Zuck’s video takedown of Apple Vision Pro goes viral

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, which became Meta Platforms back in 2022, has some thoughts about Apple’s new Vision Pro spatial computer, and he’s not afraid to call the other company out for what he sees as some deficiencies, especially when compared to his own company’s rival Quest 3 headset.

Yesterday, Zuck posted on his Instagram account a roughly 3:30 second long video recorded in a candid and only lightly produced manner, with him seated on his couch.

Here’s a rip of it from YouTube to make it easier to watch on this article page:

Zuck’s take on the Apple Vision Pro: more expensive and not as good of a user experience

Zuck began by noting that he “finally tried Apple’s Vision Pro,” and that in so doing, he discovered the Meta Quest, which he expected to be “the better value for most people since it’s really good and like, seven times less expensive” ($3,500 for the Apple Vision Pro vs. $500 for the Meta Quest 3, seven times exactly) was actually the better device overall, even without the cost savings considered.

Even though they both have “different design Meta Quest 3 is “better for the vast majority of things that people use mixed reality for,” Zuck stated, such as web browsing, gaming, watching movies, working out, socializing with friends in the virtual world.

He pointed out that the headset is lighter (515 grams for Quest 3 vs. 600-650 grams for the Vision Pro), making it “a lot more comfortable” while still allowing for “high-quality passthrough” of the real world view and hand tracking, much like Apple’s Vision Pro.

In fact, the Quest 3 also has a wider field-of-view and brighter and more crisp display when moving around, despite Vision Pro having a higher resolution, due to Apple’s device having a “motion blur” effect on it.

Zuck also noted the Quest 3 doesn’t have any external wires, unlike the cable required to plug the Vision Pro into its external battery pack or powered source, and that he found Quest 3’s hand tracking was more accurate than Apple’s.

And while Vision Pro offers eye tracking, which Zuck said was “really nice,” was available in a previous version of Quest, the Quest Pro, which he said they would be bringing back in a future version, but argued that typing and other tasks were better off using peripherals like hardware keyboards or controllers or eventually “a neural interface.”

Finally, he touted Meta’s deep content library of mixed reality games and apps built over a decade of partnerships, including integrations with and support for playing Xbox and watching YouTube. He ended the video (recorded on the Quest 3, naturally, by his friend Kenny) by touting the fact that Meta is pursuing an “open model” — similarly to its approach to open-source AI — allowing third-party developers to create content for it without going through an App Store.

He voiced his opinion that the mixed reality market was similar to the early PC era of the 1980s and 1990s, when Apple pursued a closed model of hardware and software integration, but Microsoft’s more “open” model of Windows allowing for more unrestricted software won out, and sought to position Meta as following in the Microsoft tradition.

The reaction from around the web

Zuck of course has an incentive to tout the Quest 3 as being better than the Vision Pro, since they are directly competing products.

Historically, too, Meta has not had the best relationship with Apple, after the latter introduced new privacy features to block third-party app tracking on iOS for its iPhone and iPad devices in 2021, hampering Meta’s ability to track users and deliver targeted ads and costing it billions in revenue.

But so far, many tech workers and influencers on the web have warmly received the Meta founder’s candid and opinionated review.

However, some voiced the opinion that Zuck was making a grave tactical error by releasing the video criticizing the Vision Pro, comparing it to the advent of the iPhone, which some legacy manufacturers initially dismissed as being too expensive and not innovative enough.

Coming as more reports are surfacing on social media of people returning Apple’s Vision Pro after experiencing issues with the device’s weight and even a “burst blood vessel,” according to The Verge, Zuck’s takedown takes place at an especially important juncture in the mixed reality/spatial computing race.

Now, whether it actually translates into more Quest 3 sales remains to be seen, especially since 2023 was a down year for mixed reality sales overall.