Vision Pro Teardown Part 2 - Is the Apple Vision Pro Really 4K?

The Apple Vision Pro found its way to our lab on release day and we’ve torn it down to bare bones but that doesn’t mean we’re done! Today we’re going to take a closer look at the hardware that Apple thinks justifies the $3,500 price tag on the base model Vision Pro.

If you missed our Vision Pro disassembly video, you can find a link to it in the description. Go check it out here!

Our Pro Tech Toolkit is the best toolkit money can buy!

Stay Organized with our FixMat!

Check out Karl Guttag’s research on XR and optics here:

Special thanks to Evident Scientific for allowing us to borrow their $100k microscope! Find out more about the microscope we used here:

Awesome X-rays and CT Scans from Creative Electron!

Chapters

00:00 iFixit’s Vision Pro Teardown
00:12 Check out our Full Vision Pro Disassembly
00:19 Vision Pro X-rays and CT Scans from Creative Electron
00:33 Microscope Shots Thanks to Evident Scientific
00:38 A Deep Dive Into the Vision Pro’s Display Panels
01:14 Are the Vision Pro Displays 4k?
01:37 Measuring the Vision Pro Displays and Calculating Pixel Density
03:12 Comparing the Vision Pro’s Pixels Per Direction to the Quest 3
03:56 What’s inside the Vision Pro’s Battery?
04:24 What is the Vision Pro’s actual Battery Capacity?
05:43 The Vision Pro’s Logic Board and Chip ID
06:22 How Repairable Is Apple’s Vision Pro?

Subscribe to our channel for all our latest teardown and repair videos!

[yael-martin]

2:56 Thank you iFixit for talking about PPD, and measuring the the actual display resolution!

[williammena]

I honestly thought this would have been a 1 or a 2 on the repairability score

[SuperDuprTech]

I know it was provisional, but that 4/10 score was something I really wasn't expecting. If the glass was easier to come apart I could understand it but, looking at all the teardown vids posted online it looks like a maze!

[uuuu]

The Vision Pro battery pack can be opened without damaging the external metal. There’s a YouTuber named “phone repair guru” who was able to open the battery pack without damaging the case using acetone to dissolve one layer of adhesive and then using a pry tool to open it

[poemontyperacer]

7:26 the Pro Vision-al score never made more sense than now!

[BunkerSquirrel]

Using the Screwdriver case as a project box is both something I never considered and delightfully brilliant

[lemagreengreen]

Honestly guys: longer videos. This kind of thing deserves it.

[cubefox]

The most common definition for "4K" is 3840*2160, the resolution of "4K" TVs or of "4K" movies, also known as Ultra HD. It's four times the pixels of Full HD. If the Apple Vision has 3660*3200 pixels per eye, that's not the same resolution as 4K, but overall it amounts to even more pixels, 29% more.

Though it should be noted that these pixels are distributed across the whole field of view, and some will also be cut off at the edges or possibly lost to software image distortions to balance out lens distortions. So if you watch a 4K movie in the Apple Vision Pro, you are only using a fraction of the FOV and of the pixels available in the display, which means the movie will very likely render with (significantly?) less than 4K resolution.

[grantc]

It is amazing how many teardowns I have seen where people are cutting the cloth and not picking the clips like you did on day 1!

[Maxoverpower]

2:39 grain has nothing to do with insufficient resolution, but rather with the input cameras exposing for light. A higher resolution leads to more noise, not less.

[frozzenwaterfall]

Surprised about the 4/10 ... What could really be repaired on a Vision Pro by anyone but Apple?

[christopherrasnick]

It’s not the hardware that makes it 3, 500 but rather the cost of R&D spread among a limited production run.

[DaveSimkus]

They should get rid of the front eye display thing. Nobody who looks at someone wearing a VR headset cares about seeing their eyes. Apple could have saved weight and money by not doing that at all.

[Kraaketaer]

Please get your facts straight - the resolution you're quoting for "4k" is DCI 4k, which is not the same as UHD 4k - and has a matching lower resolution that differs similarly from 1080p (DCI 2k, 2048x1080) (there is no sub-2k DCI resolution). The illustration you're using here is this completely misleading, as you're comparing across several different resolution standards and aspect ratios (DCI is approx. 17:9 rather than the broadcast/TV 16:9). So while you're technically correct in saying that TVs aren't 4k in that DCI 4k was the first 4k standard, UHD 4k is the de facto broadcast and home display standard, and while calling it 'UHD' is more correct than '4k', for consumer usage those are synonyms. There were no consumer-facing DCI 2k TVs either, but that doesn't make them any less full HD TVs. So if you're going to be "well, technically"-ing things, at least be consistent about how you're doing it.

[PenguinYayOne]

4:46 Not necessarily. That 35.9Wh rating is at 13V while the 46.08Wh is rated at 3.87V. Boosting the voltage induces more heat loss, therefore the lower rating.

[tato-chip]

the battery pack being separate on its own gives the device more longevity.
I am concerned about that front and internal glass though.

[pdavis]

I can't understand a 4/10 score for a device that doesn't have screws holding the battery pack together and has a proprietary power cord connector!

[bushgreen]

*Try this. Connect your Mac to AVP, then check if you can select a different resolution in your Mac.*

[jadusiv]

This guy has the most unusual way of enunciating words. Never heard anything quite like it.

[dealerofdeeth]

its definitely nice to see the parts most likely to break have (almost) toolless replacement, even though they're all proprietary