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00:00I think everyone's looking at me, as they should be, because this is ridiculous.
00:06Hang on, why am I even making this video? You can only buy it in the US right now. Everyone
00:18and their dog has already bought one, made their reviews and then probably returned it
00:23as well. So I'm a little late to the party, but I'm here with my Vision Pro and with my
00:29considerably lighter wallet. This is $3,500 before tax and I didn't know better, so I also
00:39expect the higher 512 gig version, which was even more expensive. And I even bought myself the NASA
00:46style Apple protective case, which is absolutely massive, by the way. And if you do plan to take
00:52this traveling with you, you know, watch a movie on the plane, then bear in mind that this is
00:55probably going to take up about half of your backpack. Oh, and also because I did ship this
00:59from the US, the US customs people decided it would be fun to actually slice open the case there.
01:09But anyway, what's it actually been like using in the UK and wearing it every day here at home,
01:14at the office, which actually is for me the same thing, but also out and about looking like a
01:18complete nob? Has the novelty worn off and should you actually consider buying one of these when
01:24you eventually can? Well, the very first thing you need to know, if you're not from the land of
01:28the brave and home of the free and all that, you can't actually use the app store. It says not
01:33available in your country, which is kind of a big problem. Fortunately, I thought ahead three years
01:38ahead in preparation just for this review, and I actually married an American woman. And then I
01:43thought, well, I'll just use her Apple ID, but it turns out she's team pixel. She doesn't actually
01:47have an Apple ID, but my brother-in-law who's also American does. I managed to go into the
01:52app store and media purchasing settings menu and change it to his Apple ID. So if you do decide to
01:58import one of these before they launch globally later this year, you will need an Apple ID
02:02registered to a US phone number. Bit of a faff. And obviously you also can't exactly return it
02:07very easily. But once I was up and running, holy moly, it's not very often a new piece of tech
02:13genuinely leaves me speechless. It's the most ridiculously futuristic thing I think I've seen
02:21in a long time. There's been times this has felt like magic, and more importantly, given me that
02:26minority report experience I've always dreamed of. Literally dragging windows around, scrubbing
02:32through videos with your hands, watching spatial videos in this ethereal mist, I guess we'll call it.
02:38Gotta keep running! Although I promise I'm not planning any murders. At least not yet.
02:43Danny Whitman. Twin from the fed. Oops. Maybe there is one person I'd murder. Seems a bit harsh,
02:50but whoever designed the light seal, the light blocker, the magnet guy, because at least once a
02:56day I pick this up by the light seal. Which is not strong enough. Do not pick it up by the light seal.
03:02Which is tricky because then you get your mucky paw prints all over the front, and it just looks
03:06like something you should be able to pick it up from, but it is not strong enough. So hopefully
03:10Apple in the next version in a million years can maybe make this a bit stronger, because right now,
03:16like, every day I'm almost breaking this. But murdering aside, this thing is so freaking cool.
03:22All you want to do is open up apps for the hell of it just to move them around and create your
03:26own little over-the-top multitasking setup with every app in a window floating around you.
03:31And of course you're going to want to fire up your go-to show-off-a-new-TV movie. We all have those,
03:36right? Benchmark show or movie that you just want to see how much better it looks on that.
03:40For me it's always been Dark Knight and Band of Brothers. More recently Masters of the Air,
03:45which is actually like the new version of Band of Brothers, and also Rogue One. I also did actually
03:50buy Avatar 2 in 3D on this just to try out 3D, because you can watch 3D movies, although not
03:56on YouTube, and it looks good. I still don't like that movie, and I hate how it changes the frame
04:01rate between scenes in Avatar 2, but it looks really bloody good. So you've got your Apple TV
04:07and your Disney Plus apps for now, with a handful of fancy spatial vision experiences on Apple Store,
04:12but you can also watch YouTube and Netflix and pretty much anything else you want in Safari.
04:17Sit back, relax, turn on Cinema Mode, which puts you in this perfect seat of your own
04:22empty theatre. You also have to agree, it's a damn good looking headset. I mean,
04:27ski-goggle vibes for sure, and it's definitely heavier than I'd like it to be, but the industrial
04:32design, the attention to detail, I even just like having it on my desk. Again though, don't pick it
04:37up by the light seal. Two buttons on the headset. The crown wheel, which effectively acts as your
04:46home button, bringing up the app menu, and rotating it turns off the immersive background, so your
04:51real world disappears. The other button opens the built-in camera and acts as a shutter button.
04:56One press to take a photo. But the quality isn't particularly good, and I can't say I've ever found
05:01myself actually using the built-in camera instead of just grabbing my iPhone. Speaking of which, why
05:07the bloody hell, and I feel like that was a bit of an overreaction, but why can't I face unlock
05:12my iPhone while wearing the Vision Pro? It's already got the optic ID, it knows I'm wearing it,
05:17it can unlock for my watch because it knows I'm wearing it, but every time I pick up my phone it's
05:21like, can't see you, enter your pin. And even worse, why, unlike the Mac, which we'll come to in a second,
05:27can't I also have a virtual iPhone screen in my Vision Pro headset? If I could have
05:32my bunch of apps, my Mac, my iPhone screen, that would be cool, right? So you have the headset, but
05:38then you also have the power pack, the battery essentially. There is no battery in here, you
05:42can't use it without that. If you unplug from here it simply turns off. And unfortunately this USB-C
05:48port is only for charging, it's an input for charging, it doesn't do anything else. You can't, for
05:52example, plug in a hard drive or your drone or your laptop or your PS5 and use this as a big screen
05:59for other devices, it doesn't work. Technically you can remote play from your PS5, I did get it
06:04working, although there isn't the official PS5 remote play app, which is available on iOS and
06:09iPadOS, but not even in the broader non-Vision Pro category of the app store on the Vision Pro,
06:15so you have to go through a third party. And while it does technically work, the compression, the
06:19quality, I don't particularly recommend it. One quick point, I know a lot of people think that the
06:23only way to turn this off is by, that's not the right one, is by turning the power cable
06:30and disconnecting like that. I've now gone black essentially, but there is another way of doing it.
06:34If you actually long press both these buttons it will firstly bring up a force quit app menu,
06:40which is very helpful if one of your apps is a bit unresponsive or just a bit buggy, you can
06:44force quit the app that way, but holding it for longer brings up a traditional power off slider,
06:49not just brutally disconnecting it, which I suspect isn't great for the battery health in the long term.
06:54But those are the only physical things you'll touch, except for playing with the headband
06:58tightening wheel on the side, everything else is look and pinch, or press, and I'm kind of amazed
07:04how effortless and second nature it all feels. A handful of times it's not quite highlighting what
07:09I'm looking at or the camera didn't pick up my pinch, but 95% of the time it works every time.
07:14I've also found Apple's pretty bang on about that 2 hour battery life,
07:18or up to 2 and a half hours watching videos. A couple of times I've had to stop because it's
07:21run out of juice, but it's not been a big problem and generally when I'm sat at my
07:25desk here I'll just plug the battery into my Mac anyway to keep it topped up.
07:33So it all looks and sounds spectacular, and speaking of which, the built in speakers
07:38are better than they have any right to be in a headset this size.
07:41They're loud, bassy, you get spatial audio, and having sound coming from the direction
07:45of the window it's playing from in your 3D world really adds to that immersive factor.
07:50Although I would say AirPod Pro's, particularly the second generation with the USB-C charger port,
07:56because specifically this new model does support spatial audio with the Vision Pro,
08:01is probably your best bet for getting that most immersive sort of sound experience.
08:05And I'm going to try and avoid using the word immersive as much as possible in this review,
08:08also take chap 2, because the first ones I lost on a plane.
08:13And there's the added benefit of not annoying everyone around you,
08:15because there is a lot of sound leak from the Vision Pro.
08:19Yeah, Barry! The weirdest thing is I have no idea what you were doing.
08:25I recently jumped on a FaceTime call with my buddy Tommy, complete with our creepy uncanny
08:30valley personas, but the Vision Pro's mic quality, the noise cancellation, absolutely phenomenal.
08:36I had no idea Tommy was sat in a hotel lobby, although apparently the guy next to Tommy could
08:40hear me coming out of the headset and asked him to put headphones on.
08:44But for me at least, it sounded amazing.
08:46But for properly escaping reality, just spin this Apple Watch-style crown at the top a few times,
08:51and the real world, which you've been seeing through the incredibly impressive passthrough
08:55cameras, fades away into one of these gorgeously immersive, if somewhat lonely, environments.
09:01This would be a lot cooler if I could share it with someone.
09:04And while most of my time in the Vision Pro has felt kind of lonely, you do have share play.
09:10And while, again, you can't see the film because I'm screen recording, I had a lovely time watching
09:14about 10 minutes or so of The Creator on Disney Plus with Aaron for Mr Who's The Boss.
09:19We could both pause or fast forward the film and it would sync up for the other one,
09:22and it was genuinely nice to catch up and talk about the Vision Pro and watch something,
09:27with incredible sound and video quality.
09:29I could also share my screen, as I gave him a bit of a tour of the studio.
09:33And as funny as these personas look, and to be fair, his is better than mine,
09:37after a while you do kind of get used to it.
09:40The whole experience was another one of those Vision Pro magical moments.
09:44Until about 15 minutes in and we both said it was getting a little bit uncomfortable,
09:48and I really didn't fancy watching a whole two-hour film in this.
09:51The first 48 hours, the first couple of days, are just a blissful, magical time of
09:57experimenting and figuring out what it can and what it can't do, just messing around.
10:02But then, maybe on like day 3, day 4, you see it sat on your desk or your coffee table
10:06or wherever and you think, why am I going to put that on now?
10:10What am I actually going to use this for?
10:12For me, a big reason I wanted the Vision Pro was to use it as a big screen with my Mac,
10:17and it didn't disappoint.
10:18Well, at least not at first.
10:20Just tap or do the pinchy gesture on this connect button that pops up above your laptop,
10:25and as the MacBook screen turns off, a giant virtual screen appears in the headset.
10:29You can move it around in your 3D space, you can resize it,
10:32and of course, you can open other Vision Pro apps next to it.
10:35But then you start to see the shortcomings.
10:38For one, you have to keep reminding yourself that you are working in two different operating systems,
10:42and while you can airdrop and use iCloud,
10:44you can't look and pinch and gesture to control your laptop.
10:48And you're also limited to one screen.
10:50Yes, it can be a giant screen, so obviously, you can't do that.
10:54So obviously, you've got more space for having apps side by side,
10:57but it does feel limiting, especially if you're used to having a second monitor.
11:00I tend to use the Apple Studio Display here on my desk, plugged into my MacBook,
11:05and I can tell you that the Vision Pro is not as sharp.
11:08It's close.
11:09It would be better than a TDP 27-inch monitor, but it's not the same.
11:13And because of the foveated rendering,
11:15which prioritises the quality of what you're directly looking at,
11:18everything around that, your periphery, looks kind of out of focus and fuzzy.
11:22And you'd better make sure that you can touch type
11:24if you turn the immersive background all the way up and the laptop disappears.
11:28And while for a good 20 minutes or so, I was working away,
11:30I then started to feel the weight on my face, on my nose.
11:34My eyes started feeling a bit strained.
11:36And as magical as it seems at first, it's just not as comfortable as my current setup.
11:41But wait, Tom, hold your horses.
11:43Obviously, you've got a nice setup here.
11:44Maybe you could use it on the go.
11:46You're absolutely right.
11:47I thought that as well, so I took it on the train with me.
11:49And sure enough, a big effing virtual screen beats
11:52hunching over my 16-inch MacBook Pro on the train.
11:55No one could see my screen.
11:56And as I put it on, the headset turns on travel mode,
11:59so the screens aren't constantly flying away from me.
12:01So I carried on watching a YouTube video in one window
12:03and writing this review in another.
12:05And that lasted for about two minutes,
12:08because I quickly realised the movement of the train
12:10was giving me a constant motion blur.
12:13It's subtle, not enough to bother me if I was maybe watching a film,
12:16but my Google Doc, the websites I was reading,
12:19the text all became nauseatingly fuzzy.
12:22So my initial excitement of using the Vision Pro with my Mac
12:25quickly turned to frustration.
12:27And for me, a better solution would be just
12:29plugging in a pair of Xreal Air 2 Pros.
12:32Far more comfortable.
12:33It does a similar job in many ways,
12:34with its micro OLED screens,
12:36and you can have your big laptop screen projected in front of you.
12:38And it is also $3,000 cheaper.
12:42So now I'm scratching my head,
12:44literally because the headband has messed up my hair.
12:46And if you are partial to a bit of makeup on your face,
12:48I suspect you'll come out with a few smudges
12:50and a nicely stained light seal.
12:52Could I use it for fitness, for working out?
12:54Well, maybe, and I have.
12:56And I have to admit, it was pretty cool
12:58being able to work out in front of a mirror.
13:00I've got a YouTube video I'm following along to one side.
13:02I could have my fitness goals or tracker
13:04or whatever app I like on another side.
13:06It does work, but after maybe five or 10 minutes,
13:09it feels heavy.
13:10You'll get sweaty.
13:12And also you have to find somewhere for the battery pack to go.
13:14Maybe if there were some cool AR features
13:17that popped up to track your workout
13:19or paired with your Apple Watch,
13:20it could monitor your health on screen.
13:21I would love that.
13:23But no, the vast majority of apps just open in a window
13:26and don't do anything special.
13:28But at the end of the day,
13:29you just have a bunch of virtual screens plonked around you.
13:32Nothing interacts with the real world.
13:35As for gaming, well, you've got Apple Arcade,
13:37you can pair a controller,
13:38and there's a handful of genuinely fun stuff.
13:40Synth Riders, for example, is basically your Beat Saber,
13:43and it's a lot of fun.
13:44Although you might get a few looks
13:46if you play this outside.
13:48And there's some fantastic apps building Lego,
13:50having T-Rexes come out at you in 3D.
13:54There's a lot of what feels like good tech demos.
13:57And of course, anything that you can run or play on your Mac,
14:00you can also have on the big screen here.
14:01But there's no Rec Room.
14:03There's no Half-Life Alyx or Superhot or Arizona Sunshine.
14:06For the best VR gaming,
14:07get yourself a Quest 3 or a PSVR 2,
14:10and then maybe use the three grand you've saved
14:12on a nice holiday.
14:13You deserve it.
14:14I also know a lot of businesses and even schools
14:16were excited to invest in these
14:17for designing, visualizing prototypes,
14:20pitching clients, teaching.
14:21But, and there's always a but, it seems,
14:24there's just no really easy way
14:26to actually share the experience.
14:28Because simply handing the headset over to someone else,
14:30it might not fit their head properly,
14:31the light seal may be uncomfortable
14:33or not give the best experience.
14:34They have to go through this optical eye setup each time,
14:37which to be fair, is handy for people learning
14:39how to actually look and pinch and use it.
14:41But it's a pain having to do it every time.
14:43And there's just no way of sharing the experience
14:45with someone outside of mirroring to your TV or screen
14:48so they can see what you see.
14:50So you kind of get the idea here.
14:51I'm mirroring my Vision Pro to my Mac Studio,
14:54which is plugged into the Apple Studio Display.
14:57So it might look a little bit disorienting for you,
14:59but you can see roughly what I can see.
15:01However, anyone looking at this,
15:02because of that foveated rendering,
15:04a lot of it will look a little bit blurry,
15:06except for what my eyes are actually focused on.
15:08So my waffly, slightly ranty point being,
15:11it's fun, but it doesn't solve any problem.
15:14I don't really know why I'd want to use it like this.
15:16There's also no window management to speak of, by the way.
15:19And I wish there was a way of saving your window setup
15:21for a particular place like the office or your living room
15:24so you could then jump right back in
15:25without opening and placing them all again.
15:28However, with all that said,
15:29it is the first generation
15:31of a whole new product category for Apple.
15:33And of course, the MetaQuest 3 has more apps
15:35and VR experiences.
15:36And of course, it's cheaper.
15:37They've been doing it for years
15:39and they're going after a different audience.
15:41Developers need time to build amazing experiences
15:43for the Vision Pro,
15:44and it is the Vision Pro.
15:46And for $3,500,
15:48it does feel a little bit like a developer kit.
15:51And to give you an idea,
15:52I could buy a MacBook Pro M3, 14-inch,
15:55an iPhone 15 Pro,
15:57and a iPad Pro M2
16:00for the same price, near enough,
16:02as the Vision Pro.
16:08Right, before I wrap this waffly review up,
16:10a couple things to mention.
16:11I don't see any good reason to pay extra
16:13for the 512 or higher capacity versions
16:16of the Vision Pro.
16:17There's really nothing that takes up
16:18that much storage
16:19and anything huge you'll probably have
16:21on your laptop or your iPhone
16:22or in the iCloud anyway.
16:23So if you do buy one of these,
16:24I would just stick with the base storage
16:26and not pay the extra.
16:27Also, don't pay $200 for this.
16:29It's massive.
16:31It tears fairly easily,
16:32or at least it does if it goes through US Customs.
16:34And there are some great third-party cases
16:36and accessories
16:37that are so much cheaper now as well.
16:39So definitely have a look elsewhere first.
16:41You do also have two headband options
16:43in the box,
16:44one of which has a second over the head strap,
16:46which obviously ruins your hair
16:47even more than this does.
16:48And it does take a little bit of the weight
16:50off your face and your nose.
16:51But genuinely, I found myself
16:53using this one most of the time.
16:54And you can disassemble it
16:56like you see there.
16:57The light seal comes off nice and easily.
16:59You can also pull this orange tab
17:01to take this band off.
17:03You can unplug the actual headset.
17:06And so it sort of comes down to that size.
17:08I also have to say,
17:09after using it for maybe 20 to 30 minutes,
17:11while it's not super uncomfortable,
17:13when I take it off,
17:14my eyes feel strained.
17:15I've got marks around it a little bit.
17:19You never come out of this feeling fresh.
17:21And if you're at the office,
17:22if you're going out afterwards,
17:23if you're with people around you,
17:25it's not the nicest experience.
17:27Obviously, no VR headset or any headset
17:29is going to give you a nice experience,
17:30unless you're just wearing a pair of glasses.
17:32These are the Xreal Air 2 Pros.
17:34They've got a new Ultra one coming out
17:35with a wider field of view.
17:37And speaking of field of view,
17:38you've probably seen other people
17:39mention this in their reviews,
17:40but the field of view,
17:42the FOV on this isn't particularly wide.
17:44It does kind of look like you're looking
17:46through a pair of very sharp,
17:48very nice binoculars.
17:49So it can feel a little bit tunnel vision sometimes.
17:52And as I say,
17:53the lack of a desktop
17:54or a proper window management system
17:56can be frustrating.
17:57There is a files app,
17:58which is handy if you've downloaded
18:00or airdropped things across,
18:01but it's hard to feel productive in this
18:03with such a basic interface.
18:05Also, don't use it outside
18:06or in public.
18:07You look like a bit of a...
18:09I've tried it.
18:10I didn't really get much out of it.
18:11I got a lot of looks.
18:12If you are going to walk around with this,
18:14you actually have to grab the window you're using
18:16and carry it with you.
18:17This is best used at home or at the office
18:20or maybe on public transport
18:22if you don't mind people staring at you.
18:28So would I recommend buying it?
18:30Well, my answer is right now, no.
18:32And to be honest,
18:33there is some benefit
18:33for the rest of the world
18:34having to wait a little bit longer
18:36to buy one of these
18:37because in a few months,
18:38there will be more updates,
18:39there'll be more apps,
18:40more experiences,
18:41although you're still gonna have to pay
18:42an awful lot of money.
18:43But for a Gen 1 product,
18:44it is very cool,
18:45technically very impressive
18:47and it's rare, as I say,
18:49for me to actually be speechless
18:51when testing a new product.
18:52I've had some fantastic experiences with this
18:54and I'm continuing to find new things every day
18:56and I'm really excited to see how it develops.
18:58But what do you think?
18:59Are you tempted to buy one?
19:00Have you already bought one
19:01if you're in the US?
19:02And if so, let me know your experiences below.
19:04If you enjoyed this video,
19:05which I hope you did,
19:06a cheeky little like and subscribe would be lovely
19:08and I'll see you next time,
19:09right here on The Tech Jam.