Our First Impressions Of The Apple Vision Pro

If you have $3500 lying around, would you splurge on Apple's first mixed-reality headset?

The Apple Vision Pro comes with an exorbitant price tag of around R65 000, placing it well beyond the budgets of most South Africans. But let's indulge in a little hypothetical dreaming. Imagine getting your hands on this device - what could you expect?

Let’s help you answer that with our hands-on impressions of the Apple Vision Pro.

All you need to know about the Apple Vision Pro

Apple describes the headset as a spatial computer, meaning it brings together virtual and physical worlds, all while understanding the depth of your surroundings. It introduces an immersive way of interacting with content through virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

VR immerses you in entirely digital environments, whether they're animated or digital scenes, while AR enhances the real world with digital elements like visuals, sounds, and more. It’s this combo of AR and VR tech that makes the Apple Vision Pro a mixed-reality headset.

Get ready to bug out 

Before getting hands-on with the Apple Vision Pro, you need to get comfortable wearing the headgear even if it makes you look a bit like a bug. Made from premium materials like aluminium, magnesium, carbon fibre, and woven fabric, it's evident that Apple spared no expense in its construction.

To get started, simply pull the device over your head, turn a dial to tighten the headband, and set up eye-tracking and hand-tracking features. Interaction with the system involves your gaze and gestures, like wrist flicks and finger pinches and taps. The entire setup is straightforward, and intuitive, and takes just a few minutes to complete.

Now you’re ready for the Apple Vision Pro. You don’t need much practice to navigate menus and select apps, but there is a slight learning curve involved since digital content is blended into your physical space and floating in front of your eyes. But once you get over a few clumsy interactions and gain control of your overly enthusiastic fingers, it’s time to immerse yourself in the magic of VR and AR.

Enjoy movies like a supporting character

Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, wasn't kidding when he called the Apple Vision Pro "the ultimate entertainment device." It's like having front-row seats to every show, game, and adventure imaginable, all from the comfort of wherever you happen to be.

A great way to showcase its entertainment chops is through the movie experience. With the Apple Pro Vision strapped around your head, you’re in for an adventure that places you right in the middle of the action. It projects a screen equivalent to a staggering 100 feet, offering a theatre-like environment minus the kicking on the back of your chair and popcorn in your hair.

With mesmerising graphics, impeccable detail, and spatial surround-sound audio, it’s not hard to imagine that this is the future of entertainment. The headset is compatible with most streaming apps, including Apple TV, Paramount Plus, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and Max. It even supports 3D movies, boasting a library of around 150 titles available right now. This is a 3D experience free of those flimsy glasses we've all come to despise.

The Apple Vision Pro opens up a level of immersion like never before thanks to its personalised adjustments for your face and eyes. Characters take on an unparalleled depth, every little detail rendered in stunning clarity, as if you're standing right beside them as the supporting character who constantly judges the bad decisions and plot holes in the story. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, the whole experience is enhanced by a new feature called Environments.

Escape to the moon 

The Environments feature allows you to step into another world entirely while you watch movies, listen to music, play games, stream audiobooks and podcasts, or go about your daily work tasks. It’s a world filled with breath-taking landscapes and captivating soundscapes.

Just imagine getting lost in your favourite songs while sitting on the moon covered in stars or responding to your emails while atop the massive Hawaiian volcano Haleakalā. The magic of Environments is that they're living, breathing spaces that feel real. They’re not basic static images. There are many more environments to choose from, including the lakeside, desert, mountain, and a whole light collection that’s perfect for cosplaying a fairy in an enchanted garden, because why not?

The Cinema Environment is activated when you hit the play button for a movie. The lights around you go dim while the large screen in front of you takes centre stage. Streaming on Apple TV takes this to the next level by transforming your space into a personal theatre, complete with the freedom to choose your favourite seat on the balcony, floor, or various rows. You can even sit in the Avengers Tower while streaming movies on Disney. Seriously, how cool?

An endless display for endless work 

Let's shift the focus to work because, let's face it, you're going to need to work extra hard to pay off this technological masterpiece. But don't stress, the Apple Vision Pro will make you so much more productive and organised that it’ll all be worth it in the end.

It seamlessly connects to your Mac via the Mac Virtual Display, enabling you to view a 4K virtual display of your desktop or laptop within the device. You can open multiple windows anywhere around you, even in different rooms, making an endless desktop now a reality. You can even add multiple visionOS and Mac apps to your workspace, like Messages, Music, and Siri.

Think of your workspace as floating displays and apps that you can freely move around, make larger or smaller, and move closer or further away. They are crystal clear and flow amazingly.

It’s beauty, it’s grace, it’s only available in the United States (for now)

The Apple Vision Pro is nothing short of spectacular. Its power lies in the apps specifically designed for the headset that redefine immersive technology, most offering interactive 3D experiences that transport you to new realms of reality and fantasy. Right now, there are more than 600 new apps built for the device. Can you imagine all the experiences just waiting to be explored? Unfortunately, this new reality is only available to those who can afford it, and that deserves a moment of silence.

If you do have enough dough to drop on the Apple Vision Pro, you have to wait a little longer because it's only available in the United States with the possibility of a global release later this year.