On June 5 at the 2023 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, a revolutionary breakthrough in the Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) industry was unveiled: the Apple Vision Pro. This headset is more than an AR/VR headset, as it does mixed reality while being a complete computer by itself. There have been praise and criticism from all over regarding the product, but it seems like the Vision Pro will dramatically change the entire way we see technology.
Price
The initial price is steep at a whopping $3,500. To compare, the Meta Quest Pro, which seems to be Apple’s top competitor, is only a mere $1000. With such a high price tag, it’ll be difficult expanding to a broad audience. Despite all this, the computing power and potential of the Vision Pro could be worth the staggering cost.
The Power
Apple’s Vision Pro is easily the most powerful VR/AR headset yet, thanks to its M2 chip and separate R1 chip for real-time processing of 12 cameras, five sensors, and six microphones.
The Vision Pro’s micro-OLED displays cram better-than-4K resolution — 23 million pixels — into two postage-stamp size displays. It projects the resolution for the displays at 3800 x 3000 based on those two figures, and Apple itself has confirmed that the headset will have a 90Hz refresh rate, with 96Hz for content created at 24fps. The Vision Pro also gets a Spatial Audio System powered by two audio pods on either side of the headset to deliver personalized Spatial Audio.
All-in-all, the Vision Pro is a processing beast with the latest and greatest processing chips out in the market. The power is incomparable with any other VR or AR goggles that are currently being sold.
Interaction
The Vision Pro comes with a 3D interface and eye tracking, something not available in any other headsets.
With the Vision Pro, you don’t have to reach out or touch anything. Just stare at an app icon and then select it by tapping your fingers together. And you don’t have to even raise your hands, because the Vision Pro has cameras that point down at your lap. Scrolling is pretty intuitive, too. You just tap your fingers together and wave your arm from right to left. This feels like the future.
There is a creepy feature I have to tell you about and that’s EyeSight, which displays your eyes on the Vision Pro’s external display. This is designed to help you still feel connected to those around you, but it looks a bit unsettling. When someone decides they want to turn the Digital Crown all the way to immersive mode, you’ll see a different animation — sort of like do not disturb.
Function
The Vision Pro has a long list of use cases, starting with a bigger canvas for displaying multiple apps at the same time. You could possibly multi-task with music on one tab and some productivity on the other and even entertainment, too, all at the same time. It’s also impressive that you can look at the address bar and say the name of the site instead of typing.
Apple has also reinvented the FaceTime experience. The front cameras on the Vision Pro can capture your digital Persona and then display that during video calls, mirroring your face and hand movements as you chat. The other callers will float in front of your view. It’s an interesting and novel way to interact.
If you ever want to relax and watch a movie, the Vision Pro can create a 100-foot-wide screen in front of your face, complete with spatial audio, 4k resolution, and 3D playback. All of this is available wherever you go. There’s also a new Immersive Video video format that Apple is working on with a 180-degree field of view.
The Vision Pro is designed to let you experience memorable photos and videos in an immersive way with life-size scale, and you’ll be able to view Panorama shots as if you were there. But things get much more interesting with the Vision Pro’s 3D camera, which lets you capture spatial photos and videos.
Apple says that the Vision Pro will play more than 100 Apple Arcade games at launch and work with game controllers.
Battery
Along with the astronomical price tag, another major downside of the Apple Vision Pro is the battery. The Vision Pro requires an external battery pack, and that lasts for only about 2 hours before you need to recharge. The battery pack isn’t big — it’s about the size of an iPhone but you definitely notice it in your pocket as you walk around.
Looking to the Future
The Vision Pro is a highly impressive technological innovation, but seems to have some areas which it can be polished. Still, it won’t be until early 2024 when the Vision Pro will be released to regular consumers. In the meantime, many questions still linger over the Vision Pro. Will it truly live up to the hype? Could it replace the iPhone? Is this the next major step into the future? All of these questions will hopefully be answered in the near future.
