Review: Kiwi Design H4 Boost VS K4 Boost Battery Strap
Kiwi Design have continued their run of releasing improved battery head straps, with them covering both Halo and Comfort styles with their latest H4 and K4 Boost Battery Straps. I have been putting both through their paces and testing them out. The question is which on came of the victor?
Release Date: September 2024
Brand: Kiwi Design
Price: H4 Boost – £65.00 / K4 Boost – £57.00
Reviewed On: Meta Quest 3
* Products Provided For Review *
H4 Boost Halo Battery Strap
What’s In The Box?
Inside of the box you get a fully constructed battery head strap and the instruction manual. With them removing the cable tidy clip and micro-fiber lens cloth you used to get. However, the with the way the cable is now placed you don’t really need the cable clip they used to include.
Attaching To The HMD
With the strap coming fully constructed all you need to do is remove the facial interface, clip the head strap connectors to the left and right arms on your HMD. After these are in place, clip the plastic connector at the front of strap to the bar at the back of the HMD and put the facial interface back on. A quick five minute job and you are ready to go.
K4 Boost Battery Strap
What’s In The Box?
Inside of the box you get the battery head strap, a removable back bracket with a washable cushion and the instructions. As with H4 Boost you will no longer receive the cable clip for the same reason of the cable is better managed already and no lens cloth.
Attaching To The HMD
Before attaching the strap to the HMD you will need to attach the back bracket to the strap. Once this is in place, remove the facial interface from the Quest 3 and securely attach the straps connectors to the left and right arms on the HMD. Once these are in place, take the strap from the cushion and thread it through the bar on the back of the HMD and reconnect the facial interface. Again this should take around five minutes and you are ready to jump back into your games.
Benefits
Kiwi Designs head straps are created with two main benefits, these are improving the comfort and extending the time of your gaming sessions with the Quest 3 – and as we have come to expect with their products they meet both of these criteria’s.
Both straps offer more comfort compared to the strap provided by Meta. With them offering more overall support around the back of your head, and being made of sturdy plastic. Both straps will also distribute the weight across your head better, adding that extra comfort with the front feeling less heavy.
This extra comfort and better weight distribution is certainly better for the longer sessions the battery straps are designed for. But, with both the straps there is some negatives with comfort and the battery elements this time (covered in testing below) – however, they are both still a lot better than the base strap provided.
Testing The Products
When it came to testing the head straps, I took them both through my steps of testing with active (Just Dance VR, Arkham Shadow), rhythm (Smash Drums), seated (Triangle Strategy, Moss) and shooter (Arizona Sunshine Remake, Metro Awakening) games. With both head straps it feels a lot more comfortable than the generic strap that is sent with the Quest 3. But, both straps have different negatives about them, which if there was an in between it would have made the perfect head strap for comfort.
The negative that came with the H4 Boost, was with the Halo design and with the head strap being clipped to the extra support on the Quest 3, the HMD just didn’t feel one-hundred percent secure. Although, I didn’t fear it would disconnect at this point, the HMD moves too much when playing anything other than the seated games I tested it with – which does cause worry at the time.
Then it’s the polar opposite with the K4 Boost, I feel to get the strap securely fixed on my head to stop any little movement the facial interface is pressed tightly into my face, and it can start to feel a bit uncomfortable in the longer sessions the head strap is designed to offer. Where this could be possibly resolved by changing from the default facial interface that comes with the Quest 3, this is another expense you need to consider on top of the strap.
One thing that really shocked me with both straps is these are the first ones I have used which do not charge the Quest 3 when using them and just extends the time. Meaning if you let your Quest 3 battery run down before plugging in the head strap it will give you and extra hour and half to two hours playtime but, your battery is only a maximum of five percent extra charged to when you plugged it in. Compared to ones previously released by Kiwi and other accessory companies normally giving you fifty to sixty percent extra battery life when it has run out of charge.
The Verdict
Both of Kiwi Design’s new battery head straps for the Quest 3/3S do what they are designed to do, offer you more comfort than the stock head strap provided by Meta and extend your playtime. However, where they both have the same positives on what they offer, they both also come with negatives when it comes to comfort. This will all come down to personal preference on what head strap you prefer but, for me I would recommend the K4 Boost over the H4 Boost. The reason for this is I would prefer the little bit of discomfort on my face (which could possibly be remedied using a third party facial interface) over the HMD moving when playing games which require personal movement, and having the worry it could disconnect from that support point.