AC thVRsday
In his weekly column, Android Senior Content Producer Nick Sutrich delves into all things VR, from new devices to new games, upcoming technologies and more.
Long, boring flights are the bane of modern first-world existence. Between sitting still for hours and having little to do, these types of flights are generally not fun. And forget about working on a plane if you don’t like neck pain or the possibility of your laptop getting smashed by the reclining seat in front of you.
That’s why Meta Quest 3’s airplane mode is such a godsend. It allows the use of headphones on the plane and works extremely well, as evidenced by countless YouTube videos and other customer feedback. But I haven’t been able to use the feature properly yet for a good reason: I can’t fit the headset in my trunk.
As I was packing for my trip to see Samsung’s latest release at Galaxy Unpacked July 2024, I realized that my suitcase was quickly running out of room. For a three-day trip, I had to pack clothes, electronics, my camera, cables, and all sorts of stuff into a suitcase and a backpack. Once everything was filled, I had a small cube of space that a VR headset just wouldn’t fit into.
It’s an issue I’ve encountered time and time again over the past few weeks since the feature debuted—I travel quite a bit for work—and while I’ll still try to fit it in on a future trip, it’s clear that the size of modern VR headsets it’s still a hindrance to some of the things we desperately want to use them for.
A tale of two bags
While everyone’s travel situations are different, I’ve found that the best smart glasses make better travel companions because of their smaller size. While most of these glasses are as small as a standard pair of glasses — this is especially true of smart display glasses like my favorite pair, the Viture Pro — they’re still much smaller than any standalone VR headset on the market .
Smart display glasses are a much better travel companion because of their size and ease of use.
Smart display glasses are effectively a giant virtual monitor that rests on your face. They connect to any device that supports USB-C display output – your phone, laptop or even Steam Deck – giving you the chance to relax and keep your head in a natural position instead of craning your neck all the time.
Recently my colleague, Andrew Myrick, took the Xreal Air 2 on a trip with him and they saved him a lot of neck pain.
But the Meta Quest headset does not support this feature. You either have to load the videos onto the headset and use a third-party app to play them — not something that’s very user-friendly — or play an offline VR game that you might have installed on the headset .
If the size didn’t stop me, the fact that I can’t plug my laptop directly into a Quest and use it as a virtual monitor will.
There’s little hope of using one to work on a plane, because you’ll need to connect to your laptop via a Wi-Fi network, and that usually doesn’t work well on a plane.
I will prefer to use the Quest because the field of view is significantly wider than any pair of smart glasses on the market, and I generally find the design of the Quest quite comfortable over time, especially when using a headband like the BoboVR S3 Pro.
It also does head tracking better than any pair of smart glasses on the market, making it feel more like you have a TV or monitor in front of you that is physically in front of you. Most smart glasses tie the screen to your gaze, meaning it moves with your head. This can be especially uncomfortable when there is turbulence on the plane, as trying to follow the bouncing text can cause nausea.
The ironic thing is that smart glasses are often as expensive as a Meta Quest headset. This seems a bit silly, given that the Quest is a completely standalone console and the smart glasses are only a monitor, but sometimes you have to pay for convenience.
The best Meta Quest carry-on headphones can protect your Quest while traveling, but until the headphones get much smaller, I’m not sure I’ll be taking one on many flights.
Viture One Lite Dock Pack
Grab a pair of Viture One Lite Smart Display Glasses and a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck Battery Dock so you can play for hours on the go without neck pain.
#Meta #Quests #airplane #mode #nice #find #pointless
Image Source : www.androidcentral.com
