Annapro A3 Max Review: Is This Quest 3 Battery Strap Worth It?
The head strap wars begin! Ask any new Meta Quest 3 owner, and the first piece of advice you’ll get is to replace the stock head strap. It’s the most essential first accessory. With so many options on the market, how do you know which one to choose? I’m taking on that question by reviewing as many accessories as possible.
Today, we start with the new ANNAPRO A3 Max Head Strap. Thank you to ANNAPRO for sending it out for this review!
My immediate first impression when opening the package was shock over the sheer size of the battery. Other head straps on the market tend to use palm-sized batteries, whereas the ANNAPRO went in a different direction, with a battery that’s quite large and nearly wraps around from the back of your head to the sides. While this was a strange decision to me at first, it made sense in testing.
PROS:
You see, one of the biggest reasons to buy a battery head strap is for longer play sessions, but an often overlooked benefit is that battery head straps tend to counterbalance the weight of the headset, leading to a more comfortable overall weight distribution. This makes the size and shape of the ANNAPRO A3 battery much easier to understand, as the entire battery hugs your head in a very comfortable position, offering a larger battery capacity and better weight distribution than my overall favorite head strap, the BOBOVR M3.
Thanks to comfortable padding, great weight distribution, and some pretty serious room for adjustment, the ANNAPRO A3 was easily one of the most comfortable head straps I have used to date. That said, no accessory is perfect. Let’s jump into some of the flaws I noticed.
CONS:
Unfortunately, one of the biggest things I noticed when installing this head strap is that the plastic on the adjustment arms tends to creak. A lot. Now this doesn’t immediately mean that it’s of lesser quality than other options, but it did make me worry about its long-term durability. This issue did not subside after about a week of usage, so I will definitely keep an eye on it for long-term use.
My other piece of constructive criticism is that the head strap tends to have a bit more movement when moving around than other head straps I have used. I didn’t notice an impact on gameplay, but when shaking my head in an attempt to move it, I did see more sliding than with other head straps. Since this did not impact gameplay or normal usage, and only presented itself during strenuous testing, I won’t weigh this heavily in my final verdict, but it is something to note if you play very active games or tend to move around more than typical when playing.
Final Verdict
Overall, I am honestly quite impressed with the ANNAPRO head strap. While I still wouldn’t select it over the BOBOVR M3 due to the concerns with overall build quality, this may change over the coming months if my concerns are put to rest. The ANNAPRO A3 Max has solid battery life, great ergonomics, and adjustments to fit almost any head size.
