I am wondering if some of the HNer here bought one and what their opinions are.
Social media has a bad reputation for good reason, but people understate how much the iPhone fuels addiction. I'm worried this kind of device catches on and further degrades real-world socializing. I don't want real eye contact to become rarer because everyone is plugged into their own little worlds everywhere.
I recently tried the Vision Pro at my friends house. Graphics are definitely a lot better. Hand tracking is better than Quest 3. Weight is definitely bulkier on out of all the headsets, but thats something that you get used to - when I first started gaming in VR, my neck was super sore, but after a while, you actually end up strengthening your neck and upper back, which ironically resulted in less headaches for me during the day.
That being said, Vision pro is nothing revolutionary. You either have to be a massive Apple stan or never experienced VR to begin with to find it amazing. Its a better iteration of the current VR headsets for sure, but just like the rest, its missing the point. The biggest problem in itself is that everyone is trying to mix VR and AR into one, which is the wrong way to go.
VR is way better with external tracking, because you can do things like full body tracking. In VR chat, Ive participated in a few events where people were teaching dance or martial arts, with trackers on hip, knees and legs, and it worked out quite well. Behind the back tracking is also useful for games. Of course the issue with VR is that the entry cost (including the space to play VR) is very high, so the community is VERY tiny.
AR on the other hand needs to be a very lightweight, low profile headset with transparent displays. I use my Quest 3 with passthrough sometimes when working with my hands, however the latency/resolution/bulkiness is noticeable. Vision does this better, but not perfect.
The rest of uses of AR/VR, like making calls, browsing, e.t.c is very much a novelty. Gets old quick.
My perfect device would be a lightweight pair of glasses, with a transparent display on one eye, with a low res display, usbc to my phone. The usefullness of that would be 1000 times what Vision Pro offers.
TLDR; get the Quest 3 if you wanna try VR. Otherwise hold out for a lighter, better AR system.