Apple Vision Pro hands-on roundup: Weighty with a clunky virtual keyboard, but great overa...
The initial wave of before-launch hands-on accounts of using the Apple Vision Pro have been published, revealing more about the headset experience ahead of its release.
![Apple Vision Pro demonstration [Engadget/Apple]](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/58143-118471-avp-engadget-xl.jpg)
Apple Vision Pro demonstration [Engadget/Apple]
The Apple Vision Pro is nearing its consumer release, and just like other major hardware releases, it's being handed out to reviewers. Cue a new wave of hands-on articles.
This is not the first time Apple's headset has been subject to scrutiny, with it being demonstrated during WWDC 2023 and developer kits occasionally getting into the hands of the media, AppleInsider included. However, this is the first hands-on with the final hardware that will be provided to customers from February 2.
For this round of hands-on articles, it seems reviewers are offering more details about wearing it, including whether the Apple Vision Pro is comfortable or if there is discomfort. There was also more of a focus on new elements that were not around for the initial demonstrations.
Engadget: Discomfort and joy
Dana Wollman and Cherlynn Low writing for Engadget were trying on the headset, and the fit of the device was the first point of examination. For a start, the unit tried out differed from WWDC's version by having a strap that stretches at the back of the head.
Low felt "weighed down by the device" after 15 minutes, and was in pain five minutes later. The strap was changed to the Dual Loop version that went over the top of her head once she told Apple, which helped with weight distribution and minimized slipping.
In Wollman's case, the fitting felt like an optometrist's visit, and while strap tightening helped with focus, it pinched her nose. Switching out to the Dual Loop Band and Light Seal cushion helped in the end.
Apple Vision Pro
The new typing experience with the floating keyboard worked "fairly well" for Low, with eye-tracking and finger taps used alongside the apparently impressive finger touching. It's not to the level of actual keyboard usage, but it was useful enough for short phrases.
Wollman found it more frustrating, with none of the options feeling "adequate for anything resembling extended use." With the floating keyboard "clearly" needing improvement, she found it hard to imagine using the headset for "actual work."
Immersive video and Spatial Video clips led Wollman to feel "immersed, but also excluded," with the sense of being a ghost at an event where no-one sees or interacts with you.
Viewing Spatial Video on an Apple Vision Pro
A beta version of the Disney+ app was impressive and like a "video game" where users select their background before watching content. There was excitement from the Avengers Tower environment, as well as the viewer seeing their own hands in front of them in the Tattooine environment.
Meditation was relaxing, with leaves floating around the reviewers in darkness, before being guided by voice. "It's funny how oddly appropriate a headset is for something like meditating, where you can literally block out distractions in the world and simply focus on your breathing," said Low.
The final hands-on thoughts had Low impressed by the eye and hand tracking, but ultimately she didn't feel "convinced that I'll want to spend hours upon hours wearing a headset, even if the experience was mind-blowing," for a $3,500 device.
That said, it was the best "and easily the most thought-out" VR, AR, and MR headset Low has ever used.
Wollman also found it to be easier to use than expected, but while there's potential for it as an all-purpose device, the killer app is currently watching movies. "If you ask me what it felt like to use the headset, particularly photo and video apps, my answer is that I felt joy. It is fun to use."
The Verge: Clunky keyboard, but very familiar
In The Verge's demonstration with Apple, Victoria Song writes that the initial face scan with an iPhone for the light seal selection is very similar to setting up Face ID. Actually donning the headset isn't much different from many other VR headsets, such as the Meta Quest list, just with a more "Apple-y" design and headband.
![Apple Vision Pro demonstration [The Verge/Apple]](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/58143-118470-avpverge-xl.jpg)
Apple Vision Pro demonstration [The Verge/Apple]
Much like other VR headsets, "you feel it sitting on your head and wrecking your hairdo once you slip it on," Song says, feeling her hair "bunch up in the back."
The setup continues with eye-tracking, involving looking at dots and tapping fingers, before being dumped into the App Launcher. Vision tracking was still fast and accurate to Song, with menu items and buttons immediately highlighted once looked at.
Again, there was some trouble with the virtual keyboard being "clunky," though you "can type as fast as your eyes can move and fingers can pinch, which means it's much easier to dictate to Siri." There was some trouble with pinching and double-pinching gestures, with Song instructed to hold the pinch for shorter amounts of time.
The main visionOS interface
In use, the device offers a world that "feels like a higher-resolution version of what Meta is trying to accomplish with the Quest but with a vastly more powerful M2-based computer to use inside." Novelty in opening the Disney Plus app with a virtual environment and a volcano demo were surprising due to the "quite lifelike" rock textures.
"This is all familiar stuff. It's just done well, and done with no lag whatsoever," she adds.
EyeSight, Apple's external display system showing the user's eyes to onlookers, is called "a bit goofy" when viewed externally. While worn, it's "strange to wear the headset and not actually know what's happening on that front display -- to not really have a sense of your appearance."
With the EyeSight system and the potential use of the Apple Vision Pro in public, "the social cues of this thing are going to take a long while to sort out."
Apple Vision Pro at Apple Park
Towards the end of the demo, the weight of the headset began to be felt, with Song feeling the "beginnings of a mild headache," though the tension dissipated after taking it off.
Concluding, Song seems not entirely sure of the headset's reason for existing. "I kept replaying the demo over in my head. I know what I just saw. I'm just still trying to see where it fits in the real world."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Seems like a probable liability issue if users start complaining about pain.
The reviewer quoted above says it well that they really don't understand its purpose. It might be a better FaceTime but I don't really use FaceTime *that* much. It might be a veritable unlimited real estate for computing but my two monitors are pretty fine and I like being able to look out the window and into the distance. It might be a better movie watching experience but I really enjoy watching with others. OK, maybe I can soon watch with family and friends around the world, and that might be nice. Maybe one day I'll think that desktop monitors are limiting, and joining a Teams or Zoom call is too confining, and 2D photos (even the awesome Live Photos) doesn't begin to capture the moment, and games couldn't really become 3D until you could turn your head to really be in it, and training is improved with more immersive "hands-on".
This device is practically pregnant with possibilities and I wish Apple and the Vision Pro team the best, I really do. It looks like some stunning kit. It'll be awesome to see this get into the hands of the public so we can begin to understand what "the next era in spatial computing" does for us.
Perhaps you should take a look at this then: https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/08/18/hands-on-with-apple-vision-pro-in-the-wild
If you think apple likes us, ... uh they don't
There are a select few reviewers who will be given about 2 to 4 days of usage for what is an early access review. You won't see that until Thursday, maybe. If not then, then about January 30, the Tuesday prior to Feb 2 when you can walk into an Apple Store to try it out.
You will always be able to find a reviewer or commenter who doesn't know what a product is for, even though they have been told multiple times what it is for. This was true of the iPhone. There were commentators and reviewers who said it was a great demo, but it couldn't replace a Blackberry and its hardware keyboard, or some Nokia transforming phone that could be a camcorder, and that they didn't know what to do with it.
Apple has told people what it is for. It is right in the ad copy: an infinite canvas for productivity, the ultimate entertainment experience, new gaming experiences. I would hope the reviewers would actually write about whether the VP can do those jobs. They are probably not allowed to say yet, but for productivity, you need to be able to open up dozens of views and read in smaller text sizes. If you can, that will enable that infinite canvas for productivity.
The issue is always whether Apple will let the apps in. Terminal.app? It's going to be iPadOS Safari, but will it be full featured like macOS Safari eventually? Can you have dozens of Microsoft app views in front of you? Will Chrome be allowed?
”difficult to imagine using it for actual work.”
so… niche toy like we’ve been saying since the reveal.
Ask Journalist about new spacial computers they all don't know what it is for and complain about keyboard.
Why did Apple not give review units to people who are known for what passes for spacial computing with flat display tech?
Say Austin Meyers of xPlane or Reviewer for CAD software, 3D modeling gurus. People who do the nuts and bolts activities this thing is build for.
I don’t think i would. As for televisions, they are often enjoyed with others in the room, a social setting. But hiding behind googles does not seem that sociable to me, more like being unsociable.
Keep yelling at clouds, folks.
I expect that a virtual keyboard is no different. Has a learning curve.
No, I think we haven’t seen the killer app yet.
Others seem to have written it off right from the presentation and are now doubling down on the negatives.
Realistically 'it is what is' in terms of functionality. If there was any other major feature it would have been given a mention at the presentation.
There was very little 'new' in terms of functionality or in terms of where the industry is heading. It is a souped up visor and has a price tag in accordance with that.
So we got better optics and sensing options. More processing power and faster response times and lower latencies.
Personally I think the eye-sight detail is nice although it has nothing to do the user experience.
Pass-through isn't a new idea and VR/AR is immersive by definition so the spatial capacity is simply souping that up a bit.
As with most presentations with Apple, it's what isn't said that often means more.
Gestures aren't new but I don't remember seeing anything about hand/gesture tracking when your hands are above the height of the visor.
It all seemed like an experience focused on being seated, too.
The hands-on experiences will highlight first impressions. Weight is an important consideration, as is overall comfort.
Heat generation, pressure fatigue, disorientation, allergic reactions etc will be guessed at.
It's a first generation product and Apple's first stab at this. It won't be perfect out of the door but, as with the industry in general, will improve.
Those who constantly claim Apple only releases 'fully baked' products were never right. It was more an excuse to explain why Apple hadn't released this or that problem.
The Vision Pro might have benefitted from an extra six months or year of development or maybe it's already good enough now. Full reviews will tackle that question but if it is the former, it shouldn't been seen as a problem.
I think the key point is that it exists. It's Apple's first venture in this space and there will be plenty of issues to iron out or redesign along the way. Nothing new with that.
This is not far from the first plasma screens
when they came to market. Mega expensive and far from perfect but if they never came we would never have seen the Pioneer Kuros.
For those that want a souped up 'Quest' experience at any price now have an option.
The Quest and some of the higher end devices (including the Vision Pro) all share some universal pain points but eventually they will go away.
If they go away faster with the introduction of the Vision Pro it's a win/win.