The best VR headset for 2024: Meta Quest 3 and a few other options. It's been a big year for VR and AR, starting with the Apple Vision Pro earlier this year, then the Meta Quest 3 more recently. That was an affordable VR headset, and there have

been a whole bunch of display glasses and audio glasses popping up in the meantime. What do you get? Well, I've been testing VR and AR stuff for well over a decade, and I use this stuff and write about it all the time. Here are my picks

right now for the best VR and AR options in 2024. First of all, Meta rules this landscape, and there's a good reason for that. The Meta Quest headsets have been really affordable, self-contained, and really high quality. The Meta Quest 3, which came out last year, is still my

favorite and best VR headset. This thing can play games; you can use it for fitness; you can do work in it. The display is better than the previous Quest 2; the lenses are better; it has better graphics; and it has something that you're going to see in a lot of

headsets now: mixed reality, which is using color cameras that show the pass-through world around you and blend it with VR to make it seem like things are mixing with the real and the virtual. The Meta Quest 3 can do this; it only costs $500 and is standalone; it can also

connect with a PC. What's not to like? Well, if you don't like the Facebook and Meta ecosystem, maybe that's it. But other than that, it's really the best product. In second place: The Meta Quest 2, which might be the one a lot of people

Choose to get this instead. This is new, only costs $300, which is a fantastic value, but it does cut a few corners. It has the same graphics capability and the same color pass-through cameras and mixed reality as the Quest 3, but its displays and lenses are the same as

the Quest 2, which means that things are a little blurrier, a little bit muddier. Totally fine for gaming, but if you're looking to do work, to connect with a computer—which you can do on these—and read text or do anything else, you may

find it pretty disappointing. There's also the PlayStation VR2, which has been out since last year and is a gaming option specifically. It has a couple of big caveats: one, it's expensive, although the price has been dropped recently in some sales; it also needs to

be tethered to a PlayStation 5, so it's not standalone. You need to be in a particular room to do this. It also doesn't have color cameras; it has black and white ones, but it plays games really nicely if you've got a PS5 nearby. Fantastic

controllers, and it plays high-end games that feel like PC games. However, Sony's not doing a lot of exclusives for this right now, so it's unclear how much mileage you're going to get out of it. But if you have a PS5, want to spend the

money and play some games, plus it works with PCs now with a separately sold adapter. As far as other VR headsets, there really aren't any that I can think of, because the PC landscape has shrunk. Valve hasn't updated its PC VR headsets recently, and those Quest

Headsets, plus the PSVR2, can both connect to PCs, so there are a bunch of VR headsets that can do mixed reality. But eventually, these may get smaller and turn into AR/GL glasses. When will we get there? Not yet, but there are some glasses

out there that do some interesting things that you might want to consider. The Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses are these very affordable regular glasses that have cameras and audio built in, and I love them. I've been wearing them a lot over the past year. I use them to take phone

calls, I listen to music, and they have AI functions which can identify things in the world around you, translate stuff, and more. They're really fun, not too expensive, but the battery life does not last a full day. That being said, they're one of the more practical products that I've

seen in a novelty landscape. Then there's the XREAL Air, which is a new set of display glasses, and there are a number of display glasses out there, but XREAL's new set increases the quality of its display. It also allows you to pin that display in space, so you're basically

seeing a monitor, or a gaming screen, or whatever else you want to plug into, because the XREAL Air connects with USB-C to phones, to Macs, to PCs, to game consoles like the Steam Deck, so it's incredibly practical for taking it on the go with you.

That being said, it's mainly just a display with Bose-powered audio, but at $500, it costs a lot less than some other options like the Apple Vision Pro. Let's talk about the Apple Vision Pro for a second. Yes, it came out this year; no, I don't

I recommend that you buy it because it's $3,500. However, the Vision Pro has fantastic display quality, great audio, and I use it all the time as a home movie theater and as a way to connect to my Mac and curve a screen around myself.

That's not worth $3,500 for most people. What I would say is wait until Apple does a more affordable, smaller version of this, which they likely will, and then we'll talk again. So those are the best VR and AR options to consider for 2024.

For more, check out CNET, especially the best VR headsets list, which we update, and a number of reviews and articles that are ongoing where I take a look at this technology all the time. Thanks for watching, and if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.

Best AR and VR Devices of 2024

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CNET

Overview of the year's VR/AR releases, including Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3.

Meta Quest 3 is the top pick due to affordability, quality, and versatility (gaming, fitness, work).

Highlights Meta Quest 3's improved display, lenses, graphics, and mixed reality capabilities.

Meta Quest 2 is a budget-friendly alternative but with slightly lower quality displays and lenses.

PlayStation VR2 is a gaming-focused option, requiring a PS5 and lacking color cameras, but offering high-end gaming experience.

Discussion on the future of smaller, AR/GL glasses.

Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses offer affordability and integrated cameras and audio, but with limited battery life.

XREAL Air display glasses provide high-quality display and versatile connectivity but are primarily a display with audio.

Apple Vision Pro is praised for its display and audio quality but deemed too expensive for most consumers.

Recommendation to wait for a more affordable Apple Vision Pro model.

Best AR and VR Devices of 2024

Best AR and VR Devices of 2024

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