Trying out the Vision Pro

Being the Apple nerd that I am, when I found out there was going to be demos of the Vision Pro, I had to sign up! It’s not everyday you get to try out a new Apple product.

Here are some of my first impressions:

Display. I was a little disappointed with the display. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really good display, but I was really hoping Apple would have come out swinging with something orders of magnitude better than the competition. I found the display too dim and pixelated, slow at times, and contained too much vignetting around the edges. I think the only thing that saved the display for me were the prescription eye inserts.

Controls. The eye-hand controls are by far the defining feature of the Vision Pro. It was incredibly intuitive and eerily accurate. It honestly felt like it was reading my mind, and I quickly started zooming around the UI. I did get a few false positives here and there, but I think I’ll blame my fidgety hands for that. One thing I didn’t like too much however, was that it really made me think about what my eyes were doing, and I could already feel the strain in the short time that I used it. Only thing I forgot to try was the virtual keyboard…eh, it was probably bad anyway.

3D Content. I was shown some of the 3D photos and videos you can create, and too be honest they just felt like blurry lenticular cards and were not all that interesting. 3D movies were fun to see again, and the 3D environments you can place yourself in were a bit more intriguing, but it was Apple’s “Immersive Videos” where things really started to shine. They were absolutely amazing, and it nearly brought a tear to my eye because I really felt like I was there…I left wanting more.

Comfort. Generally speaking, it was comfortable, but wow was it heavy. I felt the pressure mostly along my nose and cheek bones, and I could feel it well after the session had ended, not to mention the prominent red mark around my face. I know Apple really wants everyone to use that “solo knit band”, but I would probably never use it in favor of the “dual loop band”.

So, am I going to buy the Vision Pro? No! It is way too expensive, not to mention the accessories, but if I had a few thousand dollars lying around, sure I’d buy one. I do think it’s an amazing product, and the start of an exciting journey, but I could never justify it in its current state. Besides, we all know what the end game is here 🤓