MaeckerVR 8000mAh Battery Head Strap for Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S
design
I’ve tested my fair share of these kinds of Meta Quest 3 pro head straps now, including most of KIWI designs’ options and it’s those fellow third-party options that are more of head-to-head matchup for Maecker’s than the official strap. As a result, most of my comparisons here will be between the Maecker Battery Strap and the KIWI design K4 Boost, though it’s worth noting a sizeable price difference between the pair. The Maecker is less than half the cost of the K4, with the latter setting you back just shy of £80 in comparison, and that’s immediately noticeable in the design.
At a glance, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the MaeckerVR Battery Strap looks mighty similar to both the official Meta Quest 3 Elite Strap and KIWI design K4. There’s only so much you can do after all and when weight is a factor you can’t go bolting on extra bits just for the sake of looking different. Up close though, there are noticeable variances compared to other, more expensive, options I’ve tested.
The individual components are exactly what you’d expect with a Quest 3 pro strap. A pair of rigid plastic arms replace the soft elastic ribbons of the stock strap with a rear ring and battery enclosure and a padded top strap. Everything is here though nothing feels quite as high quality as other straps I’ve tested. The side arms for example are thinner, more prone to flexing and don’t feel as sturdy as those on the K4. The top padded strap is soft and thick, I’ve no complaints there, though it’s almost crackly under strain and sounds like a plastic bag being rustled.Â
The Maecker 8000mAh Battery Strap features a reasonably firm silicon rear ring that hugs the back of your head. This replicates the official Meta approach so I have no real criticisms, but I do much prefer KIWI designs’ method of adding a generous layer of foam over this ring too. Interestingly, unlike the KIWI K4 where the top strap and rear ring form one complete unit, on the MaeckerVR Battery Strap you’ll need to feed the top strap through a fixing loop. In practice I’m not sure it makes much difference but it certainly doesn’t look as neat and tidy.
performance
Installing the Maecker Battery Head Strap was an easy process but slightly fiddlier than I’ve found with other, more expensive, third-party straps. It’s as simple as lining up and clipping the side arms to the Quest 3’s main body, but with the MaeckerVR strap I found them far less happy to correctly line up the first time. It took a minute or two of negotiation and wiggling before each arm would click correctly into place, though once attached they felt secure and perfectly matched the headset’s colour.
The top padded strap needs feeding through the connections at both the facial interface and rear unit end but again this was easy. You’re given noticeably less adjustment room with the MaeckerVR Battery Strap than the KIWI design K4 Boost however. There’s only around 5cm of overlapping velcro on either end whereas KIWI design offers more like 15-20cm. For my head this wasn’t an issue and I was able to find a suitable length but it might be a factor for those of you with larger domes or more hair than me.
Again much like both the official and other third-party straps, everything is tightened and secured by a click wheel in the rear unit. I’ve got no complaints here, the increment steps were small enough to allow for fine adjustments and the wheel is large enough to locate with the headset on. Notably, while the wheel on Maecker’s Battery Strap sits on the outside of the rear panel, it’s low-profile and actually slightly domed too, so it barely extends past the rear of the headset and I didn’t notice it when leaning my head back against a sofa cushion. The lack of padding on the rear ring does hamper overall comfort however, it’s a marginal gain but I felt I was able to achieve a more secure, more comfortable fit thanks to the padding on the KIWI design K4 Boost.
The Maecker 8000mAh Battery Strap’s firm silicon ring grips your head nicely but offers nothing in the way of margin for error. The thick foam pads of other headsets allow you to clamp the Quest 3 tighter to your face without feeling like you’re in a vice, there’s give and play in the cushion that makes a major difference. That’s not to say the MaeckerVR Battery Strap is uncomfortable though, it’s perfectly serviceable and considerably better than the stock strap. For games like Walkabout Mini Golf, that fixed rear connection is a lifesaver when looking down and I never felt like the Meta Quest 3 was at risk of slipping off my head.Â
It’s not just comfort the Maecker Battery Strap is adding though, there’s a whopping 8,000mAh battery hiding away in that rear unit. That’s by some distance the largest capacity I’ve seen in a battery head strap, more than double the internal capacity of the headset and depending on the game should add anywhere up to another three or four hours of playtime on top of the headset’s own two. Now, whether anyone can stomach six hours of continuous VR gameplay is another matter, but it’s nice to know you can and to not have to worry about throwing the headset immediately back on charge.
An area the Maecker Battery Strap does show its cheaper price point however is charging speed. The KIWI design K4 Boost is rated for 45W fast charging which it simultaneously splits between the headset and the strap itself, allowing both the charge at once if needed. The MaeckerVR Battery Strap meanwhile will only charge itself (which in turn charges the Quest 3) and caps out at 18W total. I did find this a noticeable difference in charge time while testing, though it never hampered me given the Maecker’s very generous capacity.
summed up
There’s no questioning the benefits of an elite strap for the Meta Quest 3 and having spent a couple of weeks using the MaeckerVR Battery Strap as my daily driver there’s no questioning it’s up to the task. This is a fundamental improvement over the stock experience, both in comfort, security of fit and the playtime available thanks to that beefy bonus battery.
It’s cheerfully priced too at £34 and that’s an interesting factor here. No, I don’t think the Maecker Battery Strap is as good as my go-to KIWI design K4 Boost, but that strap is also just over double the price. What you miss out on are those premium touches, but they’re also touches that are only really apparent when placed side by side. Build quality is down but certainly not bad, the lack of padding on the rear ring is a shame but perfectly fine if you don’t know what you’re missing, and the charging speed is down and only single direction but that’s true of the Quest 3 itself too.Â
For me, it makes the Maecker Battery Strap a little like shopping at Aldi or Lidl. They’re selling the same food as a premium supermarket like Waitrose, they’re just offering a price to quality ratio that sits differently in the market. Some people will appreciate the added quality of paying more and the KIWI K4 Boost offers that option, some people aren’t keen to splash out but still want an improvement over the stock strap, and that’s where the Maecker Battery Strap comes in. This is an accessibly priced step off the bottom rung and a pretty good one too.
