VisionPro's confidentiality period was lifted last night, and American media that have been using it for more than a week have issued evaluation reports. We have compiled reviews from five media outlets: TheVerge, CNET, CBNC, The Wall Street Journal, and Tom’s Guide, and summarized them from three perspectives: audio-visual effects, interactive experience, and application ecosystem to see how the experience of using this expensive device, which costs up to $3,500, is.
Although VisionPro is amazing, if you choose carefully between the two experiences, VisionPro currently does not have an overwhelming advantage.
When watching a football match, you can enjoy the game from the goalkeeper's perspective, which may revolutionize the existing way of watching sports matches;
However, keeping your eyes on the content you want to manipulate all the time is tiring;
Interaction can be achieved in the dark, probably thanks to VisionPro’s infrared camera;
VisionPro is regarded as an MR device, but it does not feel much AR effect during actual experience;
There are no truly native games and fitness apps, and Netflix, Spotify and YouTube have not yet developed apps specifically for VisionPro;
VisionPro is so heavy, it's like hanging an iPad on your face.
NilayPatel, editor-in-chief of TheVerge, emphatically praised VisionPro’s ‘video pass-through’ effect. This function means that VisionPro can record images in real time through the front camera and transmit them to the display in the headset. Since the latency of VisionPro is very low, only 12 milliseconds, coupled with the ultra-high-resolution screen, users will have an experience without a headset. This is also why Apple can use VR (virtual reality) equipment to achieve AR (augmented reality) effects.
However, Patel said that although the latency of VisionPro is very low, the screen will still appear blurry if you shake your head violently, and the 'video pass-through' effect will also become worse when the light is insufficient. In addition, he believes that the field of view of VisionPro is smaller than that of Quest3, because the black border can be felt at the edge of the line of sight, and there is light distortion and color shading. In addition, he also mentioned that the sound leakage from the built-in speaker was serious, and people around him could hear the sound of the device.
CNET reporter Scott Stein is very satisfied with the audio-visual effects of VisionPro. He believes that the screen is vivid and colorful, even better than a TV. He thought it was a great device for watching movies. And Stein specifically mentioned the feeling of watching immersive videos on Apple TV. He described it as immersive - he watched high-altitude climbers walking a tightrope across a fjord in Norway, and a documentary short about rhinos, and thought it was comparable to 3DIMAX.
In addition, Stein also praised the spatial audio on VisionPro. When he watched the AFC Champions League game, the sound seemed to come from the virtual screen. This is thanks to Apple’s ‘audio tracking technology’, which can simulate the reverberation of audio in a room, just like the sound coming from a TV speaker, giving users a more immersive audio-visual experience.
CNBC reporter Todd Haselton wrote about his experience working with VisionPro. Thanks to VisionPro’s ‘video pass-through’ effect, you can have multiple applications spread out in front of you. For example, set up the browser in front of you, the music on the side, and the TV screen on top. During the whole process, VisionPro worked very smoothly. This is partly due to Apple’s ‘optimized rendering technology’. Apple will only fully render the area where your eyes are looking, and reduce the rendering level in the non-looking areas, so this is also the reason why the area around the line of sight feels blurry.
Mark Spoonauer, editor-in-chief of Tom’sGuide, introduced his special experience of immersive video. In the experience video of a football match, he can choose different viewing perspectives, such as enjoying the match from the goalkeeper’s perspective, which may subvert the existing way of watching sports matches. In addition, Spoonauer believes that the sound effect of VisionPro is extremely good. The left and right audio sources are very balanced, and it has the same spatial audio function as AirPods. "I can hear Mario coming from the left side of the screen and Princess Peach coming from the right side."
TheVerge editor-in-chief Patel believes that VisionPro's hand and eye tracking functions are very good, and the body seems to have superpowers during actual operation. And as long as your hands are placed on the front half of your body, such as on your legs or above your head, VisionPro can almost track the subtle movements of your hands.
However, although Patel believes that Apple's implementation is excellent, the actual experience of the device is not satisfactory. One is that eye tracking means that the user needs to stare at the content you want to control. However, in life, we often rely on the sense of space to drag the window instead of looking at it all the time. This method of control is tiring. Secondly, although hand tracking is already excellent, if you place your hand somewhere where the VisionPro camera cannot see it, you still cannot interact normally. In life, the position of your hand varies widely, for example, it may be placed under the table. And because VisionPro constantly monitors your hand movements, sometimes even though you don’t want to operate, it will misunderstand your intentions.
In addition, Patel believes that although VisionPro is regarded as an MR (mixed reality, which combines VR and AR) equipment, it does not feel much AR effect when actually experiencing it. Generally speaking, AR refers to adding virtual elements to the real environment, such as a text preview window appearing on your hand when you type. However, watching movies and using applications on VisionPro are all interactions with a two-dimensional screen, and the experience cannot be combined with the real environment.
CNET's Stein said that most interactions can be done with the eyes and hands, and of course, communicating with Siri through the microphone. In particular, he mentioned that these interactions can be achieved in the dark, which should be due to VisionPro’s infrared camera. Similar to other Apple products, Vision Pro also has a control center, which is a hover point floating above the field of view. When you stare at it, it turns into a control center interface.
Stein also mentioned the AirDrop function, which allows users to easily transfer content on iPhone, iPad, and Mac to VisionPro, which MetaQuest, which lacks a software ecosystem, does not have.
Although Patel thinks VisionPro's AR function is not obvious, "Wall Street Journal" reporter Joanna Stern felt the charm of AR while cooking. She fires up an app called Crouton while she cooks and keeps a recipe for sausage and mushroom pasta next to the stove. Thanks to VisionPro's low latency, she can literally chop vegetables while wearing the headset, and the timer will show up everywhere it's needed, including the pot for sautéing mushrooms and the stove for cooking pasta.
Tom’sGuide editor-in-chief Spoonauer mentioned that the experience of using the VisionPro virtual keyboard is not satisfactory because there is neither auditory feedback nor tactile feedback, which makes typing unrealistic and the typing speed cannot be too fast, otherwise recognition errors will occur.
TheVerge's Patel said that since VisionPro's visionOS system is customized based on iPadOS, most iPad applications can be used on VisionPro, which greatly enriches the application library of this new device.
But in addition, VisionPro's third-party native applications are still insufficient. For example, Netflix, Spotify and YouTube have not developed applications specifically for VisionPro. Perhaps this is because many application developers such as Spotify are in conflict with Apple over store fees. Of course, users can view the web versions of these products through the Safari browser. However, Patel mentioned that VisionPro cannot experience VR videos on YouTube through Safari. Apple officials stated that these contents were not specifically created for spatial computing devices, and the implication is that these contents are not ‘good enough’.
Patel also mentioned that there are currently no truly native games and fitness apps on Vision Pro, which he found strange. After all, Apple has invested heavily in fitness apps, and Apple Watch already has ample content resources.
CNET's Stein also mentioned that apart from iPhone and iPad applications, there are not many applications specifically optimized for VisionPro, and even Apple's own applications such as Apple Maps and GarageBand have not had time to optimize.
But Apple's game subscription service Apple Arcade offers several games that have been optimized. For example, SynthRiders is a music rhythm game, where you control the ball with your hands to hit the target according to the rhythm; GameRoom is a tabletop game simulator that allows you to virtually bring the chessboard or cards into the room, and drag the chess pieces or play cards with your hands.
CNBC's Haselton said that almost none of Facebook and Google's applications have been adapted for VisionPro, especially considering that these two companies have more than a dozen applications with 1 billion users. In addition, he also said that the password management software 1Password has not been adapted for VisionPro, making it very troublesome to log in to various applications. It seems that the support of such tool software is still necessary.
Tom'sGuide's Spoonauer said that Netflix's CEO is in discussions with Apple about signing up for VisionPro, but he also said that the current volume of VisionPro is too small.
Regarding the difficulties in application development on VisionPro, Li Pengpeng, director of XR product technology at Unity China, told China Business News that XR application development is similar to traditional game development, in which the balance between graphics and performance is a difficulty; in addition, making good use of new interactive technologies such as eye movement and hand tracking technology is another difficulty. Moreover, for ordinary developers who do not have strong financial strength, the high cost of VisionPro equipment and the lack of a mature developer community (meaning higher learning costs) are all reasons that prevent them from investing in visionOS application development.
TheVerge's Patel believes that the biggest problem with VisionPro is that it is too heavy, like hanging an iPad on your face. He said that the Vision Pro weighs between 600 and 650 grams, which is close to the weight of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which is 682 grams. And because VisionPro is designed to place all the weight on the front, your face will feel compressed after wearing it for a long time.
CNBC's Haselton believes that the battery is still not enough. After watching an hour of "Barbie" and two episodes of the TV series, the battery was only 5% left. Spoonauer of Tom’sGuide also said that due to power limitations, it is best to connect the power supply when using VisionPro, but this results in frequent interruptions by the power cord during use.
In the end, almost all reporters said VisionPro was too expensive. TheVerge’s Patel even issued the ‘Three Questions of the Soul’:
Is VisionPro good enough to warrant messing up my hair every time I put it on?
Is the VisionPro so good that I want to put it in a giant suitcase instead of my laptop bag?
Do I want to see the world around me through a screen instead of with my own eyes?
From this point of view, although VisionPro is amazing, if you choose carefully between the two experiences, VisionPro currently does not have an overwhelming advantage. Yesterday, it was reported that VisionPro has sold 200,000 units in the ten days since it went on sale. For comparison, Apple Watch, launched in 2015, had about 1 million pre-orders on its first day. As a product priced at $3,500, VisionPro's sales are encouraging, but as an electronic consumer product launched by Apple, this result is not satisfactory.
(CBN reporter Fan Xuehan also contributed to this article.)