Apple Vision Pro vs. Meta Quest 3: What’s the Difference?

It’s official: Apple is making its long-rumored headset, with the Imaginative and prescient Professional billed as an augmented actuality (AR) gadget that can also be able to digital actuality (VR) experiences—a combined actuality headset. That places Apple in direct competitors with Fb proprietor Meta, which successfully guidelines the VR/AR client headset area proper now.

Meta received forward of the information final week by saying plans for a new Quest 3 headset later this yr, which can supply up an analogous mix of AR and VR smarts—and as we discovered right now, it would achieve this at a vastly cheaper price. However that’s not the one distinction between the 2.

We’re nonetheless ready to see full specs for each newly-revealed headsets, however there’s loads we already know concerning the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional and Meta Quest 3. Right here’s how they stack up thus far.

Value and availability

The Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional will promote for $3,499, which is even larger than the rumored $2,000-$3,000 worth goal. It’s a worth level that may make sure that solely tech-savvy early adopters leap in early, however that’s hardly an uncommon method for Apple.

Meta, alternatively, is sticking to its client goal for the principle Quest line. The Quest 3 will begin at $500, or one-seventh the value of the Imaginative and prescient Professional. At present, the Quest 2 sells for simply $300. The extra highly effective Quest Professional, maybe a better analog to the Imaginative and prescient Professional, at present sells for $1,000 after dropping from its $1,500 launch worth final fall.

Apple will wait till early subsequent yr to roll out the Imaginative and prescient Professional, whereas Meta says it would debut the Quest 3 later this yr.

Design and {hardware}

The Imaginative and prescient Professional appears to be like very a lot in step with Apple’s present design sensibility, with a construct that appears like a curved iPhone that you simply strap to your face, paired with components of the Apple Watch. It’s an interesting imaginative and prescient—and appears as costly because it ought to, given the value.

Apple’s gadget is kitted out with all method of cameras and sensors that not solely allow passthrough performance for augmented actuality, however go a step additional with an exterior display screen that reveals the eyes and expressions of the wearer from contained in the gadget. That’s one thing we haven’t seen from earlier VR and AR headsets.

It’s all managed through finger and hand gestures together with voice instructions—Apple is just not together with a controller or movement wand with the Imaginative and prescient Professional, primarily based on what was proven right now. Nonetheless, Apple Arcade video games could be performed through a Bluetooth controller, and the headset helps the Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad for productiveness wants.

In the meantime, the Quest 3 is claimed to be 40% slimmer than the Quest 2, however it nonetheless seems to be a chunkier hunk of plastic in comparison with the modern metal-and-glass Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. It has exterior cameras and a depth sensor to allow full-color augmented actuality passthrough, however doesn’t have an exterior display screen to showcase your face whereas sporting it. The Quest 2 didn’t supply full-color passthrough, which meant it couldn’t do combined actuality. The Quest 3 can.

And whereas the Quest platform helps finger and hand gestures, the Quest 3 additionally ships with a pair of upgraded movement controllers which can be constructed for video games and immersive apps. Which will show to be a key differentiator in relation to content material, as you’ll learn beneath.

Show

The Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional’s twin inside shows present a better-than-4K decision picture for every eye. That’s extremely crisp. We don’t have an official spec but, however Apple says that the screens collectively pack in over 23 million pixels, blasted straight to your eyeballs.

We don’t but know the way sharp the Quest 3 display screen will probably be, however Meta says it’s crisper than the 1,832 x 1,920 picture offered by the Quest 2. The Quest 2’s mark falls in need of 4K decision per eye, and a Bloomberg hands-on means that the Quest 3 doesn’t look considerably sharper than the Quest 2 in apply. However we’ll must see how they straight evaluate.

Energy and battery

The disparity between the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional and Meta Quest 3 roughly comes right down to the distinction between a robust pc and a strong smartphone. That’s a possible sizable variance that may affect how lavish and immersive apps and video games feel and look.

Apple is utilizing its class-leading M2 processor from latest Macs to energy the Imaginative and prescient Professional, paired with a brand new R1 chip that handles the information coming from cameras and sensors. In the meantime, the Meta Quest 3 will reportedly use the Snapdragon Qualcomm XR2 chip—which is designed for these sorts of units, however is derived from smartphone chips. Meta says you’ll get twice the graphics efficiency because the Quest 2, however it in all probability gained’t match the Imaginative and prescient Professional.

The Imaginative and prescient Professional lacks an onboard battery, and as a substitute has a plug-in pack that provides you about two hours of uptime, Apple claims. The pack can slot in your pocket or be subsequent to you whereas seated. You may also use a wall plug for indefinite use.

We don’t know the way lengthy the Quest 3 lasts but, however the Quest 2 serves as much as three hours of use on a full cost, plus there’s a specialised Elite Strap accessible that doubles the uptime through a further battery pack. Meta has but to disclose how the Quest 3 compares on that entrance.

Software program and content material

Software program is the place we see one other appreciable distinction. The Apple Actuality Professional is being framed as a spatial pc for productiveness and an leisure gadget—however not a gaming vacation spot. It’ll run present Apple Arcade video games on floating, flat screens, and can probably have new VR and AR video games developed for it, however Apple has to this point skipped exhibiting that stuff.

In the meantime, the Meta Quest platform already has a great deal of immersive VR video games, together with nice titles like Beat Saber, Resident Evil 4, Pistol Whip, and Superhot VR. These video games ought to solely run even higher on the Quest 3, however Meta has additionally showcased plans to develop AR video games that work on the brand new headset.

By and huge, they’ll do loads of the identical issues. Each can be utilized as productiveness units for accessing apps and web sites, and used to view films and TV reveals in digital settings. However whereas the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional plugs into the huge world of iOS apps and may join with a Mac to entry that content material, Meta’s platform doesn’t have almost as sturdy of a library of options.

Apple will present entry to an array of well-liked apps, together with FaceTime and Zoom, and its 3D digital camera can create a “Persona”—a digital recreation of the wearer that reacts in actual time primarily based on the way you do. That’s an enormous step in the direction of immersion, and offering a seamless connection between your bodily and digital selves. The 3D digital camera may also be used to shoot pictures and movies with depth, which appears like a formidable characteristic.

Verdict

It’s too early to attract any agency conclusions as a result of we haven’t tried both headset, we don’t have a full listing of specs and options for each, and we will’t say for positive which apps and video games will probably be accessible for every gadget’s launch.

That mentioned, it’s already clear that these are two very completely different riffs on the identical core idea. The Apple Actuality Professional is bleeding-edge tech, bundling in all kinds of flashy tech options together with higher energy, what seems to be a higher-resolution display screen, and entry to Apple’s huge software program ecosystem. But it surely’s $3,499, which is rather a lot to ask of most shoppers.

The Quest 3, alternatively, prices one-seventh the value and seems to make significant upgrades over the sturdy Quest 2, together with enabling AR video games and packing in additional energy and a higher-resolution display screen. It’s arguably extra centered on consuming content material than creating it, nonetheless, and is being billed as a gaming gadget greater than Apple’s headset has to this point.

Value level alone could decide the selection for a lot of potential customers, however in any other case, we should always have a clearer sense of how these two headsets evaluate within the coming months. Keep tuned for extra particulars as they arrive.