Apple Vision Pro review: Is the jaw-dropping tech worth it?

I remember when Apple first announced Vision Pro and how unfazed I was. Virtual reality headsets have never been something I’ve enjoyed. They either made me feel ill, or they were predominately focused on gaming, which is another area of tech I absolutely do not enjoy, unless we’re talking about the Italian plumbing brothers.

But I came out of the Vision Pro briefing I had in 2023 near enough speechless (tricky to do), and having to pick my jaw up off the floor. The same thing happened when I had a second try of Vision Pro at WWDC earlier this year, despite being better prepared or at least somewhat knowing what to expect.

For the last week, ahead of Vision Pro’s arrival in the UK, I have had this headset in my own home, free to test out Apple’s Immersive Video in my living room, watch 3D films, try out Mac Virtual Display and figure out whether it is worth its incredibly high price tag. It’s Apple’s most impressive product to date in terms of technology and experience, but should you buy it? Here’s my full review.

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The Disconnekt Downlow

Apple Vision Pro really is a device you have to see and experience for yourself to understand how incredible it is. Whether you should buy it really does depend on your personal circumstances, what you would use it for and whether you can justify a small fortune on a headset. But I can tell you it will make your jaw drop, it will leave you speechless and it will impress you because there’s nothing else quite like it.

It’s heavy to wear, a pretty solitary device both in experience and its lack of user profiles, and it’s exceptionally expensive whilst not having a huge number of use cases. But, it delivers some mind-blowing experiences, executes what it can already do brilliantly and lays the groundwork for plenty of future potential. You just have to decide if it’s worth remortgaging for and the only way you will really be able to decide that, is by seeing Vision Pro for yourself and booking a demo. That much you absolutely won’t regret.

Buy from £3,499 on Apple

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The reasons you should consider Apple Vision Pro

If you asked me what my favourite thing is about Apple Vision Pro, I’d struggle to name one thing out right. There are a multitude of things it does exceptionally well and it will very much depend on the user as to which of these is the most impressive (or dare I say it, worth its asking price). 

The ability to put this headset on and be transported to an incredibly realistic alternative environment like Mount Hood or Haleakalā in Hawaii from the comfort of your own home, never gets old. And I love that it’s so easy to move between fully immersed surrounded by mountains and snow, to back in my living room with my simple rug and sofas at the twist of the Digital Crown.

But it’s probably still Apple’s Immersive Video that continues to do the best job at taking my breath away. At the time of this review, Apple Immersive Video is just a small section of content you can watch within the Apple TV app. There is an adventure episode involving a tightrope 3,000 feet in the air between two cliffs in Norway, a couple of prehistoric episodes with some very scary dinosaurs, a wildlife episode and a parkour episode. There are also an Alicia Keys Rehearsal Room and MLS highlights, offering a completely different perspective for concerts and sports, and they are both areas Vision Pro has the potential to be so much more in the future. 

From watching football games from within the goal, to basketball behind the hoop, Apple’s Immersive Video offers angles you could barely imagine, let alone experience from a traditional TV.

Traditional movies and TV shows are great on Vision Pro too, as you would expect given your space is surrounded by a huge and exceptionally detailed display. Flicking into cinema mode for a fully immersive view and being able to choose not only your viewing position, but whether you want to be on the floor or balcony, makes films like No Time To Die in 3D really great to watch. 

What about the basics though? Well, it will probably come as no surprise that viewing your photos and videos on this device is superb. I just wish I had taken more panoramic shots over the last few years because they finally have a purpose. I did pull up some shots I had from Iceland in 2016 however and even those – which were taken on an iPhone 6 – were stunning. Spatial Videos, which I have taken a few of on my iPhone 15 Pro Max over the last couple of months are lovely to watch, but even swiping through the 55,000 pictures I have was a nicer experience than on my phone. You can pull the Photos app nice and close too, allowing you to swipe like you would an iPad, which is a nice trick.

The Home View on Vision Pro is familiar to anyone who uses Apple products, but it’s not scary for newcomers either. Set up is a piece of cake – I’d go as far as to say it’s easier than iPhone, with the only fiddly elements being attaching the battery cable to the Vision Pro headset and creating a Persona. You get guided through the process step-by-step, which includes setting up your hands and eyes to allow for the control of Vision Pro, and a tutorial to teach you what you need to do. 

Being able to look at something and then just tap with your thumb and index finger is so nice and simple, making for a natural and intuitive user experience. My 73-year old mother gave it a try and she picked up the gestures immediately so that gives some indication as to how natural it can feel, especially as she’s not tech savvy at all. Typing on the virtual keyboard is a little odd (and makes you look ridiculous), but the general gestures can be discreetly done from your lap so you’re not waving your arms around like you’ve seen a long-lost friend.

Mac Virtual Display is a feature I really enjoyed using too and while I wouldn’t be able to work on Vision Pro for an entire day (I did try), it’s a seamless experience to bring your Mac’s screen into the Vision Pro’s virtual space and interact with it using your Mac keyboard and trackpad, as well as other apps you’ve opened in Vision Pro. You can of course also use Siri, or just set up a Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad if you don’t have a Mac so there are plenty of natural input options.

The last thing I will mention in this section – there’s plenty more but we will be here all day – is games. Now as I said, I am not a gamer. But I did play a game called Sea Battle that is effectively the old-school classic Battleships and the execution is brilliant. The 3D game board; the way you can place your ships and how they bop in the water on your board; and the way the missiles fly between your board and your opponents is fantastic. I played this on my own and through SharePlay on a FaceTime call and I honestly had so much fun, I could have played it all day.

What Apple Vision Pro could do better

So what’s not so great? Apple’s Vision Pro is the first of its kind from Apple and with that naturally comes some teething issues. It’s an exceptionally premium device, which is evident in everything from the aluminium frame on the front to the material headband, but there are still a couple of things worth mentioning. 

The first is that the Vision Pro has a personalised fit in that the Light Seal that magnetically attaches to the frame comes in a range of shapes. The Light Seal Cushion (which also attaches magnetically) also comes in various sizes, as do the Solo Knit Band and the Dual Loop Band, aiming for a precise fit. That’s great in some respects but it means the Vision Pro is a one-person device, at least in the first instance. For other friends or family members to experience it as it is designed to be experienced, you will need to buy separate Light Seals and bands – all of which adds to the overall cost. 

The second thing worth mentioning is the weight. The Vision Pro has a separate battery pack, which you need to have attached whenever you are using it, resulting in some of the weight in your hand or pocket, or wherever you have decided to put it. I often placed it on the table or next to me on the sofa. The headset itself is still heavy though. Spend 30 minutes in it and it’s manageable, especially as you’ll probably be so engrossed that you won’t notice. Anything upwards of an hour and I felt it on my cheeks. The Dual Loop Band helps with the weight distribution but it doesn’t remove the problem entirely and it’s harder to adjust than the Solo Knit Band and its Fit Dial.

The third thing is the video passthrough is a little fuzzy rather than being crystal clear and that’s especially noticeable when looking at a phone or smartwatch through it. And the last thing I noticed was that I found I had to recalibrate eye tracking every now and then. I believe this was down to switching between head bands, making the Vision Pro sit in a different position and knocking the tracking out slightly. This occasionally meant I couldn’t select certain menu options because the eye tracking thought I was looking at the option below. A recalibration fixed it (which you can access quickly by quadruple pressing the capture button on the top left of the Vision Pro), as did adjusting the position of the headset slightly, but it is something to keep in mind.

A bit about visionOS and what is coming…

The Apple Vision Pro runs on visionOS, which is built on the foundation of macOS, iPadOS and iOS. I mentioned it is familiar and it is for Apple users, but it’s also very easy to navigate with the icons popping as you look at them. The menus are the same as you’ll find on iPad and iPhone, while the Home View reminds me a little of the CarPlay layout.

There’s an App Store offering access to millions of apps, with special sections for those apps that have been redesigned for Vision Pro, including ones like Disney+, The Game App and SkyGuide, as well as Vision Pro specific ones like Encounter Dinosaurs. There’s also a folder on the Home View with compatible apps, showing you apps that will work on Vision Pro even if they are not perfectly optimised to take advantage of the depth and three-dimensional space offered by the headset.

To the left of the Vision Pro Home View is the Apps, People and Environments menu. Environments allows you to choose a different landscape to fill your view instead of your home, or the cafe or plane you might be on. When in this mode, if someone approaches you, they will appear on the screen depending on your settings, and they will also be able to see a representation of your eyes on the outside. People meanwhile, is where you’ll find FaceTime. It’s FaceTime where your Persona kicks in and while I still find the Personas very creepy (like the eyes on the outside), there are some cool features – like putting a FaceTime call into Spatial – that makes for a funny and enjoyable experience. When you see your friends or colleagues’ computer-generated heads bopping up and down on the snow, I promise you will laugh. 

Look up at the top of your Vision Pro display space, above all the apps you have placed around the room and scaled to your preferences, and a small arrow will appear, pulling up various controls when selected. Control Centre lives here, allowing you to start a guest mode session, as well as mirror your Vision Pro’s display to a Mac or iPad, or start a Mac Virtual Display session. If you are using your Mac and put Vision Pro on however, a prompt will appear automatically asking if you want to connect and start a session. If you say yes, your Mac display and any external displays will then automatically shut off. The arrow offering all these options occasionally appears where it’s not wanted, but you can adjust that in settings so most things have been considered – except for being able to unlock your iPhone when you have Vision Pro on your head.

During WWDC, Apple announced visionOS 2, which will bring a number of new features to Vision Pro later this year. These include being able to create spatial photos from 2D images, a redesigned Photos app like iPadOS 18 and iOS 18, and new gestures for easier navigation. You will also be able to edit your Home View, which is something I am looking forward to, as well as Mac Virtual Display being expandable as an ultrawide screen – something else I will appreciate.

Bora Bora is coming to Environments (hell yes to virtually working on a beach), and you’ll be able to see your keyboard when you’re immersed in an Environment. There are a couple more features, but the last one I’ll mention is visionOS 2 saving your most recent guest’s eye and hand data so they don’t have to go through that each time they want to dabble in some Apple Immersive Video.

There’s also one thing in macOS Sequoia that could be helpful too if it comes to Vision Pro and that’s iPhone mirroring. As I said, I struggle to read my iPhone when I have Vision Pro on and you don’t get notifications unless they are from apps connected to iCloud, like Messages or Mail, or you have downloaded the app for Vision Pro like Slack. Being able to see and interact with my iPhone on my Mac when using Mac Virtual Display would solve that inconvenience but for now, Apple has not detailed whether iPhone Mirroring will work on Mac Virtual Display on Vision Pro so it’s a fingers crossed here.

Should you buy the Apple Vision Pro?

Rather than should you buy the Apple Vision Pro, I should have asked whether you should try the Vision Pro because that you absolutely should. Get yourself to an Apple Store and book yourself a demo because this is a product you have to see and experience for yourself to understand how incredible it is. 

Whether you should buy it really does depend on your personal circumstances, what use cases you see for it and whether you can justify a small fortune on a headset. Only you can decide that. It will make your jaw drop, it will leave you speechless and it will impress you because honestly, there’s nothing else quite like it.

I said at the beginning of this review that I believe it is Apple’s most impressive product to date, and I stand by that. That doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s heavy to wear, a pretty solitary device both in experience and its lack of user profiles, and it’s exceptionally expensive whilst not offering a huge number of use cases. But Vision Pro delivers some mind-blowing experiences, executes what it can already do brilliantly and lays the groundwork for heaps of future potential. You just have to decide if it’s worth remortgaging for.

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