Recently, before the official release of Apple's first mixed reality (MR) headset Vision Pro, foreign media released detailed reviews after the ban was lifted. Overall, Vision Pro has many technological highlights, but there are also some features that are lower than expected.
The Vision Pro is set to be officially released in the United States on February 2nd. When it started pre-sale on January 18th, despite a high price of $3499 (approximately 25000 RMB), it still showed as sold out within 18 minutes of pre-sale.
Looking at multiple mainstream reviews, Nilay Patel, editor in chief of the technology website The Verge, can be said to have the best summary: "It's amazing, but magic will disappear (Magic, until it's not)."
In the 30 minute review video, Patel showed a mix of love and hate towards Vision Pro. He praised the Vision Pro for its excellent visual display, allowing users to enjoy the feeling of a home theater at any time and adjust different viewing angles; A technological leap has been achieved in the field of gestures and eye tracking, where users can complete operations with their gaze and gestures without raising their hands, as if awakening superpowers; The charm of "spatial computing" has also been fully demonstrated, as users can open multiple windows in front of them and run them simultaneously. They can also connect to Apple's Mac, integrating well into the entire Apple ecosystem.
Through the Vision Pro operating system, users can fill their eyes with various windows. Source: The Verge
Joanna Stern, a technology journalist for The Wall Street Journal, has also experienced wearing the Vision Pro for 24 hours in addition to sleeping and resting, including cooking and skiing, even though Apple only recommends using the Vision Pro in safe situations. While cooking, Stern joked that the most outstanding feature of Vision Pro is its ability to place a timer on the pot and protect her eyes while cutting onions.
The journalist is wearing a Vision Pro while cooking and setting a timer. Source: WSJ
However, as Patel has repeatedly emphasized, behind various seemingly beautiful features, users need to make many "compromises" for using Vision Pro.
Firstly, there is an unavoidable weight issue, with the Vision Pro weighing between 600 and 650 grams, almost equivalent to wearing a 12.9-inch iPad Pro on your head.
As a comparison, Meta's previously launched Head Display Quest 2 and Quest 3 both weigh less than 510 grams and have built-in batteries. The external battery of Vision Pro needs to be worn with you, weighing 353 grams, like a small power bank, but can only provide two and a half hours of battery life. Users can also plug in and use Vision Pro, but the activity range will be limited.
The weight of the Vision Pro body ranges from 600 grams to 650 grams, and there is also an external battery. Source: The Verge
In addition, Patel pointed out that Vision Pro is essentially a VR headset, and the "real background" that users see when wearing Vision Pro is actually the image recorded by Vision Pro through the lens and displayed on the screen. Although Stern wore Vision Pro to cut vegetables, proving that there was almost no time difference between "reality" and "display", color difference was another issue that users needed to face.
Patel also attempted to use Vision Pro for photography and video recording, and concluded that it was far inferior to the iPhone in your hand. Although Vision Pro is perfect for watching Apple's space videos and photos, providing excellent immersion, its only advantage over iPhone in terms of shooting is that it can free up users' hands.
The left image shows reality, while the right image shows what the user sees in Vision Pro, with significant color differences. Source: WSJ
Vision Pro also has three designs roast by reviewers, namely, the digital avatar Persona, the "explicit eye" EyeSight and the digital keyboard.
The so-called digital avatar refers to users being able to use Vision Pro to record their faces and generate a dynamic head image to represent themselves in a video conference, which will speak and change facial expressions with the user. This feature is currently in beta testing, and although a small number of reviewers have expressed their liking, most people have bluntly stated that it is "weird.". Part of the reason is that the user's hair does not change with the movement of their head, often resulting in a wonderful effect of wearing a fake headband.
The digital avatar call interface within Vision Pro. Source: The Verge
The EyeSight feature, which Apple once vigorously promoted, is even more disappointing, and has been praised by multiple reviewers as "better to delete". This feature will display the user's "digital eyes" on the outside of Vision Pro, letting people around know where the user is looking. However, due to its low resolution, dim panel display, and strong reflection from glass, under normal lighting, people around cannot see the user's "digital eyes" clearly, let alone the direction of their gaze.
In the previous experience, the built-in keyboard of Vision Pro has been repeatedly complained about by users. The built-in keyboard input method, like other operations, requires users to fix their gaze on the buttons and then click through gestures. Fortunately, Vision Pro can also use voice input and an external keyboard, and display a virtual input box interface when using an external keyboard for input.
Behind this uncommon input method lies a bigger problem: when using Vision Pro, users must always pay attention to their gaze and hand movements, as Vision Pro closely monitors both to provide output feedback. For example, when closing a page, the user must first look at the closed selection and then use gestures to operate.
In Patel's words, after the novelty of "superpowers" dissipates, Vision Pro is actually a "computer that will keep an eye on your hand". Users cannot perform different input operations at any time without distracting their attention like when using a computer or phone, but need to adapt to the running logic of Vision Pro.
Of course, several reviewers, including Patel, have expressed that perhaps it is because their experience with Vision Pro has progressed too quickly that the novelty has dissipated quickly, leading to many small flaws in the headsets emerging. Anyway, Vision Pro is one of the most ambitious new categories released by Apple over the years, and as the first generation product, it also raises expectations for future developments.
As of the close on January 31, Apple's stock price (Nasdaq: AAPL) closed at $184.40 per share, a decrease of 1.94%, with a total market value of $2.85 trillion. Apple will release its financial report for the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year ending on December 31, 2023, after hours on February 1 local time.