The Apple Vision Pro is Apple’s latest introduction to its product line, and it’s an incredible piece of tech. In case you’re late to the party, the Apple Vision Pro is Apple’s newly announced mixed reality headset, and it packs a lot of unique features. There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to the Apple Vision Pro, but in this article, we’ll just be focusing on five important things you need to know about Apple’s brand new Vision Pro headset.
1. Starting Price: $3,499
The Apple Vision Pro will ship with a $3,499 price tag; that’s quite a hole to burn in your pocket for a first-gen piece of tech. Also note that this is just the Vision Pro’s starting price, so there’ll probably be higher-priced models of the Apple Vision Pro, maybe with better specs, higher storage, etc.
At first glance, the $3,499 seems overpriced, but when you consider the rising cost of materials and all the R&D Apple did to make this device work as well as it does, the price becomes somewhat justifiable.
2. Mixed Reality
The Apple Vision Pro isn’t a VR or AR headset; it’s a mixed reality headset; in other words, it’s a combination of both. You will have the option to switch to a VR experience on the Apple Vision Pro.
The Vision Pro’s combination of AR and VR is like nothing we’ve seen before. The ability to easily layer out the digital world that we’ve really only been able to access from small windows like our mobile device onto the big space of our reality is really something. And the brilliant software Apple made to run all this is Vision OS.
3. Vision OS
Vision OS is the official operating system of the Apple Vision Pro, and the more you look at what this can do, the more impressed you become. Truly, Vision OS is the culmination of all Apple has learned in its nearly 50-year existence.
Vision OS is smart enough that you don’t need any physical input (as we currently know it) to operate the Apple Vision Pro. Yes, all you need to control the Apple Vision Pro are your eyes, voice, and fingers. Your eyes work like a computer cursor; once you look at anything, it gets highlighted, and you can then make a pinch gesture with your fingers to select it.
As for apps, on the Vision Pro, you experience apps as windows that you can place anywhere and resize as you like. You also change your environment. Media consumption, on the other hand, has some more flexibility as you can make your media display in a panoramic mode, making it wrap around your field of view.
Vision OS has built-in support for iPad OS and iOS apps, so you can run them on the Vision Pro. The thing is, unless the developer has added support and Vision Pro-specific features, running the apps will just be like mirroring your iPad or iPhone on a bigger display with fancier controls.
4. Battery Life
Battery life on the Apple Vision is one of the few areas this device fails to impress. According to Apple, users are only going to get 2 hours of usage on a single charge. Yep, just 120 minutes. And that’s not all. There’s no battery pack inside the Apple Vision Pro, so to use it, you need to connect it to the external battery source, which kind of looks like a power bank. If you want the Apple Vision Pro to last longer than that, the only option you have is to plug it in as you use it.
5. Release Date: February 2, 2024
If you’re wondering when you’ll be able to get your hands on a set of the Apple Vision Pro, then be glad, as you won’t have to wait much longer. Apple has confirmed so far that the Vision Pro will be released to the public in early 2024. The release date has been announced as February 2nd, 2024. Buy the Vision Pro on Apple.com.
Bonus! Build and Material
Unlike competitors like META, Apple used metals like aluminum and other weighty materials like glass to make the Vision Pro. So it’s going to be heavy. Early testers have told us that you can really feel the weight of the headset. Hopefully, the weight won’t be something that makes using the headset uncomfortable.
