Well, the Apple Vision Pro is rather pricey! It's easily the best mixed reality headset yet, but that $3,499 price tag is a very tough pill to swallow. Luckily, there are some great alternatives that are available for far cheaper prices.
The Vision Pro's sky-high cost comes with the best display technology (micro-OLED with 23 million pixels), incredible tracking (2 main cameras, 6 world-facing tracking cameras, 4 eye-tracking cameras, TrueDepth camera, LiDAR scanner, 4 inertial measurement units, flicker sensor and ambient light sensor), and a carefully-built software experience in visionOS.
But this is a first generation product, and an expensive one at that. There are still certain things that competing devices do better — such as a wider viewing angle in some of the best VR headsets, integrating the battery pack onto the headset itself or offering a similar spatial computing experience in a device as small as a pair of AR glasses.
That's why each of these options below stand out. Not only that, but you are guaranteed to save at least $1,500 by taking your pick from this bunch. Read below to see what they are.
The quick list
Best overall Apple Vision Pro alternative
Quest 3 is easily one of the best VR headsets you can buy today — a comfortable, slick setup with impressive graphics performance, a ton of apps and games to play, and a supreme mixed reality experience.
Best AR glasses alternative to Apple Vision Pro
The AR glasses market has been catching up to VR headsets, and Xreal's Air 2 are at the front of that chase. Not only does the display tech give you a gorgeous big screen experience, but the spatial software suite gives you a fully-fledged AR computing experience.
Best gaming alternative to Apple Vision Pro
The ultimate combo breaker when it comes to gaming VR — a high-end headset with delicious display tech and great controllers, which is super simple to setup and play.
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Best premium alternative to Apple Vision Pro
If you want to shell out for a premium alternative that is both good for content consumption and work alike, the Meta Quest Pro's sleek design and comfort is a good way to go.
The best Apple Vision Pro alternatives you can buy today
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The best overall Apple Vision Pro alternative
There's a reason why the Meta Quest 3 continues to be ranked as the best VR headset (with Apple Vision Pro coming in a close second place). That's because it offers a lot of what Cupertino's headset offers at a fraction of the price.
It all starts with the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor and a 2K resolution per eye in the twin LCD lenses, which means a full 4K picture that is crisp, vivid and smooth thanks to the 90Hz refresh rate. Plus, based on user opinion (as Apple has not confirmed the specifics), but according to Nilay Patel at The Verge, the Quest 3 has a perceptibly wider field of view at 110 degrees.
There are some unsurprising shortcomings, such as the battery life coming in at under two hours, and the lack of mixed reality apps (at the time of writing) to make the most of that full-color passthrough.
But this continues to be a top headset choice that anyone will be happy they bought. Meta's years in this market means it has the biggest, broadest catalogue of apps, the Link cable opens up a world of PC VR games, and the $499 price tag gives you a huge saving of three bags over the Vision Pro.
See our full Meta Quest 3 review.
The best AR glasses alternative to Apple Vision Pro
Yes, I know this is a sharp left turn from the traditional list of VR headsets you were probably expecting to be on this list. But stick with me, as I tell you why the Xreal Air 2 specs give you one of the best features of the Vision Pro at a fraction of the price.
I'm talking about spatial computing — the vision of the future Apple has been touting heavily with features like pinning the display from your MacBook in thin air, and opening up various apps around you. Well if you buy these $399 glasses, the Beam accessory for $119, and download the Nebula software for Mac or PC, you can get this same experience. Not only that, but you can even have up to three horizontal displays for all your multitasking needs (something the Vision Pro isn't capable of right now).
Of course, you give up a lot of the feature set you get from a VR headset with something like this, such as hand/eye tracking, a wide field of view, and even though Xreal has done a good job of reducing the size of this tech to fit into glasses, they still look a little larger than life on your face. Kind of like the spy glasses you got from the Scholastic book fair.
Plus, expect the Air 2/Air 2 Pro to replaced on this list pretty sharpish, as the Xreal Air 2 Ultra are just around the corner — offering 6DOF positional tracking and a premium titanium finish. In the meantime, though, these are a top notch option for giving you a big beautiful display to use with any smartphone, laptop or handheld console with USB-C connectivity, alongside spatial computing capabilities in a far more portable pair of specs.
See our full Xreal Air2 review.
The best gaming VR headset
When it comes to gaming, there are some fun experiences on the Apple Vision Pro like Fruit Ninja, and the Meta Quest 3 has a deep library of titles too. But let's be honest, if your sole focus is going to be playing in immersive worlds, Sony's PSVR 2 is the clear choice for you.
From its drop dead gorgeous OLED display tech and fantastic controllers with the same haptic feedback in DualSense, to that ever-expanding ecosystem of PlayStation experiences and 3D audio support, you'd be hard pushed to find a better AAA gaming headset than this.
The PSVR 2's main obstacles come in the form of requiring a PS5 to work (that means you're spending over $1,000 to get this experience), and the Quest 3's game library is far more vast (with the option to play PC VR games through it too). But with the likes of Horizon Call of the Mountain and Gran Turismo 7's VR mode legitimately blowing me away, this is the ultimate alternative for gaming purists.
See our full PlayStation VR2 review.
The best premium alternative to Apple Vision Pro
The Meta Quest Pro is a solid premium alternative to the Apple Vision Pro, which shaves $1,500 off the total cost of what you'd be paying for the Cupertino option. Contrary to the Quest 3, this is aimed more towards advanced productivity needs, such as engineering, prosumer creativity, and big design projects like architecture.
But it would be a fair opinion to opt for the cheaper third-gen Quest headset for being able to do the vast majority of what the Quest Pro is capable of. That being said, there's no denying this is a great VR headset with a sleek, comfortable design, which doesn't isolate you from the outside world.
That $999 price tag is a hard sell when you've got the Quest 3 for half of that. But if you fit into the commercial niche that could make the most of the upmarket tech this offers, it's a good buy.
See our full Meta Quest Pro review.
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