Benzinga - by Ananya Gairola, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has finally tried Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) first-generation mixed reality headset, Vision Pro, and weighed it against Quest 3 saying, "I don't just think that Quest is the better value. I think Quest is the better product, period."
What Happened: On Tuesday, in a video posted on his Instagram account, Zuckerberg compared the Vision Pro to Meta’s Quest 3 and said that before he tried the Vision Pro he expected that Quest would be the "better value for most people because it’s really good and seven times less expensive."
However, after using the headset by the iPhone-maker he concluded that Quest is not only better in terms of value, but also it is a better product overall.
Zuckerberg also bragged about how the video he posted was shot via Quest's high-resolution mixed reality pass-through and pointed out that the Quest 3 is 120 grams lighter, making it more comfortable for extended use. "There's no wire which gets in the way when you move around."
He said the Quest 3 also offers a wider field of view and greater motion and praised the Quest 3’s physical hand controllers and hand tracking for input, hinting at the return of eye tracking in future Meta headsets.
The Meta CEO also noted that the Quest 3 has a more extensive “immersive” content library than Apple, although he acknowledged that the Vision Pro is a better entertainment device.
"We have been working with studios building virtual and mixed reality games and other content for a long time now and if you want to watch YouTube and Xbox on the big screen anywhere you go, that's only available on Quest for now," he said.
Zuckerberg admitted that Apple Vision Pro does have a higher screen resolution, but he was surprised by "how many trade-offs they had to make to the quality of the device, the comfort and the ergonomics" in order to attain that.
In conclusion, he said, "A lot of people just assumed that Vision Pro would be higher quality because it’s Apple and it costs $3000 more, but honestly I am pretty surprised that Quest is so much better for the vast majority of things that people use these headsets for with that price differential."
Zuck on the Apple Vision ProHe's still got fire in him, love to see it pic.twitter.com/httIBlpZJX
— Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) February 13, 2024
Why It Matters: Zuckerberg’s comparison of the Vision Pro and Quest 3 comes after he previously expressed his lack of concern over the Vision Pro’s price and features.
In a company-wide meeting last year, he stated that the Vision Pro did not offer any “magical” technological advancements that Meta had not already explored.
However, Zuckerberg did earlier acknowledge that the Vision Pro would provide more “validation to the category,” as he discussed in a podcast show with Lex Fridman.
The Meta chief isn't the only tech enthusiast who found Apple Vision Pro lacking in certain departments. Earlier this week, popular tech YouTuber, Marques Brownlee listed a few things he expects the second-generation Apple headset to include.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.
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