Apple on Monday unveiled the $3,499 Vision Pro, its first-generation mixed reality headset. It’s really a full computer that attaches to your face. If instead of watching the presentation, you only heard the name and price of the gadget, you can make the wrong conclusions. Some people who didn’t bother to find out actually think that Apple is overcharging for a device that you can buy for around $300 from competitors.
However, that is nowhere near the truth. The Vision Pro is “the most advanced personal electronics device ever,” according to Apple. It’s a device so rich in innovation that Apple patented more than 5,000 inventions while developing it.
Producing all that futuristic technology can’t be cheap, especially in a first-generation device. And Apple demonstrated many of the innovations needed to create a comfortable head-worn computer that looks like ski goggles and packs the power of a modern desktop computer.
Vision Pro design
Apple introduced the Vision Pro’s modular design, which combines glass, aluminum and textile fabric to create a comfortable, customizable mixed reality headset. According to hands-on previews of the Vision Pro, the device weighs about a pound and is comfortable to carry, though some may still find it heavy.
The outer casing is a piece of “three-dimensionally shaped laminated glass” that covers the front-facing cameras and the outer display that shows your eyes. So others in the room with you aren’t just looking at the dark glasses.
The EyeSight panel is an outward-facing curved OLED display that will show your eyes to the people around you. It’s not a transparent panel, but it feels like it will leave people nearby.
The glass is attached to a special aluminum alloy frame that bends to wrap around the face. Openings on the bottom, top and sides will allow air to flow through the system and cool the internal components.
This glass and metal enclosure contains all the chips (the computer), the external and internal displays, and all the cameras.
In turn, the Light Seal magnetically attaches to the enclosure. This fabric construction bends around the face to block incoming light and sit comfortably on the face.
Apple will offer a variety of customizable Light Seal options to fit your face perfectly.
The audio strips are directly connected to the aluminum frame on the left and right sides. They appear to be made of silicone and contain speakers that will deliver surround sound to your ears.
During setup, you’ll scan your ears for a custom spatial audio experience.
Audio Strips connect the final Vision Pro component, the Head Band. It’s made from a 3D knit textile material and stretches with the Fit Dial to keep the Vision Pro snug on your head. It has a magnetic mechanism that will allow it to be interchanged with other models or colors.
The Vision Pro metal frame also has two buttons. The top button allows you to shoot spatial photos and videos. Then there’s the Digital Crown, similar to the Apple Watch. Its purpose is to let you adjust your level of VR immersion by simply turning the crown.
Finally, a dedicated magnetic charging port is located on the right audio strip, which connects to the external battery via a wire. You will put that battery in your pocket or next to you. The battery gives you up to two hours of use, but plug it in via USB-C and you can use the Vision Pro without interruption.
Vision Pro cameras
Great design isn’t enough to make the Vision Pro the best wearable or explain its price. The components of an AR/VR headset are equally important as they are responsible for delivering a seamless experience.
I’ll cover the cameras first, since Apple has placed more than a dozen sensors around the earpiece.
Outdoor cameras perform several tasks: recording the external environment, measuring distances and tracking hands, no matter where they are located.
- Two main cameras for high resolution video transmission
- Four bottom cameras and two side cameras for manual tracking
- Two IR illuminators for manual tracking
- Two TrueDepth cameras for real-time 3D data processing
- One LiDAR scanner for real-time 3D data processing
External cameras will also help create a digital persona to use in video chat apps like FaceTime.
Internally, we have a camera-driven, high-performance eye-tracking system made of cameras and IR sensors;
- Two IR high-speed cameras per eye
- A ring of LED lights around each eye
Vision Pro Specifications
Those cameras and sensors will continuously send video to the Vision Pro displays. And Apple wanted to deliver an experience as close to the human eye as possible. The Vision Pro features two micro OLED Apple silicon 4K displays with a total of 23 million pixels between them.
According to Apple, each internal display is about the size of a postage stamp.
Above each screen sits a 3-element lens to deliver incredible sharpness and clarity. That way, the screen will wrap around the eye, so you’ll see your surroundings or digital images in your peripheral vision no matter where you’re looking when you move your head.
These innovations enable the Vision Pro to be used as a PC for productivity applications. Text is crisp and clear, according to hands-on testers. That means you can use the device for work and not just for fun and games.
Dual driver audio units deliver this new Spatial Audio experience for the Vision Pro. Apple calls it “Ambient Spatial Audio” and says it tricks the brain into believing the sound is coming from the environment around you.
What’s more, audio ray tracing allows Vision Pro to personalize the sound in your room. The sensors take into account the size of the space and the materials around you.
This immersive AR/VR experience is powered by the M2 chip, which is also present in various MacBook models. But the single R1 chip processes only the data that comes from multiple sensors: 12 cameras, 5 sensors and 6 microphones.
The R1 chip is also supposed to eliminate lag, streaming images to the lens in 12 milliseconds, or 8 times faster than the blink of an eye.
Unfortunately, we have no idea how much RAM and storage the Vision Pro headset will leave. I think we’re looking at 16GB of RAM given all the real-time processing the M2 and R1 chips need. As for storage, 256GB would be a safe bet, but it’s not a guarantee.
How Vision Pro protects your privacy
Apple has created a new operating system called visionOS for the Vision Pro headset. The OS will provide the spatial computing that Apple introduced at WWDC. That includes running visionOS apps and iPad apps.
Access to personal apps and data means you need to protect Vision Pro with some sort of password. However, this is not the case. Apple has invented a new security feature called Optic ID.
The system looks at the unique pattern of your eye’s iris to unlock the user. It’s the equivalent of Face ID, so it’ll unlock passwords and let you make payments too.
Furthermore, Apple isolated eye data from third parties. That means websites and apps will never know where you looked before you tapped your finger to select an item.
Is it all worth $3,499?
I think the Vision Pro headset is absolutely worth its $3,499 price tag. It’s packed with exciting first-generation innovations that rivals won’t be able to match for many, many years.
But it’s up to each Apple user to decide if they want this computing experience in their lives now, or if they want to wait for a cheaper model in the future.