HN Explorer

Ask HN: Alternative AR headset for coding to Vision Pro

8 points by udl ↗ HN
Hello HN community, The various reviews of the Apple Vision Pro have sent me down a rabbit hole on YouTube and reddit regarding other options for replacing my external monitor for the Mac for coding by any type of headset. It seems, that the most promising options are either meta quest 3 with the immersed app or xreal air2. But it's not very clear to me if any of those two options works that well. I've read everything from "works great" to "total trash". Does anyone here use a setup like this? Or am i missing a better option? Thanks!

8 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 25.1 ms ] thread
andsoitis
Why do you want to use a headset instead of a monitor?
speedgoose
Why do you want to use a headset instead of a hi-fi stereo sound system?
andsoitis
I precisely don't, unless I have to.

If I need to work (coding in this person's case) on the go, a high quality laptop with good screen resolution is superior to a headset. Using a constrained headset that's optimized for consumption strikes me as similar to using an iPad for coding (or other serious work). It can be done and there are even example of people doing amazing things, but those are exceptions.

udl
My main use case would be when I'm not working from my desk but in a coworking space or from a hotel or something like that. But if it works really well, i could also see myself replace the monitor at home completely.
kingkongjaffa
I mean just for one more data point I have a Quest 2 and doing anything meaningful on it besides playing VR games is just trash. Maybe watching movies/TV is okay but the battery life is crap.

Typing and screen mirroring is so delayed that it's unusable.

ActorNightly
AR/XR absolutely sucks for anything productivity. Do not be fooled by the massive marketing campaign that Apple is pushing. This stuff is nothing new, headsets have been around for quite some time, and plenty of people have tried to use them for productivity, and they all suck. Lighter units suffer from lower resolutions and lack of capability (many are simply just a display projected in your FOV without any AR/XR), and have issues with blurriness/latency, while heavier headsets are just too bulky to wear for extended periods of time.

If you want the most productivity on the go, nothing beats a laptop with good resolutions that runs linux and the i3 windows manager (and no, nothing on Mac comes close). Once you get used to i3 commands, you won't need a second display.

For AR/XR, wait till someone releases a pair of glasses with a tiny low res monochrome text based Micro Oled display, with an open source interface.