My long-term Vision Pro review

I'm back with my longest video ever! I think…

Anyway, here's what I think about the Apple Vision Pro after using it for 6 months.

0:00 - Welcome
1:01 - Movies
4:41 - Movies compared to the Quest 3
5:30 - Pixels per degree
8:11 - 3D movies
8:45 - App availability
10:14 - Eating and drinking
12:20 - Spatial video
17:33 - Marvel What If, spatial personas, & Gucci
20:51- Gaming
22:42 - Productivity
28:18 - Battery
30:08 - Comfort & final thoughts

Follow Matt:

[BrendonBigley]

the idea of getting peanut butter on the headset is SO funny and something i never would have guessed being an issue. knowing myself i would also DEFINITELY try eating and drinking while wearing it.

[thatjpwing]

I really enjoyed your in-depth review on this. Thank you.

[shabirmus]

I think we are literally expecting an entire industry to create a million experiences & applications for a device that just released this year. Tim cook said almost half of the fortune 100 have purchased AVPs & he reviews those case studies everyday. Can we imagine what microsoft might be testing atm? Sure media is the best use for the avg customer but this is a 2-3 year journey before we see it bear big fruit. Remember the first iphone? We didnt even know facetime could exist back then, it took a few years for it to reach the usability we have today. So lets chill & use the device & be patient with whats to come

[WikiPeoples]

Such a great, thorough and spot on review. I have mostly the exact same experience.

[SuperTonydd]

I live alone. Movies are the single reason I can imagine justifying buying this for myself

[Maximo_ari]

I only use it for movies. I tried to use it as a monitor, but I didn’t like it. I can go days without watching something and I’m still amazed like it was my first time using it.

[robe]

Im looking forward to them fixing the comfort issues I had and improving the FOV in future versions.

[Eddy-ovtx]

I love my AVP for movie watching, entertainment and some of the unique apps. While I agree that many will not justify the high price for just movie watching, it can obviously do way more than just watch movies. It can transform your environment. Function like an iPad Pro, multi app use, BT keyboard support and mouse support. MAC display is amazing. Now with vision OS 2, the MAC virtual display is even bigger than ever. It’s just different and I love it. My gripes besides the high price is the comfort. Need a top strap to make it comfortable for multi hour use.

[GabeDaEngineer]

I’ve used mine every single day since launch for work, school, and entertainment

[yans-]

Thanks for the review - I tried the unit for a few days and returned it because of many of the same issues you raised. I thought this was going to be a great multi-screen work setup for my mac for when I travel but there's no native support for multiple mac screens. Fully agree its a great solo-content consumption experience but that's a very narrow use-case for something so expensive.

I also really appreciate that you were able to explain WHY I felt the way I felt. First with foveated rendering - I didn't realize that was the reason why the whole screen didn't seem sharp and that caused a lot of eye discomfort for me. Secondly, the fact that the resolution is only equivalent to a 1080p screen just does not cut it today for reading text for any amount of time. I think these two things need to be solved before this can become a serious work set up, and I don't have high hopes for a future version to both be better, cheaper and weigh less in the short-term. Could be 4-5 years from now given hardware and innovation cycles unfortunately!

[paulwoodward]

Real shame you can’t use it for work, I was hoping the MacBook screen mirroring thing would be great, but not at that resolution. I’d be better off buying a couple of studio displays. $3, 500 to watch streaming movies is not a great deal. I might give the XReal Air2 glasses a try.

[ZOZ]

Appreciate your review. Sounds like I'm enjoying mine more than you are. But I am a VR enthusiast. For me, the movie-watching experience is top-notch. I do love 3-D movies. They are amazing in this. The spatial video of my kids is friggin' priceless to me though. Looking forward to seeing where Apple goes with this machine. Agree whole-heartedly on the comfort. I tried that two-strap mod. It was okay. I found the Annapro head band mod though to be the best for me. Was even very expensive. That made the unit SO much more comfortable for me. A full movie is easy to watch now, with little to no discomfort. I love this machine.

[fuatdomanic]

I don’t remember how many Vision Pro reviews I watched but I can say that I watched a lot and your review is by far the BEST and most realistic, honest presentation of a new experience!
The main problem with vr headsets;
NOBODY, actually, wants to wear a claustrophobic, weird looking and uncomfortable “tv set” to their heads but do so for the ephemeral pleasure of an edgy novelty.
I had dji’s and ps4/5’s vr head sets…
Therefore, I may only recommend PS5’s VR2 headset because imho it still offers some decent value for its (relatively yet still substantially) low price.
Do NOT buy Dji’s new headsets which are truly torturous! (Yet their very first model was again relatively comfortable)
Thanks a lot for your very decent video🙏🖖

[questionablehumor]

I've been considering the vision for a "desktop replacement", syncing iPads (and eventually a maxed out MBP) to larger virtual screen real estate. I drive OTR, so my living and working space is quite limited (~125sqft). So to have a virtual space without the need for physical hardware is VERY interesting. Glad to hear your experience with it and i think the trade off of the ~1080p experience will be tolerable, so long as i don't have to use gestures to interface with the screen sharing.

[FilipeFerro]

Thanks for mentioning the pixel density at 7:34. I got the Vision Pro when it came out and kept it for only a few days, and I loved it but I have very sharp vision (20/15) and after a short period of time, virtual screens looked too fuzzy, especially text. Also, a real-life 4k TV or monitor will still beat the Vision Pro if you don't have it at a ridiculously large size, because even though it's a 4k display per eye, you're only using a small portion of that 4k display (again, having it at a size that doesn't take up the entire screen), so you're reducing 4k video sources to 1080p or even lower res than that. The displays are going to have to double or quadruple in pixel density for it to be lifelike.

[eon]

Fascinating to focus on PPD when they use a diffuser and software sharpening to the point where Quest 3 has more detail but to the point where you can see the actual pixels.

[pavelstebl]

I wish all happy AVP buyers a satisfying experience.

[jamesnickanthony]

You seem to be dwelling on or at least putting too much weight on the the PPD spec to equate the Vision Pros Micro-OLEDs with a 1080p LCD and inferior to the 4K LCD on your desk. A 5k screen like a Studio Display I get it but a 4K LCD? Come on. Siracusa made the same mistake of overstating the importance of it only supporting 92% DCI‑P3. I'm not sure individual spec trade offs are the best way to judge the overall quality of the displays as there are a lot performance characteristics to consider. Some are unique to the headset form factor in particular in which the Vision Pro bests all other displays (ideal lighting and viewing conditions, weightless and resizable, private and portable). I get and can relate to the fit and comfort issues but on top of those hurdles it must be subjectively a huge bummer to put the most state of the art device ever engineered by Apple up to your eye balls and feel like you’re slumming it. Add insult to injury if your favorite apps (really wish Day One would make a Vision Pro app) and use cases aren’t there yet. I see how this outcome came to be. 

Your content on this channel usually reflects my own opinions and takes so perfectly its like you plucked your video ideas directly out of my brain. I have fallen in love with my Vision Pro and it makes me sad that I’m unlikely I assume to see a lot more videos about it on your channel or on the podcast. What an uphill battle Apple has to make this product work for more people. I hope you pick up some straws and try the Solo Top (or at least switch to the dual strap band it’s almost universally considered more comfortable) and stick with it because I love your content and this is imho the most impressive and interesting product Apple has ever made, certainly since the original iPhone. It took me a month of heavy use before there was a significant change in the comfort through fiddling and acclimation. And Pass-through is taxing. I don't understand why anyone would put this on and not dial up an Environment to 25% at the least, almost all the time. I don't think you mentioned Environments.

[NeilLavitt]

I think I’ll stick with the Metaquest which cost me 1/7th of the cost of a VP for the occasional big screen solo watching. I think it looks very good in Skybox with high quality rips on my Synology. The other thing is I often fall asleep watching while lying down and the eye strain of having horribly bright pixels shiny through pancake lens makes me want to close my eyes. Big TV is much better.
After doing the VP demo, I was seriously tempted. However, reality distortion field was restored by the cost.

The workstation replacement is interesting, however, I just can’t get past the fact that it’s horribly unnecessary when I have a decent monitor setup. I’ve played around with Immersed on the Quest and it’s just not feasible.

I think the VP is fine for a solo person living in a small rented shared house or small rented apartment. However, as you pointed out, it’s just not a social device right now.

I agree the immersive video is compelling. If Apple can crack this with sports or TV content and a much lighter, perhaps iPhone, iPad or Mac driven device for a third of the cost, they will sell like hotcakes.

[catalin-andreiprivat]

Really, you are using Vision Pro to watch movies and then make a video about it?! I have one, using it every day for work, and it’s a game changer. Lots of examples. I use it with a Mac Air M3, and it’s an amazing productivity tool. It gives me a mobile office everywhere I go, it speeds up everything I need to do. Watching movies on it is just the cherry on top.
Do better!