We tested Apple’s new virtual reality glasses

It’s rare to find a new technology that feels groundbreaking. But last night, sitting on a couch in a private demo room on Apple’s campus wearing the newly announced Vision Pro mixed reality headset (or headset), it felt like I’d seen the future. Or at least an early and very expensive prototype of the future.

In the demo, which lasted 30 minutes, a virtual butterfly landed on my finger; a dinosaur with detailed scales tried to bite me; and I stood a few feet away from Alicia Keys’ piano as she sang to me in the studio.

When a baby bear swam with me in a quiet lake during another immersive video, it felt so real that I was reminded of something I experienced with a loved one who recently passed away. Tears flowed freely inside my headset.

Apple unveiled the accessory, its most ambitious and risky new hardware product in years, at an event for developers and experts on Monday morning. The headset combines virtual reality and augmented reality, a technology that overlays virtual images on video with live, real-world images.

At the event, Apple CEO Tim Cook highlighted the Vision Pro as a “revolutionary product” with the potential to change the way users interact with technology, each other and the world around them. He called it “the first product where you look through it, and not look at it.”

But it’s clearly still a work in progress. Apps and experiences remain limited; users are restricted to an iPhone-sized battery lasting just two hours; and the first few minutes using the device can be disappointing.

Apple also plans to charge US$3,499 (about R$17,180.00) for the device, which will be sold from the beginning of next year. The price is higher than imagined and much saltier than other headsets on the market that have already tried to win over users.

With its loyal following and impressive track record in hardware, Apple may be able to convince developers, first-time users and some corporate customers to pay for the device. But if it wants to appeal to a broader, non-niche audience, it will need a “killer app,” a term the industry uses a lot. Or various killer apps.

Based on my demo, Apple still has a long way to go, but it’s off to a convincing start.

a special building

Hours after the main event, I arrived at a building on Apple’s sprawling campus in Cupertino, California, purpose-built to host demos and briefings for the new headset.

I was greeted by an Apple employee who scanned my face to help customize the headset fit. Then I entered a small room where an optometry technician asked if I wore glasses or corrective lenses. I had Lasik surgery for myopia years ago and don’t wear anything, but others who were there had their glasses scanned so the headset could display the accurate prescription of the glasses.

Welcome to the era of spatial computing with Apple Vision Pro. You’ve never seen anything like this before! pic.twitter.com/PEIxKNpXBs

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 5, 2023

It’s an incredible feat that sets Apple apart from the competition and ensures that no eyeglass frames need to be pressed down uncomfortably by the earcup. But it’s unclear how the company plans to handle this process at scale if millions buy the device.

The initial setup process was a little unpleasant: I felt a bit queasy and claustrophobic as I adjusted to the device. The technician tracked my eyes, scanned my hands, and mapped the room to best fit the augmented reality experience.

Indeed, Apple has reported that it has taken steps to reduce the motion sickness problem that has plagued users of other accessories of this type. The headset uses an R1 processor, a custom chip that reduces the latency issue found in similar products that can result in nausea.

As many readers were quick to point out on Monday, the headset itself looks like a fancy pair of ski goggles. It has a soft adjustable strap on top, a “digital crown” on the back – a larger version than an Apple Watch – and another digital crown on top that serves as a sort of “home” button. There is also a wire that connects to an external battery.

The headset itself felt light enough at first, but even with Apple’s considerable design cutbacks, I constantly felt like there was a computer in my face. Thankfully, unlike other computing products, the headset stayed cool, without getting my face hot, throughout the experience, thanks in large part to a quiet fan and the airflow that passes through the system.

Unlike other headsets, the new mixed reality headset also displays its wearers’ eyes from the outside, so “you’re never isolated from the people around you; you can see them and they can see you,” explained Alan Dye, vice president of human interface, during the product presentation.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see what my own or anyone else’s eyes looked like during the demo.

a mixed experience

After placing the device, I saw an iOS-like interface. I could easily switch in and out of apps like Messages, FaceTime, Safari, and Photos using just my eye movements and tapping my thumb and index finger together to act as the “select” button.

It was more intuitive than expected and it worked even when my hands rested in my lap.

Some app experiences were better than others, though. It was beautiful to see images in the Photos app presented before me in a larger-than-life way, but it’s hard to imagine feeling the need to do this often from the couch at home.

Vision Pro also offers a spatial photo option, which allows users to view 3D images and videos so you feel like you are directly in the scene. Again, nice but unnecessary.

During another demo, an Apple employee wearing a Vision Pro headset FaceTimed me from across campus. Her “persona” – a digital representation that didn’t show her using the Vision Pro – appeared in front of me as we talked about the event earlier in the day.

She looked real, but it was clear she wasn’t; she was a kind of pseudo human. (Apple didn’t scan my face to create my own persona, which it would have done via its OpticID security feature during the setup phase.)

The Apple employee then shared a virtual whiteboard – dragging, dropping and highlighting decor images. Cook focused on AR’s potential to foster collaboration, and it’s clear how this tool can be used in meetings to deliver on that promise. What is less clear is why most employers would spend $3,500 per device per employee to make this happen, rather than simply using Zoom.

The product unveiling and “selling” to the demonstrators seemed to come at the wrong time. At the start of the pandemic, more people could have jumped at the chance to create these virtual experiences while we work and socialize almost entirely from home.

Now, with more workers in the office and companies looking to cut costs amid economic uncertainty, the rationale for this expensive device seems less clear.

The real magic of the Vision Pro, however, is in the immersive videos. Watching an underwater scene from “Avatar 2” in 3D, for example, was surreal, seemingly putting me right in the ocean with the film’s fictional creatures. It’s easy to imagine the adoption by Hollywood filmmakers to create headset-only experiences.

Apple is also uniquely positioned here to pack the device with these experiences. She has close relationships in the entertainment industry, including former Apple board member and Disney CEO Bob Iger, who announced in a pre-recorded video during the event that Disney will make the headset available when it launches. Apple also released new National Geographic, Marvel, and ESPN experiences for the product.

Almost every new Apple product, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch, promises to use screens of varying sizes to change the way we live, work and interact with the world. The Vision Pro has the potential to do all of this in an even more impressive way.

But unlike the first time I picked up an iPhone or a smartwatch, after 30 minutes of using the Vision Pro, I was quite happy to take it off and be back in the real world.