After years of rumors, Apple today finally unveiled its augmented reality headset, which will start at a whopping $3,499 when it goes on sale early next year.
The transparent Vision Pro goggles, previewed at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), project images over your real-world surroundings. As a mixed reality headset, the hardware is designed to let you see things around you (versus a VR headset that immerses you fully in another world), blending the two worlds together for what Apple calls “spatial computing.”
The headset drops traditional handheld controllers too. Instead, it relies on voice, finger gestures, and even your eyes to navigate the experience.
The Vision Pro can offer crystal-clear image quality, including for text, Apple says. Together, the two lenses can project 23 million pixels across the glass goggles, or what appears to be three times more than the pixel density found in the Meta Quest Pro headset.
The company demoed the Vision Pro being used to watch cinematic videos in full surround at home, or to conduct FaceTime calls at work. By wearing the goggles, the user can also project a large desktop space across their eyes, enabling them to access and view far more apps than a traditional computer monitor.
In addition, the device can capture 3D video on the headset’s camera, enabling you to record and view the footage in a more immersive format.
The headset also promises to deliver a different entertainment experience. In a demo produced with Disney, Apple showed Vision Pro not just displaying TV shows and movies, but custom 3D experiences, like a sports game showing additional stats in virtual boxes, or a Marvel comic book character coming to life across screen.
To power the headset, Apple packed an M2 chip inside the hardware, along with a new "R1" chip, which "processes input from 12 cameras, five sensors, and six microphones" to reduce latency on the device. The goggles are made out of a single piece of laminated glass fitted with external cameras over an aluminum alloy frame. To log in, people would use Apple's new “optical ID” system, which analyzes your unique eye iris to unlock access.
However, the Vision Pro’s $3,499 price risks making it dead on arrival for most consumers. The other limitation is that the headset requires the use of an external battery when not plugged into an electrical outlet. The battery, which is attached via a cable connected to the headset, can last up to two hours on a single charge.
Despite the limitations, Apple says the product represents a cutting-edge entertainment and computing device. “I believe augmented reality is a profound technology. Blending digital content with the real world will unlock experiences we’ve never seen,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said today.
Although the headset will use a newly announced visionOS, Apple says the product will also support iOS and iPadOS apps on day one.
For more, check out Apple Vision Pro: Revolutionary, But Not for You.