Apple Vision Pro review: Does mixed reality headset's immersive experience justify hefty price tag?

The Apple Vision Pro is finally arriving in the UAE, nine months after it was originally released.

The company's first major hardware offering since the Apple Watch more than a decade ago was given a lot of hype, after being unveiled last year at the Worldwide Developers Conference – not surprising, considering all the developments in the virtual/augmented/mixed reality space.

That being said, we want to be upfront, this amazing, albeit very pricey, mixed reality headset is something maybe even Tony Stark would be proud of (at least that's what we believe). The National takes you through our experience with the Apple Vision Pro.

Before you buy

This is really important. Before purchasing a Vision Pro, Apple will measure your head with an app to determine the right size for you. If you wear glasses, you'll need to answer a few questions to find out if you'll need Zeiss optical inserts, which come at an additional cost.

This was probably a problem for those who bought the Vision Pro on grey or black markets. Not having the right size (and appropriate optical inserts) will hamper your experience with the device severely.

How do you set it up?

Before anything else, you'll have to connect the battery pack, which has a proprietary connector that twists and locks so tight that there is no chance it will disconnect.

The Vision Pro does not run on its own batteries. The device has no power on/off button, which means the only way to truly shut it down is by disconnecting the battery. When not in use and with the battery still connected, it remains in standby mode, with operations such as background refresh and any ongoing downloads remaining active.

The Vision Pro's battery – a 3166mAh pack – is advertised to typically last about two or 2.5 hours, if watching video. If you want more power, you can daisy-chain it to a power bank, or plug the pack into a wall socket for unlimited power.

After connecting the battery, a subtle Apple logo will appear on the screen in front, indicating that it has come to life. Wear it to begin the setup – if you have an iPhone or iPad, bring it close to the Vision Pro for automatic setup, or you can set it up manually by double-pressing the digital crown on the upper-right corner, which, along with the top button on the opposite side, provides additional functions.

It will first calibrate your eyes with a series of configurations involving looking at dots in three levels of brightness. Your hands will also be enrolled into the system, then you'll be guided on how to use hand gestures.

After that, you will be asked whether you want to capture your Persona, which is basically your virtual, non-cartoonish twin that can represent you while using apps including FaceTime calls, or to show your eyes – a feature called EyeSight – on the front screen when talking to someone. After some more iPhone-esque setup prompts, you are ready to go.

The Vision Pro still lets you look at the real world, but with an overlay of visionOS – picture your Apple app drawer projected right in front of you.

How do you control it?

You control the Vision Pro with your eyes and hands – and this is where it starts to get impressive.

Just look at any app or function you wish to use and then do a simple tap (not hold) with your index finger and thumb on either hand to select it. It is not 100 per cent perfect, though. Your eyes might miss their intended target, especially when options are clubbed closely together, and on rare occasions it does not react to taps.

One note on tapping – you do not have to raise it or have it within your sight to use it. As long as it is within the 180-degree field of view, you can do taps with your hands in a comfortable position. The same principle applies to when you want to do other gestures, such as scrolling and zooming.

For some gestures, such as bringing up the home screen and the control centre, you will need to also use your hand.

Another radical feature is how to type. When prompted – on a URL bar, emails, notes, or other apps – a virtual keyboard pops up near you that you can use to type. However, as of now it only recognises index fingers. But if you are an impatient typist, you can always connect a Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse, as well as compatible gaming controllers such as the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation. In addition, you can also mirror between iPhones, iPads and Macs.

What can you do with it?

We have already established the Vision Pro puts an overlay of visionOS, so we can best describe this is as a (mostly) hardware-less interaction with Apple's ecosystem. Virtual, augmented and mixed-reality headsets have long been associated with gaming, but Apple pushes this several notches higher.

By far, our most favourite feature is its ability to let you multitask. Remember those sci-fi movies in which people just play around with digital projections in their "real" world (Iron Man, Black Panther, Justice League etc)? The Vision Pro's capabilities are similar.

You can have several windows open and just drag them in any direction so you can open another app in front of you without having to close any.

Apple is tapping into education and professional work with the Vision Pro. For example, you can project a 3D model of a ship and, depending on how the model was rendered, you'll have the ability to do additional inspections, such as zooming into it, that will give you access into its interior, with all details complete, or disassemble it by removing part by part.

Virtual learning is not new, but this seriously amps up how much more detail you can get into. Think engineering and anatomy.

The Vision Pro can also make your photos more engaging using Apple's spatial technology, giving them more depth. It is a good way to bring old memories back to life or just make it feel like you are there with your loved ones.

What makes this possible is the whole bunch of cameras and sensors at the front of the device – two main cameras, two side cameras, two TrueDepth cameras, four downward cameras, two infrared illuminators and a Lidar scanner – all these combine to make virtual reality as real as possible.

It is also easy to shoot spatial photos and videos with the Vision Pro. And if you want to convert images from your iPhone or iPad, you can AirDrop them to your Vision Pro, select the image and tap on the cube-like button on the upper-left corner.

Circling back into gaming and entertainment, the Vision Pro is fully immersive for games and movies specifically made for it. It looks so real that you would be forgiven if you are a bit startled with what is happening in front of you. For example, in movies that have scenes where someone is tightrope-walking between mountains, you might get overwhelmed with the view of what is below. In an NBA All-Star video, the courtside view is so realistic, you feel like you are actually in the arena, and you might instinctively try to avoid the ball if it comes towards you.

And if you just want to get away from the real world, you can enter one of the Vision Pro's environments. Our personal favourites are Lake Vrangla and Bora Bora.

Now here's a very important question – does the Vision Pro give you motion sickness? Thankfully, not so far. And there are no headaches either, despite the fact we used it for about two straight hours. Still, we have to point out that motion sickness varies from person to person. Apple explains how to identify and address this on its website.

Verdict

The Apple Vision Pro is, without a doubt, a very impressive piece of technology, with all the cameras and sensors. But there are, of course, some factors that we'd like seen resolved. It is expensive – Dh13,999 ($3,811) for 256GB, Dh14,799 for 512GB and Dh15,599 for 1TB. It is also fair to say the technology is still being perfected.

The lack of a built-in battery should also lead to expectations that it will have one in its next iteration. And while its life is largely in line with the likes of the Meta Quest and HTC Vive, we would have expected Apple to boost this aspect, to give it an edge in this race.

The problem with reviewing mixed reality headsets is that explaining it even in detail, as we just did, will not really do the device justice – you need to actually experience it to fully understand what they are capable of.