Step into the future of technology with Apple's groundbreaking creation, the Vision Pro, marking the dawn of the era of spatial computing. Packed with extraordinary power and versatility, this mixed-reality headset promises to redefine the way we interact with the world, potentially paving the way for a revolution where smartphones are replaced by immersive mixed-reality experiences.
So, let’s see how this $3499 headset works and get into what’s good about it, bad about it, and why is Apple doing this.
What is the Apple Vision Pro? Essentially, it’s a mixed-reality headset designed by Apple in such a seamless way that even though this device packs more tech going on than any consumer tech product right now, it feels as natural as a headset could feel. How does this work though?
How the Apple Vision Pro Works
Let’s start with what the user would see first upon wearing the Vision Pro- the screens.
The Screens
Just like how in the real world, your eyes would see the same object at a slightly different angle, giving the sense of depth, the two 1.41-inch micro-OLED display recreates the same effect, but in the digital world. So yes, you will feel like you can reach out and touch the things you’re seeing. Although this isn’t a brand new feature, the 23 million pixel-packed screen along with the extremely powerful chipsets is bound to set a new benchmark in this field.
To give you a better idea, these screens have a pixel density that is 64 times more than that of the iPhone. So distinguishing these pixels would be nearly impossible, to say the least. Apple, as they stated while unveiling these headsets, is getting into the era of spatial computing which is quite possibly the beginning of the end of smartphones. The vision pro could soon have the same applications you have on your phone, but instead of using it on a 6.5” screen, your entire vision would now be the screen. Now to achieve that, it’s probably obvious that hardware on the outside should be a lot more than just these two screens on the inside.
The Hardware
The Vision Pro is covered in sensors and cameras. The bottom of the vision pro has two side-facing and downward cameras, infrared flood illuminators to enhance hand tracking in low light conditions, LiDAR depth sensors that can determine the size and location of the objects in your room and that are used to scan your face to create a digital persona that’s used while you FaceTime.
Inside the headset, four infrared cameras and LED lights come together to scan your iris for authentication and to accurately track your eyes so the headset can tell where you’re looking for navigation purposes.
The straps on each side of the band, double down as audio straps with speakers that support spatial audio. Described as dual-driver audio pods, they can analyse the room’s acoustics to adapt just the right sound to match the space. This band also has 6 microphones for audio input.
Just like you would find a digital crown on the Apple Watch, the one on the Vision Pro is placed to the right of the headset brings up the home view, and controls the level of immersion, along with many other features. The “level of immersion” essentially allows you to switch from a completely fake environment that makes the screen extremely large, or you can have the screen overlaid in your room. This screen, if placed in your room, would still give you a fairly realistic feel considering that the screen would overthrow its shadow along the surfaces and edges of your room. Another button on the top left allows you to take spatial videos and photos.
Chipsets
The Apple Vision Pro has two chips. One, which is common to all the currently produced MacBooks- The Apple M2 chip running the Vision OS while executing computer vision algorithms and providing graphical content.
The second chip is a new one, the R1. This chip is responsible for all the information that comes in from the cameras, sensors, and microphones. This chip claims to be able to stream images to the displays within 12 milliseconds and can provide a “virtually lag-free” view of the world, as stated by Apple.
Battery
To keep this $3499 headset juiced up, apple gives you an external battery pack, a size at which you can put it in your pocket, and lets the vision pro run for a good two hours. Although this doesn’t as Apple as it could, considering that the large part of the weight inside the headset is now redistributed into the battery pack which allows it to be a part of your daily wear. This also makes it completely standalone and portable, so you don’t have to be plugged into any console or anything of such sort. And finally, you would be able to swap out batteries easily, so you could say that this very unlike Apple decision was a fairly good one.
The Exciting side of the Apple Vision Pro
Possibly the Best Way to Consume Content
Imagine having an immersive screen, that rests naturally in front of your ears, while having a speaker that fires directly into your ears and props itself at the right angle without having to hold it. With the connectivity and cameras of an iPhone and the power of the MacBook. But the cameras brings a lot to be excited about.
The Cameras
The Vision Pro brings to you Apple’s first-ever three-dimensional camera, allowing you to capture images in 3D. This means, while you’re experiencing a moment, you wouldn’t have to worry about whipping your phone out to record it but be at ease knowing that your Vision Pro is recording it for you in 3D, allowing you to immerse yourself in the same situation and experience while evoking the same amount of excitement and emotions you felt the minute it happened when you replay that event on your headset. This revolutionises the way we think about capturing images.
FaceTime Redifined
Apart from meaning that you wouldn’t have to buy another Apple controller to use with the Vision Pro, you can now control the device with your eyes, hands, and voice. With a total of 12 cameras and several sensors tracking your hand gestures and eye movements, looking at the app you want to open and tapping your fingers, is all you have to do to select the app. To type, the Vision Pro creates a virtual keyboard for you, or you could use your voice to dictate whatever you want to type.
Revolutionising Displays
From a Home Theatre to a Mac Display, the Vision Pro does it all. You will be able to connect your existing Mac to your Vision Pro, allowing it to act as a 3D external display. The Vision Pro also supports Bluetooth accessories which you would use with a Mac.
A Standalone Apple Device
The Apple Vision Pro runs on a new operating system developed by Apple known as VisionOS. According to Apple it’s "the world’s first spatial operating system,” which is designed to let users interact with the device. The Vision Pro doesn’t need an iPhone or a Mac to run, which lets us call this device a “spatial computer”.
EyeSight
EyeSight is a feature that is essentially designed to make it slightly less awkward when interacting with people while you wear the headset. When someone approaches you while you’re wearing the device, the headset will go transparent allowing the other person to see your eyes. However, if you’re in the fully immersive mode, the headset will give “visual cues” to people who are approaching you to let them know what you are experiencing.
Zeiss Collaboration
If you’re someone who wears glasses, you wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to wear glasses while operating the Vision Pro. Apple has worked with Zeiss to develop special inserts that you can order based on your prescription. However, these will be sold separately, and going by the history of Apple, the pricing could be fairly premium.
Addressing the Vision Pro’s Limitations
Isolation
We can’t help but address this. In a world where we are already so isolated thanks to the crippling phone addictions, having a headset sitting on your face, would add to being isolated. Now, to use your phone, you would just have to whip it out from your bag or pocket. With the Vision Pro, that screen is now an inch from your face. Although Apple has tried to mitigate the anti-social vibe with the addition of an OLED screen in the front to show your eyes to the other person or show a colourful gradient animation when you’re in VR mode, it still looks very odd from the outside, as you’d expect to
iHypocrisy by Apple
During the WWDC 2023, Apple introduced a feature that encourages the user to keep their screens away from their face, at a safer distance, while also unveiling the brand new Apple Vision Pro that would have screens an inch from your eyes.
The Price
Now, I don’t know whether the price would necessarily fall into the “cons” section of things. Sure, the $3499 dollar price tag isn’t affordable in any sense however, we must understand that this XR device isn’t just any XR device like the Quest or Oculus, but this acts as a computer, a phone, a home theatre, a workout buddy, essentially an assistant.
Considering this is only the beginning of the XR era, we can hope with more players in the game and production increasing over time that the price dips, at least a little.
During the WWDC2023, Apple mentioned that if you would go out and get an amazing home theatre, you would quite possibly spend $12000, but you’re getting all that and more in the Vision Pro. Well, that is true for sure, but we have to understand that a home theatre is something you would experience with people, making it a social event, but with Vision Pro, it’s an isolated event.
Why Did Apple Make the Vision Pro Now?
Considering the AR/VR market dipped by about 50% last year, and people have been fairly outspoken about cancelling the Metaverse and not wanting to wear a headset all the time, this seems fairly untimed. Apple could have foreseen the future to be a place with these devices, so they probably took a gamble and went ahead and got their foot in the game first so ten years down the line, instead of having a first product with flaws then, they would have a perfect product while the others are just starting, hence, allowing Apple to win the market, just like they always have. With having introduced LiDAR scanners into their phones back in 2020, developers have been able to learn the pros and the cons and make sure that developing the Vision Pro came at ease. Siri’s ability to understand your voice and speech and converting into text would allow the developers to better the entire speech-to-text feature of the headset. With the AirPods spatial audio feature coming in a couple of years ago allowing the developers to work on the feature, the headset quite possibly has immaculate spatial audio. These are the things that possibly allowed Apple to come out with this product right now, beating every other XR headset in the game, especially being its first-gen.
This isn’t going to replace the iPhone anytime soon, but it does show us how much more immersive these devices could get in the future and also subtly tell us that Apple is going to win in this game as well.
Step into the future of technology with Apple's groundbreaking creation, the Vision Pro, marking the dawn of the era of spatial computing. Packed with extraordinary power and versatility, this mixed-reality headset promises to redefine the way we interact with the world, potentially paving the way for a revolution where smartphones are replaced by immersive mixed-reality experiences.