Why Is The Vision Pro So Expensive?
There’s a question that’s been on my mind: why is the Vision Pro so expensive? Obviously it’s a high end VR headset. But so is the Quest 3 and it only retails for $500. Are you telling me that the Vision Pro is 7x better than the Quest 3? I don’t think so.
So in this post I’d like to explore what it is that you’re paying for.
The Display
I originally assumed the Vision Pro would have 6K panels, specifically it would have a resolution of 6600x3300. That would give you a 110 degree field of view with 60 pixels per degree and a 3:2 aspect ratio. A ‘retina’ resolution.
Apple has not disclosed what resolution they’re using but they do say that it is ‘more than a 4K TV for each eye’ and ’23 million pixels across two displays’. I originally interpreted this as 23 million pixels per eye. Which would be more than my estimate. But now I’m thinking it’s going to be 23 million pixels combined. Why does Apple have to be so vague?
So that would be between a 4K and 5K resolution. The Quest 3 is rumoured to use a resolution of 2064x2208. Now this may sound fairly small but the ‘standard’ 4K resolution is 3840x2160 which isn’t that far off. In fact the Quest 3’s vertical resolution is greater than 4K’s vertical resolution. Which means as long as you don’t look too far left and right the…