Apple Vision Pro Review: A Little Too Far Out

By now, you have likely “, which the company is positioning as the future of computing. There have been countless unboxings, “. I encourage you to read my colleague Lauren Goode’s “! The idea of a singular device that can replicate my ” was a perfect time to test the Vision Pro’s capabilities for work. I mustered up the courage to don the headset in public—I’m thankful no one was seated next to me on the plane—and I placed Apple’s Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad on the tray table. Why Apple didn’t bother to make a custom keyboard and mouse combo for the Vision Pro (that didn’t also use Lightning for charging) boggles my mind.

The Vision Pro comes with an external battery pack.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu,

I got incredibly frustrated the first few minutes in the air. The Vision Pro needs to go into Travel Mode when you’re in a plane (or even a train), otherwise, the sensors get confused and it doesn’t know where to place virtual apps in the space you’re in because you’re moving so fast. The headset is supposed to automatically detect when you’re flying and offer a prompt to turn it on, but it didn’t for me. So it became a game of trying to move through the interface fast enough to get to the Control Center and turn it on before everything disappeared and I got the “tracking failed” notification. It took me about 10 tries, but I finally did it. I felt like Tom Cruise in “. Seeing all those virtual screens without taking up much space was amazing.

The problem? All of my virtual apps had a slight jitter to them, almost like they were vibrating in place, which wasn’t great. I had the ” that just doesn’t feel as precise and functional as a standard cursor on macOS or Windows. I also don’t like how much I have to move my head around to look at all these virtual screens. Typically, with my ultrawide monitor and vertical monitor setup, a simple glance is all I need to see the other screen. But on the Vision Pro with several apps open, my head is on a constant swivel. Pushing the apps further back within the virtual space helps but doesn’t solve this problem.

The finger gesture that doubles as a mouse click is smart and largely works well, but there are times when the Vision Pro thinks my fingers are making this gesture when I’m typing, causing the whole browser window to scroll up and down. Speaking of, if you put your hands on your lap while watching a movie, they just stay present even when you dial the environment around you to block out the world. It was weird watching a show and seeing my hands flickering at the bottom of the screen.

Future Shock

The biggest problem with the Vision Pro is that you have to ” when you move around.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu,

Worse is when the doorbell goes off while you’re in the Vision Pro and you have to suddenly take it off to run downstairs and answer the door. Contrary to what Apple might want, I find it odd to just keep wearing the headset as I move through my home.

Just the other day I was installing a smart thermostat and I thought it would be helpful to wear the headset and place the installation’s video walkthrough in a virtual space next to the thermostat so I didn’t have to keep going back to my phone. Then I thought about having to wear the Vision Pro and look through the passthrough screen, which sometimes resembles a 720p display. Oh and the fact that there’s no official YouTube app yet (there is a third-party option). I just watched the video on my phone instead.

My wife doesn’t like it when I’m wearing the Vision Pro. She says it makes me “very unapproachable,” and even though Apple has a feature called EyeSight that simulates your eyes on the exterior screen of the headset, she says it’s difficult to notice it. When she does, “It feels like I’m looking at your eyes through a screensaver.” I might be enjoying my time in the headset, but it’s isolating for her.

I can go on and on. It’s surprisingly bulky to stuff in a backpack, not to mention the travel case Apple sells is $199 and adds even more bulk. It’s silly that the Zeiss prescription inserts cost so much, and that there’s no way to set up a second user’s profile in case someone else in the household wants to use it. (There’s just a rudimentary guest mode.) I also don’t love the faint glare on the lens that seems to only appear when you’re watching a movie or show in a dark setting.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Most of all, I’m not sure about how Apple is positioning the Vision Pro. Should the future of computing be a bulky headset strapped to our heads that isolates us from the real world? Should I walk around my home capturing spatial video of my dog all the time? Or have conversations with my wife as she stares at my digital eyes? I am sure a loyal Apple and VR fanbase is loving every minute inside the Vision Pro, but I fear the simplest barrier of having to wear a bulky thing on the head is enough to put off the vast majority of consumers.

Yes, the Vision Pro is very much a first-gen product and one that’s not really intended for the general public—it’s more like a public developer kit. Naturally, components will get smaller, the technology will improve, and hopefully, the price will go down. The hardware is monumental, and the capabilities of the Vision Pro are incredibly impressive. But I think we are quite a ways away from the future Apple is envisioning.