I’ve been trying to coalesce my thoughts on AVP. No… not Alien vs. Predator, but rather Apple Vision Pro. I got the opportunity to get a demo in the Apple Store, so I haven’t had an abundance of use, but a few things became clear over the ~30 minutes.
Fit:
First off, for short use, the headset is heavy, but not overly so. I found it comfortable while using the Solo Knit Band (the only thing they use for in store demos as far as I know). Obviously, a 2+ hour movie would likely have a different result. The device has a premium feel, but I have been constantly wondering if they’re making the wrong tradeoff in using metal so exclusively. This device could likely be much lighter.
The View:
I liked the view in the apps that I got to see, but I can definitely say that it isn’t as crisp as I would like. Apps and environments were good, but not as sharp as I expected, but maybe this is a fit issue or lens issue that I was not noticing. The edges of the lenses have a lot of distortion and aberrations. I had to fight not to use my peripheral vision as it’s almost always a bad idea. Turning your head is the only good option.
Use Cases:
Basically, it’s movies right now. The apps are present, but not yet plentiful. I didn’t get to try out a Mac virtual desktop, but based on the positive & negative comments I’ve read, it doesn’t seem to offer any real improvement unless you’re away from your home display setup. This is not something I commonly do, so you may judge it more favorably. The videos that I was shown looked good, but it doesn’t appear that there is much in the way of immersive content (videos that feel more present than a typical 3D film) or environments (the rendered views that offer a fully virtual space). So, mostly we’re down to watching TV & movies.
Fit Into My Life:
For someone who works from home & watches much of my entertainment content solo, this feels like 1 step back/1 step forward, it would seem like this might be a good fit, but I don’t think so. I don’t see value over working at my desk with my current display setup & I’m not sure normal/non-immersive films will really be better than the view from my office sofa to my 65″ TV. Now, if I could watch a movie WITH someone who lives miles away (or with my wife/kids), then it could have value, but Apple seems to have gone out of its way to make this device hard to share (only 1 user and, based on my reading, a guest mode that is rather user-hostile).
In my view, all of this combines to equal a device, that as of shortly after release, makes for an incredibly bad purchase (for me) from the perspective of return on the expense. I do believe the technology is worth pursuing and I don’t fault them for releasing it, but some of the choices seem wrong (to my eye) or truly bizarre (guest mode limitations and cost of every accessory). Maybe aa subsequent iteration will be worth it for me, but this isn’t it.