Meta Quest 3 Hands On: Some Serious Competition for Apple's Vision Pro

pcmag.com:

Apple should watch out: Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Quest 3 is packing some powerful capabilities that could steal some thunder from the upcoming Vision Pro headset. 

The Quest 3 launches on Oct. 10 starting at $499. We tried it out at the Meta Connect conference, and after a 30-minute session with the device, the Quest 3 left me impressed with its mixed reality functions. It seems poised to draw comparisons to Apple’s own approach to the technology.  

Full disclosure: I haven’t had the chance to use the Vision Pro. But while wearing the Meta Quest 3, I couldn’t help but feel Zuckerberg’s $499 headset represents a far better deal over Apple’s own headset, which launches early next year for a whopping $3,499. 

The price alone puts the Vision Pro out of reach for most consumers. The Meta Quest 3, on the other hand, appears to pull off a strong mixed reality experience, while also offering access to a growing library of VR games and apps. 

Indeed, the first thing I noticed when I wore the Quest 3 is that I could immediately see my real-world surroundings, despite the headgear around my eyes. That’s because the next-generation Quest is outfitted with an array of cameras and sensors, which can effectively let the wearer see through the headset in high-resolution, full-color quality.  

The “full color passthrough” alone represents a substantial upgrade from earlier Quest headsets, which also rendered the user’s real-world surroundings, but only in black-and-white, grainy visuals. With the Quest 3, I didn’t have to take off the hardware every time to gain a clear view. The headset beamed real-world visuals around me in fairly high quality. I could even read some small text on a piece of paper next to me, although I had to squint