Sony (kind of) announces its Vision Pro competitor at CES 2024

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Apple just announced that its first mixed-reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, will go on sale on February 2. While we still have many unanswered questions about this $3,499 headset, its competitor is already here from Sony.

At CES 2024, Qualcomm flexed its muscle by announcing Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, its own mixed reality platform, which this Sony headset actually uses.

The product is the result of Sony and Siemens’s joint effort and, of course, aimed at the business market. 

Sony is yet to name the headset

At CES 2024, Sony teased its new headset. We also got a press release revealing almost everything except its name. 

Yes, you heard it right. Sony has revealed most of the details about its upcoming headset but not its name. Knowing Sony, the name may very well be made of a long string of numerical. 

Either way, the headset carries a pair of 4K OLED Microdisplays. According to the company, the headset “enables real-time, high-definition and realistic rendering of textures of 3D objects and facial expressions of human characters.” 

There’s also support for spatial recognition thanks to the six cameras built into the headset.

While these are all good things, they all sound very similar to Apple’s offering, the Vision Pro. However, through the press release, Sony explained,  

In addition to video see-through functionality and spatial recognition with six cameras and sensors in total, the system features a ring controller that allows users to intuitively manipulate objects in virtual space, as well as a pointing controller that enables precise pointing, allowing creators to craft in virtual space with controllers and keyboards, all while wearing the head-mounted display.

The company even added, “Creators will not only be able to see real-scale 3D models in an Extended Reality (XR) environment with the high-definition display, but also create and modify 3D models in it.”

The Japanese company has also shared multiple images of the headset, which looks a lot like PSVR 2. In addition, front part of the headset flips up, something Vision Pro doesn’t have.

There are still tons of questions

While Sony’s new products look and sound pretty interesting, a controller will be a godsend for those who don’t like Vision Pro’s hand gestures. 

However, we don’t know several key points – like when it will go on sale, or the price. The company mentioned a 2024 time frame, which is vague, to say the least. We should hear more in the coming months.

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Editors’ Recommendations:

• Apple Vision Pro 2 to get brighter, more efficient Samsung display
• Why the Apple Vision Pro might be a challenge to get your hands on in 2024
• Second-gen Vision Pro leak points to late 2025 or early 2026 launch
• Meta’s Quest 2 price drop brings VR closer to the masses