Despite its thick materials and large glass panel, the Apple Vision Pro is surprisingly durable, as the first drop test video on YouTube shows. Apple Vision Pro users may be tempted to avoid throwing away the $3,500 piece of hardware they just purchased anytime soon. But, like other headsets and mobile electronics, they can be dropped at some point.
Durability testing is generally a poor indicator of the durability of electronics, but it's so popular that some channels spend money on new devices and quickly test them as soon as they're launched.
Thankfully, the first Apple Vision Pro "durability test" video takes a fairly methodical approach. This also provides good news for users interested in purchasing Apple Vision Pro.
AppleTrack's Sam Kohl posted a video late on Friday's launch day putting the Apple Vision Pro to a gravity impact test. It initially took a drop from about waist height onto thick carpet to prove that the LightSeal's connection wasn't strong enough to grip the headset assembly.
Before continuing, he deliberately walked around the house, slamming the headset into various walls, doors, and corners. After 20 hits to the face, Cole found small scratches on the front glass, as well as some marks from heavier hand strikes against the wall.
Kohl also pointed out that when immersed in a virtual environment, you won't receive notifications until you're too close to a wall.
The third time it fell from a height of about six feet above the head to the wooden floor. There were a few more scratches on the front glass, but the right speaker was also damaged. On the fourth drop, a small crack appeared near the hinge of the right arm.
The fifth drop was from overhead onto the carpet, showing forces on the left side near the speaker. The sixth time, after falling onto the wooden floor from a height of about 7 feet, the hood flew up.
After further increasing the height to about 8 feet, the front glass was still intact, just with more scratches.
On the eighth drop, the final drop in the video, Cole dropped the Apple Vision Pro from about 10 feet above the ceiling of the room to the wooden floor. At this height, and after multiple drops directly to the front of the headset, the glass finally cracked. But it turned out that only the outer glass was broken. The other panel directly below and all the sensors and cameras were still intact. The front glass was also basically intact and did not break into small pieces.
After peeling off the damaged front glass as a whole, VisionPro continued to work normally, the external screen was completely normal, and the perspective effect seemed to have not changed.
Cole commented: "It's really durable. I've never seen curved glass that's so durable."