DAY 2:
Spent the afternoon at Starbucks editing photos, as planned. Also had a buddy come by and try it out for the first time. Here's the latest round of PROs and CONs I experienced.
PROs:
• The battery life on this thing is better than expected. I had it in use for 2.5 hours before the 20% battery warning came up. That was with all sorts of video, facetime calls, immersion, my friend testing things out, and screen mirroring to and from my laptop.
• The mirroring efforts to and from Vision Pro might be simpler than any other Apple device. I loved how easily I could connect to my laptop to edit photos, and found the visibility and color accuracy outdoors in full sun to be FAR better than fighting the glare of my laptop screen. And when you invite a guest to use the device, you can instantly turn on mirroring to ANY of your other up-to-date Apple devices. This is HUGE for helping a first-time user navigate their way around the interface, and share in the experience with them.
• Not that my friend needed help, because like me he found the interface natural and intuitive, even without all the months of pouring through Macrumors articles that I had done. But sharing in the experience with them by seeing what they were seeing on my laptop made the whole process so much more enjoyable!
• Still not experiencing any issues with headaches 2 days in... though I did feel the tiniest bit of neck strain towards the end today (but this was after almost 2 hours of use).
• I continue to be amazed by how much more powerful this device is than an iPhone or iPad. Functionally it punches in much more like a laptop in terms of what you can do on it, especially with an ACTUAL laptop connected... the Laptop + Vision Pro combo is almost like a Laptop Superhero.
• Can’t underscore enough how great this was as a work solution combined with my laptop. If that was ALL Vision Pro did, it would be a pretty remarkable device... the fact that it does all the other things it does, and does them so easily, is just 🤌. I preferred the window closer in than further out, as it seemed to get a litttttle bit fuzzier when pushed out and made bigger.
• There’s no denying it: this thing is FUN to use. I don’t remember the last time I had FUN using a computer.
• At the recommendation of an Apple employee, I finally found a way to hold this thing that works consistently: thumb in the nose bridge, 4 fingers on top. More on that in the CONs below.
• 2 Days in, and still no dual band for me. That is one of the most surprising details yet.
• Saw people of ALL AGES in the Apple Store trying out Vision Pro today. Oldest had to have been in his 70’s. I asked him what he thought. His response? “I loved it… just trying to figure out if I’ll need my own wifi to Support it, because the internet is not very good in our assisted living home.” WHAT A BOSS. 👑
CONs:
• Tried several Facetime calls. The consensus was that my 3rd attempt to capture my persona looks MUCH more like me (in my buddy's words: "yooo... they did you DIRTY with that first one!" haha), but friends and family still felt like they were talking to some sort of AI version of me. Also couldn't find a way to return to (or even LOCATE) the Facetime window after jumping back to Messages to send the friend I was facetiming with a screenshot from our call.
• Speaking of Facetime... there's no Facetime app? So far I've only been able to trigger it from Messages.
• While we're picking on Facetime... there's an option to "Share My Window" from Facetime... but it only seems to share the Messages app. I'd love to be able to share my VIEW over Facetime, so that the other caller could see what I'm seeing. A surprising omission given how much emphasis they've placed on View Mirroring.
• Disney app continues to be one of the buggiest apps out there. Crazy cool... when it works.
• I find myself wanting a "home" gesture SO BADLY. As natural as the "pinch to select" gesture works with eye tracking, I find it equally UNnatural to have to reach up and push the crown to bring up home… especially when you bring up home a LOT on this thing.
• Continuing to experience that any more than 2 windows open at once is just chaos visually.
• Speaking of visuals, I’m noticing that I see the inside curve of each lens at about 30% opacity in my view… kinda has a “parenthesis effect” - ( ) - faintly overlaying the screen. I stopped by the Apple Store next door to the Starbucks where I was at, and they suggested trying the thicker padding to see if that corrects the issue.
• When my buddy returned the device to me and I put it back on, I was asked to set up my eyes and hands again, even though it should have recognized it was me and skipped all that. Then, when I adjusted the headset for a better fit, it seemed to mess up the alignment of the eye/hand test it and just run, because I suddenly could not look low enough to reach the bottom row of the keypad when typing in my password. Wound up having to do a hard reset of the device to get things working again.
• In my opinion, the BIGGEST design flaw so far is how easily the magnetic light seal pops out. Everything in me WANTS to pick the Vision Pro up by the light seal. RESIST THE URGE. Doing so will cause the Vision Pro to detach as you pick it up, and come crashing down to whatever surface is below. I'm sure the easy swappability was GREAT during testing and demos, so that everyone could easily have a turn with the right size for them... but I don't think I'll ever own more than this one Light Seal, so why can't it stay more permanently attached? I’d bet Apple will see quite a few unhappy users coming in with broken screens from light seal pickups.
OVERALL AND WHAT’S NEXT:
This thing works GREAT as a work device, particularly with a laptop connected. I was VERY impressed. At the same time, today the pricing reality weighed heavily on me. If you've not priced one of these out yet in checkout for yourself, it's worth pointing out: all the $3499 talk is a bit misleading. By the time you upgrade the hard drive ($200), add a case ($200), tack on Apple Care ($499) and calculate tax ($400-ish), you're talking about a $5000 device. Tomorrow, I’m planning to try out a couple games on the device, with and without a remote, to see how much I like gaming on the platform. Will also try the thicker padding to see if it corrects the parenthesis effect from the lenses.
WILL I OR WON'T I RETURN IT?
After Day 1, I was about 75/25 in favor of returning it. After Day 2, I’d say I’m more like 60/40 in favor of returning it. I got REALLY excited about being able to travel and work from the Vision Pro. For people who routinelywork in less-than-ideal conditions, I’d go so far as to say it has the potential to be a game-changer. For people like me who already have great workstations at home but travel occasionally, it may prove to be a really fun luxury that isn’t necessary.