service as it is impossible to download content to see later offline as you can with the phone app.
Eventually I picked up a digital copy of Avengers: Endgame In 3D, but it wasn’t a trouble-free process-long from it. I also found a chess game with mixed truth that I thought could be fun, not to realize it was an online-only title before I was in the air.
After my meal had been served and the seat belt sign had been turned off so I could pick it up from my stewed bag, I dressed my quest 3 and dived into Metaverse, armed with my limited entertainment selection.
Avengers: Endgame was excellent. Not only the movie myself (I haven’t seen it since the midnight release showing many years ago, and I had forgotten how big it was), but the overall experience.
I had installed Bigscreen-a FREE app that carries you to different cinema screen environments to watch movies i-but ended up using the Meta TV app in the mixed-reality mode.
I could dampen my surroundings and enlarge the screen so it felt like I was in my own private cinema, but I wasn’t closed from my surroundings so I could pay attention if a flight passed with food or drink.
It was leagues ahead of the Dinky screen that was installed in my seat that I had had to trust for entertainment otherwise.
Not to be in VR also helped during turbulence. Because I could see the real world shaking thanks to Mr. Passhrough -Feed, I didn’t feel nauseous during the test, something I suppose wouldn’t be the case if I had been in VR.
Now for my problems
Software selection Show aside, my next biggest concern was the life of the battery. I was able to see an hour of time Endgame In mixed reality using just under 50% of my Quest 3’s battery life.
With a charging cable and power bank, I could extend this useful time, but only rely on Quest 3, as the Inflight Entertainment for a long journey would definitely be a challenge.
You can mitigate this with an addition like that of Kiwi Design Battery Straps I’ve gone through, but then you would run into the next problem: Bag space.
Luggage space on an airline is coming to a prize and it is a non -starter to fill your continuation with a fully equipped VR Headset Setup. So I replaced the voluminous battery belt with the more compact (and less functional) elastic strap.
This reduced the space that Quest 3 took significantly, but it was still not compact – especially with the controllers.
With these battery and space problems in mind, it feels like a VR headset would be ideal for a shorter one (under four hours of travel) where you are fighting for luggage space over the team and cabin so that wearing the headset would not be a problem.
I should also note that I flyed in Virgin Atlantic’s premium economy section rather than standard economy and the only seat next to me was free. Furthermore, I was sitting at the front of the section in a seat with extra leg room, so I had plenty of room to move around.
In a more tightly packed economy seat, I could see my arm movements being annoying to any stranger unlucky enough to sit next to me, making VR too impractical (and risky) to be viable outside of several premium classes. Mixed reality would be more convenient, but it is also more of a battery sink that I discovered.
Despite these problems, I could see how close Meta Quest 3 is to greatness and how the experience during the flight could be improved with a few upgrades.
More subtle movement controls (like the ones that Apple Vision Pro uses) would eliminate the risk of beating an innocent passenger with my arm flails.
A larger one in built battery would also be ideal, just as a simpler way to find and download movies to the headset.
The Big-Screen movie experience, especially with a 3D movie, was really amazing, and it just serves to highlight why Meta and others need to do more to improve this aspect of VR as finding a 3D movie was a great trouble.
And with the help of the headset, even in mixed reality, helped me forget that I was on a flight. I’m not a particularly nervous flyer, but I have to admit that I felt a little tense while I was in the air and this tension was noticeably absent when using my quest 3.
So even though I don’t take my meta-headset on my next long-haul flight, I can see a future where it will be my go-tojsegadget. For now, though, it will stay home and I take my scar glasses instead.
