Breaking Down Apple Vision Pro's Features, Reviews, and More

After almost a year of exciting anticipation, tech and especially Apple enthusiasts in the US have had the opportunity to purchase the Apple Vision Pro, the company’s first generation of virtual/mixed reality headset, starting last Friday, February 2nd.

First announced last June, followed by a pre-order period in early January, a great deal of early adopters, tech columnists from various press, analysts, and technophiles have either gone through a demo appointment of or right out purchased the mixed reality headset and provided just-as-mixed reviews on its functionalities.

From hardware and display quality to the immersion the headset’s spatial computing capabilities provide its users, the Apple Vision Pro seems to have several features that, when compared to other VR/AR headsets that came before it, are, without a doubt, miles ahead.

Value to Price

Right out of the bat, since its first-ever announcement, one of the most talked about aspects of the headset is its all-high price, which starts at $3.499 without add-ons, one add-on being a travel case priced at $199. Compared to existing VR/AR headsets, such as the Meta Quest or the HTC VIVE Pro, many find the price tag laughable and not at all accessible.

However, upon consideration of the product’s quality, numerous potential use cases, and overall value, Apple CEO Tim Cook believes that the company priced it at the right level, with attempts to provide a sense of affordability through various spread-out payment plans for customers that start at $291.58 per month.

The headset’s main appeal is its ability to bestow high-quality visuals and immersive spatial computing experience upon its users, which Apple itself has stated is what Apple Vision Pro is specifically designed for. A number of early testers and users seem to agree.

Functionalities

The Apple Vision Pro’s operating system, the visionOS, is powered by an M2 processor and R1 chip that processes input from 12 cameras, five sensors, and six microphones that operate within it, said to run virtually silently and with almost no lag and latency. Supposedly, this new operating system entails high-quality visuals and graphics, advanced algorithms, as well as optimized hand and eye tracking. Prior to using the headset, users have to connect the Apple Vision Pro to an external rechargeable battery, which runs for about two to two and a half hours fully charged.

Gestures that users need to learn include tapping their fingers together to select options and open apps, touch to type, pinch and hold to show additional options, as well as zoom in and zoom out, pinch and drag to scroll, and swipe to scroll quickly. Every hand gesture needs to be coupled with corresponding eye movements. On the headset exists a digital crown button and a top button that can be used to open home, adjust volume, switch between surroundings and digital content, capture an image, quit an app, and so on.

Compatible with other Apple products, such as the iPhone, the iPad, and the Mac, by default, the headset has over 600 spatial apps available on the App Store built for it that users can open at the same time and switch between simply by moving their bodies and hands. Apple also claims that users can mirror the display of their other existing Apple devices via wifi.

According to a team of testers from the online repair community and retailer iFixit, inside the Apple Vision Pro are dual MicroOLED panels that run at 3,386 pixels per inch (ppi), whereas the consumer standard for 4K Ultra-HD is 3,840ppi. This makes Apple very far ahead in the game when it comes to visuals, closing into 4K resolution. For comparison, the Meta Quest 3 runs at about 1,218ppi, and the HTC Vive Pro at around 950ppi. For a more easily imaginable comparison in case the Apple Vision Pro will be your first headset, iFixit states that the iPhone 15 Pro Max runs at 460ppi.

Early Reviews

According to an in-depth review made by Nilay Patel, a tech columnist from The Verge who had a chance to test the headset, almost every one of Apple’s claims and marketing materials of the Apple Vision Pro are true or, at the very least, close to the truth. Patel praises the headset’s seamless connection with Apple’s overall ecosystem, its video passthrough display, its hand and eye tracking abilities, and the entertainment value it provides.

The Apple Vision Pro essentially runs as if one is wearing an iPhone, with the first thing that users see following initial setups being a grid of app icons. Its 3D interface genuinely provides unlimited boundaries of app display, with Patel being able to open and place apps anywhere they wanted. One can put a couple in their kitchen and several more by the window or in the living room, for instance, and have them stay there even after logging off and putting the headset again some other time. Users can display native visionOS apps and iPad apps and even connect their Macs all at the same time.

Based on Patel’s experience, the Apple Vision Pro’s cameras still have some motion blur and require adjustments in exposure and sharpness, especially in low light. When exposed to several different lighting at once, the system would still need to adjust by ramping brightness up and down. Patel also witnessed some distortion and vignetting around the lens edges during use.

When it comes to spatial audio, Patel states that the Apple Vision does a convincing job. The speakers create an immersive experience, making it feel like you’re truly present wherever the action is unfolding. However, the audio gets leaky without headphones. Any Bluetooth headphone is compatible with the Apple Vision Pro, but the latest AirPods Pro provides lower latency, 48KHz audio, and Apple’s exclusive Adaptive Audio system.

This quality in the display was reflected when Drew Magary, a columnist from SFGATE, went through a 30-minute demo appointment for the Apple Vision Pro. Users with glasses or corrective lenses would need to use special ZEISS Optical inserts, which come in +0.75 to +1.25D, +1.50 to +1.75D, and +2.00 to +2.75D for the Apple Vision Pro. This was the case for Magary. Magary also had a cochlear implant on one side of his head and a hearing aid on the other that did not pose a problem as the Apple Vision Pro can be paired to a hearing aid and can still fit comfortably around the implant.

Magary got to view sharp photos and videos that he claims looked clearer than his actual eyesight. When accessing a spatial video, Magary became a part of the video, as if he was right there with everyone and everything in them. Magary also got to experience immersive movies and TV shows in a virtual screening room, watching “Avatar: The Way of Water” and an episode of “Severance” as if he as in an IMAX theater. The experience convinced Magary that if Apple could someday work some kinks he experienced out, the headset would render home theaters or even the theater in general moot.

Future Implications

With its current pricing, Apple views enterprises as its biggest target market, with plans of bringing device management features and IT pros tools into the Apple Vision Pro’s OS 1.1 beta release. This future development is aimed at helping businesses and enterprises manage the headset’s features at scale. At the moment, everything one views using their headsets isn’t shareable, creating what feels like an isolating experience for some. With the device management update, Apple hopes to make it easier for employees to share what they see with one another.

Despite this statement, Dan Ives, a research analyst from Wedbush, believes that Apple may someday create future versions of the Apple Vision Pro that are cheaper, possibly dropping its price to $1500 by 2025 to appeal to a broader audience and make its consumer demographic more widespread.

Although the Apple Vision Pro is limited to the US only at the moment, several sources have claimed that the headset will soon start launching in other countries, one of them being China, in which the release is said to be in May 2024 at the latest.

The Apple Vision Pro comes in a range of prices: the 256GB Pro at $3.400, the 512GB at $3.699, and the 1TB at $3.899. Users can spend an outright AppleCare+ coverage for $499 upon purchase or pay $24.99 per month.

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Job Posting

• Apple - Computer Vision and Machine Learning Engineer, Apple Vision Pro - Santa Clara Valley, CA (In-Office/Hybrid)

• Apple - QA Engineer, Tools & SDK, Apple Vision Pro - Sunnyvale, CA (In-Office/Hybrid)

• Apple - Reliability Engineer, Apple Vision Pro - Santa Clara Valley, CA (In-Office/Hybrid)

• Apple - Senior AR/VR Software Engineer, Apple Vision Pro - Sunnyvale, CA (In-Office/Hybrid)

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