Gaming on a Meta Quest 3 can be fun, but the battery life and uncomfortable stock head strap may cut your sessions short. Luckily, third-party companies have solutions for both of those things in a single package. Some certainly stand out more than others though, like the KIWI H4 Halo Battery Strap with its extremely comfortable design and fast charging. Let’s take a closer look at this awesome halo-style head strap and take for a test drive.
First Impressions
The box the head strap comes in is very sleek and well-designed. It has no frills or extra bits that complicate opening the package – you just remove the outer sleeve, open the box, and the strap is right there waiting for you to pull it out and put it to use.
When holding it in your hands, the strap feels sturdy and built to last. The thick plastic and high-quality fabric head cushions leave the impression that it will easily hold up to hours and hours of even the most intense virtual reality sessions. The construction isn’t “cheap” and you can immediately tell, which is always a good thing.
Attaching the Strap
Putting the strap on to your Quest 3 (or Quest 3S) is simple. All you need to do is remove the stock strap by pulling off the side arm covers and removing the upper strap, and then you put your new halo battery strap in its place by snapping the arms in to the sides of your headset. There is also a small clip that goes where your fabric upper head strap was. Make sure to push that in to get full stability.
Once the strap is on your Quest, you can adjust it in four different ways. There are two dial adjustment points – one at the top of the headset and one at the back of the head – and one adjustable velcro fabric strap. The final adjustment is pretty unique – the side arms have distance sliders, so you can move the headset closer or farther from your face.
You can get a very comfortable fit if you take the time to adjust at all of these points, so be sure to do that.
Game Time
I’m usually very picky with VR headset straps and I’m not afraid to admit it. While some are better than others, most straps I have tried I haven’t found to be comfortable for more than an hour or so. Eventually they start to hurt my head in some form, which sucks, because I love me some long Beat Saber sessions.
This strap is a major exception to that rule for me. It is, by far, the most comfortable battery strap I have ever used. Aside from being heavy (which is unavoidable), it felt secure but not painful. In particular I usually have a problem with the front of VR headsets dragging down on my forehead regardless of the strap I use. That wasn’t an issue at all with this particular halo strap, which was an amazing surprise. I came out of a several hour long Synth Rider session with absolutely no head pain and that was some sort of miracle for me.
The strap also kept my headset securely on my head. It didn’t jostle around or anything while I was moving about. That can also be a problem because it can leave me feeling motion sick, so I’m glad this strap kept everything in place.
I could rant about the comfort forever, but let’s talk about the battery life a bit too. I got roughly 3 hours of extra play time with the strap, which was fantastic. That is a pretty large extension and allows for much more VR time… which you can actually enjoy thanks to how comfortable the headset is. It is a perfect combo.
Charging Up
The way the KIWI halo strap charges is notable for a few reasons. It charges extremely fast compared to other battery straps, and the coolest part – it charges efficiently enough to feed power to both the strap battery and your headset battery at the same time, fully charging both at the same time in just 2.5 hours.
That adds only an hour of charge time to your Quest 3 for an extra 3 hours of playing, and you don’t have to worry about plugging in the headset and the strap separately. How awesome is that?
I should note that I do use an Anker fast charge power brick to charge my electronics, so your charge time may vary if you use something else or a “slow” charger.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the H4 Halo Battery Strap is fantastic and I genuinely could find no downsides while using it. I know halo straps don’t work well for every head shape, but if you have never tried one out this is the one to try out. It is a fantastic addition to any Quest headset and is bound to vastly improve your time spent in VR.
