Vision Pro week one - An emotional rollercoaster
I've had a Vision Pro for almost a week and thought I'd share my initial thoughts on this unusual device.
TLDR #
My first impressions: It's amazing, slick, and a lot of fun to use. The hardware and OS are beautiful, from the visuals to the sound and doing even mundane tasks like checking email while listening to a podcast feels futuristic. The environments, immersive video and apps are awe-inspiring.
At the same time, it's heavy, makes my face hurt, has a narrow field of vision, and includes a fiddly battery on a thick cable.
The app ecosystem is lacking - admittedly I can't use all the apps as I have an Ireland-based iCloud account - with experiences that occasionally seem absolutely wonderful and often clunky and buggy.
I've developed a pain in the back of my neck, my temples have a constant dull ache and the skin under my eyes seems a bit stretched.
It's a contradiction of a device. A part of me dreads putting it back on (mostly my face). At the same time, I am excited to explore spatial computing some more.
It's a rollercoaster emotionally - disappointment at the discomfort and limited field of view while in the next moment experiencing delight and awe at what this thing can do.
I am lucky I get to spend time with this device and am intrigued to see where it's going.
Step 1: Apple store demo #
I booked an appointment for a demo at the Belfast Apple Store at 10am on a Monday morning. The experience was wonderful - I was running a bit early but had some questions about the Zeiss ordering process so they quickly booked me in and had me upstairs talking to their representative straight away.
The demo itself was relaxed. I could tell they had a script to follow, with a face scan (they recommended a 21W), setup process, explanation of controls, and making sure the dual band strap was properly fitted.
The demo covered selecting apps, environments, watching some Apple TV shows in a cinema environment, and ended with an inspiring sizzle reel of upcoming immersive video. That last part had be laughing and gasping - I didn't care that I was in a busy Apple store - it just felt amazing. A great demo!
I was already convinced before entering the store that I wanted to make a purchase, and the demo was to see if I would find any compelling reason not to get it, but it left me positive on the device and delighted to pull out the credit card.
When at the store I got to speak to a few staff members including someone who may have been the manager, and there was a lot of interest in what I thought of the new shiny device. In partcular, I want to call out Steve who guided me through the demo and made it a lot of fun.
During the demo other staff members wandered by to listen in. When I put the moon environment into dark mode, they were excited to hear that I could see the stars!
All in all it was a great store experience and I'd recommend anyone with an interest in the headset to book a demo.
First days - getting used to it #
After bringing the Vision Pro home and doing an unboxing, I was quick to jump in and get set up with my Apple ID, and try out some apps.
Since the device is new and still geographically limited, my Irish Apple ID wasn't able to access the app store, or log in to Apple TV. I set up a UK-based Apple ID to get around the store issue and could log in to that within the "media and purchases" settings. Not ideal, as it doesn't have Apple TV, Music or Arcade, but it's a start.
On the first day I spend a lot of time hanging out in environments, opening and moving windows around, and playing with some interesting spatial playground apps. Since I don't have a lot of media I mostly poked around Youtube and played a couple of local video movie files through MoonPlayer.
I was struck by how different it is to have any number of huge windows I can place around my environment. It's such a different experience it takes some getting used to and can be overwhelming. I did have a lot of fun though.
Discomfort #
I quickly learned about what people meant when they said that the device was uncomfortable. I think there's a learning curve to the way the device sits on the face. For me, I quickly found that the headset would feel like it was pulling down on my cheeks.
When I tried to shift the weight through changing the position of the strap on the back of my head, I found that the pressure on my forehead became a problem. After the first day I had a headache and strange pains in my cheeks.
Revisiting the store #
By the end of the second day, I was finding the comfort enough of a challenge that I made an appointment with the Apple Store to try other light seals. The staff were great and I got to try 11W, 33W, 22W and 23W seals. In the end I felt it was better to go with the 23W over the original 21W.
In-store it felt perfectly fine. This is something I saw many commentators mention but it's hard to know until you give this headset a bit of time.
The comfort feels ok at first, but even with the new seal it becomes a bit much within about 30 minutes. I can adjust the straps to move the weight around between the cheeks and forehead but it seems for me at least it's just not possible to get it to feel entirely comfortable.
Even when writing this, I started off feeling totally fine (and loving this giant text editor window), but 30 minutes in I'm finding I need to either keep adjusting it or take a break.
Tips for better comfort #
I have since discovered that my issue was mainly caused by over-tightening the solo strap. I've since found that comfort can be improved by keeping the headset loose enough that the device is on the edge of slipping off my face. I then carefully adjust the strap's position on the back of my head so that it's splitting the pressure between forehead and cheeks.
The tweaks can be very subtle but with a little practice I'm able to dial-in the position: if it's heavy on cheeks I move the strap slightly down and maybe tighten a little. If it's heavy on forehead, I move it up a little and loosen.
Everyone's different but this seems to help. It even reduces the blurriness a little.
Glare and blurriness #
Something that seems an issue is the lens flare / glare effect. I've certainly noticed it, and at times it can be distracting. It seems to be particularly noticeable when there is a strong light source to the side, which leaks through the light shield and causes rings to appear around the bottom and the overlapping parts of the two lenses.
In some high-contrast scenes of movies I've seeen the other type of glare, which seems to me more like a kind of greasy blurriness around the center of the image. It's only sometimes an issue.
The light seal makes a difference in the lens flare around the edges, while the contrast in the video being watched can create glare within the lens itself. The latter I think is something intrinsic to the hardware and impossible to eliminate.
Foveated rendering and screen angle #
The angle of the screens to your eyes can easily cause blurriness. For me initially this caused most of the UI to have a slight shimmer or blurriness. When I adjusted by light seal to 23W, this became less of an issue.
I still notice some blurriness around the edges of the visible area. If I look with my eyes toward text at the side of the screen, there's a noticeable flickery blur to it. Even text near the center is not always perfectly clear, and slight movements of my head can cause it to be more or less blurry.
Once I receive my Zeiss lenses I'll revisit this.
Using a laptop #
I'm writing this post while using my 13 inch M1 Macbook Air, using a native Vision Pro writing app called Runestone.
Typing is mostly great and I love how I can use the trackpad to select and move a cursor around. Sometimes the selection jumps around which results in text appearing out of place. I think this could be due to latency in the connection between the laptop and the virtual screen.
Virtual screen #
It's fun being able to have a larger screen displaying the Macbook's contents. It's not as clear as I'd like. I sometimes found the interactions a little janky with the Vision Pro's taps taking focus away. Sometimes the connection to the laptop would drop. However I'm sure that's my old WIFI setup.
Environments and productivity #
As pictured above, I am enjoying be able to dial in an environment, and focus on one task at a time. In this case having a huge (tall!) editor for the text while feeling like I'm sitting on the beach. The environments come with sound. I'm listening to waves gently hitting the shore.
It's pleasant and I'm noticing I quickly forget about the narrow field of view when in immersive environments. They also look a lot clearer than the pass-through video.
Passthrough video #
The passthrough video is pretty decent. It definitely looks a little grainy but it's clear enough for me to see the keys on my laptop keyboard or in a pinch, read authentication codes on my phone. It's not perfect but does a good enough job of letting me feel present in the room while having giant floating windows everywhere.
Immersive video #
Beyond floating windows, I've tried a small amount of immersive video. The site Explore POV looks like a great way to virtually travel, and Apple's own sizzle reel in Apple TV gives some indication of what it is capable of.
My iCloud account being a temporary one means I've not signed up for Apple TV or other services but I will look forward to seeing more of this content in future.
In the meantime I'm enjoying watching movies and TV shows in Moon Player. It offers a neat cinema immersive environment which feels like a fancy home cinema setup.
Having said that, there seem to be other players such as Cinemax and others - none of which seem great yet to be honest but it's something to pay attention to.
Photos and panoramas #
I was surprised how enjoyable it has been to browse photos and videos in the Photos app. I have a large collection of panoramas I've created since before the iPhone started offering the feature, and they are a great experience. The low resolution compared to immersive video is noticeable but it still feels great to be inside a panorama.
Apps: iPad apps and native #
The few native iPad apps I've tried seem to work well. This includes calendar, notes and books. Sitting back and reading a book is an interesting experience. I've not had time to try reading properly but it could be a good way to experience books if the headset is comfortable enough.
visionOS 2 #
The latest version of visionOS is available as a developer beta currently. I'm running the beta and it is a worthwhile update.
One of the biggest benefits is the gesture for opening the home screen, which when combined with a twist of the wrist shows a summary of time, battery, focus states and volume level. A tap opens the control panel, and a press and drag opens a volume slider. It's a genuinely delightful little detail.
Along with this the updates bring spatial photo processing. Existing photos can be made 3D using machine learning and the effect is stunning. I'm looking forward to exploring the spatial photo processing more as the emotional response to seeing older photos brought to life with this technology is fascinating.
Videos can also be opened into standalone floating players more easily, and even set to display at maximum size in environments. Watching a Youtube video over lake Hood with the screen reflecting in the lake is a lot of fun.
visionOS details #
Beyond the big things, I'm enjoying the small details throughout visionOS. The glass effect used for windows is beautiful. Windows stay where they are put, and it feels strange that other people around me can't see them when they seem to real.
The sounds the UI triggers are nicely designed and add to the experience nicely. When the home screen shows there's a gentle and pleasant droning chord that plays subtly in the background. Combined with the visual details, the device feels futuristic and welcoming.
Week one conclusions #
It's been a distracting and busy week getting used to how this device feels and spending a lot of time poking around in various apps. While the app store is light on big apps, I can feel the potential in where this could go.
The Apple Vision Pro is a fun and impressive headset. It can wow with its high resolution screens and immersive content, and is a superb way to enjoy TV and movies. It's been fun even using it for mundane tasks like working through the week's emails, browsing reviews of products in Youtube or just reading the news.
I opened my Macbook Air to do some admin last night, and was shocked at how small everything was. I think the large UI of the Vision Pro, where every window is at least several feet across, quickly became normal and shaped my expectations of what size everything should be.
Getting things done in the Vision Pro is both amazing and tiresome. Dealing with the cable and discomfort is distracting enough that it took me 2 hours to watch a 45-minute episode of a TV show. I hope I get used to these things otherwise they'll end up pushing me away from wanting to pick it up.
I have not had time to open Xcode and try out any development myself, but I look forward to once the initial excitement settles a little.
All in all it's been interesting. The Vision Pro is heavy and uncomfortable and yet I find myself thinking about it all the time and looking forward to getting back into it.
Let's see how the next weeks or months go.
