Apple’s Vision Pro may have dazzled the world with its stunning display and sleek design, but not everyone is convinced it’s the best headset on the market. One of its biggest rivals, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has some pinching words for the device and its maker.
So why is Quest 3 a better overall product according to Zuck?
Zuckerberg took to Instagram on Tuesday to share his thoughts on the Vision Pro, which he tried out for himself. He compared it to Meta’s Quest 3, the latest version of the popular standalone VR headset. He filmed the video using the Quest 3’s video passthrough feature, which lets users see the real world in color through the headset’s cameras.
Zuckerberg didn’t mince words when he declared that the Quest 3 is not only a better value but also a better product than the Vision Pro, period. He said he was surprised by how much better the Quest 3 performed in almost every aspect, from comfort to motion to content.
Zuckerberg stated that he thought Quest would be a better product for its value as it costs almost seven times less than the Vision Pro but after trying it he feels the Quest headset is an overall better product for the vast majority of things to do in mixed-reality.
He pointed out that the Quest 3 is 120 grams lighter than the Vision Pro, which makes a big difference when wearing it for long periods. He also said that the Quest 3 has no wires or battery packs that get in the way, unlike the Vision Pro, which requires a separate power source that can limit the user’s movement. He added that the Quest 3 has a wider field of view than the Vision Pro, which means more immersion and less tunnel vision.
As a first-generation product, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman who is an Apple analyst also said that Apple’s Vision Pro would need likely four generations of refinement to be an ideal product.
Better value for money?
Zuckerberg also praised the Quest 3’s precision controllers, which he said are great for games and enable a deeper and richer content library than the Vision Pro, which relies mostly on hand tracking and voice control. He demonstrated how the Quest 3 can also overlay giant virtual screens on top of the video passthrough, giving users a flexible and customizable workspace.
He did acknowledge that the Vision Pro has a higher resolution display than the Quest 3, but he said that it comes with a tradeoff of motion blur, which can ruin the experience. He also admitted that the Vision Pro has a nice eye-tracking feature, enabling a nice interface. He revealed that Meta had those sensors in the Quest Pro, a prototype headset that was never released, and that they would bring them back in the future, though he didn’t specify which headset he was referring to.
He also clearly pointed out that Quest 3 offers the YouTube experience that Vision Pro still lacks.
Zuckerberg anticipated that some Apple fans might disagree with his opinion, and he said that some fanboys get upset whenever anyone questions if Apple will be the leader in a new category. He reminded them that Apple’s closed model didn’t always win, as Microsoft’s more open Windows model dominated the PC market. He then pitched the Meta Quest as the open alternative to the Apple Vision in the spatial computing space, though he glossed over some of the issues with that claim.
Zuckerberg ended the video by saying that Meta’s next headset will be the Quest 3 Lite, a cheaper version of the Quest 3 that will launch this year. He also said that Meta is working with LG on a high-end Quest Pro successor that will come out in 2025. He said he was excited to see how Meta’s hardware and software will evolve over the next few years and how they will be influenced by what Apple has done with the Vision Pro.
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ABOUT THE EDITOR
Rizwan Choudhury Rizwan is a writer and journalist with a background in Mass Communication Journalism, Public Administration, and Political Science. He has covered subjects, spanning from technology and culture to business and automotive industries. He has written for publication platforms such as Mashable, Pinkvilla, Economic Times Auto, and PTI. In his free time, he enjoys sketching, reading, and exploring music, movies, and comics.
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