The Vision Pro has been marketed by Apple as heralding the ‘spatial computing’ where digital data blends with the physical world.
Those were not the only concerns however, as leading up to the initial rollout, there was a belief that developers had a muted response to the headset.
Apple issued a press note claiming that the number of native Vision Pro apps exceeded 600, a significant number, alongside over a million iOS and iPadOS apps.
The list of compatible apps, span names like Adobe Firefly and Lightroom, Microsoft 365 office apps, and Zoom, among others.
This list will obviously be increased as the spatial computing environment and with it the Vision Pro become more accessible to other markets.
While the Vision Pro goes for $3500 a pop, Meta’s mixed-reality headset, the Quest 3, goes for $3000 lesser and is compatible with 500 apps and games.
Meta has more experience in selling headsets and has been around a while, which makes such a large repository of ready apps at launch an impressive feat for Apple.
Or is it only the lonely that will make full use of its capabilities?
Vision Pro has multiple cameras, offering fully immersive virtual reality as well as augmented reality.
The Vision Pro can and will turn the real world into a digital playground, but do we really need that?
Movie watching will definitely reach new heights of awesome, especially the uber-immersive 3D kind.
Apple is hip to that and really seems to be positioning the Vision Pro as an entertainment device rather than something that will help get your work done.
Will it replace the goose-bumpy movie watching communal experience?
Hard to say.
While the headset does let you jump into the ‘real world’ in an interactive way, the device may be found to be a bit isolating.
What’s inside the hood is certainly impressive, two 4K micro-OLED displays with a total of 23 million pixels, Apple’s blinding fast M2 chip, twelve cameras, five sensors, six microphones, and Siri to answer all your questions. It also features the brand-new R1 chip, which runs in parallel with the M2 chip to ensure that there is no latency. Top-grade stuff this.
The Vision Pro weighs 21.2 to 22.9 ounces (or 600 – 650 grams) depending on the Light Seal (that conforms to your face and helps deliver a precise fit while blocking out stray light) and headband configuration. That’s about the size of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, on your face. Yes, with all that aluminium and glass, it may feel a tad heavy on your mug.
This might mean that the Vision Pro’s battery life, may be on the lighter side. The headset ships with a separate battery pack which will give you about 2.5 hours of juice.
The battery pack itself appears to be about the size (approx. 353 grams) of an iPhone which you need to lug around.
So there is a limit to how long you can use the device. You can always buy another battery pack if you need to buy more time, it will set you back $199 in addition to the $3500 for the cool ski-goggles.
All in all, the Vision Pro seems to be just the device that will usher in a new reality in tech, on the cusp of what is certain to be the Fourth industrial revolution.
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