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Comment by divan | Hacker News Reader

I'm working in Quest 3 almost every day. I use Immersed, as it implements virtual displays for my MacBook better than others, but I'm impressed with the Meta ecosystem. Granted, social interaction is still awkward without proper face expressions, but it feels closer each year to the depicted vision.

I recently travelled and needed to work (coding and video editing in DaVinci) a lot in hotels and random places. I can't bring large screens everywhere (and I hate to work with small fonts and screens), and Quest 3 was a perfect fit here. Sometimes at home or office (I have a private one), I just don't want to sit on my buttoks all the time, so I put on VR goggles and can keep working in any position (lying on a sofa or even sunbathing outdoors).

As soon as new XR/MR glasses become lighter (there are some good ones already - Visor, Beyond BigScreen 2, etc), more and more people will discover how usable and optimized for work this tech is.

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In no way is Quest 3 better than Apple Vision Pro for desktop work. I’ve used both. It’s not close.

(There are other critiques of AVP that might not make it the right choice, but desktop work experience isn’t one of them.)

Perhaps on macOS, but I'd be surprised if the AVP has the same experience for Linux/Windows/ChromeOS?

Wearing the AVP 3 days in a row for 30 minutes each day leaves me with neck pain that lasts another 3 days. It’s just too heavy for me and for a lot of others, even if the visual quality is very high the overall experience is very poor if it leaves me with a medical issue. I’m still impressed with some aspects and look forward to a lighter weight HMD from Apple but right now… can’t do it.

Research has repeatedly shown it’s less about the weight and more about it not being balanced properly. Yet they continue to insist on imbalanced VR systems so that it seems lighter and has less weight on the packaging (because otherwise you’d have to counterbalance the heavy display + battery).

Wait so if it’s about the balance and you need to add weight to get it to balance properly isn’t it also about the weight?

It’s about the imbalanced weight which is meaningfully different from total weight as you have 3axis involved. Reducing the weight won’t solve the pain problem from prolonged use but you frequently hear this complaint from customers that the headset is too heavy when in reality that’s not actually it. If you counterbalance it helps but most such techniques still only counterbalance front/back and not side to side. There are even extended battery packs that help with this which seems like a good albeit expensive compromise but I haven’t tried them. But still that’s only back/front and not side to side.

Well the AVP has a massive battery that contributes to the weight and adding it w/ a strap to the back to add balance did not help me. I tried back-mounted battery with a 3rd party head gear thingy which alone (no battery) makes the AVP more comfortable; with the battery strapped on the back it is more balanced and somewhat comfortable but just far too heavy for me.

I’m not saying total weight doesn’t matter at all. I don’t know the weight of the AVP setup. And as you not properly balancing helped. Also remember that I note that you’re laterally imbalanced even when you fix the front/back issue.

But it’s obvious that total weight does matter (eg a 1 ton weight would crush your spine) but below some threshold it’s more about weight distribution and balance than total weight.

Yes but by your definition then it's weight without balance and weight with balance.

The first one can't be fixed without removing weight.

The second one can be fixed by adding more weight with the total weight not being the cause of the problem but rather the distribution of the total weight.

I've only briefly used an AVP (used a friend's before he returned it), but I didn't really notice that much difference in screen quality between it and my Quest 3. That's really what I was hoping it'd excel at given the price, but the real killer for me was just the bulkiness/weight of it compared to other headsets. I can't see myself working in it for longer than maybe 30-45 min compared to the 6+ hours I've put in with virtual desktops in Quest 3/Vive.

I haven't tried AVP because of the price. But surely would love to.

I'm quite a big fan of my Quest 1 as a cheap flight sim headset, too. I don't end up using it more than maybe twice a week, but that's more than worth-it for the $400 I paid 5 years ago. It installs (or "sideloads" in present vernacular) Android apps like any other device, browses the web, and streams wireless VR from my desktop via ALVR when I want to play games. It does a lot of stuff you wouldn't expect out of a "depreciated" piece of hardware.

The trepidation behind VR for professional applications makes sense to me - it's expensive and tough to compare with what it's replacing. As a pure vehicle for fun though, I genuinely have no regrets with my Quest hardware. It was easily a better purchase than my Xbox One.

How do you work laying down?

Do you put a keyboard on your stomach or something?

Yes, on laps/stomach. In VR mode, almost all these work-oriented apps have a concept of "desk view" or "portal" - i.e. window into "reality" to show keyboard. Meta's Horizon OS detects and shows physical keyboards automatically I believe. But a lot of time, I just use Mixed Reality mode - so only my screens floating in the corners of the room are rendered on top of "reality". If you forget that you're in VR goggles, it's the same as just lying down and working on huge screens on your ceilings or walls.

How do you power it for extended sessions? Is it constantly connected to power - using wifi/airlink between it and your Mac? Or do you use the link cable?

Yes, it's tethered to my laptop with a USB cable.

I use this: https://www.bobovr.com/products/s3-pro?variant=4793078051664...

It looks goofy but gives you a massive battery, and the fan is nice as well.

Have you thought about donating your brain to science for an examination as to why you are not racked migraines and nausea the way most of us are when we use these things more than an hour or so?

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