Everything We Dislike About Apple’s Vision Pro AR/VR Headset
The Vision Pro AR/VR headset is the hottest new product from Apple, and it’s making all the headlines. While you’re busy being fascinated by everything it does, you might’ve overlooked some of its limitations.
Here, we’ll discuss all of these limitations in detail to help you gain a more nuanced perspective on the device.
1. Vision Pro Is Too Expensive
The $3,499 price tag ofApple’s Vision Pro AR/VR headsetis exorbitant enough to give anyone anxiety. It’s so expensive that you could buy four iPhone 14 units and still have some cash left over.
Granted, making a product this technologically advanced has a lot of upfront costs, requires years of research, and has premium hardware built in.
However, a price that high instantly makes the product inaccessible to most interested buyers, meaning only wealthy Apple fans will be able to experience it. For context, the Meta Quest 3 starts at just $499, making it much more affordable for those wanting to experiencevirtual and augmented reality.
2. Vision Pro’s Two-Hour Battery Life Is Concerning
The Apple Vision Pro offers just two hours of usage when not plugged into a power source. That’s not even long enough towatch a full movie on Disney+or last a flight.
Of course, we understand that the device is a first-gen product and will get better over time, but that’s not something you’d want to tolerate when you’re paying more than three grand and a monthly subscription on top of that toenjoy different Apple services.
3. Taking Spatial Photos and Videos Is Interrupting
One of the features of the Apple Vision Pro is taking spatial photos and videos. Just like how you shoot photos and videos on your iPhone and view them later in the gallery, you can take 3D photos and videos on the Vision Pro headset and view them later in augmented reality.
The idea might sound exciting until you realize its real-world application is horrible. Imagine you’re having a fun time with your family or friends, and to capture this beautiful moment, you whip out this giant headset and click a button on it to start recording what’s happening.
Immediately, the obvious prominence of the headset will be so distracting that everyone around you will stop what they’re doing, and the moment will be ruined. Your friends and family won’t get your feedback the way they would if you were not wearing the headset.
If the product looked like a regular pair of eyeglasses instead, capturing a spatial photo or video would’ve looked a lot more natural, and your loved ones would probably not mind it. But as it stands, the Apple Vision Pro looks way too out of place to do such a thing.
4. Vision Pro Lacks Haptic Feedback
It’s admittedly impressive that the Vision Pro is controlled not by a controller but with your own eyes, hands, and voice, allowing you to perform system navigation, item selection, and dictation.
The tech that goes inside making such a seamless experience is certainly commendable. However, this idea has one fatal flaw: there’s no haptic feedback whatsoever.
That means when you select an item on your screen or “tap” a button or “swipe” a toggle in augmented reality, there’s no haptic feedback to immediately give you a sense that the action has been performed and that your input has been registered by the device. Your only cue is the UI.
You might think it doesn’t matter much, but when gaming or working in augmented reality, haptic feedback is a lot more reliable as it’s more visceral and immediately perceivable.
5. Vision Pro Looks Very Isolating
Apple has tried to mitigate the anti-social vibes headsets usually give by adding an OLED screen on the front enclosure that shows your eyes to the other person when you’re in augmented reality—making it appear as if the headset is transparent.
When you’re in virtual reality, it shows a colorful gradient animation, indicating to other people that it’s possible to’t see them and that you’re engaged in an activity. The problem with this is that—despite these efforts—it looks very odd from the outside, as headsets usually do.
Imagine someone wearing the headset shifts from VR to AR, and it’s possible to suddenly see their eyes after initially seeing only gradient colors. If you’re unaware of how the headset works, you may assume that the user could see you watching them all this time and was simply staring at you behind the veil of the headset.
In the same way that wearing earphones can give a “don’t talk to me” vibe, wearing a headset out in public or even at home may give a similar vibe, too—making people become more asocial.
Apple’s Vision Pro AR/VR Headset Isn’t Flawless
Being a first-gen product, the Apple Vision Pro does have some obvious flaws. The $3,499 price tag, short battery life, lack of haptic feedback, and isolating design make it clear that the product is not meant for the mass market.
That said, if you’re in the US, it’s a good idea to visit an Apple Store and try it out first-hand when it hits the shelves in early 2024 to see if you like how it operates.
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