ReactiveLight

Because of the price, and this being divisive Apple, you see hater comments everywhere the Apple Vision Pro is discussed. In the beginning I would often engage with the posters, trying to show them the error of their ways. But I have long since given up—it has no effect whatsoever on my life if these people don't experience the same pleasure from using this device that I do. And pleasure it is. I am 70 years old, and have been a lifelong electronics enthusiast and gadget guy. I have been an Apple customer since the very earliest Apple ][ days (having built my own computers before that), and while I sometimes wait to buy into their new product categories (my first iPhone was a 4S, my current is a 15 Pro Max), eventually I try them all. It's not a "religious" thing—I also have a very-high-end gaming PC, and a Valve Index VR headset to go with it, and I use both Windows and Linux computers along with my Macs for various project tasks. My house could be a technology showcase—fortunately, my wife is also into this stuff. And yet, with all of that, the AVP is hands-down my favorite piece of tech that I have ever, ever owned—I just might give up all the rest, collectively, before I would this thing. For me, the immersive, you-are-there experience is the killer feature (I'm also seriously into travel photography). It fulfills—exceeds!—my lifelong dream of having a holographic display, and while it's not a tangible environment like a Star Trek holodeck, the immersion level and the amount of interactivity that the eye- and hand-tracking make possible is mind-boggling—this is where I expect to see (and will hopefully help create) some truly stunning app development.

I don’t share Wesley’s (nor Apple’s) enthusiasm for using the AVP to create a work environment. On my physical desktop I am surrounded by displays (with an Apple Studio Display, connected to my Mac Studio, in the center), and I can simultaneously take in vastly more info from that than I can with the foveated rendering in the AVP. And while I often enjoy taking a break with Synth Riders, having another, optimized gaming rig means I don’t much care whether or not the AVP is ever a shining beacon as a game machine. It only matters for me in situations where games would really take advantage of the ultra-high visual quality of the AVP to create immersive environments—but then, the AVP has no competition. My Valve Index (and the Meta Quest 3 when I’ve tried it) have always left me wanting better images, but the AVP finally satisfies me in that way.

As for the price, and the oft-expressed idea that one should wait for “Gen 2” or “Gen 3”, note the name: Vision Pro. To me, this says that Apple is reversing the usual strategy of releasing successively-better devices until a “Pro” level is reached. This time, I am convinced that they have started at the pinnacle to grab attention and market share, and that it will be all (well, mostly) downhill from here—not just in price, but also in capabilities as they seek to expand into the mainstream. So this is the time to buy, if you can possibly afford it, to have the pleasure of using this high-end machine from the very beginning.

As for potential hardware improvements, it did indeed take me a while to find a way to wear the AVP comfortably (hint: use the dual-band strap, or one of the third-party mods. I am convinced that Apple made the single band the default only because it looks the sleekest & coolest, rather than because it is “best”), and while it’s conceivable that Apple will improve the comfort in later versions, at this point I (like Wesley said for himself) can mostly forget that I’m wearing the thing. I don’t feel that the hardware needs any major improvements to make me happy, especially since I deeply understand the physics & electronics of the thing and therefore understand that the people holding out for the same sort of device in an eyeglasses form factor know not of what they speak—it will surely come someday, but it will require major advances in optical technology using “metamaterials” that are currently laboratory curiosities. Many of us will have shuffled off this mortal coil before that happens.

The one place in the hardware where I feel rather let down is the passthrough cameras. While the passthrough system is parsecs ahead of its closest competitor (the Meta Quest 3), it still suffers from too much motion blur and its low-light capabilities border on pathetic. It seems to me that Apple could have done significantly better using current technology and without greatly increasing the cost, and while this might conceivably get me to upgrade to a later model if Apple improves the passthrough, that function is really only a convenience and safety feature and in no way affects any of the visuals generated from within the headset. So, it is most definitely not a reason for me to wait for a later model.

Everything else that makes me sad about the AVP is a software issue and/or an Apple policy annoyance (especially that execrable guest mode) that can be fixed using the current hardware. I can already see software improvements in the visionOS 1.1 release and expect many more, and if Apple doesn’t reverse some of their policy crud (like lack of multiple user accounts) with this thing, they’re surely not going to do so in subsequent models.

So in summary, I think the Apple Vision Pro is the greatest thing since toasted bread, and if anyone disagrees that’s their loss, not mine. My only real objection to the AVP is that it has already completely taken over my life, though I'm not yet sure if that is actually a bad thing.

Regarding the battery, for me it's most comfortable to put it in my right pocket and run the cable behind my back—the cable is just the right length to do this. If I put it in my left pocket, the cable rubs annoyingly against my left ear.