Apple Vision Pro: We saw Apple’s $3,500 headset up close

Mar 13, 2023

Would you pay $3,500 to hop on FaceTime calls, watch movies and browse the web on giant virtual screens all over your living room, a la Minority Report? That seems to be what Apple is promising with Vision Pro, an all-new mixed-reality headset (or as the company calls it, a "spatial computer") that lets you experience all of the Apple apps you’re used to in a whole new way.

The experiences that Vision Pro are promising sound cool on paper (imagine getting to set up a 100-inch movie screen in any room in your home) but with its exorbitant price tag and heavy focus on enterprise use, who is it actually for? The verdict is still out on that, but here's what we think after learning all about Apple's headset — and getting to see its slick design up close.

Apple's Vision Pro headset is set to launch early next year (no specific date just yet) for a whopping $3,499.

To put that price in perspective, that's more than three times the cost of the $1,000 Meta Quest Pro, which is designed to deliver similar mixed-reality experiences. It's also exponentially pricier than our best VR headset pick in the $300 Meta Quest 2.

Based on the video footage we’ve seen of Vision Pro, Apple's new headset seems like it takes the experience we’re used to on iPhones, iPads and Macs, blows it up and quite literally puts it at our fingertips. Upon putting the headset on, you’ll see a home screen that looks a lot like the one on your iPhone with icons for things like Messages, Photos and FaceTime — except its overlaid on top of your real-world surroundings. That's where the whole "mixed reality" part comes into play: with two "ultra-high-resolution" displays packed into the lenses and external cameras for capturing everything around you, Vision Pro is able to blend the real and virtual worlds for apps that let you work and play in new ways.

This lets you do things like set up a massive virtual screen for playing Apple Arcade games and getting a theater-like movie experience, capturing and viewing 3D videos or engaging in group FaceTime calls where all of your friends show up in floating windows around your room as you work on a project together. If you have your Mac nearby, you can set up a second screen for it within Vision Pro, effectively giving you a 4K monitor you can put anywhere in your room. You also get to control the amount of "mixed" in your mixed reality, with a Digital Crown (much like the one on Apple Watch) that lets you up the immersion with slick virtual environments or stay focused on your living room so you can make sure you don't trip over your dog.

The visionOS software that powers the headset looks impressive on video, and is essentially an immersive 3D version of what we already do on our phones and computers every day. You can move and resize apps around with natural hand movements, browse menus with just your eyes and use your voice to dictate text while messaging. The fact that Vision Pro is controlled exclusively through hand and eye tracking sets it apart from rivals like the Meta Quest Pro and HTC Vive XR Elite, which primarily use controllers. That said, Apple's headset will support accessories like the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse for when you’re getting work done, as well as popular Bluetooth controllers for when you’re gaming.

The Vision Pro's design is distinctly Apple, with a mix of glass and fabric that borrows some of the Apple Watch's key features and the overall luxe look of the AirPods Max. It certainly looks neat up close — I like the ridged fabric on the back and the glowing purple pattern emanating from its front display — but it’ll really come down to how comfortable it is to wear for long stretches of time.

Apple is promising 2 hours of untethered battery life, or "all day" use when connected to the included battery pack — which is designed to go in your pocket so that it won't add any extra weight to the headset. This short battery life is on par with most modern wireless VR headsets, but while Apple's approach to keeping the headset light is neat, I wonder if the tethered battery pack will become an annoyance when walking around with it on.

The new 15-inch MacBook Air is up for preorder now — and we tried it

The Vision Pro is powered by the same blazing-fast Apple M2 chip found in our favorite laptop, the MacBook Air, and packs an additional R1 chip to keep all of the sensors working quickly and accurately — and minimizing motion sickness in the process. Again, this is something we’ll have to experience in the real world to properly evaluate.

We wouldn't blame you for having privacy concerns — after all, this is a device that literally scans your face to create an accurate avatar for folks on your FaceTime calls — but Apple says that the Vision Pro is built to keep your data safe. Your Optic ID (which is like Face ID) is encrypted and inaccessible to apps, and sensor data is processed on a hardware level, meaning it's never sent to the cloud.

The Vision Pro seems like an exciting, futuristic device in theory, and I can't say I wasn't impressed when I saw people navigating app menus with their eyes or enjoying an immersive Disney Plus experience in the headset's demo footage. But the entire presentation, I kept asking the same question: who is this thing for?

$3,499 is a massive price for any consumer electronics device, even one that can theoretically function as your TV, external Mac display, gaming device and work computer. However, many of its use cases look like they cater to a theoretical business user who really likes the idea of multitasking on a giant canvas, or someone willing to pay a ton of money to simply watch movies in a more immersive way.

For the price of the Vision Pro, you could buy three $1,000 Meta Quest Pro headsets as well as the upcoming $500 Meta Quest 3, both of which offer similar mixed reality experiences to what Apple is promising. Meta's headsets also have a healthy library of gaming and fitness apps, which we haven't heard much about in regards to Vision Pro. Of course, the Vision Pro's secret weapon is the fact that it's an Apple device, one that will likely sync up effortlessly with your iPhone, iPad and Mac to let you stay in touch with friends, access your photos and hop on FaceTimes even when you’re lost in VR. But will that be enough? We should have a better idea closer to the headset's launch next year.