Former Quest Engineer Praises Vision Pro Imitation

Wait a minute, does the Apple Vision Pro come in black? Nope! But here’s a twist—Play For Dream MR does. Known as the ‘Android Vision Pro’ due to its Android-based OS, Play For Dream has managed to grab attention at CES 2025 this past week.

Starting off in Asia last year, the Chinese company behind the headset, Play For Dream, aims to introduce their Vision Pro-inspired mixed reality headset to Western markets. They launched a Kickstarter campaign in September, which successfully raised 2,271,650 Hong Kong dollars, roughly equivalent to $292,000 USD.

The Play For Dream MR headset is crammed with a bunch of modern XR features: think a Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 processor running Android 15, double 3,840 × 3,552 micro-OLED displays at 90Hz, eye-tracking capabilities, automatic IPD adjustment, both wired and wireless PC streaming, and a rear-mounted battery reminiscent of the Quest Pro’s, alongside Touch-style controllers.

In a nutshell, this headset seems to have everything, including a user interface that evokes the Vision Pro!

Putting design influences aside, former Quest engineer Amanda Watson had the chance to try out the Play For Dream MR headset firsthand. She took to social media to share, calling it “absolutely the best all-around HMD demo I saw on the floor today.”

“It’s essentially an ‘Android Apple Vision Pro,’ but executed wonderfully. The performance, optics, user interface, and media capture/playback features were top-notch,” Watson elaborated. She had left Meta in 2022 after contributing to several Quest-related endeavors, such as the tethered Link and the company’s Wi-Fi streaming tool, Air Link, where she was the sole developer for 13 months before its release. Trust me, when Watson praises something, you ought to listen.

“It also supports USB and wireless PCVR streaming (I tried USB),” she noted. While she found this feature to be of a work-in-progress quality concerning frame rate and latency, it’s still fairly new. The basic functions like controller motion were well-executed, and the resolution was solid.”

Moreover, she commented that the Touch-style controllers were “also very good, although they didn’t showcase the hand tracking feature.” According to her, the headset’s pancake lenses had “excellent distortion correction,” which Watson emphasized was a highlight for her personally.

Originating in 2020 under the name YVR, Play For Dream has already rolled out two standalone VR headsets, YVR 1 and YVR 2, both launched in China in 2022.

As for the Play For Dream MR, there’s no concrete release date or price finalized yet, although the company hinted it will be under $2,000. Keep an eye on Play For Dream’s website for detailed specs and ordering information once available.