Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: What we know so far
It's time to see how an Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3 face-off might turn out once those headsets officially arrive, after making some high-profile debuts in June.
Apple's headset is the latest to appear, with the Apple Vision Pro making its debut at WWDC 2023. But Mark Zuckerberg decided to beat Tim Cook to the punch by announcing the Meta Quest 3 just a few days earlier in a surprise reveal right before the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase.
And the two headsets are relatively different. The Apple Vision Pro is a true mixed reality headset that is designed to handle what Apple refers to as “spatial computing.” It interacts with the physical world around you and keeps you engaged with it as well thanks to its EyeSight feature.
Meanwhile, the Meta Quest 3 is aimed more at your everyday VR enthusiast. Despite being a mixed reality device as well thanks to full-color passthrough, its default setting is still a VR headset with AR capabilities. However, at $499, it costs a fraction of the Vision Pro's $3,499 asking price.
So now that we've had some Apple Vision Pro hands-on time and we've gotten all the Quest 3 details that are currently available, it's time to take a closer at an Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3 comparison. Will either one of them become the best VR headset we’ve ever tested? Here's what we know so far.
Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: Specs
Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: Price
The Apple Vision Pro will cost $3,499 when it goes on sale in early 2024. That makes it the most expensive consumer-facing headset among the mainstream headsets before you account for accessories or custom Zeiss optical inserts for those who need glasses. Apple has yet to reveal the prices for those add-ons. You can check out our guide on how to get the Apple Vision Pro if you want to pre-order the headset.
Meanwhile, the Meta Quest 3 will cost $3,000 less than Apple's headset. The Quest 3 starts at $499 for a 128 GB model; according to Meta, a model with more storage will also be available. You can bring your own glasses to use with the Meta Quest 3, so there's no need for add-ons unless you want some Quest 3 accessories. The Quest 3 will likely launch at Meta Connect on September 27.
If you want the Quest 3, you’ll need to sign up for updates on the Quest 3 product page. The headset is not yet available for pre-order.
Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: Design
When it’s powered off, the Apple Vision Pro could be mistaken for the Meta Quest Pro. However, once it is turned on, the result is literally eye-opening. The Vision Pro uses a feature called EyeSight so that anyone around you can see your eyes so that interactions feel more normal.
With the Vision Pro, your eyes are hidden underneath a curved sheet of 3D laminated glass that also serves as the lens for the headset’s camera array. The Vision Pro comes loaded with 12 cameras, six microphones and five sensors to track your eyes, hands and voice to control the headset, which otherwise lacks external controllers.
The Vision Pro’s design is all about a custom, comfortable fit. While it’s not made to order, there’s a variety of sizes for the modularly designed Light Seal and Head Band to ensure the curved custom aluminum alloy headset fits the geometry of your face. The Head Band also features a knob for micro-adjustments once you’ve selected the correct size.
The Meta Quest 3 takes more of a one-size-fits-all approach, though that size is slimmed down from the Meta Quest 2. Meta says the Quest 3 is 40% slimmer than its predecessor, thanks to pancake optics, which allow for higher-resolution lenses in smaller spaces by layering optical film.
And while the Quest 3 cameras and sensors aren’t as powerful as the ones on the Vision Pro, Meta's headset does get a brand-new camera array on the front of its visor. This array includes dual 4MP RGB color cameras and a depth sensor in between them to create a more accurate representation of the area you’re using the Quest 3 in along with full-color video passthrough.
There’s no EyeSight equivalent on the Quest 3, given Meta put its camera array where Apple put the Vision Pro’s custom curved glass. The other thing that’s lacking is the equivalent of the digital crown at the top of the Apple headset that controls your level of immersion.
The Apple Vision Pro lives in mixed reality passthrough by default, but turn that digital crown, and you can immerse yourself into a virtual world. The Quest 3, conversely, seems to primarily reside in the virtual world, with mixed reality passthrough being determined by whatever app you are using.
Aside from these design elements, there are a few other Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3 differences. The Vision Pro doesn’t appear to need the IPD of its lenses adjusted, whereas the Quest 3 introduces a wheel to adjust IPD. That should deliver a significant quality of life improvement over the Quest 2. The Quest 3 opts for a Y-shape rather than the Vision Pro's custom modular Head Band, though the straps connect near the headset’s speakers for both the Vision Pro and Quest 3.
On the subject of speakers, Apple promises spatial audio with its “audio pods,” but we don’t know much about the Quest 3 speakers other than their placement. The Quest 2 speakers were solid, so the hope is the Quest 3 speakers are a relative improvement.
One last big design difference before we move on to the displays — only the Quest 3 is a true standalone headset. The Apple Vision Pro requires that you plug the headset into your wall outlet or into an external battery pack that fits in your pocket. The Quest 3 has no such restrictions, keeping the battery in the headset visor like Meta did with the Quest 2.
Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: Displays
It’s a bit tough to compare the Apple Vision Pro displays against the Meta Quest 3 displays because the Quest 3 details are still limited. But it would be a true shock if Meta beats Apple on paper or in practice.
The Vision Pro displays are truly impressive. Aside from the front display behind the laminated glass that shows off the EyeSight feature, there are two 4K Micro OLED displays in the headset, one per eye. Apple says these displays feature "wide color and high dynamic range" though it's unclear if that means the displays support HDR content in formats like HDR10 or Dolby Vision or if they just hit a certain level of peak brightness and color gamut representation.
Pixel density is also a big calling card for the Vision Pro displays. Between the two displays, there are 23 million pixels, and Apple says that the Vision Pro has 64 times the pixel density of the iPhone, as each display is just the size of a postage stamp.
As noted, Meta Quest 3 display details are currently scarce. The only crumbs Meta has dropped for us is that “Quest 3 combines our highest resolution display yet and pancake optics to make sure content looks better than ever.” So while we can’t be sure about the final display resolution, we are confident that it will be an improvement from the Quest 2 and Quest Pro.
Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: Controllers
This is where the Apple Vision Pro enters groundbreaking, game-changing territory. There are no controllers — none at all.
Instead, the Apple headset uses its combination of cameras, sensors and microphones to allow you to control the Vision Pro with just gestures and voice commands. The gestures are meant to be natural as well, as the cameras can capture your movements with your hands in natural positions rather than directly in front of the headset.
And you don’t even need to use your hands for some tasks. Thanks to a ring of LED lights in the headset, the eye tracking should be particularly impressive. One example Apple showed off in its reveal of the Vision Pro was the ability to just glance at a search bar and start dictating what you want to search for. The Vision Pro would then automatically start typing out the query, all without you lifting a finger.
Unfortunately, you don’t get a controller-less experience with the Meta Quest 3, though it does come with hand-tracking capabilities to reduce your reliance on controllers. At least the Quest 3’s Touch Plus controllers are sleeker, losing the tracking ring from the Quest 2 controllers. The controllers also come with TruTouch haptics, a feature borrowed from the Meta Quest Pro Touch Pro controllers.
This may give the Quest 3 an edge when it comes to gaming, but it’s too early to tell yet. We have yet to see how natively VR/XR games would work on the Vision Pro. We do know that Apple's headset will support popular Bluetooth controllers like the PS5 DualSense for playing Apple Arcade games, and it also supports the Apple Magic Keyboard, Mouse and Trackpad in case you don't want to rely on hand gestures or a virtual keyboard.
Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: Performance
While both companies haven’t given full performance details on their respective headsets, we can likely say that the Apple Vision Pro will be the more powerful headset. This is simply down to what we know is under the hood powering each device.
The Apple Vision Pro will get power akin to an entry-level MacBook thanks to the M2 chip doing the heavy lifting for the mixed-reality headset. It will also feature a second chip — a brand-new R1 chip that processes sensor inputs and ensures the display doesn't lag behind. Apple says the R1 chip keeps the input lag of the Vision Pro’s displays at just around 12ms, which is on par with a lot of the best TVs.
That’s not to say that the Meta Quest 3 won’t have any power. Meta is calling the Quest 3 "Our most powerful headset yet" and the headset will feature a yet-to-be-named next-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC chipset. Meta says this new chip “delivers more than twice the graphical performance as the previous generation Snapdragon GPU in Quest 2,” and that more details will come later this year.
Unfortunately, this Qualcomm chip will be a mobile SoC processor, and it just won’t be able to compete with the Vision Pro. But given the vast gulf in price, that’s not exactly a surprise.
Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: Battery life
Time for the first real mark against the Apple Vision Pro. To power this computer for your face, you’re going to need to sacrifice either portability or battery life. The headset only works plugged in — either to a wall outlet for all-day use or to an external battery that delivers 2-hour battery life. If Apple announces you can also plug it into a MacBook that would be a small consolation, though we imagine that would drain your laptop battery awfully fast.
Meta has yet to give us any hints on the battery life of the Quest 3, so it’s too early to officially declare it the winner here. But unless battery life manages to be worse than the Quest 2’s 2 to 3-hour battery life (I’ve personally pushed mine to around 3 hours), the truly standalone headset should get a rare win over the Apple headset.
Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: Apps, Games and OS
With the Apple Vision Pro, Apple also introduced its first new operating system in years — visionOS. This operating system allows developers to natively create 3D mixed reality applications, though so far those are few and far between. In his hands-on review, our editor-in-chief Mark Spoonauer cited Mindfulness and Encounter Dinosaurs as two visionOS apps that really show off the Vision Pro’s mixed reality capabilities.
But it’s not just native mixed reality apps coming to Apple’s first headset. Apple is also bringing iOS and iPad OS apps into the Vision Pro App Store, giving you literally thousands of apps to choose from as soon as you power on the device. Apple also says that more than 100 games from Apple Arcade will be playable on the Vision Pro, including NBA 2K.
Meanwhile, the Meta Quest 3 is going to be backward-compatible with the entire Quest 2 games and apps library. That means you can play all 500-plus Quest 2 games at launch. And eventually, we expect developers to take advantage of the Quest 3’s combination of a better processor and new mixed reality features to make exclusive games and apps for the Quest 3.
Ultimately, the Apple Vision Pro appears to be geared at being more of a productivity device than a VR gaming machine like the Quest 3 or PSVR 2. In fact, while the Apple headset can clearly play games, there’s no evidence so far that it will handle traditional VR games and instead may stick to visionOS mixed reality experiences and Apple Arcade games.
So if your main interest is VR gaming, the Quest 3 may be the better choice. But if you want an all-around device that can handle a wide range of apps, games and experiences, the Vision Pro and visionOS are the more complete offering.
Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: Mixed reality
While both devices tout mixed reality features, these two headsets take different approaches. The Apple Vision Pro keeps you almost constantly in the real world to a degree, even with the crown that allows you to adjust your immersion level. The default setting appears to be overlaying apps and screens on top of the real world around you, constantly being fed to the headset thanks to the array of cameras, sensors and microphones.
Not that the Vision Pro completely eschews virtual reality — EyeSight, of course, duplicates your eyes onto a front display rather than having them be visible naturally. But that’s not the only way Apple duplicates your person. There’s also Digital Persona, which digitally replicates you for use in FaceTime. It’s a fairly realistic representation of yourself — a vast improvement over Meta’s avatars — but it's still a digital recreation of your facial expressions and body movements rather than the real thing.
The Quest 3 does look like it will take advantage of its mixed reality capabilities as well, though they appear a bit more limited. The full-color video passthrough will allow games and apps to add screens and AR holographic overlays to your surroundings, but it’s unclear whether this will be the space within which you normally operate. It seems more likely that an app will need to be designed to utilize the Quest 3’s mixed reality capabilities for you to enter mixed reality.
While Meta has yet to show off its full power mixed reality on the Quest 3, it did give us a preview in the announcement video. Watch that video, and you'll see a Quest 3 user playing the VR game Demeo. Instead of being forced to play on a virtual tabletop, the game takes place on a real table. This is definitely a vast improvement over the Quest 2, though it seems like outside of VR gaming, the Quest 3 will lag behind the Vision Pro when it comes to fully embracing XR.
Apple Vision Pro vs Meta Quest 3: Which headset is best for you?
Let’s be clear — the Apple Vision Pro sounds like the better mixed reality headset overall. Thanks to phenomenal specs that put it on par with a MacBook rather than a reliance on mobile chips, this headset keeps you in the physical world, adding levels of immersion as you see fit. If you wanted to replace your MacBook or iPhone, the Vision Pro might actually be capable of doing it, even though it's not as portable as either.
But the Meta Quest 3 may be the better VR headset of the two, in part because it’s the only one of the two that really embraces virtual reality. And at $499, it could take you between virtual reality and the real world in one headset at a price you can actually afford. The Apple Vision Pro’s $3,499 price is prohibitive for most people.
So, if you want a true mixed reality device, you’ll want to save up for the Vision Pro or wait for a cheaper counterpart to come in a few years. But if you just want to experience VR gaming while getting a taste of mixed reality features, all in a standalone headset, the Quest 3 seems the best choice of the two headsets.
We'll know for certain once the two devices officially arrive and we have the chance to do definitive Apple Vision Pro vs. Meta Quest 3 testing.
