Tried Apple Vision Pro: breathtaking and it tricks your brain

We finally tried the Apple Vision Pro and couldn’t believe our eyes. Read our first impressions here.

When in New York…

During my first holiday to New York, a number of things were high on my to-do list: walking through neighborhoods such as Soho and East Village, relaxing in Central Park and of course visiting the large glass Apple Store on Broadway for a real hands-on experience with the Apple Vision Pro.

After greeting the employee at the door of the Apple Store, I scheduled a test demo. While waiting, I filled out a survey about the strength of my glasses and scanned the size of my head with Face ID. This data was then used to prepare the headset for the session.

Getting started with the Apple Vision Pro

After a brief explanation, I was allowed to put on the headset – with the correct strength Zeiss lenses – and the installation began. The lenses automatically changed position for the sharpest image and I learned the necessary hand gestures. The Vision Pro does not have a remote control or controller, but scans your hands and eyes to navigate through menus.

This works in two steps. Number 1, look with your eyes at what you want to select and number 2, press your fingers together to click. You don’t even have to keep your hand in the air, because with the fourteen cameras on board, the headset always knows how to find your fingers. Swiping through apps also works this way and after a few seconds it feels natural.

The Vision Pro has an incredibly intuitive menu and all elements look razor-sharp. In addition, I am very impressed how the ‘floating’ windows maintain their position in the room, even if you change places. That created the illusion that they were really in the same room as me.

Besides watching videos on the moon, you can also watch 3D movies and series. Even more impressive were spatial videos shot with the headset. Although it may be a strange idea to film precious moments with a VR headset, it produces unique images that give a new twist to reliving the past.

Edges and camera noise disappear automatically

When you put on the Vision Pro, you will notice that the viewing angle is not that great. You will see a large black bar around your view. Also showed the cameras during the pass throughmode in these lighting conditions quite a bit of noise. That sounds like two major disadvantages for a product that literally has Vision in the name, but your brain actually filters these things out very quickly. It’s like wearing reading glasses, where you can see right through the dirty lenses.

The headset received a lot of criticism online about the weight and (missing) comfort of the special one Solo Knit Band. I didn’t notice much of this during the demo and actually found the headset surprisingly well secured, at least for half an hour.

Apple Vision Pro (demo): highly recommended

Unfortunately, the Vison Pro is not officially available in the Netherlands, but it can now be obtained through gray imports. Yet it remains an expensive joke with a price of DiscontinuedSo we can’t really recommend it. We also cannot say how he will like it in the long term.

All in all, the headset surprised me with the sleek finish of menus, high quality content and intuitive controls. I therefore definitely recommend that you visit the Apple Store for a hands-on experience, if you happen to be in the United States. It is free, super impressive and can secretly be the best half hour of the holiday for enthusiasts.