Skip to content
A Benchmark comparison with OptoFidelity BUDDY Test System among HTC VIVE XR Elite, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, and Apple Vision Pro

Blogs

Apple Vision Pro Benchmark Test 1: See-Through Latency, Photon-to-Photon

A Benchmark comparison with OptoFidelity BUDDY Test System among HTC VIVE XR Elite, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, and Apple Vision Pro

 

Mixed reality glasses are complex devices made of multiple components that work together, aiming for total immersion. One of the biggest challenges with MR devices has been the see-through latency. With the new Apple Vision Pro now out, we wanted to see how well it compares to other MR devices out there.  

What is Photon-to-Photon Latency 

Head-mounted displays Photon-to-photon latency describes the time it takes for the image to be transferred through the headset, to the user’s vision.  When measuring the latency, we calculate the time difference between the lit of the light and the sense of that light on the location of the perceiver.  

photon to photon latency

How we performed the testing 

We used OptoFidelity BUDDY 6 tester with See-Through Measurement LED target add-on. While the theory of the measurement is quite straightforward, there are a few details to take note of. Within the system, there are several frequencies involved. The frequency of the blinking target, the frequency of the Device Under Test (DUT) see-through camera, the DUT display frequency, and the frequency of the sensor.   

 

Vision pro testing

 

BUDDY 6 backlight sensor has a high enough frequency (100 kHz) to capture the relevant changes. The test length needs to be long enough and the LED blinking rate suitable so that the sensor can capture the waveform generated by non-synchronized components running on their individual frequencies. The picture below shows a measurement set from one Apple Vision Pro measurement run.  

see-through latency results

While it can be controversial what measurement value should be used as a result, in this case, we decided to use the min. latency values, as those have the least to do with any setup parameters. Those represent the lowest latency that the DUT generates when its cameras and displays run on their individual frequencies.  

 

Benchmark Results 

And then to the long-awaited results. Below, you can see the results from HTC VIVE XR Elite, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, and Apple Vision Pro See-through photon-to-photon latency results

The first and most notable observation is the Apple Vision Pro’s extremely low latency of ~11ms. Apple has announced their see-through latency being 12ms and this test supports that claim. The competitors' results in the range of 35-40ms represent a previously considered good standard level.  

We can, therefore, verify that Apple’s claim of their groundbreaking reduction of see-through latency is true.  

Check our other Apple Vision Pro Benchmark Tests:

Test 2: Angular Motion-to-Photon Latency in VR

Test 3: Virtual Content Jitter

Get in touch to learn more about our test systems.

We're happy to answer any inquiries.