News

Jan 30, 2024

I Tried Apple's New $3,500 Vision Pro Headset

I knew you could do a futuristic FaceTime, but what I found the most

I knew you could do a futuristic FaceTime, but what I found the most interesting—shocking even—was how it all made me feel.

The computer has a mouse. A phone or tablet requires your thumb or a stylus. But Apple's new Vision Pro? It just needs you. Controlled by your eyes, voice, and subtle hand movements, it's gonna change the way we interact with content, and each other.

After much speculation about the new launch while packed inside Apple Park's first in-house WWDC at the spaceship, Tim Cook finally showed off the long awaited augmented reality device. In short, Vision Pro is far better than everything else in its class (with a price worthy of that slot at $3,499) and it knocks Meta's Oculus off the map.

Like most Apple products, the first thing you notice is the design. Its outward-facing screen that allows others to see an image of your eyes as if they were making eye contact with you already feels like the new standard for AR—all other models feel obsolete. This tech lets you go from a video call to watching a movie to interacting with someone else in the room without ever having to take the headset off. Apple dubs it "spacial computing"—as you become fully immersed in a space, you still somehow feel you’re still present in our own world. For AR to feel like it can fit into our everyday lives and not just in our basements playing video games alone, this kind of balance needs to be cracked, and Apple has done that.

Within two hours of the news launching, I tried one myself. After a five-minute setup, based on my eyesight and head shape, I had a perfectly fitted device. Aesthetically, it's sleek, but it's still a bit of a clunky device to wear on your face with the three-dimensionally formed and laminated glass adding weight to the design. Apple boasted in the keynote that the headband is soft, flexible, and breathable. It has a smart adjustment tool in two places on the headband that instantly helped me set it onto my face, relieving some of the weight, and positioning it in the most comfortable fit for my face. The sheer attention to detail, though, is what makes this a luxury product.

As for the experiences, because you can tune in and out of seeing your surroundings, your space, and other people, you still feel there. Sure you can watch movies on screens that appear to be as large as a jumbotron and make FaceTime calls where the other person appears to be in the same room with you, but what I found the most interesting—and maybe even shocking—was the sense of wonder and awe that it made me feel. The Vision Pro's killer feature is that it makes a non-techy, normal person like myself actually want to use AR.

While competitive options often feel geared towards gaming and business features, the Vision Pro (which has all those, too) makes things more personal. The Vision Pro lends improvements to things like memories, meditation, and offers a stark change in mobile entertainment. All of these features can help improve your mindset, no matter how hokey you think that is.

One of the most personal things you can experience on the Vision Pro is rewatching live photos, videos, and even 3D experiences taken on the device that feel like you’re back in that moment—in that photo. Images you took on other devices can be experienced in an immersive version of 2D, while content captured on the Vision Pro itself can be revisited in a truly realistic way like never before. I think this will shape human behavior into something we haven't seen before. Watching a video from the last birthday you shared with a loved one who is no longer around, reliving the first moments of a child's life, or even just that crazy weekend you had with your friends—all of these things will feel different than they did just scrolling through your camera roll. This isn't about viewing it on a five-inch screen anymore, but in a way that's like you’re physically in that moment again. The experience is deeper, and so is the feeling it leaves you with.

Like your iPhone, the Vision Pro is entirely customizable and personalizable to your life, of course. If you’re a fan of meditation, then the Mindfulness app will take your minutes sessions to the next level. As a fan of meditation myself, even with just one minute of the Mindfulness app on Vision Pro, I was shocked at how quickly I was able to fully escape reality and immerse myself into meditation. The feeling of relaxation it offers through visuals and sounds is beyond better than just a couple deep breaths being coached to me through an app.

So, how the hell do we really bring this into our lives? Sure, I’ll enjoy some meditation and pictures at home every now and then, but the entertainment features are what I (and I speculate most others) would engage with most often. Watching a movie on this thing isn't like watching one in the theaters—I won't bore you with the specs, but it just might be better than an actual cinema. This isn't something I’ll do with my partner, though. I can't imagine us sitting on the sofa at home both wearing an AR headset. I’m not there yet, and do we really want to be? This still gives off a use-on-your-own vibe.

There's one other place where I see people really leaning into the entertainment features though: on an airplane. Tune out, use your special audio, and watch a cinematic movie in the air—you'll probably forget where you are and that there's someone eating their chips extra loud next to you.

Emotional praise aside, do we actually need to have this? Is the $3,499 price tag really worth it? As we enter a new era of tech that feels more scary than exciting, I felt skeptical and still do. But a quick session using the Vision Pro really did change my perspective. You don't need to be a techie to enjoy the Vision Pro, and that's where it stands out. It's not about being a gamer or improving your work life, it's about improving your own life. And for some, that's worth it.

While the price is no doubt exceptional for those who want a first take at the experience when it's available early 2024, don't worry if you won't pay that—you just wait. This is our new reality, and soon, you won't be able to escape it. Competitor brands will scramble to make cheaper versions, and throughout the years they will become smaller, more affordable, and more advanced.

Apple did what it always does: creates a new wave of expectation for a device. All else shall follow. And with the arrival of the Vision Pro, the size of a screen doesn't matter anymore, because now, we will be living in it.

Krista Jones is the Senior Commerce Editor at Esquire, covering lifestyle, fashion, home, tech, and travel.

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