My review of the Apple Vision Pro
Tried on the Vision Pro at the local Apple store. It’s hard for words to do it justice, so if you’re really interested, I’d recommend booking a 30 minute demo yourself.
This will be based on my experience as an active VR user for the past 10 years, including most recently the Meta Quest 3.
My initial impressions:
- The hardware is incredible. The resolution is good enough to replace a monitor, and the M2 chip gives it laptop-level performance. The Quest 3 resolution’s is good, but it’s like the difference between 1080p and 4k. And it doesn’t have laptop-level compute, so you can’t, e.g. edit video or write code on it (although, just like the Vision Pro, you can easily do a virtual monitor for a computer)
- The UX is natural and intuitive — much more so than the Quest 3. I really hope the Quest 3 steals some of these patterns.
- The passthrough is so lifelike it’s easy to forget you have the headset on. Quest 3’s works as background awareness, but glitches a lot.
- But it is heavier than the Quest, it would be hard to wear for more than an hour (I can wear the Quest all day)
- But it’s not great for gaming because it doesn’t have controllers. There are some native hands-only experiences being built for it, and I believe you can hook up a bluetooth controller, but if you’re in VR for gaming, get the Quest 3.
- The software ecosystem is fresh and not yet there for power users, e.g. it can run iPad apps fine, but most Mac apps haven’t been ported (yet).
In conclusion: Am I going to buy this?
Right now, no. Not unless I wanted to try and profit off the new ecosystem (e.g. by developing apps or becoming an immersive video influencer) or I just won the lotter.
In a year, I could see it replacing my work laptop. Once the software ecosystem has caught up and most Mac apps have been ported, I’m actually going to ask my workplace if I can exchange my laptop for one.
In two or three years, it’s going to be a no-brainer for personal use. When a cheaper, lighter version comes out (let’s call it the Vision Air), it’ll be easy to justify this instead of a Macbook Air or iPad.
