The highlights and slots of the first wave of Apple's Vision Pro reviews are here

Interface News Reporter | Wu Yangyu

Interface News Editor | Song Jianan

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Nearly two weeks after the pre-sale of Apple's Vision Pro began, a number of media outlets, including The Verge and The Wall Street Journal, have released more detailed review results, allowing users — especially those who have already paid for pre-orders — to learn more about the full picture of the product.

The overall impression from these reviews is that the Vision Pro is a fantastic product, but it doesn't seem to last long.

As Apple's first product in the field of spatial computing, the advantages of the Vision Pro are clear at a glance. It's smaller than most of its peers, continuing Apple's usual product aesthetic. Due to the use of carbon fiber, aluminum alloy and other materials, it will not be full of "plastic" like many VR equipment.

The product, which Apple has high hopes for, has shown a more technological feel, such as by turning your eyes to tap on an app, pinching your finger to tap to enter, and pinching your finger to slide to drag the screen.

This way of operating is very "magical" and makes people feel like they have mastered superpowers. But it requires you to keep an eye on the screen in real time, and it can also be too far away or the control points are too small to maintain smooth control for long periods of time.

Therefore, it may be the best way to interact with existing products, but it is not the most direct and perfect, after all, it still needs the camera to capture eye and hand movements to translate into interactive signals.

While gestures look cool, the Vision Pro's built-in virtual keyboard is a big drawdown — it's very inconvenient to click. Fortunately, it can use an external keyboard (there will be a virtual input box interface when typing), and it can also be typed with voice.

The display is the highlight of the Vision Pro, and it's also a product segment that Apple is proud of. In fact, this is the main reason why the Vision Pro is expensive. According to several reviewers, the pixel density and resolution of this product are high enough to be very realistic when presenting virtual environments, and the visual effect is outstanding.

However, The Verge points out that the product also gives a noticeable black frame (similar to looking through binoculars), with a viewing angle that is about 110 degrees smaller than the Quest 3's. In addition, there will be some color fringing and distortion at the edges of the frame, which may further narrow the field of view. These are also common problems that VR products have shown in the past decade.

In addition to the native visionOS app, Vision Pro can also be connected to a Mac to project the desktop on a 50-inch screen, and you can also drag and drop an iPad app. The only problem is that once you drag in too many apps, your space window will be cluttered.

visionOS is basically an upgrade and revamp based on iPadOS, which gives it access to a huge content library from the start. However, Netflix, Spotify and other Internet platform companies have said that they will wait and see for a period of time before deciding whether to join the software ecosystem.

Like Apple's previous demos, the Vision Pro can recreate your 3D image through the camera for phone calls or video conferences. But reviewers say the avatars look more like people who have been portrayed from memory, and look somewhat weird. Apple's explanation for this is that the feature is still in beta.

Of course, there are also some positive aspects, such as the look and feel of the virtual theater, especially the "location" where users can choose to watch the movie according to their preferences. Some reviewers point out that you can think of it as an expensive big-screen TV, provided it can withstand the pressure on your head when worn for long periods of time.

Yes, it is heavy, there are 600g-650g, which is heavier than a bottle of mineral water and close to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The Quest 2 and Quest 3, which preceded it, both weighed around 510g.

It should be noted that the Vision Pro uses an external battery (weighing 353g). The capacity of this battery is very restrained, providing 2 and a half hours of battery life, and users can also plug it in, but the range of motion will be limited.

In terms of wearing experience, temperature is also an important indicator. The rattles barely felt the sound or presence of the cooling fan, but they still felt a little hot when wearing it for a long time.

The rendering of spatial audio is also convincing to the virtual space, but the downside is that the sound is loud and the people around you will know exactly what you're doing. Therefore, in public places, it is recommended to use it with Bluetooth headsets.

Probably the best connection between the Vision Pro and an iPhone is to shoot a spatial video with the phone and play it back on the Vision Pro. Bringing people back to the original shooting is undoubtedly one of the best ways to remember the past.

Breaking the restrictions on the communication between VR products and the outside world, so that the virtual and the real can truly achieve integration, is the biggest selling point of the Vision Pro compared with similar products, although Apple is reluctant to call it "VR".

The company tried to make this work in a number of ways: for example, by showing the user's eyes directly in a virtual screen when they were approaching, and by showing the user's eyes on the Vision Pro's external display to maintain "eye contact" with the outside world.

Judging by the current experience, this blend is clearly not perfect. Since the Vision Pro's external screen looks like a low-resolution OLED screen, the "revealed" eyes are also electronic, unable to achieve true eye contact, and may not even be able to see clearly in some bright environments.

Reviewers aren't sure if this will have the effect Apple originally wanted, as it can feel "creepy" from a certain angle.

There are also some visuals that are not as good as they could be. The Verge believes that while Apple's goal is to reproduce reality, users will be clearly aware that they are viewing a screen rather than the real world due to the technical limitations of the screen itself and video transmission, which is mainly reflected in some problems such as color distortion and screen flickering.

But almost everyone who has experienced the product agrees that Apple's mindset and execution in reinventing the product category are understandable, and the company still offers solutions that far exceed market expectations.

As Apple's first-generation headset, the Vision Pro's ingenuity in functional design may only bring a short-lived novelty. To attract more users to pay for its high price, Apple urgently needs to come up with more amazing optimizations.