The best Apple Vision Pro alternatives in 2024

Best Apple Vision Pro alternatives
(Image credit: Future)

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

The best Apple Vision Pro alternatives you can buy today

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The best overall Apple Vision Pro alternative

Meta Quest 3Editor's Choice

(Image credit: Future)
Best Apple Vision Pro alternative overall

Reasons to buy

+
More comfortable design than Quest 2
+
Vibrant LCD display
+
Excellent Touch Plus controllers
+
Impressive full-color passthrough

Reasons to avoid

-
Mixed reality features lacking
-
Short battery life
-
Hand tracking isn’t quite useful yet

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

Viture Pro XR GlassesEditor's Choice

(Image credit: Future)
Best AR glasses alternative to Apple Vision Pro

Reasons to buy

+
The Micro-OLED display tech is so gorgeous
+
Electrochromic film is shockingly effective
+
Lightweight, comfortable and premium design
+
Hardware 🤝 Software is unmatched

Reasons to avoid

-
Expensive for full experience
-
Sound is on the quiet side
-
Viewing angle limitation can still be distracting

Of course, when it comes to discussing Apple Vision Pro alternatives, AR glasses are becoming an increasingly impressive low-profile way to get spatial computing capabilities. As of right now, the Viture Pro XR glasses are the best you can buy in this category.

The price is a little steep at $549, but what you get for that is the best OLED display tech in the most comfortable, lightweight Wayfarer-esque design out there. On top of that, the picture can be altered for Myopia thanks to the dials on top of the lenses, and the magnetically attached cable eliminates the annoying snagging issue if you move too far away.

Oh, and let's talk about the star of the show — that SpaceWalker app. Available on iOS, Android and macOS, this is an essential download to get that spatial computing experience. If you're on a MacBook, that means a full display extension to up to a triple-monitor setup. Either smartphone OS gives you an interactive dashboard of all your apps, which you can interact with by using your phone as a laser pointer.

But what about tracking like in a VR headset? We may be seeing that soon, 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 Viture Pro XR glasses review.

The best gaming VR headset

The PlayStation VR 2 on our reviewer, Roland Moore-ColyerEditor's Choice

(Image credit: Future)
Best gaming alternative to Apple Vision Pro

Reasons to buy

+
Easy to set up 
+
Great controls with haptic feedback 
+
Gorgeous display 
+
Overall excellent VR experience

Reasons to avoid

-
Costs more than a PS5
-
Controller straps are awkward

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

Meta Quest Pro

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)
Best premium alternative to Apple Vision Pro

Reasons to buy

+
Comfortable to wear
+
Doesn't isolate you from the real world
+
Convincing spatial audio

Reasons to avoid

-
Very expensive
-
Short battery life
-
Working in VR is still unintuitive

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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Jason England
Managing Editor — Computing

Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.