Vivo Vision Discovery Edition: A Lighter, Cheaper Apple Vision Pro Alternative

Apple’s Vision Pro has set a high bar for mixed reality headsets, but its $3,400 price tag and hefty 600g weight make it a luxury that many won’t touch.

Now, Chinese giant Vivo has stepped into the spotlight with its own take: the Vivo Vision Discovery Edition, unveiled during the brand’s 30th anniversary celebration.

At first glance, Vivo’s device may look like an Apple Vision Pro clone, but there are striking differences. For one, you can’t buy it yet – it’s currently limited to demo experiences in select Chinese stores. Still, the concept shows that competition in spatial computing is heating up fast.

Vivo emphasizes that its headset is lighter and sleeker than Apple’s. At just 398 grams with a slim 40mm profile, the company says it’s 26% smaller than the industry average, aiming for comfort and extended wearability. And in typical competitive fashion, Vivo’s announcement didn’t shy away from jabs at Apple.

Under the hood, the Discovery Edition packs serious tech muscle. It boasts dual 8K Micro-OLED displays covering 94% of the DCI-P3 spectrum, precise 1.5-degree eye-tracking, and advanced fingertip gesture recognition spanning 26 degrees of freedom. The Snapdragon XR2+ chip powers the system, running on Vivo’s OriginOS Vision platform, which supports intuitive features like tap-through-screen and move-and-pinch gestures. Entertainment and productivity are clearly key use cases, with immersive sports replays, movie watching, and multi-window workflows all supported.

Pricing remains a mystery, though early reports suggest it could land around 10,000 yuan (roughly $1,395). Availability, at least initially, will likely be confined to China. Even so, the device signals a trend: more affordable alternatives to the Vision Pro are on the way.

While Vivo’s Vision headset isn’t an immediate rival to Apple on a global scale, it underscores the inevitability of competition. If rivals can deliver compelling experiences at half the price, Apple may eventually be forced to rethink its premium-only approach and release a more affordable Vision model.

Meanwhile, fans of classic tech culture can look forward to something different this fall: the release of the coffee table book “Iconic Phones: Revolution at Your Fingertips,” a celebration of the greatest devices that defined an era.