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Last week, I attended Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. With my feet, brain, and – admittedly slightly hungover – mood suggesting that I needed to take a break, I headed to the media village.
Anyone who works on this side of the industry will know that media villages (or ‘press lounges’, as they’re sometimes called) are little slices of heaven hidden from the chaos of big trade shows. They’re quiet, there’s free coffee and food (usually cookies), and while they’re designed for people like myself to get work done, I have a sneaking suspicion they’re mainly used as a method of escape.
As I sat there, minding my own business and uploading the footage I’d just shot of a bendable smartphone, I spotted something. Two people had entered the room – one looking entirely normal, the other… not so normal. He was wearing Vision Pro.
My immediate thought was, “the guy is shooting a video – this has to be a skit I’m witnessing”. I looked for the camera operator. There wasn’t one. His companion wasn’t filming him either – in fact, she was walking happily by his side, chatting away as though everything was completely normal.
It took a while to dawn on me that this guy was completely serious. He was wearing Vision Pro because, presumably, he wanted to. And, so, they sat down on a desk adjacent to me and cracked on with their work. The Vision Pro headset remained firmly in place.
MWC welcomes more than 80,000 people a year to the Fira de Barcelona convention centre. I spent just one day at the show, but that was the only Vision Pro sighting I witnessed. And, yes, it looked biblically silly. Because it is – in that setting.
That begs the question: how am I finding Apple’s first spatial computing device after two weeks of ownership?
Has the ‘WOW’ worn off?
Yes.
It’s impossible not to be wowed by Vision Pro when you first strap it to your face. The eye tracking, the depth of the interface, and those incredibly immersive ‘Environments’ make Vision Pro feel like a device from the future. Which it kinda is, I guess.
The best way to describe Vision Pro is that it’s like a portal into another realm. You cannot experience it unless you try it. As my and countless other review videos have demonstrated, screen recordings of visionOS are flat and uncomfortably wobbly. In reality, when you’re ‘in’ visionOS, everything stays rigidly in place, and the volumetric environment is stunningly realistic.
For instance, I’m writing this now on my MacBook Air, but the display has been jettisoned into visionOS. I’ve resized it so that it resembles a huge 4K display in front of me. To my right, I’ve placed the visionOS Notes app for quick reference. To help with my focus, I’ve dialled in just enough of the Joshua Tree environment so that it surrounds me but doesn’t encroach on my laptop’s keyboard.
If I get up and head into the kitchen for a drink, everything stays in place. The Joshua Tree (complete with atmospheric Spatial Audio) gently vanishes, thus providing a clear view of my surroundings, and the windows I was working on stay resolutely where I’d placed them. Sit back down, drink in hand, and I’m right back where I was before. It is, quite simply, mind-boggling.
A bunch of family members have had a play with my Vision Pro headset. Interestingly, none of them has commented on the weight, so bowled over were they by the experience visionOS delivers.
However, those family members only used it for fleeting moments, and it’s during those fleeting moments that Vision Pro is at its most impressive. And I’m afraid they don’t last for long; like so many things Apple has introduced, the visionOS experience and the way by which one interacts with it normalises very quickly. That’s not a bad thing at all, but it does beg the question about where we go from here.
How I’m using Vision Pro
Someone asked me the other day if I’m having to force myself to use Vision Pro. The answer is “no” – I’m genuinely using it when it feels most suitable – and comfortable – to do so.
If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, it won’t surprise you to hear that I’m not pushing the boundaries of what Vision Pro can do. I have yet to trawl through the App Store and try every spatial computing experience currently on offer. I haven’t gamed on it yet. I’ve barely watched any content on Vision Pro, either.
Instead, I’m using it for two purposes – video editing and writing.
I’m doing the latter now. This blog post was planned, written, and published in visionOS. The combination of Ulysses, my MacBook, Brain.fm, and a pair of noise-cancelling headphones has been bolstered by Vision Pro. I can now completely lock myself away in an environment that fosters creativity and focus. It is brilliant.
When it comes to video editing, Vision Pro has been an unexpected saviour. Regular readers will be aware that I recently swapped my 16-inch MacBook Pro for a 14-inch M3 Max version. It’s a move which has already proven its worth multiple times while travelling, but I do miss that bigger display when editing videos at home. That was until Vision Pro came into my life and enabled me to convert the 14-inch MacBook Pro display into something much bigger. It has made all the difference.
The caveat here, is that both of these tasks rely entirely on my MacBook and I’m not using much of visionOS at all, bar the ability to float the Mac’s display within it and partially immerse myself in a make-believe environment.
Should you buy Vision Pro?
I’ve noted previously that Vision Pro feels like a publicly available developer unit, and it’s hard to look past that. It is also monumentally expensive.
This means that, unless you’re someone like me, who must provide an audience with his thoughts on the latest Apple products, it’s a very hard purchase to justify – no matter how much disposable income you have. The exception to the rule is anyone who does have the budget, and who is fascinated by what visionOS is all about. But before you lay down that considerable, hard-earned money, there are a few things to consider.
Remember – the ‘wow’ factor dissipates pretty quickly. visionOS is also unnervingly buggy; I’ve had multiple instances of it rebooting for no reason whatsoever, and the UI does occasionally falter. It’s a very heavy device, too – I’m getting used to the heft the more Vision Pro is strapped to my face, but boy do you know it’s there.
It’s a weird thing to wear in the vicinity of other people. Our friend at MWC has some seriously impressive self-confidence – I cannot bring myself to wear this thing outside of the house. This is illustrated by the fact that I still find it weird to wear within the four walls of my home – particularly when other people are around.
I was sitting wearing Vision Pro at the breakfast table the other day while my girlfriend and son were eating their breakfast. I looked stupid. Not that anyone said anything, mind – because I was sitting there with a computer strapped to my face. What are you supposed to say to that guy?
That’s the other thing to bear in mind. Vision Pro is a solitary experience. As noted earlier, this makes sense when you’re getting work done, but there’s no way to share the experience with others. That massive 4K 3D TV it places in front of your eyes? It’s cool, but no one else can see it. Again, that’s fine if you’re consuming alone, but next to pointless if you like to share your viewing.
Most importantly, you’ll probably get bored of Vision Pro unless you find a use case – and as we’re starting to discover, those use cases are extremely specific. You’ll therefore need to ask yourself for a very honest answer as to whether or not it’s worth the money finding your own.
Wrapping up: what I need to try next
I should note at this point that I am enjoying Vision Pro – a lot. However, I’m aware that I’m not using it enough, nor am I exploring its capabilities as thoroughly as I should.
Yesterday, I ventured into the Disney+ app and popped on the most recent reincarnation of The Lion King. Placed, once again, in the virtual Joshua Tree landscape, my own, personal cinema screen beamed out a 3D image whose clarity beats any cinema I’ve been to. There was no popcorn, and I couldn’t share it with my girlfriend, but for solo viewing, it was epic.
This is why I need to invest more time in consuming content on Vision Pro. I also need to try gaming on it, and working within visionOS, rather than relying entirely on my Mac. I’ll be doing all of those things over the next few months, therefore if you want to continue living your visionOS journey vicariously through me, I’ll see you at the next juncture.
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