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Apple Vision Pro first look: the mixed

reality future is (almost) here
Apple Vision Pro -rst look
/ Apple’s first mixed
reality device has been
years in the making —
and at first glance,
the headset itself
looks really nice. Not
that we were allowed
to touch it.
By David Pierce, editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host
with over a decade of experience covering consumer
tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal,
and Wired.
Updated Jun 6, 2023 at 2:03 AM GMT+2 |
263 Comments / 263 New

What does the Apple Vision Pro look like? Imagine

a pair of ski goggles. The fanciest, most sci-fi ski
goggles you’ve ever seen. There, you’ve got it.

Apple just announced the Vision Pro headset at its

WWDC developer conference, during which
executives spent a long time detailing both how
the hardware works and how you’re meant to use
it. After the event, we were able to take a brief look
at the $3,499 Vision Pro itself — we couldn’t use it
or even touch it, but we could gaze upon its
metallic wonders in a demo room at the Steve Jobs
Theater.
Related / Based on the little
Apple Vision Pro is Apple’s new bit we’ve seen, it’s a
$3,499 AR headset
dramatically better-
Apple announces visionOS, the looking device than
operating system for its Vision Pro
headset any other AR or VR
headset we’ve seen.
The actual headset
itself is quite thin, and most of the device’s heft
and size is from the fabricky shield around it and
the big, plushy band around the back. The goggles
are slightly curved and should wrap around most
faces fairly nicely. The whole thing is a nice silvery
color, down to the cable coming out the left side
and the iPhone-sized battery pack at the bottom
that provides its two hours of battery life.

The small bumps you see on the sides of the

Vision Pro’s band are where the built-in audio
lives. (Spatial audio is one of the big selling points
of the device.) Most of its other sensors and
cameras are housed just under the front-facing
glass; at just the right angle, you can see some of
the cameras pointing outwards from the headset.
The cheese grater-style vent runs underneath both

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The Vision Pro’s front-facing display was gently to third-party apps
pulsing with light, which will be the indication that
someone is in the headset but can’t see out; we
weren’t able to see the other view, in which the
wearer’s eyes are projected through that front
screen. That view will either be innovative or
horrifying. We’ll see.

The big question, of course, will be how it feels in

use. With no overhead band, will it sit too heavily
on your nose? Will the cable attached to your left
temple, running down to the battery pack, be
annoying? Will it get hot after a few minutes? And
how will it look from the inside? Apple spent a
long time talking about how you could use the
Vision Pro to replace your television or computer
monitor, but doing that well on your face requires
a huge amount of processing power and display
prowess. Even the 4K displays Apple announced
might not be enough.

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And, of course, there’s the “what is this for?”

debate. Unlike when the company launched the
Apple Watch or even AirPods, there’s not a huge Verge Deals / Sign up for Verge
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existing market for mixed reality devices; there’s
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the Meta Quest, a bunch of barely successful daily.
prototypes like Microsoft’s HoloLens and the
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Magic Leap, and not much else. Most people have
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little or no idea how these headsets work, and little Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and
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about how they should work seems to have been
settled.

Ultimately, the headset’s software and user

interface will be more important than the gadget
itself. And there’s a lot left to figure out before the
 Vision Pro launches next year. But based on a brief
look at the device in a hands-on area at Apple
Park, Apple’s off to a fairly strong start on the
hardware front.

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263 COMMENTS (263 NEW)

More from this stream WWDC 2023 news: Apple Vision Pro, Mac Pro, iOS 17, and more

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Jun 6, 2023 at 1:44 AM GMT+2

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