You Don’t Want A AR/VR Monitor

I did an analysis of Apple’s Reality Pro headset.

And then another post analyzing Apple’s Reality Pro headset.

So hypothetically Apple could make a ‘retina’ quality VR headset. It could work. From a technical standpoint. But will it work from a practical standpoint? I think not. For a few reasons.

Ergonomics

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Ergonomics. Now I wanted to talk about health concerns here but there hasn’t been enough research into that and the health impacts of using a VR headset for long periods of time appear to be mostly temporary.

However even if using a VR headset doesn’t permanently damage your health it’s still not ideal. Because first of all VR Headsets are bulky.

This is the rumoured design.

It’s not going to look like that. First of all the front part is quite heavy and if it did look like that it would undoubtedly fall down. Or put a ton of weight on your nose. Or both.

No, it’s going to look, at best, like the PlayStation VR 2.

And I do hope it does look like that because the PlayStation VR 2 is designed so it evenly distributes the weight on your head. It’s ergonomically superior. However this design still has some problems.

It’s going to be like wearing a pair of goggles for hours straight. And not small swim goggles, large welding goggles. And that’s not going to be very comfortable. There’s going to be no airflow between your eyes and the screen and that will get uncomfortable real quick. I mean, you can put up with the discomfort. But why would you? Why not just get a normal monitor setup?

The only reason I could think someone would prefer a VR/AR setup is for a place where you can’t easily set up monitors. Like a coffee shop. But then this brings up its own problems.

Charging

So the Reality Pro is rumoured to be battery-powered. Now I don’t think this is a great idea because batteries are heavy and it’ll undoubtedly contribute to the weight problems. But also batteries and high-resolution graphics tasks do not mix.

Take gaming laptops. They have terrible battery life, like 2 hours. A VR headset will likely be similar as VR is basically the same workload as gaming. And if Apple wants ‘retina’ quality graphics it’s going to be a significantly more intense workload.

So it’s rumoured the Reality Pro headset will last 2 hours. I’m thinking people are going to want to spend more than 2 hours in a coffee shop.

OK, what if you want to keep these things attached to a cable instead? Then you need to find an outlet to use. And then you have to worry about a cable which could get tangled on things. It’s not a huge problem but why not just use a laptop which can easily get 8–10 hours with Apple Silicon?

Cost

Then there’s the cost. Some people have said that a VR monitor could actually be cheaper than a normal multi-monitor setup. I guess… if your setup is comprised entirely of overpriced Studio Displays which each cost $1500.

But the majority of people are not buying overpriced Studio Displays. They’re buying cheap monitors from Amazon. How much does a 4K monitor cost from Amazon? Under $300. You could buy 10 external 4K monitors for the cost of one Reality Pro headset.

What if you want a monitor arm? $50. What if you want headphones? Well, you can get some good headphones for only $20. In fact that’s what my favourite pair cost. I have some 1000MX4s from Sony and they don’t sound any better. In fact pre-EQ they sound significantly worse. I was quite disappointed by that. But even if you bought some expensive $300 pair you’re still cheaper.

And What Does AR/VR Get You?

OK, I’m not going to lie. AR/VR is pretty cool. I’m a big fan of picture-in-picture mode.

But picture-in-picture windows have to be on your screen. And it’s possible that they cover something up. It would be great to just flick that picture-in-picture window anywhere. Put it behind you. Maybe you could even do spatial audio. That would be cool. But, you know, having picture-in-picture windows blocking your screen doesn’t happen that often. And if it really bothers you you can just get another monitor. Or like use an iPad to play it or something.

Speaking of multiple monitors, with VR you can have as many monitors as you want, as big as you want. But, you know, there is a limit to how big of a monitor you can actually benefit from.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone using more than 3 monitors in the wild. Because what are you going to use them for? And the most popular monitor size is 22–24 inches. Because when you go larger you have to physically twist your head to see things. VR won’t fix that. In fact it might even make things worse because of the weight.

I really don’t think VR/AR monitors are going to be a very big hit. I mean some people may use them in places where it’s difficult to setup monitors. Like, I don’t know, when working at a coffee shop or bringing up a touchscreen monitor to diagnose a server problem or something. But even in these situations it’s hard to imagine a reason why the VR/AR monitor would be better.

But the vast majority of people would be better served by a laptop which is cheaper, has better battery life, and is significantly cheaper.

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