The more than expected arrival of Apple’s Vision Pro opens the season to compare them with the new Meta Quest 3 glasses.
Apple yesterday unveiled the highly anticipated Vision Pro mixed reality headset during its Worldwide Developers Conference 2023 (WWDC 23). The truth is that this novelty comes just a few days after Meta presented its own AR/VR glasses: Meta Quest 3.
With both tech giants vying for dominance in the AR/VR market, consumers are eager to find out which device will offer the best experience.
One thing that is already certain is that both will be the most popular glasses in 2023, simply due to the great weight of the Apple brand and the fact that Meta Quest 3 is the successor to the more popular and affordable Meta Quest 2.
With all this, it is time to make a comparison of both and help you decide what your next purchase will be, yes, later when they are available.
The 6 big differences between Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3
The price: Apple Vision Pro is much more expensive
It is not too polite to start with the prices but who are we kidding, it is what can really make the difference between buying one product or another. Also, in this case, it seems quite pertinent.
The Apple Vision Pro is priced at $3,499 —about 3,200 euros—. Yes, you read that right, Apple expects you to spend that fortune on its new device if you want to enjoy all its benefits.
By comparison, Meta Quest 3 is much more affordable at $499., which translate in Spain into 569.99 euros. Pricing for other countries like this hasn’t been announced but it’s pretty clear which one will be more popular with those on a budget.
It’s the turn of the screens
Apple’s Vision Pro features 2 microOLED screens with 4K resolution. Meta Quest 3, while relatively inexpensive, uses a single LCD screen with a potential 120Hz refresh rate and a 4,128 x 2,208-pixel resolution.
The Vision Pro flaunts an impressive 12 cameras, allowing for advanced AR, video recording, and photography capabilities. By contrast, Quest 3 incorporates 2 color cameras for AR, 2 monochrome cameras for head and hand tracking, and a depth sensor.
Apple Vision Pro has a greater focus on productivity
Although there was a brief mention that some games in Apple Arcade will work on Vision Pro, the company spent no time detailing this type of experience. In fact, Apple doesn’t really call the Vision Pro glasses, instead using the term “space computer.”
Instead, it’s clear that you’re setting up Vision Pro as something to use at work, with multiple tabs visible in front of the user.
While previous Meta Quests included the ability to have VR workspaces via third-party apps, they haven’t pushed the concept as a key selling point with their Meta Quest 3, so it’s clear that Apple wants to take advantage and get into that sector of the market and establish its device as the reference glasses or viewer.
Meta Quest 3 is going for the games
As already mentioned, Meta Quest 3 is sitting firmly on the other side and will focus its technology on this sector. It is true that few will be surprised since Meta Quest 2 is currently one of the most popular VR headsets on the gaming market, with titles like Resident Evil 4 VR being highly playable on this device.
Of course this is not to say that the Vision Pro is incapable of running games, but since control input is via hand gestures and not a controller it seems that the Meta is a safer bet.
Vision Pro benefits from the Apple ecosystem
One of the most attractive aspects of Vision Pro is how it will blend with Apple’s existing ecosystem. Apple demonstrated that it will be possible for users to see their iPhone applications in a larger space thanks to the screen of the device.
The full extent or effectiveness of how Vision Pro integrates with iOS, iPad OS and watchOS is unknown at this time, but it’s not hard to imagine that they will do everything they can to make the user experience seamless.
Battery life: point for Meta
The Apple Vision Pro requires an external battery to function, but according to Apple, it should last up to 2 hours on a single charge. Meta has yet to state what the Quest 3’s battery life is, but its predecessor ran up to 3 hours straightso it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine Meta at least targeting a similar runtime.
Although the features of Meta Quest 3 seem to be right ahead of Apple’s, the latter has the potential to take its Vision Pro to the top. For the moment we will have to wait and for sales and experiences to decide, but one thing is clear and that is that competition for the AR/VR market is fierce.
