Feb 133 min read

Apple Vision Pro: The New King of Mixed Reality or Another Technological Fail?

CC-BY Image by The Verge

This is the Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s new $3,500 mixed-reality headset, Let's dive in.

What is Apple Vision Pro?

The Apple Vision Pro is Apple's entry into mixed reality. Mixed reality combines augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which Apple calls spatial computing. This device can include digital elements in the real world. This is the first generation of Vision Pro. Currently, it has a few native apps and uses iPad apps, Apple states more native apps are coming soon.

What is it used for?

The Apple Vision Pro can be used for various purposes, such as entertainment and playing games - Apple Vision’s R1 and M2 chip enables it to play high-performance games on a 3680×3140 micro-OLED screen. This is a much higher density pixel count compared to Meta’s Quest 3 2064×2208 LCD, so the Vision Pro is a more immersive experience. Some other ways you can use it are for work, education, remote collaboration, web browsing, as personal theatre, training, shopping, healthcare, real estate, and communication.

Image by Apple

How is It Different from the Meta-quest 3?

The Apple Vision Pro differs from the Meta Quest 3 as the Meta Quest is aimed towards gaming and the Metaverse. In contrast, Apple’s asim for the Vision Pro is more towards being productive and entertaining and working. One major difference is the price: the Apple Vision Pro starts at $3500, while the Meta Quest starts at a comparatively cheap $499.

Specs

The Apple Vision Pro has a 3680×3140 Micro-OLED screen compared To Meta’s Quest 3 at 2064×2208 LCD. The Vision Pro looks like a premium ski goggles design and is made with glass, an aluminium alloy frame, a light seal, a knitted headband, and a shutter button for photos/video.

The Meta Quest is mainly built with premium plastic and a light seal, while the Apple Vision has a magnetic light seal. Some cool facts are that the Apple Vision can take photos and videos that are spacial/3D and screen record, while the Meta Quest can only screen record. The Vision Pro uses your eyes as a cursor, while the Meta Quest uses controllers or your hands as cursors. The Vision Pro can also use hand tracking and select your pinch, the same as the Meta Quest, but the Vision Pro does not come with any controllers.

Fun Facts

One fun fact about the Apple Vision Pro is that you can control immersion if you twist the digital crown. Some funny facts that one day after the launch of the Vision Pro, consumers in America have been testing Vision Pro’s limits with durability tests, showering with it, using it in the pool, driving with Vision Pro, skydiving and much more (Disclaimer: Try at Your own risk.)

Release date

The Apple Vision Pro was released on 2nd February in stores across America, and content creators got it early on the 28th of January. Apple states that the Vision Pro will come to other countries later this year.

Apple Vs Quest: Which one is for you?

At this moment, Vision Pro is mainly aimed towards developers and content creators, and the meta quest is aimed towards consumers, mainly 10-29 years old, while Vision Pro is for 18- 60 years of age. So, if you are a developer or content creator who wants to try the Vision Pro, it is for you, but if you are just getting into the vr space, the Quest is the headset for you.

Image by Road To Vr

To summarize:

The Vision Pro is a premium version with better features but is more expensive and only available in some countries. The Vision Pro is also a first-generation product, and developers have yet to make that many Native apps, so the next generation of Vision Pro will get cheaper and have more features/ native apps.

In Middle School, we have 10 Meta Quest and there is a WRW you can join called virtual reality for more information visit the Makerspace.