Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg lashed out at Apple’s new Vision Pro headphones in an Instagram video on Tuesday, calling the device inferior to the Quest 3 headphones.
Zuckerberg said he had recently gotten his hands on the rival $3,500 headphones and, like many, expected them to be “higher quality” because it is several times more expensive than his device, which ranges from $500 for 128GB of storage to $650 for 512GB. GB. GB of storage.
However, after testing the Vision, he said he was “surprised” to find that, in his opinion, his device surpassed the Vision in every aspect, from screen brightness and comfort to software.
Apple officially launched the Vision Pro earlier this month at a starting price of $3,500 that ranges up to almost $4,000 depending on memory space and add-ons like a $199 travel case and $99 optical inserts.
Mark Zuckerberg criticized Apple’s Vision Pro headphones as bulky, grainy and uncomfortable.
Apple’s Vision Pro headphones launched earlier this month with a price tag of $3,500
“It seems like there are a lot of people who just assumed the Vision Pro would be higher quality because it’s Apple and it costs $3,000 more,” Zuckerberg said.
“But honestly, I’m pretty surprised that the Quest is so much better for the vast majority of things people use these headphones for, at that price difference.”
In it videoZuckerberg said the Quest is superior to the Vision Pro, specifying that it has a brighter screen, more immersive content, no cables, is lighter, and is generally easier to use.
He gave two praises for the Apple device, saying that “the eye-tracking feature is really nice” and that it has a “higher” resolution than the Quest, but that’s where the praise ended.
“After using (the Vision Pro), not only do I think Quest is a better value, I think Quest is the better product,” Zuckerberg said.
“Apple’s display has a higher resolution and that’s really good, but I was surprised by how many trade-offs they had to make in terms of device quality, comfort and ergonomics,” he added.
Zuckerberg compared the Vision Pro to Meta’s Quest 3 headphones and said there was no comparison: Quest is the better model
Before the launch of the Vision Pro, Richard Howarth, Apple’s vice president of industrial design, acknowledged the device’s weight, but said vanity fair It is composed of the lightest materials on the planet: magnesium, carbon fiber and aluminum.
“We couldn’t have done anything to make it lighter or smaller,” he said, adding, “This is state-of-the-art.”
Zuckerberg vehemently disagreed with his review, drastically contradicting the rumors generated around the Vision Pro headphones since they were announced at TK last year.
“I know some fans get upset every time someone dares to question whether Apple is going to be the leader in a new category,” he said.
‘But the reality is that each generation of computing has an open model and a closed model. And yes, in the mobile field Apple’s closed model won, but this is not always the case.
Zuckerberg appears not to be alone in his opinions, as people flock to Apple stores to return their Vision Pro headphones just weeks after their release.
One of the main reasons consumers want their refund is the Vision Pro’s bulky design, according to Farzad Mesbahi, who is a tech influencer on YouTube.
He wrote at X: “Even if you can get the device to fit comfortably on your head and face, it’s still something you have to wear on your head and face.”
The pass-through technology, which allows the user to see the real world while wearing the glasses, is not good, Mesbahi wrote, and the grainy screen makes it difficult to see a phone or read small font on a sheet of paper.
Despite Apple CEO Tim Cook’s assurances that Vision Pro is the “way of the future,” Zuckerberg said he thinks Meta’s Quest surpasses it in almost every way.
‘If we go back to the PC era, Microsoft’s open model was the winner, and in this next generation Meta will be the open model. And I really want to make sure that the open model wins,” Zuckerberg said, adding: “Again, the future is not yet written.”