As I type this, it’s Tuesday the 6nd of February and I’ve had Apple Vision Pro since Friday. I haven’t had the chance to use it as much as I would have preferred (just life getting in the way, not that I’ve found there’s things I can’t do in it). So I’ll want to revisit this post in a week or so. But here goes for my experience so far:

The “Mind. Blown.” Stuff

Eye tracking and hand gestures

It’s absolutely mad how quick this becomes second nature and just a “of course this is how it works” kind of thing. The first minutes of usage though? It’s like having your mind read. It’s precise, it’s natural, it’s just plain awesome. They are simply second nature after a few minutes of usage. I found myself tapping my finger together when watching regular television via Apple TV (we have hidden our remote because of our child, so control of Apple TV always is through an iPhone).

Apple Immersive video

In summary: O. M. G. Absolutely incredible stuff. I Can’t decide which one I love the most. The rhinos and the ropewalker are both insanely cool.

The Great

Comfort

While I fully acknowledge that everybody is different, for me it turns out that every single paragraph read and YouTube minuted watched with regards to fit and comfort has been a waste of time. In short: I have zero comfort issues, quite the opposite. I use the regular loop strap, there’s no weight issue or otherwise.

I have a small feeling that people haven’t spent time adjusting and reading the basic tips from Apple on comfort and fit. There’s quite a bit of adjustments you can take, and Apples article goes into depth about what specific steps to take depending on what comfort or fit issue you have. It takes some time to dial in what works best on you, but from that initial time on, its smooth sailing.

The look

I have no shame in saying: I think Apple Vision Pro looks great. Futuristic, yes. But not goofy. The accepted opinion is of course that is looks goofy - same as AirPods looked like toothbrushes when they were new. But I think that is just the newness of it all. There is a factor of it looking better than in photos as well. And selfies of people wearing it makes it look bigger than it actually is (since whatever is closest to the camera lens looks bigger).

Mac virtual monitor

So if you didn't know, you can easily bring your Mac monitor into Apple Vision Pro. It just becomes one of the floating screens inside it. If you normally use a laptop, like I do (14 inch) you also get a MUCH bigger screen than you are used to. It's awesome! Works every time, it feels like there is zero latency. Text is sharp.

The Good

Text input

After all the hallabaluh about text input on Apple Vision Pro, I expected it to be worse. Dictation works great, and for short text entry the virtual keyboard is more than fine. For any long text entry, yes you need to connect a keyboard. But, that was not expected? Let’s jump 20 years in the future, I still think physical keyboards will be the best for long text entry… Even if haptic feedback gets great, the haptic would go straight into my head? That doesn’t make any sense. And I don’t want to have to use hand controllers. I think those are the styluses of headsets. (And yes, just like with the stylus, I can imagine Apple creating an accessory like Apple Pencil for the headset for specific use cases in the future - but it should not be a standard means of input or control).

Passthrough displays

In bright lighting, it's almost like it wasn't video but really your own eyes. But as your environment darkens at home in the evening, it becomes more noticeable it's just video. There is still never any latency so you don't get those issues, but resolution/overall quality of image drops when it's dark. To be clear though: this is still really really good passthrough video. But I can easily see that this will be one of the Gen2 improvements.

Personas

That a 30 second guided scan of my face can generate a 3D avatar that LOOKS LIKE ME is astonishing technology, and anybody saying otherwise is either uneducated or lying to have a hot take. Could it be improved? Oh absolutely! But for a 1.0 beta feature, Personas are the real deal.

The less good

Honestly? Not much. I'd like a different way to trigger control center as I've accidentally opened that a few times. That might just be a habit thing, and I don't have any good ideas on how to do it instead. I also want more of Apple's own apps (Maps, Reminders, Calendar, Clock... they all work fine as compatible apps but would be great to see them native) to become native for the platform, but I am sure we'll see at least some of that come WWDC this year.