Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a bit of an OG when it comes to mixed/augmented/virtual reality headsets. After all, his company Meta acquired Oculus VR back in 2014, and has been selling the Quest VR headsets for years.
It’s no wonder, then, that Zuckerberg wanted to try out Apple’s first-ever VR headset, the Vision Pro. What is a bit surprising, is that he decided to share his thoughts about it on video.
In an Instagram post, shot with Quest’s high-res mixed reality passthrough, Zuck basically outlined a list of reasons why he thinks Meta’s headset is better, and not just in the sense that it’s better value than the far more expensive Vision Pro (Quest starts at $499, while the Vision Pro starts at $3,499).
“It seems like there are a lot of people who just assumed that the Vision Pro would be higher quality because it’s designed by Apple and costs three thousand dollars more,” said Zuckerberg. “But honestly, I’m pretty surprised that Quest is so much better for the vast majority of things that people use these headsets for, with that price differential.”
Zuckerberg did praise Apple’s eye-tracking and high-res displays, though he noted that Apple had to do a lot of trade-offs to achieve this level of quality.
These trade-offs include the weight of the Vision Pro, which he says is about 120 grams heavier than Quest 3 (the difference actually isn’t entirely trivial to calculate; Quest 3 weighs 515 grams, while the Vision Pro weighs 600 to 650 grams, depending on the configuration, though that does not include the separate battery, which weighs an additional 353 grams). Zuckerberg also said that Quest is more comfortable, that it has a wider field-of-view (the Quest 3 has a 110 degree horizontal FoV, while Apple doesn’t list this detail in its tech specs for the Vision Pro), and he criticized the “motion blur” on the Apple Vision Pro which happens when you move around, calling Quest’s video “much crisper.”
“After using it, I don’t just think Quest is the better value; I think Quest is the better product, period,” concluded Zuckerberg.
Of course, this isn’t an unbiased review, and Zuckerberg skips or glosses over some of the traits where the Vision Pro clearly wins, such as processing power and additional features such as EyeSight. Check out our comparison of the two headsets’ features.
