Augmented, mixed or virtual reality? Play, exercise or work? At home, in the office or while traveling? Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s Quest 3 headsets have answers to these three questions, but they are not the same…
The dominant position of the two tech giants makes their respective headsets a sort of reference for the future of immersive, virtual, augmented or mixed environments.
Moreover, let us distinguish from the outset between these three types of environments: the reality before our eyes is “virtual” when it is entirely designed by a computer. It is “mixed” when it allows interaction with computer-created content which is superimposed on an image of its immediate environment. And it is “augmented” when you see the world around you, with computer-generated content in your field of vision.
Headsets in play
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, acquired Oculus in 2014 and became the leader in virtual reality when the pair later brought to market the Quest line of headsets. Two models are general public: the Quest 2 and Quest 3. A third headset, the Quest Pro, targets programmers and content creators for the immersive digital environment of the other two.
The Quest 3 is the most interesting device since it offers a virtual and mixed environment, to choose from. It comes with two controllers and costs $650. It includes access to an eponymous store which offers some 500 applications and games tailor-made for its interface. Most often sell for over $30 each.
It may seem expensive, but it’s nothing compared to Apple’s Vision Pro, sold from July for the staggering sum of $5,000. Its application store has 2000 exclusive titles, half offered for free. More than a million and a half other applications and games for iPhone and iPad are compatible, without offering a truly immersive experience.
Immersion, immersion
This immersion and how one interacts with it is the primary distinction between the Quest 3 and the Vision Pro. The first uses two joysticks whose movement is reproduced very faithfully on the headset screen. It can also recognize certain gestures with both hands made in front of its cameras, but it is not quite as precise.
The Vision Pro can be used with bare hands. You pinch or tap your fingers to navigate its interface. Additional gestures will appear later this fall to provide quicker access to additional menus and settings. The headset also has cameras that point towards the eyes, which allow it to reproduce our facial expressions on the face of an avatar that represents us in the digital environment or in different applications.
The Vision Pro interface looks like the home screen of an iPhone stripped of wallpaper: you see application icons floating in front of you, with the background of the room you are in as a background . The Quest 3’s interface is more virtual: a tabbed window presents application previews and a few icons, with a virtual background of your choice.
In both cases, the immersion is pleasing to the eye and can last for hours if you plug the headset into a power outlet. Otherwise, expect two hours of use per charge, which, ultimately, is probably a very healthy daily usage limit to stick to…
Play and seriousness
The Quest is a headset for gaming and action. Its graphics are more playful in nature and its vision of its immediate surroundings is well used in applications focused on physical activity.
The Quest 3 also has the advantage of offering more 360-degree content. The Vision Pro prefers 180 degree content. That said, the image is much more detailed on the Vision Pro’s screen, whose micro-OLED displays have twice as many pixels per inch as the Quest 3’s liquid crystal displays.
Static entertainment, like watching videos, is about the same for the Quest and the Vision Pro.
Apple’s headset is more natural for working or communicating, but you can also play with it. The “Pro” in Vision Pro is not accidental: you can reproduce a virtual computer desktop in front of your eyes and display work applications, native or borrowed from a Mac: email, office suite, video calling application , etc. You can use a keyboard and soon, your mouse (the Quest 3 too, but it’s less successful).
The Vision Pro has more powerful mechanics than the Quest 3. The latter is limited to one active application at a time, whereas the Apple headset allows multitasking. Apple makes little use of its headset cameras, for the moment. However, you can display “false eyes” on the back of the device…
In short, where the Quest 3 found its niche, the Vision Pro still seems uncertain. Its whirring mechanics make it very promising, without excusing its price. And, no, we have yet to see anyone using such a headset on the plane despite encouragement to do so.
The day that happens, we will officially enter a completely different reality…
