Former Quest Engineer Highly Praises Vision Pro Imitation

Isn’t it curious that Apple’s Vision Pro doesn’t come in black? Well, the Play For Dream MR does. Dubbed by some as the ‘Android Vision Pro’ due to its Android OS, this headset certainly made waves at CES 2025.

First launched in Asia in the previous year, the Chinese company Play For Dream has aimed to introduce its Vision Pro-inspired mixed reality headset to Western audiences. After starting a Kickstarter in September, they managed to raise 2,271,650 Hong Kong dollars, which is roughly $292,000 USD.

The Play For Dream MR is packed with cutting-edge XR features. It boasts a Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset powered by Android 15, dual 3,840 × 3,552 micro-OLED displays with a 90Hz refresh rate, and eye-tracking features. It also includes automatic IPD adjustment, both wired and wireless PC streaming, a rear-mounted battery echoing the Quest Pro, and Touch-style controllers.

In essence, this headset offers just about everything—even a user interface reminiscent of the Vision Pro.

Beyond its design influences, former Quest engineer Amanda Watson had the chance to try out the Play For Dream MR headset. She posted on X that it was “absolutely the best all-around HMD demo I saw on the floor today.”

Watson, who left Meta in 2022, added, “It’s literally an ‘Android Apple Vision Pro,’ but the execution is spot-on. The performance, optics, user interface, and media capture/playback capabilities are impressive.”

During her stint at Meta/Oculus, Watson worked on several Quest projects, including the tethered Link and Air Link, the company’s Wi-Fi streaming tool. She was notably the sole developer of Air Link for 13 months before its release. If Watson gives her stamp of approval, it’s worth taking notice.

She mentioned, “It has USB and wireless PCVR streaming (I tried USB) — this needed more polish in terms of frame rate and latency compared to other features, but it’s relatively new from what I gather. The essentials like controller motion were perfect, and the resolution was solid.”

Moreover, Watson commented that the Touch-style controllers were “also very good.” While they claimed hand tracking was a feature, it wasn’t demonstrated. She was particularly impressed with the headset’s pancake lenses, noting the “excellent distortion correction” as a vital feature for her personally.

Founded in 2020 as YVR, Play For Dream has already released two standalone VR headsets in China, the YVR 1 and YVR 2, both in 2022.

As of now, the Play For Dream MR doesn’t have a set release date or price, though the company suggests it will be under $2,000. For more information, be sure to visit Play For Dream’s website to check out detailed specs and ordering options once they become available.