Apple Vision Pro hands-on: A mixed reality breakthrough

Early Verdict

The Apple Vision Pro is a very powerful mixed reality headset with a sleek design, eye and hand tracking and sharp micro-OLED displays. This device offers immersive video watching, serious multitasking, lots of games and reimagined FaceTime calls, but it will need truly killer apps to justify the $3,500 price. 

Pros

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  Sleek design

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  Dial for customizing immersion

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  Powerful M2 and R1 chips

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  Super crisp micro-OLED displays

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  Intuitive interface with eye tracking, hand gestures 

Cons

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  External battery pack with short battery life

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  EyeSight is a bit creepy

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  Very, very expensive

• The Apple Vision Pro is so ambitious Apple doesn't even call it a VR or AR headset. It's a spatial computer that's Apple calling the "most advanced personal electronics device ever." That's a pretty hefty claim when you make something called the iPhone, and there's a very hefty $3,500 price on this new device to match. 

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• Available early next year, the Vision Pro is indeed very powerful, packing both an M2 chip and a new R1 chip designed for real-time processing. It offers eye tracking, hand control and voice control, and it appears to be fairly light and comfortable to wear. And Apple has thought of several use cases for this Vision Pro, from enhanced productivity with your Mac and a new way to FaceTime to immersive video watching, playing games and viewing and capturing photos and video.

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If that sounds like a lot, it is. And yet the Vision Pro doesn't seem to have that one wow experience or killer app yet that would compel you to shell out that kind of money. The good news is that Apple and its partners have time, as the headset (yes I'm calling it that) isn't shipping until early 2024.

Now that I've had an opportunity to demo the Vision Pro in a wide range of experiences, I'm very impressed with its ease of use, convincing video-passthrough and early apps. But I also have some concerns. Here's my pros and cons so far.

Vision Pro design: It's geeky but sleek 

(Image credit: Future)

The Apple Vision Pro in person looks like a high-tech pair of goggles, and I mean that mostly in a good way. The 3D-formed glass looks smooth and polished, the aluminum alloy frame looks sturdy, and the Light Seal between the headset and your face appears is soft and comes in multiple sizes to fit your face. 

The first part of my Apple Vision demo was a quick vision check that involved handing over my reading glasses, which were scanned as part of a mini interview about my eyesight. Apple fit the the headset with special lenses to help correct for my vision, something that all Vision Pro owners will get to experience thanks to a partnership with Zeiss.

(Image credit: Future)

I then did a quick Face ID-like scan with an iPhone to customize my Light Seal, which sits between your eyes and the headset. Apple will be making multiple sizes available. Not only was this Light Seal comfy, there was no light leakage at all during my demo. The spatial audio experience comes from two audio pods on either side of your head, and this experience is also tuned to your ears via the same scan that you do for wearing AirPods. 

The flexible Head Band on the Vision Pro also is pretty comfy, complete with an easy-to-use dial for tightening that I tried, which has a satisfying click. The top right side of the headset houses a Digital Crown that lets you set the immersion level, and the left side has a content capture button. Pressing the Crown brings you back home at any time. 

(Image credit: Future)

So far so good, but there's a couple of issues here. For one, the Vision Pro must remain tethered to an external battery, so there's a wire coming off of your head that will have to snake to the battery in your pocket. And even though the headset is light I would not call it small; we are a long, long way away from sleek Apple Glasses.