What it’s like to wear Apple’s $3500 Vision Pro headset

Recently, I had the opportunity to demo the Apple Vision Pro for a second time. Here’s what the experience was like!

If you’re not familiar, Apple Vision Pro is an augmented and virtual reality device. Apple doesn’t call it that, though. They refer to it as a spatial computing device. I have a feeling they’ll lean more heavily into the entertainment aspects of it as more people discover its values there.

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Personalized Fit and Initial Setup

The journey begins with a unique facial measurement process, using an iPhone app to ensure a good fit with the light seal. It’s kind of like setting up Face ID on the iPhone.

Apple uses these virtual measurements to figure out which size light seal to put on the device.

Once fitted and adjusted, the device guides you through eye alignment exercises. This involves focusing on dots across the screen and selecting them with your fingers, a process that’s repeated in various lighting conditions.

Navigating the Home Screen and Immersive Experiences

The first thing you see when you put on the device is a virtual representation of your surroundings. It’s so clear, it looks like you’re just back in the room where you started.

Then, you see the word Hello begin to write in mid-air in the space in front of you and you realize this isn’t your typical headset.

You press a button on the upper right-hand corner of the Vision Pro to bring up the home screen, which looks like an iPhone screen floating in mid-air.

My first demo was with spatial photos and videos. Even regular photos look great on the Vision Pro, but 3D content is incredible. You can capture spatial photos and videos on the iPhone or the headset. Content from the iPhone is noticeably sharper and clearer than those taken directly on the device.

Panoramic pictures offered an especially immersive experience, allowing for a 360-degree view.

Navigating the interface felt natural and effortless, thanks to intuitive hand and finger gestures like pinching, stretching, and window moving. The device’s user-friendly navigation makes operating the system a breeze.

Web Browsing and Typing Made Easy

Web browsing with Safari was easy. Web pages were clear and scrolling smooth. The on-screen keyboard was better than what I thought, based on recent reports. It offers multiple input methods, including air-typing with your fingers, voice commands through Siri, and even two-finger typing.

Movies and Apps

Next up, it was time to sample a 3D movie. I watched a clip of Super Mario Bros. You can watch on a giant, resizable screen floating in front of you, or dial into an immersive mode. You can choose from various unique viewing environments. Mine atop a Hawaiian mountain, but I also checked out what it’s like to watch a movie atop the Avengers Tower.

Apps can create their environments, too. The Disney Plus app had a setting where you could be on a land from Star Wars. You can watch Star Wars inside Star Wars. How Meta.

Another app let me go through an in-depth exploration of an F1 race car. I was able to pinch to zoom the car in various ways and even disable it piece by piece. No doubt this will be a helpful learning tool.

I also tried using Pages to practice a presentation in a virtual conference room. This was pretty wild since I stood up and it felt like I was actually in a 360-degree conference room, complete with a table and a TV where my presentation was playing.

Comfort and Real-World Interaction

Overall, the device remained pretty comfortable throughout my testing, with minimal adjustments needed. I did have a bit of a light coming through the sides of the seal, I probably didn’t get the right size seal. It was more light than the first time I tried it.

You can easily transition between a real-world view and an immersive mode with a turn of the dial.

EyeSight Feature

I was wondering if Apple cut out the EyeSight feature, which lets you “see” someone’s eyes as they use the device.

But they saved this surprise for last.

EyeSight projects the wearer’s eye expressions onto the outside screen and lets you interact with them. You can see them looking at you, blinking their eyes and there are little cues so you know what they’re doing.

For instance, if they’re looking at an app inside the headset, you can see a small reflection outline of an app window. It’s a representation, so no privacy issues here.

Speaking of privacy, if you take a photo or video of someone with the headset, it flashes a white burst to let you know it was captured.

Conclusion

Apple Vision Pro is a remarkable piece of technology. Its combination of top-notch hardware, great audio quality, and a wide range of applications at launch set a high bar for future AR/VR devices. I think entertainment will be its primary draw, but productivity and gaming will also be two more cases.

It’s better than other headsets out there and the secret is the combination of a somewhat familiar, easy-to-use operating system and great apps at the outset.

The $3,500 Apple Vision Pro is available for pre-order on Jan. 19 and in stores on Feb. 2, 2024.

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