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

27.09.2023 - 22:59 / pcmag.com / Mark Zuckerberg / Pro

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 hard. 

The full color passthrough also means the headset can power mixed reality experiences by overlaying virtual objects over your real-world sights. I experienced this first hand while playing a game called First Encounters on the headset. The Quest 3 was able to render the game elements as I stood in an empty room at Facebook’s campus in Menlo Park, California.  

While in the mixed reality mode, I saw the real-life office space around me, which was carpeted and furnished with a couch and cabinet. But as the game begin, I watched a cartoon-like rocket drop from the office ceiling and down to my feet. A swarm of creatures reminiscent of the tribbles from Star Trek then proceeded to break through the room, forcing me to fight back with a pair of blaster pistols. 

The most tantalizing part of the demo was how the game respected the boundaries of the office space and furniture around me. I saw the tribble-like creatures bounce across the real-life couch and cabinet on my flanks, rather