Watching a movie or chilling out with a meditative VR experience can meaningfully expand the use case and the amount of time someone might be willing to spend in a headset.

Unfortunately there are many factors that push against this trend. Most notably the soft cloth head straps that ship with the Quest 3 and 3S (and the Quest 2 previously) are not comfortable for many people, especially for longer sessions.

The dream of a personal theater to view movies and other entertainment is not new, born out of the Oculus revolution. But early VR was developed mainly for gaming, with head straps prioritizing stability on the head for movement rather than comfort lying down.

The lying down use case is now being served by many more consumer choices than ever before. I've been testing these options to bring them to light for others like me, who are seeking a comfortable solution.

Apexinno A3 Ultra-Light Head Strap

Apexinno has introduced a new lightweight head strap that uses a silicone accordion rear strap, reminiscent of the Apple knit straps for Vision Pro. The top strap is a fabric and Velcro piece that sits front-to-back to provide lift on the headset to reduce pressure on the face and cheekbones.

The A3 successfully replicates much of the satisfying gathering, cupping sensation that the Apple knit straps provide on the back of the head. It makes for a comfortable and lightweight solution that essentially disappears once you're lying down. There is a scroll wheel on the right hand side that tightens the rear strap. To loosen you pull outward on the knob and the rear strap relaxes.

For someone looking for a solution similar to the Apple Vision Pro Knit strap but for far less money, and without having to go with 3rd party adapters, the Apexinno A3 is a compelling choice. You can find the A3 available for $29.99 on the Apexinno website or Amazon.com

Editor’s Note: Apexinno provided a review unit of the A3 head strap for this article.

Kiwi Design K4 Flex Comfort Elite Head Strap

Kiwi Design’s K4 Flex takes a different approach. It combines a rigid yet flexible rear pad and elastic side straps to create a secure yet very comfortable experience for the user. The rear is well cushioned with a synthetic leather pad and a front-to-rear top strap is also present to provide lift for the headset off the face. Also noticeable is the high level of fit and finish and attention to detail in the design and construction of the K4 Flex. It feels and behaves like a high-quality product.

In practice this is one of the most comfortable head straps I've used on my Quest. During lying down sessions the rear pad is more apparent than the Apexinno, and some people might find it not as suited to full horizontal VR. However, it is well padded and flexible enough that it was never uncomfortable for me, just noticeable.

My impression of the K4 Flex is that it neatly falls between a true lying down solution and a capable elite-style head strap, with some valuable qualities of both types. And in the end might be the most compelling for all-around use.

The K4 Flex is available on the Kiwi Design website for $34.99 or Amazon.com.

Meta Quest 3 Stock Head Strap With 3rd Party Head Pad

A low cost solution I found that greatly improved the comfort of the stock Meta Quest head strap is the addition of a rear head pad. This spreads the pressure of the strap more widely and evenly across the back of the head and reduces the “hot spots” where I would get sore using the stock strap alone.

These are commonly available on Amazon and other online marketplaces. Apexinno features one on their website. I purchased mine from AliExpress for less than $10.

Apple Vision Pro Dual Knit Band With 3rd Party Adapters

I previously wrote about my experience adapting an Apple Dual Knit band to my Meta Quest 3, using 3rd party adapters from an Etsy vendor. While this is easily the most expensive solution here, it also has some unique advantages.

The Dual Knit strap is exceptionally well made and designed, no surprise given its Apple design and lofty price tag. The woven material is soft and luxurious to the touch. The adjustment knob serves a dual function, and does so with a feeling of quality and precision. The tungsten weights built into the rear strap and the cross-head design instead of a front-to-back design means that weight is managed differently. Given the Quest 3’s lighter weight than the Vision Pro, this makes for a very balanced and comfortable solution that offers terrific adjustability.

The comfort of Apple's design demonstrates that the Vision Pro was designed with the reclined or lying down use case in mind. Quest owners can now experience Apple's design choices for themselves.

Thoughts On Comfort & Convenience

One added benefit of these soft straps is the convenience afforded when traveling with your Quest. I was able to simply roll the entire thing up, headset and strap, into a sweatshirt and stick it in my bag – no special travel case required. As someone who travels for work frequently, it's not a small thing to have that option. Convenience is king when making decisions about what to bring along.

What all of these options really highlight is an acknowledgment of the broader spectrum of how many people actually use VR. For years, head strap design decisions were built around the assumption that users would be standing, moving, and playing. But a lot of us also want to lean back, watch a movie, or spend some quiet time in a headset. Comfort for those moments looks different than it does for active gaming, and the industry is finally starting to recognize that.

Earlier this month, No More Rainbows and DigiGods developer Squido Studio announced that it was partnering up with gaming streamer jmancurly's video game publishing company CurlyBlue to create VR experiences - the first being a colorful dungeon crawler named Wizherd.

The lore of Wizherd goes that in ancient times, the world was protected by a magical group called "the herd." Life was once peaceful, but now zombies and other evil forces threaten the world. As a result, players now take on the role of wizards as they embark on missions to hold off the forces of darkness.

As a fan of magic and fantasy games, I was curious to see Wizherd in action, especially after seeing the game's blocky art style that calls back to the old Final Fantasy games from the original PlayStation era. Unfortunately, new players are greeted to a steep and confusing learning curve that could sour the experience for most.

When you first boot up Wizherd, you are instantly thrust into a magical hub with little in the way of an introduction to the world you and your fellow would-be sorcerers must explore. There are tutorial missions posted to a bulletin board, but they amount to little more than grinding the player's experience level by venturing off into the wilderness to battle undead monsters. The bulletin board also features daily and weekly quests that any player can perform. Once you complete a mission, you can claim your reward by opening a treasure chest beside the board.

Players can move their character in one of two ways in Wizherd, by either moving the right joystick or physically swinging their arms at the ground to propel forward. The former doesn't always work, and the latter takes some getting used to. Once the player gets a handle on moving around, the world outside the hub consists of sunny hillsides, castle-like structures, and underground caverns flooded with lava.

Wizherd's magic system is simple enough: the player chooses between three different elemental spells at the start of the game and equips their selection to their hands. By holding down the trigger and releasing it in the middle of a tossing motion, the player can throw a ball of fire or ice at an enemy, though this action can be somewhat clunky and frustrating in the middle of a frantic battle. Melee-based spells like fire swords, on the other hand, are quite fun to swing around once you have them unlocked.

Spells can be upgraded at certain parts of the hub by spending coins and crystals. You can also customize your wizard avatar's look by purchasing cosmetic items like robes, hats, and even animal faces you can equip at a vanity. There is even a color slider you can use to adjust your character's skin tone.

Wizherd is free-to-play, though there are two different types of in-game currency. Coins are earned by defeating enemies, while crystals can be obtained by completing tasks or spending real-world money. The rewards for completing quests can be quite small at first, so you might have to either grind for a while or bust out your wallet.

The overall presentation can be hit or miss. As mentioned before, there is a sort of retro charm to Wizherd's blocky graphics, but the music and sound isn't anything you haven't heard before in Minecraft. Most of the time you'll be hearing the chatter of other players who are just as confused as you.

So far, Wizherd has some potential, but getting started can be tedious if you don't want to spend due to the grind needed to get a decent loadout. There is some potential here, but only time will tell if the game has enough staying power to keep players coming back.

Nintendo's strangest Switch 2 accessory has arrived: a remarkably faithful recreation of the Virtual Boy.

Toward the end of last year, Nintendo dropped the surprise announcement that Virtual Boy games would soon be playable on Switch and Switch 2 via the company's subscription-based membership service, Nintendo Online + Expansion Pack. For the first time in 30 years, Nintendo fans would be able to play Virtual Boy games like Red Alarm, Wario Land, and Mario's Tennis on a current-gen Nintendo console.

Perhaps even more surprising was the announcement that the catalog of Virtual Boy games would be accompanied by two new accessories: an inexpensive cardboard "headset" priced at $24.99, and a full-on replica Virtual Boy for $99.99. In both cases, the Switch and Switch 2 slot into these accessories (like a dock) in order to play the old games.

I've been a Virtual Boy fan since I was 11 years old and found one sitting under the Christmas tree in 1995. I've written about why I think the retro system is worth experiencing (and owning) in 2026, and I've written about alternative ways to play the system's tiny library of games on modern VR headsets like Meta's Quest. So it's quite natural that I'd have bought the new headset the moment it was announced. Which I did.

Well, it's arrived. And it's beautiful.

A couple of items of note: To start, due to the way that Virtual Boy games are displayed, you will need to buy one of Nintendo's official accessory "headsets" to play the Virtual Boy's catalog on Switch and Switch 2.

A Nintendo rep had previously stated that the old Labo cardboard headset would work just fine, but a subsequent statement issued by the company walked back that claim, saying that to play VB games, you'll need to buy the new gear.

Second, I'm using the term "headset" loosely. Virtual Boy was never, in fact, a headset, as Nintendo opted to sell it on a stand, rather than in a configuration that allowed mounting the unit to your head. This was the right call, since the original Virtual Boy was ridiculously heavy, and though the new replica "headset" is lighter, it's indeed a replica. The new model is not a headset, either.

Hardware First

What most surprised me when the headset arrived was just how faithful its design is to the original system. Owning my launch edition Virtual Boy from 1995 gave me a great opportunity to put the two pieces of hardware side by side, to compare the units and take some photos.

It's so identical that my ten-year-old daughter (who I taught to solder on my original Virtual Boy when its ribbon cables detached) saw the new unit and asked, "You bought another Virtual Boy?"

It's true that the new Virtual Boy is slightly larger than the original, but then again, we need to slot a Switch or Switch 2 inside it. That naturally requires some extra space. That said, the small details are incredibly accurate. The rubber bumpers on the side of the unit, the rubber nubs at the end of the stand's legs, the focus and IPD controls, the (fake) volume control and headphone jack and EXT. port, they're all here and replicated perfectly. Even the stand's adjustment mechanism utilizes a virtually identical acorn nut as the original.

The next thing you'll notice is that it's remarkably well made. The stand feels good, deploys tightly, and holds the unit well. The adjustment point on the stand also cinches tightly. The plastic feels dense and solid, the spring-loaded docking cradles work beautifully and hold the Switch in place nicely, and the satin foam of the eye-shroud feels more comfortable than the original.

In short, Nintendo did a great job making an almost perfect replica of their least successful gaming system.

It should also be noted that the new Virtual Boy arrives configured to work with Switch 2. To use the original Switch, we are required to install an adapter plate, which involves unscrewing four screws, swapping the plate, and reattaching the screws. The adapter plate comes packaged with the unit.

Open-Source Emulator Plays Virtual Boy Games On Quest, No Switch Needed

Virtual Boy Go is a nearly perfect Virtual Boy emulator for Quest headsets, no Switch console required.

UploadVRJames Tocchio

Do You Need One?

Do you need to spend $99.99 on a replica Virtual Boy headset? Probably not. Despite it being well made and effective at its one and only job, unless you're a big fan of weird tech and oddball experimental products, you'll almost certainly regret buying this thing.

Additional strikes against it would come down to the fact that these games are only accessible on Switch or Switch 2 via Nintendo's subscription service. You won't really own these games on Switch unless Nintendo releases some sort of purchasable collection. As of now, you're buying a headset to play games that you're essentially renting.

And if you've never played Virtual Boy and simply want to try out some old, weird games, there are cheaper and easier ways to experience Virtual Boy's compact library.

But if you're like me and love the Virtual Boy, well, you've probably already spent the money.

If you'd like your own Virtual Boy for Switch and Switch 2, you'll have to be a member of Nintendo Online, and then grab one via the company's website. We'll have an overview of all the Virtual Boy games playable on Switch and Switch 2 soon.