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njovintoday at 6:24 PM10 repliesview on HN

Everyone is missing maybe the biggest point - this isn't just a VR device. You can run some/many (depending on your library) of your regular Steam games on a 'flat screen' inside the VR environment, which makes this much more like a SteamDeck with a giant private screen for a lot of people.


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tapoxitoday at 7:40 PM

This machine runs Linux, it comes with KDE. This is the open Apple Vision Pro alternative that you can use as a real computer.

It comes with a black and white passthrough camera but you can add on a 5K color one.

There's ongoing work for a full Plasma XR mode, so you aren't restricted to a "virtual desktop" experience: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/8671

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chaosharmonictoday at 6:38 PM

I think even that's an understatement.

My tinfoil-hat take is that Lepton looks like it's just aimed at Facebook but will ultimately make Google's Android less... uniquely impenetrable. Certain hardware-dependent stuff will probably never fully work here (GPS for instance), but having a registry of what is and isn't compatible with a third-party Android derivative, on a specific reference device, will benefit every third-party Android derivative. And not that it won't have similar anticheat issues, but having a games ecosystem outside of Google Play will also cover some of the infrastructure that would require that dependency otherwise -- including payments.

And not that I don't see a net positive if gacha games never successfully make the jump... but as a Linux device there's also a lot of stuff where you just don't have to care about Play Integrity, because instead you can just run the PC version and/or a desktop browser.

(edit: shameless plug for my recent, longer writeup on this @ bhmt.dev/blog/frame)

JeremyNTtoday at 6:34 PM

Admittedly my VR glasses are older, but for me this is a really terrible experience. If a game lacks native VR support, it's far more comfortable to just use my widescreen monitor in the real world.

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MBCooktoday at 7:11 PM

I don’t see that as the biggest point. I really don’t have much interest in playing normal games in VR.

I could see how a kid might want that on Quest when they don’t have their own TV. And it might be nice on a plane.

But $1000 is a lot for that. I know people say that watching video in the Vision Pro is really nice, I wasn’t that thrilled when I tried it, but it felt to me more like a “you can do this because you have the hardware“ not a“ this is why you buy it” feature.

wolvoleotoday at 6:43 PM

Honestly as a VR enthusiast this is the least interesting feature by far.

If I want to game with glasses I'll just use my $200 xreal airs. I do sometimes on holidays using Samsung DeX and a gamepad, and GeForce now. Works well, I played through half of Cyberpunk that way.

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wnevetstoday at 7:20 PM

That sounds like a worse experience to me.

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thefztoday at 6:29 PM

> You can run some/many (depending on your library) of your regular Steam games on a 'flat screen' inside the VR environment

I can already run 100% of my Steam games on a flat screen in front of my real eyes

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Waterluviantoday at 6:58 PM

Not trying to proselytize an opinion here, but every time I think about VR Goggles + a virtual flat screen, I think about how entire industries exist to make us comfortable while we watch our real flat screens. A VR option would allow me to just lay comatose-like in my bed, goggles affixed to my face, as I watch whatever. It terrifies me, partly because of how good I bet it could feel.

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kakaciktoday at 6:34 PM

How long is that comfortable? For sure not couple of hours in 1 go

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nininininotoday at 6:28 PM

That's already true for most PC VR headsets.

Edit: I missed the point here, see reply.

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