Now that the Apple Vision Pro headset is out in the wild and we know exactly how it works, I am more convinced that my $400 XR glasses are enough for my day-to-day usage. Yes, comparing the $400 Xreal Air 2 glasses to Apple's $3,500 computer that hugs your face is like comparing apples to oranges, but I truly believe that the Xreal Air 2 or even other smart glasses like the Viture One XR glasses are way more practical to use and make more sense for most users, especially when it comes to replacing your monitor for day-to-day computing tasks. Here are a few reasons why.

4 Better spatial computing with multiple floating windows

Vision Pro is not a good replacement to your monitor

Apple's promo for the Vision Pro sold me on the dream of using the headset as an alternative to my Mac's display for everyday work. It just makes so much sense to wear the Vision Pro and enter the virtual world with multiple floating windows around you that can be used as secondary displays for your Mac, right? Well, it doesn't work well yet, at least not how you want it.

So the Apple Vision Pro can virtualize your Mac's display in visionOS, while blacking out your Mac's in-built screen, but you can only have one display for your Mac on the Vision Pro. That means you can't recreate your multi-monitor setup in the virtual world by having multiple floating windows for your Mac. That's very disappointing for someone like me who works on a multi-monitor setup every day with a few different active windows open at any given point for work.

​​​​​​Thankfully, Xreal makes it very easy to port your dual or even triple-monitor setup over to the floating screens that you can set up while wearing the glasses. The Nebula app works surprisingly well on macOS to enable the multi-monitor view for productivity tasks. In fact, the overall experience was so good that I could entirely replace my monitors with smart glasses for a full workweek.

Yes, you can open apps on visionOS and place them around your Mac's virtual screen and pretend them to be a part of your main setup, but that's not quite the same, is it? And as my colleague Brady highlighted in his Apple Vision Pro review, the headset doesn't even have support for Bluetooth mice, and visionOS only detects Apple's Magic Trackpad. That makes it very difficult to use the Vision Pro headset with something like a Mac Mini that uses an external keyboard and mouse and not a built-in trackpad like the MacBook.

The Apple Vision Pro may have the brains to operate without needing a computer, but its functionalities are very limited at the moment, and you are better off buying a pair of smart glasses instead while the technology matures.

3 Lightweight and comfortable to wear

Smart glasses will also attract much less attention than the Vision Pro

The Apple Vision Pro weighs 650g, whereas the Xreal Air 2 weighs 72g. That's not really surprising considering the fact that the Vision Pro is a full-fledged computer in a headset while the latter is a pair of smart glasses. But what's more important than the weight here is that you are looking at a massive headset that straps onto your head and hugs it tightly versus a pair of glasses that puts almost little to no pressure on the nose or the temple area.

I haven't had a chance to try the Apple Vision Pro, so I'll refrain from commenting on whether they're comfortable wearing. But I've only heard mixed opinions about the comfort of wearing a headset like the Vision Pro, while I've heard — or personally had — no trouble wearing a pair of smart glasses for hours at a stretch. It also brings me to my next point, which is about portability.

2 Portable and easy to carry around

No need to buy an additional carrying case

It shouldn't be surprising that carrying a headset like the Vision Pro is more hassle than a pair of smart glasses. Yes, you can buy a carrying case for the Vision Pro, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it's still a pretty sizeable headset that doesn't fold. The entire headset, with its head strap and the accessories in the carrying case, will still take a lot more space in your backpack than a pair of glasses, which you can even carry in your pocket.

Not to mention, there's also a battery pack that's tethered to the Vision Pro at all times, which you can't leave behind at home. There are no such caveats attached to smart glasses, making them a lot more comfortable and easy to travel with. I can even wear the Xreal Air 2 in, say, a coffee shop without attracting all the surrounding eyeballs, whereas the Vision Pro will always invite some unwanted attention.

1 Smart glasses don't cost $3,500

And you don't need additional expensive add-ons

Lastly, I'd like to highlight what is — in my opinion — one of the biggest reasons not to buy the Apple Vision Pro is its associated price tag. Apple's headset will set you back $3,500, which is just a lot of money for something with more things going against it than the ones that make it stand out. And $3,500 is just the base price for the Vision Pro, and it will easily set you back upwards of $4,000 when you add taxes, $150 for Zeiss optical inserts, a $200 battery pack, a carrying case, and more.

Compare that to $400 for something like the Xreal Air 2, and you'll quickly lose interest in Apple's headset. I am not trying to put down the Vision Pro by ignoring all the tech it packs and the kind of experience it delivers overall, but it just makes very little sense to buy the Vision Pro to experience spatial computing when there are these fairly priced smart glasses on the market that are readily available.

Closing thoughts

Look, Apple Vision Pro is a great piece of hardware that can do a lot of cool things, but I don't believe it's particularly good at keeping you productive at work. The lack of mouse support, coupled with the fact that it only outputs a single floating window when connected to a Mac, makes it very limiting. I can have as many as three floating windows in front of me while connected to my M1 MacBook Air via the Xreal Air 2, and it's not even a hassle to use it. And it doesn't even cost $400, so I am struggling to find a reason to buy the Vision Pro headset if all you really need are additional virtual displays for your Mac.