Hello, tech enthusiasts! Let us talk about Apple’s latest and greatest invention to date, the Apple Vision Pro. Is this just another tech toy? No, using this piece of future is like stepping into a sci-fi movie. I’ve ha been using it for a week and have had a mind-blowing and strange experience. Some parts are amazing, and some parts.

Well, they could use a bit of work.

It is all about the experience. The Vision Pro comes with groundbreaking tech, a new operating system, infrared eye tracking, and even virtual versions of you. These features are so new and different, so you need to understand them to understand what this headset is all about. So, let’s explore what it is like to use the Vision Pro, the basic hardware, the standout features, and more.

A VR headset at its core

Is Apple going with fancy ski goggles now? 

No, you are noticing one of the first designs of future technology. You wrap this front-tinted panel around your eyes. It is like wearing a lens. You can see the aluminum frame’s intakes for fans at the bottom and vents at the top. 

How does it block out any extra light? 

There is a magnetically attached light seal to do that. On the back, you find a button and a digital crown to tweak settings, navigate, and calibrate.

The build and design

There are two displays in Vision Pro, one for each eye, and there’s an external OLED panel. Combined, they have 23 million pixels. Apple guarantees user interface visibility 24/7 with a special 3D lens. Want a superior image? Vision Pro comes with features like HDR and “wide color” to just give you what you need.

The audio experience

Don’t want to plug in headphones? Don’t worry; Vision Pro comes with built-in earbuds. And they support ultimate specs like Dolby Atmos and lossless audio to give an unforgettable experience. 

That is not all!

Vision Pro’s “audio ray tracing” technology analyzes the sound properties of the room to optimize the sound for that space.

Seeing the world through the Vision Pro

There are IR cameras inside the Vision Pro. They track where you are looking and cameras on the outside that follow your hands. And the lidar sensors sense objects and people around you in real-time. 

How awesome is that?

You do not have to raise your hands to get the best of hand tracking; just do not block them from the view. 

Talking about personal experience? 

I felt like I could grab app windows and move them around in front of me. And, if I turn my head towards someone with an app open, the Vision Pro automatically shows their figure.

There are 23 Vision Pro sensors, including 12 cameras, five sensors, and six mics. And they feed into a new R1 chip from Apple. They designed it to get rid of lag and stream images to the headset’s display really fast. The passthrough effect in Vision Pro is arguably the best of any VR headset out there. You won’t feel like you are wearing a device at all. It is so close to real-time. But you could experience a little delay (around 12 milliseconds) and some blurriness when using the passthrough effect.

The power behind the Vision Pro

A pretty small 3,366 milliamp-hours battery powers Apple Vision Pro. The battery is connected to the headset with a four-foot cable and a special connector. You cannot remove it. 

Will it easily disconnect like a USB connection? 

No, this connector twists and locks onto the headset. So, it is solid. Once connected, the headset lights up, boots up, and displays a small Apple logo on the outside screen.

Power management and battery life

Does Vision Pro have an on/off button or switch? 

No, if you remove the headset and put it down, it goes into standby mode after a while but does not turn off completely. 

How do I turn off the headset? 

To turn it off, you need to twist and unplug the cable.

Vision Pro does not have a super long battery life. You can expect between two to four hours of use from the built-in battery. 

What do you do if you want to use the headset longer?

Then, you will need to plug the battery into a USB-C port. 

Do you need to use it continuously? 

Plug the battery into a wall outlet. 

What can you do to extend it? 

Connect another battery.

A hands-on experience with the controls

You do not need traditional controllers for Apple Vision Pro. Get ready to experience a unique and immersive experience with just your eyes and hands. 

Don’t these controllers feel more natural and intuitive?

When you put on the headset for the first time, it adjusts the distance between the lenses to match your eyes, scans your hands, and has you look at dots around the screen and tap your fingers together to select them. This is how Vision Pro customizes your experience. You can bring up the app drawer when you press the digital crown. And it stays the same no matter how much you move your head or walk around.

Apple’s new Vision OS

Apple calls this the first operating system they designed from scratch for “spatial computing. Once you are in it, you can always bring the app drawer back in front of you by hitting the digital crown. How to open an app? It is not so much work; just look at the icon and pinch your fingers together. Do you feel the future in your hands? The next awesome thing is scrolling. All you have to do is pinch and grab in the air, then pull it like it is on a string.

You can right into what you want to control in Vision Pro. When you open a window of a Vision OS app, it locks into place and floats there. You will feel like the window is in the space around you.

Supports and Environments

VisionOS supports Bluetooth keyboards and trackpads. And you can listen to your favourite music, watch your favourite movies and shows, and even play App Store games on other Apple device users with SharePlay.

Do you want to surround yourself with dynamic landscapes like Haleakalā, Mount Hood, a movie theatre, Joshua Tree, and Yosemite National Parks, or do you want to feel like you are on the moon? 

That is why Apple built the cool environments feature. No more stress; relax and focus on your favourite place your favourite way. All you need to do is rotate the digital crown clockwise.

Text input in Vision Pro

As you know, Apple Vision Pro does not come with any physical controllers. So, you have three unique ways to input text.

  1. I would like to call the first method the ‘poke and hope’ approach. You poke the keys on the virtual keyboard that pops up before you. This method only responds to your pointer finger on each hand, so you will feel like typing on a regular keyboard with just one finger.
  2. The second method is quicker and more intuitive. To do this, you need to look at the key you want to press, and then you need to pinch to select it. Are you used to a keyboard layout? Then, you could type surprisingly fast this way. You will feel better than poking the virtual keys when you feel your fingers tap together. It is kind of like touch-typing in thin air.
  3. The third method is using voice input. For example, in Safari, you can look up at the microphone and say the URL out loud. The Vision Pro hears you and quickly goes to the site (as long as you pronounce the URL easily.

Apps built for the Vision Pro

The Vision Pro comes with amazing built-in apps to make the most of what it can do. Apple has upgraded its native apps like Apple Music, Notes, Settings, Calendar, Mail, Messages, and FaceTime as Vision Pro-specific versions to give users a new immersive experience.

Media Apps

Apple TV and Disney+ come pre-installed in Vision Pro. And they have their own environments inside them for watching shows and movies. You can even get a full 180-degree video experience with a new set of videos on the Apple TV app.

Third-party Apps

Apple has updated around 600 apps specifically for the Vision Pro so far.

Compatible Apps

It also comes with a pre-installed ‘Compatible Apps’ folder. There, you can find various apps from Apple that look just like their iPhone and iPad versions.

Notable exceptions

Interestingly, some popular apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify aren’t available on the Vision Pro. But you can still use the browser and access any content that would work with it. Want to watch a full-screen 4K YouTube video in Vision Pro? Visit the browser and enjoy.

Game-changing Mac Virtual Display

Did you know you could connect Apple Vision Pro to your Mac? 

You only need one click to turn your Mac’s screen into a 4K window inside the headset. 

Can you still use your keyboard and trackpad? 

Yes, you can control everything with them, but now you can also change the size and distance of your new 4K monitor.

Seamless integration

Do you want to hear something even cooler? 

You can open and place other Vision Pro apps around your Mac computer. It does not matter whether you are working on a Mac app or browsing Safari; you can open multiple windows and switch between them using your keyboard and trackpad. No more no work while travelling. You can work privately and comfortably and make your screen as big or small as you want.

Challenge and limitations

You will have to remember to look directly at what you want to control when using this feature. It is the only challenge with it. And remember, the Vision Pro only supports one virtual monitor at a time.

Personas bring a digital representation of you

If you are searching for the most talked about feature in Apple Vision Pro, it is Personas. This feature shows a version of your eyes on the outside of the headset. Is this for you? No, it is for the people around you. When you are in passthrough mode, your eyes shine through to show you can see the person outside. When you are in an immersive environment and can’t see what’s around you, it covers your eyes with a cool blue, purple glowing animation.

Apple powers the Personas feature with sensors inside the headset. They track your eyes very fast, at 90 frames per second. What do these sensors do? They provide an optic ID. It is a security feature like Face ID or Touch ID. It identifies your eyes to log into the headset.

How do you interact with others with personas?

If someone outside the headset is looking at you and talking to you while you are in an immersive environment, they can appear through the fog of the immersive environment if you start talking and looking in their direction. How many people can you see? This feature only shows one person at a time. It displays a bit of your eyes poking through the purple and blue glow on the outside of the headset.

A futuristic experience with FaceTime

Technically speaking, FaceTime on the Vision Pro is the most unique experience you can get. When you make a FaceTime call, they appear as glassy windows floating in space with people looking through them. Your window looking angle matches the angle at which they see you looking at them. What does this mean? Let us assume that you are on a call with multiple people and make eye contact with one person. Now, others see the side of your head because you are looking at someone else.

Hand gestures and Spatial Audio

Cameras track your hand gestures and show up at the right angle towards the person you are gesturing at. Apple does not stop there; they have combined this with awesome spatial audio and made a super immersive experience for users.

Conclusion

The Apple Vision Pro is the latest groundbreaking device defining the future. It pushes the boundaries of virtual reality technology in ways no one imagined before. With Vision Pro’s awesome features, such as Personas, Mac Virtual Display, and super immersive FaceTime experience, you can glimpse the future of spatial computing. It is available in the U.S. at $3,499 for 256GB of storage from online or in-person Apple Stores.

Is Apple Vision Pro perfect? No, Apple could make changes to improve areas like the subtlety of the external eye display, the limited selection of apps, and the battery life. And the high price tag might be too much for some people. Yet, the Vision Pro’s innovative features and how Apple successfully brought a futuristic experience into the real world will always be historic.