Kiwi Design K4 and H4 Battery Straps Review

Power to the VR Players

The Meta Quest 3/3S have a terrible head strap. Kiwi Design’s K4 and H4 Boost straps are the solution! They’re comfortable, improve battery life, and are built to last.

The Problem

Let’s not beat around the bush here, the Meta Quest 3 and 3S are some of the best deals in both VR and Gaming right now but for all of their greatness there is 1 massive issue with them and that is the head strap.

When Meta moved from the more rigid head strap of the Quest 1 to the now infamous elastic strap of the 2, 3 and 3S it was met with a lot of backlash and I think for good reason. The strap is just badly designed. adding weight to the front of your face and just generally being the least comfortable thing many people have worn. As an avid VR gamer this is an almost dealbreaker for me and many others.

Now sure Meta are happy to sell you the elite strap and battery strap but these arent without their flaws either with them having a tendency to break after short periods of use. With this in mind one of the biggest players in the 3rd party VR accessories space, ‘Kiwi Design’, have come out with 2 brand new strap options that completely change the VR game.

The Solution

Kiwi offer a wide range of straps and other accessories to cater to any price point but this review focuses on both the K4 Boost and H4 Boost. These models don’t only upgrade the comfort of your headset but also as the name would suggest ‘Boost’ the battery performance of your headset all for a very competitive price.

Swapping these bands in couldn’t be easier, snapping off the 2 side arm panels and pulling the velcro strap of the old band through, its then just a matter of doing the reverse with the new K and H4 straps. It really is such a simple process.

Both Straps are simliar in their design, the K4 resembing that of the Microsoft Hololens with a single padded rear head support, whereas the H4 more closley resembles the PSVR 2’s design with both back and forehead support. Both options are incredibly comfortable thanks to a good amount of thick padding and it’s really up to you as a player which you find more comfortable.

In terms of build quality I am incredibly impressed by both models they carry a fair weight as you would expect from a battery strap but this weight makes it feel premium and rugged. Moving from the standard strap to these Battery style straps are like a night and day difference, the padding is soft and breathable while still supporting the headset enough against your face. personally I prefer the design of the K4 over the halo design of the H4 but this is personal preference as I find the halo band can put a little too much pressure on my forehead during longer sessions.

With the Batteries being at the back of the headset this also helps quite considerably with weight distribution of the headset which is an important factor in terms of comfort for both straps. The batteries are said to get you an extra 3 hours of gameplay and in my testing this holds up well thought it would be closer to say an extra 2 hours. Quite frankly you wouldn’t want to have a VR session much longer than that so I don’t see an enormous issue with battery life here.

Another advantage to straps like these are their ease of use and adjustment, if you share your headset with friends and family you may well know the pains of having to readjust the headset every time to fit your face, with the simple dial design on the K4 and H4 its easy to slip the headset on and off during play.

One issue with these styles of headstrap is the inability to have passthrough connections while charging. For example if using a USB-C cable to play quest link titles you cannot change the headset at the same time as the straps port is only capable of charging the battery. I would like to see in the future the ability to pass data through the straps USB-C port for a no compromises PCVR experience.

During my gaming sessions both headsets felt secure and sturdy on my head even during the faster paced movements of fitness games like FitXR at no point was I worried the strap would slip or break and from a comfort perspective their is truly no competition over the stock offering.

Both options come in cheaper than Metas ‘pro’ offerings at £65 for the H4 and £57 for the K4. I believe both are excellent choices and a must have VR accessory for Quest owners.

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