Comparing the Future of VR: Apple Vision Pro and Meta’s Quest Lineup
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As a software engineer, my fascination extends beyond lines of code and into the captivating realm of virtual reality. The immersive experiences VR offers have always enchanted me, beginning with my first PSVR and continuing with my current favorite, the Meta Quest 2, which I adopted during the pandemic, using it for gaming, fitness and even trialing it in meetings at Spendesk.
Since its launch in October 2020, the Meta Quest 2 has enjoyed widespread popularity. However, the landscape of virtual reality shifted dramatically this past week, ushering in two significant developments. Firstly Meta announced the Meta Quest 3, a sequel to the forementioned device and then today, Apple announced it much rumoured VR/AR headset titled the Apple Vision Pro.
With all this excitement arround VR I thought I would write a blog post looking at my current Meta Quest 2 and compare it to the new headsets that were just announced. At the end I will even give a little insight into what I am thinking about for my next VR headset.
Meta Quest 2
Price: from £299.99
Let’s begin with my current headset, the Meta Quest 2 which despite coming out in 2020, is intended to be kept around by Meta as an entry level introduction to VR after the release of the new Quest 3.
Like all the VR devices we will explore today, the Meta Quest 2 is a standalone virtual reality headset. Meta, the developer and manufacturer, designed this headset as part of their initiative to promote interaction within the metaverse.
- Processing: The Quest 2 uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 platform and has 6GB of RAM. This is a significant upgrade from the original Quest’s Snapdragon 835 and 4GB RAM.
- Displays: It has an almost 4K display, specifically 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye with a 90hz refresh rate, which is a considerable improvement over the original Quest. This higher resolution reduces the “screen-door effect,” which is a grid-like pattern that users can see when the screen resolution isn’t high enough however many games fail to take full advantage of the 90hz refresh rate
- Storage: It comes in two storage variants: 128GB and 256GB.
