Apple Vision Pro release date, price, specifications and design

It’s been known for years that Apple is developing its first augmented reality headset, and it’s official: the Apple Vision Pro is here.

The Vision Pro is an AR headset that can run all your favorite iOS and iPadOS apps, along with some exclusive features like 3D photos and video recording. You can use it to surf the web, watch movies, make FaceTime calls, work, game, and more.

If you’re willing to spend a lot of money, you can buy one now. It is no longer limited to US customers.

Here are all the facts about the Vision Pro. But to find out what it’s like to use, check out our Apple Vision Pro review.

When does the Apple Vision Pro go on sale?

Apple first showed off the Vison Pro headset at the WWDC 2023 conference June 5, 2023. At the time, only a vague release date of early 2024 was announced. But in January, Apple confirmed the release date via an official blog post February 2, 2024 in the U.S.

Following the announcement at WWDC 2024 that the Vision Pro would be launched in more countries from July 12, it is now also available for purchase in:

• The UK
• Canada
• Germany
• France
• Australia

This means you can buy the device right now from the Apple website. To complete the purchase you will need an iPhone or iPad with Face ID (to complete a facial scan) and an up-to-date version of the Apple Store app. However, our best advice is to book a demo at an Apple Store first to try it out. Doing so will give you a tutorial on how to position the device comfortably and some tips on using eye tracking and gestures.

It’s not clear if you’ll ever be able to buy the Vision Pro through third-party retailers.

How much does the Vision Pro headset cost?

As you’d expect, Apple’s first AR/VR headset is expensive: the Vision Pro starts from $3,499/£3,499 for 256GB of internal storage.

The device offers a modular and customizable design, and different headband options come at different prices. There are also Zeiss corrective lenses available for people who wear glasses or contact lenses, with Readers costing $99/£99 and prescription optical inserts costing $149/£149.

Obviously, $3,499 / £3,499 is expensive, even by VR standards. It’s more than double the $1,499/£1,499 Meta Quest Pro, and the equivalent of seven $499/£479 Meta Quest 3 headsets.

The saving grace is that Apple could be working on a much cheaper headset that will hit the market sometime this year, according to Bloomberg. According to The Information, Apple is apparently looking to launch a more affordable headset, although “affordable” in Apple’s eyes will likely be somewhere in the vicinity of the Meta Quest Pro.

It’s said to achieve this goal by using lower-level components than the top headset, with a lower resolution screen, less processing power, and perhaps even omitting the low-latency audio chipset.

Ming-Chi Kuo thinks that the affordable successor is further away. He reports that Apple is working on a pair of successors, “a high-end and a low-end” model, but that these will not be released until 2025.

What to expect from Apple’s AR/VR headset

It may be expensive, but the Vision Pro is unlike any other headset on the market in terms of design and specifications.

Design

In terms of overall design, the headset looks like a cross between the Meta Quest Pro and a ski mask, with lightweight fabrics and materials that should help maintain a comfortable fit during longer sessions.

The front of the headset is a 3D curved sheet of laminated glass attached to the aluminum alloy frame. This is simple in design, with a single button, a digital rotating crown and cooling vents.

Next comes the lightweight seal, which comes in “a range of shapes and sizes,” and conforms to your face for a comfortable and precise fit.

Then there are the flexible bands, which hold the two audio units – or “audio pods” as Apple calls them – that you position to keep the speakers close to your ears.

Finally, the 3D knitted headband has a stretchable structure. It attaches to the rest of the headset with a simple click mechanism, so it should be quick and easy to swap out for a different size or style, like the one on the Apple Watch. There is also an adjustment knob for more fine adjustment.

Early leaks suggested the headset wasn’t designed for glasses wearers, and that was confirmed when it launched. Apple’s solution is (unsurprisingly) expensive: custom optical inserts from Zeiss that attach magnetically to the headset lenses and accommodate different prescriptions.

The Vision Pro weighs 600-650 g (21-23 oz). This is quite heavy, but would be even heavier if Apple hadn’t removed the battery from the headset and placed it in an aluminum battery pack, which is attached to the headset with a woven cable.

The most special thing about the Vision Pro’s design is what it doesn’t have: controllers. Apple intends for you to operate the headset solely with your eyes, hands and voice, so there are no potentially cumbersome controls to learn.

Specifications, tracking and performance

At the heart of the Vision Pro hardware is one of Apple’s M2 chips – found across the entire Mac line, including the 15-inch MacBook Air, which was unveiled at the same time as the headset.

That guarantees significant power, almost certainly more than is currently found in any rival AR headset.

The M2 is linked to a new chip that runs in parallel: R1.

This silicon is designed for real-time sensor processing, processing input from the headset’s twelve cameras, five sensors and six microphones, while aiming to keep latency as low as possible – as low as 12ms, the company said . less than the time it takes you to blink.

All that tracking is complicated too. The cameras are used both to give you a visual feed of the world and to track your eye and hand movements for control, combining all sensors to make the headset’s display as natural and immersive as possible.

The displays are also impressive. There are 23 million pixels spread across the two microOLED display units, each of which is the size of a postage stamp. That means each eye gets a screen with a higher resolution than a 4K TV, allowing you to watch 4K content and read small text clearly.

Thanks to an Apple online developer session, we learned for the first time that the screens can deliver HDR and a 90Hz refresh rate. Technically, they can even go up to 96Hz – a number chosen because it is a multiple of 24, meaning 24fps content (including most movies) can be displayed smoothly, without dropped frames.

The most surprising thing is that the headset actually has a third display – on the outside. This curved OLED panel is designed to show your eyes to people in the room with you, using a feed broadcast from cameras in the headset.

The screen can respond to what you’re doing (turning opaque, for example, if you’re in fully immersive content) or to people in the room, bringing your eyes into view when someone comes near to talk to you.

On the audio side, the two ‘audio pods’ have two drivers each and use audio ray tracing to tailor their ‘ambient spatial audio’ to the exact size, layout and materials of your room.

The downside to all this power is battery life. Although Apple claims this is a headset that will last all day when plugged in, it only lasts two hours on battery power. That means this doesn’t yet feel like technology that’s ready to travel or use on the go, despite Apple’s marketing to that effect.

Software and features

So, for all that hardware, what does Vision Pro actually do? Doing?

Well, at a basic level, the software – called visionOS – lets you open all your usual apps on a private screen, including multitasking, so you can surf the web, work on a presentation, on what feels to you like a giant display.

Apple says “hundreds of thousands” of iOS and iPadOS apps will be compatible with the hardware, along with a dedicated app store for software designed specifically for Vision Pro – including a Disney+ app that brought Disney CEO Bob Iger to WWDC to show off.

You can watch those apps floating around the room you’re in – or, technically, a camera feed of that room – or you can replace them with immersive 3D environments if you’d rather be in the rainforest or in the cockpit of an X-wing .

The headset allows you to browse photos or watch video content while your surroundings automatically dim. There are some nice effects here too: panoramic photos wrap around you, 3D movies like Avatar are displayed in full effect, and the custom new Spatial Audio technology provides surround sound.

You can even use the headphones to create 3D content, but we’re not sure who will do that. You have to wear the headset while taking 3D photos or recording 3D video, adding a dystopian touch to Apple’s vision of capturing precious family memories in three dimensions.

Naturally, the headset can be synced with your iPhone, iPad or Mac, allowing all your content and accounts to be transferred.

Even more impressive, you can stream content from other hardware wirelessly. Simply looking at a MacBook’s screen transfers the screen’s contents to the headset interface, allowing you to work on files privately while the laptop screen remains blank.

The headset is largely controlled with eye-tracking, gestures and voice control – including dictation for messages – but if you want to continue the good work you can also connect a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse for a more traditional experience. .

You can even use the headset for FaceTime calls, although there’s a catch: since no one wants to see your face behind a visor, Apple instead uses eye-tracking technology to create a digital 3D avatar of you that mimics your facial movements. exactly (well, even Apple’s WWDC demo wasn’t entirely convincing here).

On the security side, Apple has introduced Optic ID, an eye-scanning technology that recognizes the unique patterns of your iris. This works as you’d expect for Apple Pay, App Store purchases and password autofill, and provides useful privacy for shared headset users.