Apple Vision Pro - A first Review

It has been about a month since the Apple Vision Pro arrived at our offices, and we have been very busy exploring the extremely anticipated new tech from Apple. After watching and reading many reviews from respected tech journalists like The Verge and Marques Brownlee, we thought we were prepared for when ours finally arrived. Well… it did. And…we weren't.

The Apple Vision Pro is really unlike any other consumer tech we've experienced, with many exciting pros and some unseen cons. In this article, we want to articulate that experience within the context of how this could impact services and products for businesses and agencies.

The first thing that really stood out when using the Apple Vision Pro was the eye and hand tracking, which in our collective experience is a next level of precision and personalization in comparable headsets. It is an incredibly intuitive input method for VisionOS which relies on a meticulous and immersion breaking calibration process. The benefits of this process make it an amazing personal device, but that comes at the expense of being plug-and-play like other headsets. It’s much like getting into someone else’s car and having to adjust the seats, the mirrors, the volume, the steering wheel and everything else before you can start driving. Once you have the right settings in the Vision Pro, it hums like supercar. But that means a lengthy and cumbersome onboarding process, making it even less suitable for events or group settings than VR headsets already are.

We were really eager to try out the Quick Look feature for 3D Models with ARkit in the Vision Pro. It is an extremely seamless and intuitive process to bring the model out of the browser and set it into your room. The Vision Pro’s high quality LIDAR cameras provide a precise view of the objects in your room, allowing for the 3D models to really appear true to quality and size around you. Even with our quick testing of some basic 3D models, the fidelity and experience was rather profound. As shown on our WWF Wildlife AR experience and the web product visualizer.

Apple consistently uses the phrase “Spatial Computing” when talking about the Apple Vision Pro, and referring to it as a computer is really an apt description. It really proved to be an excellent tool for productive work. The headset has native apps that are just as powerful as on a desktop, but really function well with multiple screens around you. Even when using the extended display, the added immersion really brought us more into our work with a heightened degree of focus. If you like listening to music while you work, the spatial audio adds another layer of immersion to your work which we found really nice.

Of course it must be mentioned that the available Apple Vision Pro apps on the App Store are limited, and the quality is reminiscent of the early days of the iPhone. The available games are quite limited, with some exceptions to games in the Apple Arcade subscription which has “spatial computing” as a new label. The fidelity of the experience is quite nice, and the room tracking is very high quality, but we found the overall gaming experience rather lackluster even with those caveats. Compared to a gaming experience with the Meta Quest 3 and its handheld controllers, you really miss having the haptic hand feel and the accuracy of a controller in your hand. This could change over time, but the Apple Vision Pro is definitely NOT a gaming device at the moment.

Like all VR headsets, Apple Vision Pro is prone to comfort issues. It tends to sit a little high which can cause some issues with the eye tracking, and its frontloaded weight means you really feel it while wearing it. We found it best to use while sitting down on a couch or a chair instead of standing, also because the hand tracking works nicely with your hands on your lap.

The hands-on exploration also shed light on the challenges of global accessibility. Outside the United States, the Apple Vision Pro demands a US-based Apple ID and payment method, presenting barriers for international users for the time being.

After about a month of consistent use across the office, we still are excited to use the Apple Vision Pro. It isn't uncommon to look over and see someone doing normal work while wearing the device, something we can't say for other VR devices around the office. It is quite clear for us that the Apple Vision Pro really is like a MacBook Pro you would wear on your face. It offers an amazing experience for everyday productivity - and there are fun games to play - but when compared to the Oculus Quest 3 it feels similar to the Mac Vs. PC debate. The underlying tech of the Apple Vision Pro is undeniably impressive, however, and you can already see it pushing the boundaries of digital interactions. It is a major step forward for mixed reality headsets, and we are excited to not only continue using the Apple Vision Pro, but see it’s effects on the industry. For now, we go back into the Lab and continue to test how it could best serve our clients and our users.