Don't only consider VR headsets; also check out AR glasses. The newest generation of AR glasses are surprisingly practical as portable displays e.g. Nreal Air.[1] However neither VR headsets nor AR glasses have reached the resolution sweet spot to compete with monitors in permanent workspaces
The Nreal Air looks cool, but it only offers a 46 degree FoV[1]. That's less than half the FOV of the Quest 2, which makes it hard to see all of your windows/workspace. (To be fair: the tradeoff is excellent PPD within its narrow FOV).
(I'm trying a pair out. They are on Amazon for $379 and extended returns during Christmas...)
It feels like a wall height screen about 8-10 feet in front of you. Perhaps a little bigger would be good, but it isn't that too small.
The resolution of 1920x1080 is ok. I wish it was higher. And it doesn't support AR monitors (the 1920x1080 in the glasses a mirror of the iPad - except for blink .. - the demos for android are much nicer with AR windows places in physical space)
The setup I'm testing:
- nreal 1920x1080 nreal air
- usb-c plugged into an ipad mini + cellular
- tailscale allows me to remote into my desktop computer
- with bluetooth keyboard and mouse
- and then blink app to tmux (or perhaps vscode - I haven't tried it yet)
I've only been testing a couple days.
It feels much better than my experiments with Quest2 VR desktop. And when I am able to just work within a single app (blink, safari, ...) it is a good experience. My biggest struggle is iPad os - inconsistent keyboard shortcuts even in apple applications.
I'd like to try a tiny raspberry pi like device that allows remote-ssh vscode + remote tmux + streaming chrome (vnc or perhaps https://www.mightyapp.com) - but the hardware needs to support USB-C Display Port.
Overall, it is still promising and I'm going to keep trying until end of January - to see if this is a good to take anywhere to code/dev/mosh. For a V1 of this experience it exceeds expectations (and is much better than quest2 for me)
At the top of this thread, the youtube video linked by that comment shows AR monitors on a Mac at 7:24 in the video. The software support for that isn't there on iOS or iPadOS, but it is supported on Mac, apparently. (And Android, as you noted.)
I would highly recommend buying a Samsung S10E second hand off of ebay or something for $100 and using that. Once you've used Dex and Nebula with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard it will all click. It's incredible.
Nebula is Nreal's proprietary virtual workspace. DeX is a feature offered on many mid-to-high-end Samsung phones where you can plug it into an external monitor, mouse, and keyboard and get an Android-based desktop-style experience with draggable, resizable windows.
Does it affect your vision when using them for many hours? Whenever I use VR headsets for more than 1 hour I tend to get blurry vision once I take them off, since my eyes have adjusted to having the screen so close to them.
I am super interested in getting the nreal glasses for work. But I'm also a bit hesitant due to this.
I think everyone experiences them differently. I can tell my eyes have a bit of "lock-in", but the level of lock in is tiny compared to staring at a laptop screen or phone for the same amount of time. It's definitely not in the realm of other VR products I've used.
That’s interesting. As a HP G2 owner, it really doesn’t come close to reading text on a desktop monitor for me.
The combination of FoV and the resolution really isn’t there, I struggle reading text through it vs a 27” 1440p desktop monitor I have on the same PC. I really couldn’t imagine reading text for any length of time in VR.
(Edit: I just realised you were comparing to AR, not desktop, sorry.)
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDekX4vrSsA