Mark Zuckerberg tried Apple’s Vision Pro headset and his verdict is that the Meta Quest 3 is a better product. Shocking, right?
In a video posted on his Instagram account, recorded with Quest 3’s passthrough, the Meta CEO said before trying out the headset he thought that Quest 3 would provide better value to people as it is seven times less expensive than Apple’s $3,500 headset. But after his tryst with the Vision Pro, he thinks his company’s product is superior.
“I don’t just think that Quest is the better value, I think Quest is the better product, period,” he said. “Different companies made different design decisions for the headsets, they have different strengths. But overall, Quest is better for the vast majority of things that people use mixed reality for.”
Zuckerberg made the case for Quest 3 being more comfortable in activities such as exercising and gaming, given Meta’s headset weight around 120 grams less than the Vision Pro. The Meta CEO criticized Apple’s headset for trading-off things like the quality of the device, comfort, and ergonomics in order to get to screens with higher resolution.
As he was showing off the passthrough capabilities with browser windows, he said Quest 3 has a wider field of view with brighter screens. Zuckerberg also made a point that Quest’s combination of hand tracking and physical controls is superior. Plus, the company is thinking about bringing back eye tracking, which was introduced in the Quest Pro, to cheaper headsets.
Zuckerberg claimed you can only play Xbox and watch YouTube on a big screen through Quest. While YouTube doesn’t have an official app for the Vision Pro, developer Christian Selig made a YouTube app called Juno. Technically, you can watch YouTube on Apple’s device.
Apple is getting started with the Vision Pro, while Meta already has a rich library with partners like Roblox. Meta has also produced multiple headsets and reduced the prices of older models. Apple is a late entrant to the mixed reality/virtual reality market, and Meta wouldn’t want to cede ground to it.