Apple's Vision Pro is here. How good, or not, is it?

People in line to purchase the Apple Vision Pro headset at the Fifth Avenue Apple store

The headset is the comapny's first major product in years

(Image credit: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)

published 9 February 2024

Artificial intelligence has been the main attraction in the tech world lately. But Apple is shifting attention back to virtual reality with the Apple Vision Pro, its take on futuristic goggles that blur the lines between the digital and the physical. Did the much-ballyhooed debut launch without a hitch?

Background

In a press release, Apple called the headset a "spatial computer" capable of merging digital media and the real world by combining virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). The Vision Pro has a customizable digital display that hovers over your surroundings. It can also display immersive virtual environments. Users can access apps, play games, FaceTime friends with a digitally rendered "persona" and watch video content. Users control the interface with their eyes, fingers and voice. The Vision Pro runs on visionOS, "the world's first spatial operating system," Apple said. Cook hailed the day as the "beginning of a new era for computing."

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After eight months of hype and some skeptical early review, the Vision Pro officially dropped in the U.S. on Friday, Feb. 2. Customers who preordered the headset in January began receiving them or could pick them up at an Apple Store. The CEO appeared at the company's flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City to celebrate the release. In reference to the steep price tag, Cook told CNBC's Jim Cramer the device was "tomorrow’s technology today." He said the company "priced it at the right level considering the value of it."

Meanwhile, videos of people wearing the headset in the wild have started appearing online since the product was released. Some of the most reckless offenders have posted videos wearing the Vision Pros in the driver's seat of a self-driving car. One such video of a driver in a Tesla Cybertruck pickup caught the attention of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. "Reminder — ALL advanced driver assistance systems available today require the human driver to be in control and fully engaged in the driving task at all times," he said in a post on X, with the video attached. The driver in the video told Gizmodo the video was a skit.

Critics have had a mixed reaction to the device. A common complaint from journalists and techies reviewing the device is that it can be uncomfortable to wear for extended periods. Some reported feeling nauseated, and many complained about how heavy it was. "There's nothing we could have done to make it lighter or smaller," Richard Howarth, Apple's vice president of industrial design, said to Vanity Fair in response to critics. Mike Rockwell, vice president of Apple's Vision Products Group, said the company "packed just about as much technology as you could possibly pack into that small of a form factor."

Apple wants the Vision Pro to be as "subtle and unobtrusive as pulling out an iPhone or a pair of AirPods," Kevin Roose said in The New York Times. "But that's not going to happen, at least not for a while." The Vision Pro is most impressive in a fully immersed VR environment, not the AR environment Apple has envisioned. "And while Apple has made it much easier to toggle between virtual and physical worlds, there's still some friction," Roose said.

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Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news.