One Year Apple Vision Pro Review: Does It Hold Up?
One year with Apple's first spatial computer.
I can’t believe it’s been a year since the Apple Vision Pro launched. It was highly anticipated and I was super excited to finally get my hands on it. There was most certainly a lot of hype riding on it.
So where does it stand today? Do I still use it? If so, what do I use it for? Has it been sitting in a closet for months? These are all questions I plan on answering today in my one year Apple Vision Pro review.
visionOS 2
I think many people, including myself, were hoping visionOS 2 would be a huge upgrade—similar to how watchOS 2 was a complete overhaul from its predecessor. That was not the case.
It felt like a small, but noteworthy update with a ton of improvements coming from user feedback. The biggest change for me was the relocation of the control center.
You don’t realize how awkward and in some cases, fatiguing it was to try and stare upwards for a few seconds for a much-too-small arrow to appear for you to tap. The new gesture isn’t perfect, but it’s a huge improvement—put your hand out for a virtual home indicator (yay, accessibility!), and flip it over for control center. It takes a few days to get used to, but once you do, you’ll never want to go back.
visionOS 2 also made huge improvements to travel mode. You can now use it on a train, in addition to on a flight. It now enables by default when it detects motion. Versus, as before, it would show a popup that was almost impossible to tap on when in motion. I took exactly one flight in the past year, and it was a two hour flight. But it was much improved over when I tried it last year with visionOS 1.
But something Apple doesn’t really mention in its release notes is that visionOS 2 also makes huge strides in low-light and "other" non-stationary environments. I discovered this the other week when I tried to use the Vision Pro at night. Instead of flat out telling me I couldn’t use the device, it said that my hands wouldn’t appear while in environments and that I should try and stay as still as possible.
It’s not super ideal, but it’s way better than telling me I flat out can’t use it. The device functioned fine otherwise.
But that’s about it. There were Guest Mode improvements, which is great. The Vision Pro can remember guest users for up to 30 days, that way they don’t need to constantly re-do eye and hand tracking when I let others use my Vision Pro. visionOS 2.2 added support for wide and ultra wide capabilities with Mac Virtual Display. I have more on that later.
It’s a Consumption Device
I have to apologize to myself. I was really hoping I could use Vision Pro as a productivity device, especially when my needs are relatively straightforward. All I needed was a way to cast my Mac’s display to the Vision Pro. While it does that very reliably, I’ve found that text in Mac Virtual Display isn’t very sharp. The feature strains my eyes after using it. That’s after the new visionOS 2.2 implementation of Mac Virtual Display as well.
It doesn’t matter if it’s in the standard, wide, or ultra wide modes, they all strain my eyes due to the blurry text.
But to nobody’s surprise, Vision Pro is an excellent consumption device. 2D, 3D, or immersive, it’s easily my favorite way to consume video content.
Immersive content is by far the most impressive aspect. It’s a 180-degree video format that fills your field of view (FOV) and enables you to look up, down, left, and right while still being fully immersed in the content. It’s easily the most impressive thing about Apple Vision Pro. However, the big problem lies in the availability of the content. There’s just simply not enough immersive content to go around.
Hell, I’d go as far as to say that you could probably watch all the available immersive content on Vision Pro within a few hours. And that’s just unfortunate. Apple’s been slowly releasing more content within the last few months, but it’s still not enough. They’re leaving breadcrumbs, but we’re wanting a full meal.
I think the longest immersive video Apple’s released is about 15-20 minutes. I’d love to watch an entire movie in this format. Sadly, this is not the reality we live in.
Next up, we have 3D movies. These are great too, but suffer from a different situation. When I find a great 3D movie, it’s fantastic. Easily the best way to watch 3D content, there’s no question about that. But there aren’t many of those. A lot of 3D movies feel like an afterthought. Like, they produced and edited it for 2D and added 3D effects afterwards.
So that leaves us with 2D content. I spend most of my time in Vision Pro watching 2D content. That’s great, too. Especially if the app supports immersive modes through environments. I watch a lot of Apple TV+, and I love sitting back in Mount Hood at night. The much larger video window combined with the reflections over the lake makes the whole experience feel super immersive.
For content that doesn’t support immersion, I tend to use Haleakala. I love the view, but it’s also one of the few environments that don’t have a floor/ground that gets in the way if you want to make the videos very big.
What Changed?
I wouldn’t say I use it daily, because I don’t. But I still get regular use out of it. A few hours a day, maybe three to four days a week. It’s my favorite way to relax after work.
Compared to when I first reviewed Vision Pro last year, I rarely use it for extended periods (usually only 3-4 hours in one sitting, now). But I’m finding myself using it more frequently. That’s mostly thanks to Mac Virtual Display being inadequate for my eyes. But a good portion of it is just the passthrough not being that good (even though it’s among the best today). I still can’t read text on my phone with passthrough and anything that’s super close is super blurry due to camera physics.
I still maintain that having an external battery isn’t a problem. Should Apple work on building it in? Yeah. But for a product where you primarily use it stationary, it’s not that big of a deal. I’d rather it be external then adding even more weight on the current Vision Pro. Similarly, would it be better for the battery to last more than two to three hours at a time? Yes. But (and it’s probably for the best), I take frequent breaks. After an episode of a show or a two hour movie, I’ll just take it off for a few minutes. Usually, that’s to use the restroom, grab a snack, or to take a sip of water.
Because yeah, the passthrough isn’t that great. And I’d rather take the headset off to do something and use my actual eyes to see the world, rather than trying to navigate with Vision Pro and its array of cameras.
Eye and hand tracking have significantly improved and to me, respond much faster than visionOS 1.x. I’ve also found that it’s much easier to tap on smaller UI elements. visionOS isn’t freaking out when two small items are right next to each other, trying to decipher which item I’m looking at. With the original visionOS software, I felt like I practically had to re-do eye setup every time I used it. It’s the equivalent of stick drift... but with your eyes? But nowadays, I rarely have to recalibrate. Maybe once a month or so at most.
In terms of audio, I’d love to say that the situation has improved, but it hasn’t. The audio pods still sound pretty okay, but not the best. But they excel at soundstage and your sense of spaciousness. Using the USB-C AirPods Pro 2 is the best experience but you don’t get that wider soundstage. And practically anything else is pretty bad due to the audio latency introduced with Bluetooth.
I’d still prefer a wired audio mode, but it seems like Apple isn’t interested in letting you plug anything in via USB (even though they sell a Developer strap that literally adds a USB-C port for development. I don’t think it would be that hard to enable extra functionality via USB here). I can keep dreaming, I suppose.
Weight is surprisingly not a problem for me, either. Especially now that I’ve been using a third-party contraption that allows me to run two solo knit bands. It allows me to transfer a lot of the weight that normally would sit on my cheekbones to the top of my head. Is it still heavy? Yeah. But the weight disappears after the first few minutes with my setup.
Conclusion
Hate to break the news but yeah... it’s just a consumption device for me. It’s an iPad Pro Plus Max Ultra. And I’m perfectly okay with that. It offers a viewing experience like no other, even with just standard 2D movies and TV shows.
It has its quirks, which you can read a more in-depth version of that in my original review. But I’ve been overall very happy with the Vision Pro. I plan on using it frequently for the foreseeable future. If I had to buy it again, I would.
I think my only real gripe with the device isn’t with the hardware, but it’s with the lack of native applications. The big handful of entertainment apps are there but notably missing are YouTube and Netflix. And even within the native apps, a lot of them haven’t been updated in a while so they can’t adopt the newly-introduced ability to have the same immersive video environments Apple TV has (minus the Apple TV theater, which I was never really a fan of). It reminds me a lot of watchOS and the Apple Watch. Lots of excited developers in the beginning, but nowadays, most people hardly use watch apps.
Vision Pro is by far Apple’s most flawed first generation product. But that’s saying a lot because Apple’s first gen hardware is usually pretty solid, even if it changes dramatically with its second generation. Its flaws are obvious (weight, external battery pack, pace of software updates), etc. But it also felt like Apple wanted to throw everything at the wall with its first gen product on a new platform.
What I’d like to see with a second generation is a lighter build, possibly stripping the front display entirely (notice how I didn’t mention it at all?). In the entire year I’ve had Vision Pro, the front display has remained practically useless, even when others are around. I think the obvious thing is if they are planning to keep that front outer display, that it would get substantially larger. It currently has huge bezels around it. It also needs to get substantially brighter. While it’s cool that you can practically see it from any angle due to the lenticular display, its current implementation makes it too dark to see in most cases.
Its only downfall, for me is that I can’t really be productive with it. I understand it’s a huge amount of pixels to wirelessly transmit from my Mac to the Vision Pro. But even when I turn the resolution down to make things larger, text is still blurry. I get too much eye strain trying to focus and read what’s on screen. Maybe the text is smoother if you buy the Developer Strap and plug it in to your Mac directly? I don’t have $300 lying around to test it out.
But overall it’s an exceptional content consumption product. Vision Pro is definitely a luxury item so I’m not saying everyone should go out and buy one. I’d even say most people shouldn’t. There’s just not enough immersive video content that warrants getting it over an iPad for most people. Especially at more than half the cost. Right now, it seems like Apple and its partners aren’t ready to produce long-form immersive content.
My recommendation for most people would be to visit your local Apple Store and book a demo. You’ll get a ton of enjoyment out of it without spending all that money.
