“Vision Pro” lacks polish and the desired goal
About 17 years ago, Steve Jobs took the stage at a convention center in San Francisco. He said that he would offer 3 products: an iPod, a phone, and an Internet browser. He added: “These are not 3 separate devices. “This is one device, and we call it (the iPhone), at a price of $500.”
The first iPhone was relatively expensive. There were drawbacks, including slow cellular internet speeds, but the phone lived up to its promises.
“Vision Pro” experience
Over the past week, I’ve had a very different experience with a new first-generation product from Apple: the Vision Pro, a virtual reality headset that resembles a pair of ski goggles.
This $3,500 wearable computer, launched last Friday, uses cameras so you can see the outside world while running apps and videos.
“spatial computer”
Apple calls it a “spatial computer,” which combines the physical and digital worlds. So people can work, watch movies and play games.
Apple declined to provide an early review unit to The New York Times, so I bought the Vision Pro on Friday. (It costs more than $3,500 with extras that many people will need, including a $200 carrying case, $180 AirPods, and $100 prescription lenses for people who wear glasses.)
Games are not fun
I’m not convinced people will get much value from this device. The device appears less polished than previous first-generation Apple products I have used. It doesn’t perform any better than on PC, and the games I’ve tried so far aren’t as fun, making it hard to recommend. One important feature – the ability to make video calls using a human-like digital avatar that resembles the wearer – terrifies children during a family FaceTime call.
Great video presentations for past memories
The headset is great at delivering on one of its promises: video playback, including high-definition movies, and your own 3D recordings that let you immerse yourself in memories of the past, which is weird and wonderful.
In the past decade, companies like Meta, HTC, and Sony have struggled mightily to sell headphones to mainstream consumers; Because their products were cumbersome to wear, had limited applications, and didn’t look great.
Outperforms similar devices
Vision Pro has a superior user interface, better image quality, more applications, and higher computing power than other headsets. But they are a little heavier than the cheaper Quest headphones from Meta, and they are connected to an external battery that only lasts for two hours.
The aesthetic of Apple’s ski goggles looks better than the bulky plastic headphone visors of the past. But videos posted by early adopters walking around outside with headphones — guys I call Vision Bros — confirm that people still look silly wearing tech glasses, even when they’re designed by Apple.
Better interface
The Vision Pro is miles ahead of other headsets I’ve tested at making an immersive 3D interface easy for users to control with their eyes and hands. I let four of my colleagues wear the headset in the office and watched them all learn how to use it in seconds.
This is because it is a familiar device to anyone who owns an iPhone or similar smartphone. You will see a grid of application icons. Looking at an application is equivalent to hovering over it with the mouse cursor; To tap it, press your thumb and index finger together, making a quick tap. The pinch gesture can also be used to move and expand windows.
Vision Pro includes a knob called the Digital Crown, which turning it counterclockwise allows you to see the real world in the background while keeping digital windows to your apps in the foreground. Rotating it clockwise hides the real world with an opaque background.
Performance during completion of work
When using a headset for work, you can surround yourself with multiple floating apps — your spreadsheet could be in the middle, the Notes app to your right, and the browser to your left, for example.
It is the 3D version of playing windows on a computer screen. Although this sounds neat, squeezing the floating screens doesn’t make work more efficient because you need to keep moving your head to see them.
I could handle using Notes, the browser, and Microsoft Word for no more than 15 minutes before feeling nauseous.
The least fun part of Vision Pro is typing using the floating keyboard, which requires pressing one key at a time. I had planned to write this review with a headset on before I realized I wouldn’t be able to make the deadline to complete the text.
There is an option to connect a physical keyboard, but at this point I prefer to use a laptop that doesn’t add weight to my face.
Vision Pro can also work with Mac computers, where you can mirror the screen in the headset as a virtual window that can be expanded to look like a large screen. In my tests, there was consistent lag, with each key press taking a split second to register by default, and the mouse cursor moving slowly.
Dizziness and nausea
Next, I tried out the headset in the kitchen, loading a pizza recipe into a web browser while I measured ingredients. As I was moving through the camera, I felt nauseous again and had to remove my headset. “Vision Pro” is more comfortable to use while sitting. Apple advises people to take breaks to reduce motion sickness.
Generate embarrassing selfies
Video calls have now become an essential part of office life, and here the “Vision Pro” is particularly inferior in performance to a laptop equipped with a camera. The headset uses its cameras to take photos of your face that are combined into a 3D avatar called “Persona,” which Apple has classified as an “experimental” feature because it is incomplete.
The characters are so awkward, that people would feel embarrassed to use them on a business call. The Vision Pro produced an unflattering image of me with no cheekbones and blurred ears. In a FaceTime call with my in-laws, they said that this blur brought them back to the studio atmosphere of the 1980s.
One of my 3-year-old nieces turned and walked away at the sight of virtual Uncle Brian. As for the other, who is 7 years old, she hid behind her father and whispered in his ear: “It looks fake.”
Do we feel enjoyment?
Video is where Vision Pro shines. When streaming movies through apps like “Disney+” and “Max,” you can tap and drag the corner of the video clip to expand it onto a huge high-definition TV, and some movies, like “Avengers: Endgame” and “Avatar 2,” can be watched in 3D.
The picture appears brighter and clearer than the quality found in “Meta’s Quest” products, and the sound quality of the “Apple” headphones is excellent, but the speakers emit loud sounds, so you will need “AirPods” if you want to use them in public places.
The headset’s 2-hour battery life isn’t long enough to last through most feature-length movies, but in my experience, I’ve never been able to watch movies for more than 20-30 minutes before needing a break… Neck and eye relief from a heavy headset .
There aren’t many games made for headsets yet. I tried out some of the new “Vision Pro” games like “Blackbox,” which involves moving around a 3D environment to blow bubbles and solve puzzles. It looked nice, but after the novelty wore off, my interest faded. It’s hard to recommend the Vision Pro for VR gaming when the $250 Quest 2, Quest 3, and $500 Meta headsets have a deeper library of games.
Conclusion
Vision Pro is the beginning of something, and I’m not sure exactly what. But the goal of a product review is to evaluate the current situation.
In its current state, Vision Pro is an impressive but incomplete first-generation product plagued with problems. Other than being a luxurious personal TV, it lacks purpose.
What draws my attention most about “Vision Pro” is how difficult it is to share the headset with another, especially since it is an expensive computer. There is a guest mode, but there is no ability to create profiles for different family members to upload their own apps and videos.
So the headphones are a computer device that people use alone, and it comes at a time when we are seeking to reconnect after years of masked isolation. This may be the biggest blind spot in Vision Pro.
* New York Times service
