Meta’s Quest 3S is still $50 off and comes with a $50 gift card

We posted a couple of times about Meta’s Quest 3S during the holidays. The virtual reality headset that typically sold for $299.99 was — and still is — available for $249.99. Better yet, you can get in on a promotion at Amazon that includes a $50 digital account credit with purchase. You can find a similar sale price of $249.99 at other retailers, but it seems like Amazon is the only one that includes a gift card.

The Quest 3S is a wonderful device for first-time virtual reality explorers. It builds on what made the Quest 2 so good (comfortable, easy to use, surprisingly capable) and adds more power. In fact, it has the same chipset as the pricier Quest 3, but with similar optic materials and screens as the Quest 2 it’s meant to replace. The Meta Quest store is filled with fun games and apps, and PC gamers can link the headset (wired or wirelessly) to their machines to play Steam VR games, such as the immersive VR showpiece Half-Life: Alyx. Read our review.

Apple AirTags are the kind of gadget that you know right away if you’d benefit from using them, or if someone you live with would. These Bluetooth trackers are great for keeping tabs on suitcases, keys, handbags, wallets, or any other kind of everyday necessity that has a small place to slip in Apple’s Mentos-sized tracker. The best deal running on a four-pack of AirTags is still going strong, in case you realized after the holidays that you wanted some. Normally $99 for four (already a $20 savings versus the price of buying four individually), you can get a set for $64.98 at Amazon and Walmart. This knocks the price per AirTag down to $16.25.

Steam’s big winter sale on PC games is ending Monday, January 5th, at 1pm ET / 10am PT. It’s the last huge, catalog-spanning sale event until mid-March when its spring sale kicks off. There will be sales between now and then, but there’s no better time than now to stock up on games. There are too many discounts to list, but fans of any genre will likely find several titles worth buying — if they don’t already have them. Just looking at my wishlist on Steam, Silent Hill F at $41.99 (was $69.99) is pretty attractive, but I might first jump at some indie game deals, like 25 percent off The Seance of Blake Manor.

Other Verge-approved deals from this week

• Laugh all you want, but Apple’s Crossbody Strap could be great for some people who own iPhones. The convenient (and fashionable, some may say) strap connects to only select iPhone cases that launched this year alongside the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 series, letting you dangle your device on your chest so that it’s easy to grab if you need a quick photo or to authenticate an Apple Pay purchase. Most color schemes are discounted from their original $59 price at Amazon, the cheapest among them being the light blue and light grey models that are just under $42. Seems great for teenagers!
• I really like the Baseus 163W car charger that has dual retractable 31.5-inch USB-C cables. I got one last year, and it’s just overflowing with power and utility considering that it costs just $28.49 right now at Amazon (originally $49.99). It’s nice to not have to bring my own USB-C cables, and it’s great that the charger itself can rotate to make it easier for its cables to reach my gadgets. As if it needed to do anything more to justify its price for drivers, it has an extra USB-C port and a USB-A port at its base, letting you charge four devices at once.
• Like most people, I don’t consider myself to be the target demographic for a power station — until the power goes out. Whether you’re experiencing an outage, or you’re heading into the wilderness for a camping trip, Anker’s 521 portable power station seems like a fantastic companion — and it’s cheaper now than it was right before Christmas. Normally $199.99 for this 256Wh battery that can output up to 300W through each of its two AC outlets, you can snag one for $129.99 at Amazon. It also offers a 60W USB-C port and a car outlet port. You can use it to charge devices, and to power bigger appliances, including a 40W mini fridge for five hours. Its SurgePower feature lets it boost up to 600W via an AC outlet, in case you want to use it with a coffee grinder, or some other appliance that requires a lot of power.