Yes that's right, within 2 posts I've become a sellout tech journalist.
Just kidding.
But I will be writing about my thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro. There will be spoilers about the experience so if you care about that, I guess don't read this.
Part 1: Signup
I went to the Apple store on whim since I saw they were advertising the Apple Vision Pro. I thought it was a walk-in and try type deal but you actually have to sign up for a guided tour.
I used a in-store QR code to sign up for a time that was only 30 minutes later, lucky me. I think this link and the "Book a demo" up top will help you do that if you wanna try.
Part 2: I don't wear my glasses?
Apparently they partnered with Zeiss lenses to build custom lenses for the Apple Vision Pro. They took my glasses and gave me close to my prescription lenses based of a reading. It was pretty close. 85-90% clarity. They said they have 1000 lenses to match most prescriptions.
When you buy an Apple Vision Pro, you can buy a pair for $200 I think is what they said.
Part 3: Setup
Setup was pretty easy. A quick hand scan then you do eye-tracking scanning by looking at 6 dots in a circle 3 times in different lighting while tapping your fingers to "click".
Part 4: First look
Now we get to the actual "demo-y" part. After greeting you with floating text around your area, it drops you into a home screen with "low immersion".
The "immersion" is how much you get rid of your background. At lowest, I saw everything in the Apple store and at highest I saw a background of Mt. Hood.
The screens are like 95% of the way there. The fidelity was close enough to almost trick you it was real but just blurry/off-colored for you to realize it isn't real. This comes up with some of their demos and my overall experience.
Part 5: Demo 1, Photos
First demo was the photos app. You could zoom in and out, scroll, and go to different albums. I jumped around and didn't listen to instructions but the gist of the guided tour was:
- First photo: a normal photo where you can just zoom in, pan, etc.
- Second photo: immersive photo that looks pretty 3D.
- Third was a video recorded on Apple Vision Pro of a birthday cake getting blown out by some kids and an adult. It was pretty wild how realistic it was. The depth perception of the video really takes it from "I'm watching a video recording" to "I'm in the video recording". The slightest blur and how weird my hand looked when I held it up to the video brought me back to reality.
- Fourth was a video recorded on an iPhone 15 Pro Max. It was cool but not as good as the Apple Vision Pro video.
I asked about how large the video files were and the Apple Genius said "large" alluding to the fact iPhone 15 Pro Max and Apple Vision Pro minimum storage was 256gb.
I also learned about moving apps around (there's a iPhone home-bar-esque bar that you can select to drag around) and close apps with a small x.
It was cool to move apps around and just leave them there to do other things. I've seen tech demos of this but I wasn't allowed to do too much and push it.
Part 6: Demo 2, Videos
I was then guided to the Apple TV app to watch some movie trailers. It was cool! You could choose your background or go into a "cinema" view. It was somewhat similar to other VR headsets that I've used (albeit clearer with tech that's 5 years newer). It had some cool options I hadn't seen before. You were able to choose "where" in the theater you wanted to sit. Up front, middle, back and balcony were options. I liked it.
Then I got to watch their "Immersive Experience" video which was obviously tailored to show off the max 3D ability of the Apple Vision Pro and I must say it did a great job. The videos were super immersive and at times the animals shown made me back up from how close they felt they got. There were some sports scenes that were shown where it really did feel like I was behind the soccer goal or next to first base.
Though as a techy nerd, I know that it's just not feasible live (I think) with the sheer quantity of data and resolution needed to do it for every sporting event but we're getting pretty darned close.
Part 7: Messing around while they're trying to sell me the Vision Pro
I then tried to mess around while the Apple Genius wasn't paying attention/busy typing on her iPad.
I opened up the Notes App and tried to have multiple instances open but couldn't figure it out.
Typing on the Apple Vision Pro is definitely clunky. I'd just look at different letters and click one at a time. I'd love to either have a portable keyboard OR for touch typers to calibrate how we'd type and make a best guess at what we're typing based on where I put my fingers. That's the dream.
Then I had to end the demo 😦
Conclusion
I think the videos and demos are great but it's very tech demo-y. It's 180deg 8k video footage which is HUGE and most people and media won't have access to. I think it's a great window into what tech might look like and what consumer tech can accomplish in the next 3, 5, or 10 years. So I DON'T think I'd buy one at $3,500 right now but maybe cheaper and better in the future 😀
Some things I wanted to try but couldn't:
- Connecting it to a Macbook to use it as extended monitors and use an actual keyboard with it.
- Seeing what apps exist and if there are any cool IDEs.
The coolest things I liked about it:
- I love the eye-tracking. With better calibration, it'd be awesome and super intuitive.
- The hand-tracking is also pretty cool and felt really natural. A lot of other VR headsets make me hold up my hands and I'm lazy and get tired. So this is a really cool change.
- The feel of the headset. Fitting and not wearing glasses and the weight were all great and very comfy.
Some other cons I've heard/experienced:
- Bad-ish battery life esp if you're consuming a lot of content
- The battery is a bit unwieldy still even though it's a significant improvement over a lot of older VR sets.
- The resolution is ALMOST there. Still just a wee bit blurry. Cameras/data transfer speeds will only continue to get better.
I feel like for now the Meta Quest 3 or something would scratch the VR itch until we all get there later.