Zuckerberg says Quest 3 is the “better product” versus Apple's Vision Pro

Entering the chat is Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who will have more at stake than anyone on Earth if Apple does to headphones what the iPhone did to smartphones. In a video posted to his Instagram account on Tuesday, Zuckerberg gave his official verdict on the Vision Pro versus his company's latest Quest 3 headphones: “Not only do I think the Quest is the better value, I think the Quest is the better product, period.”

Filmed by the Quest 3's video pass-through system in his living room, Zuckerberg highlights the trade-offs Apple made to get the best possible display into something that can be worn on your head in acceptable form. He says the Quest 3 weighs 120 grams less, making it more comfortable to wear for a longer period. He also says it allows for greater movement due to its lack of a wired battery pack and a wider field of view than the Vision Pro.

He thinks the Quest's option of physical hand controllers and hand tracking for input is better, though he says he likes the eye tracking for some use cases and teases that it will return to future Meta headsets after its Quest Pro debut. He says the Quest has a better “immersive” content library than Apple, which is technically true at the moment, though he admits the Vision Pro is a better entertainment device. Then there's the fact that Quest 3 is, Zuck says, “seven times less expensive.”

At the end of the video, Zuckerberg thanks his team that has been building VR headsets for a very long time — a message that seems to have We can rest easy, people Vibration. As I discussed with Zuckerberg recently, it's true that the Meta has a huge head start and will be the undisputed leader in headphone sales for a while. You can also make a strong case, as Zuckerberg does, that the Quest 3 is today a better headset for most people than the Vision Pro.

But what Zuckerberg didn't say in his video is that Apple has clear advantages in the hardware and developer ecosystem, the latter of which takes time to revamp a new product category like this. Mita might be breathing a sigh of relief now. But this is an endurance game. And the headphone wars are just beginning.