techspot Apple reveals Vision Pro AR headset, arrives early next year for $3,500

[UltraMega]

Quote

The device's micro-OLED lenses collectively contain 23 million pixels, effectively achieving 4K per eye, which is about double the resolution of VR headsets like the Meta Quest 2 and PlayStation VR2. This grants the Vision Pro's virtual screens full 4K image quality.

Apple reveals Vision Pro AR headset, arrives early next year for $3,500

WWW.TECHSPOT.COM

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Apple capped off its WWDC23 presentation by revealing its long-anticipated augmented reality headset...

 

 

Looks like a quality headset... that price tho, yikes. 

 

 

 

[Andrew]

Considering the hardware that it has, that price is pretty good. Especially when you compare it to the $3500-$5200 Microsoft Hololens, which is the only other AR headset on the market right now, and that only does AR. The Vision Pro does both AR and VR, according to Marques Brownlee who did try it out, it does both very well.

 

If these things can be used with Windows/Steam VR, I'm selling my Index and picking one of these up eventually.

Edited June 6, 2023 by Andrew

[UltraMega]

34 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Considering the hardware that it has, that price is pretty good. Especially when you compare it to the $3500-$5200 Microsoft Hololens, which is the only other AR headset on the market right now, and that only does AR. The Vision Pro does both AR and VR, according to Marques Brownlee who did try it out, it does both very well.

 

If these things can be used with Windows/Steam VR, I'm selling my Index and picking one of these up eventually.

Hololens is not marketed as a consumer products, but even if it were... it's the same price so I'm not sure it's a win. I'm sure apple will find ways to package it with add ons to make $3500 be the base price just like with hololens; perhaps they'll simply start selling an egregiously priced stand to go with it. Hololens is a different tech, both headsets have their advantages and disadvantages. 

 

I don't think making the screen semi-transparent and making each screen 4K justifies the price, which is 7 times more than a PSVR2. 

Edited June 6, 2023 by UltraMega

[Andrew]

5 minutes ago, UltraMega said:

Hololens is not marketed as a consumer products, but even if it were... it's the same price so I'm not sure it's a win. I'm sure apple will find ways to package it with add ons to make $3500 be the base price just like with hololens; perhaps they'll simply start selling an egregiously priced stand to go with it. Hololens is a different tech, both headsets have their advantages and disadvantages. 

 

I don't think making the screen semi-transparent and making each screen 4K justifies the price, which is 7 times more than a PSVR2. 

The device has a full blown M2 chip in it. It's effectively a $1300 laptop built into a headset. It's also a standalone device. The PSVR2 $550 + $400 for a PS5, so you can't really compare the PSVR2 on it's own to the Vision Pro.  It is still quite a lot cheaper for a PSVR2, but you also get a lot more with the Vision Pro. The PSVR2 does just games. It looks like the Vision Pro, can in theory, replace your tablet, laptop/desktop and play games. Apple seem to be going after both the Meta Quest Pro and Microsoft Hololens with this.

 

The panels are also higher res than 4K. I don't think they gave an actual resolution beyond "more pixels than a 4K TV to each eye" but with the pixel count, I estimate it to be closer to 6K per eye. Which if correct, would make it higher res than any other headset currently on the market by a long way.

 

 

[UltraMega]

2 hours ago, Andrew said:

The device has a full blown M2 chip in it. It's effectively a $1300 laptop built into a headset. It's also a standalone device. The PSVR2 $550 + $400 for a PS5, so you can't really compare the PSVR2 on it's own to the Vision Pro.  It is still quite a lot cheaper for a PSVR2, but you also get a lot more with the Vision Pro. The PSVR2 does just games. It looks like the Vision Pro, can in theory, replace your tablet, laptop/desktop and play games. Apple seem to be going after both the Meta Quest Pro and Microsoft Hololens with this.

 

The panels are also higher res than 4K. I don't think they gave an actual resolution beyond "more pixels than a 4K TV to each eye" but with the pixel count, I estimate it to be closer to 6K per eye. Which if correct, would make it higher res than any other headset currently on the market by a long way.

 

 

The only thing new it brings to the table is higher res. There are other stand alone headsets. 

 

Not knocking the headset, just the price. The m2 chip is not a $1300 chip, and the cost is just too high. Good product, bad price.

[Andrew]

4 minutes ago, UltraMega said:

The only thing new it brings to the table is higher res. There are other stand alone headsets. 

 

Not knocking the headset, just the price. The m2 chip is not a $1300 chip, and the cost is just too high. Good product, bad price.

$1300 laptop, not $1300 chip. This is a "laptop" that you wear on your face.

 

Yes, there are other stand alone headsets. But only one does AR and it doesn't do it very well. It's also $1500, requires controllers for an additional $300 making that a $1800 headset.

Yes, there is a stand alone AR headset. Just the one. It doesn't do VR and it's $3500.

 

This does both AR and VR (according the people who have used them briefly at WWDC) very well.

 

This is what Apple does. They take a technology that's been out for a while, improve it massively, and then that technology becomes mainstream because every other tech company tries to make their own version. This headset is coming out next year. Watch VR and AR come into the mainstream in 2025.

[UltraMega]

8 minutes ago, Andrew said:

$1300 laptop, not $1300 chip. This is a "laptop" that you wear on your face.

 

Yes, there are other stand alone headsets. But only one does AR and it doesn't do it very well. It's also $1500, requires controllers for an additional $300 making that a $1800 headset.

Yes, there is a stand alone AR headset. Just the one. It doesn't do VR and it's $3500.

 

This does both AR and VR (according the people who have used them briefly at WWDC) very well.

 

This is what Apple does. They take a technology that's been out for a while, improve it massively, and then that technology becomes mainstream because every other tech company tries to make their own version. This headset is coming out next year. Watch VR and AR come into the mainstream in 2025.

Definitely give them credit for waiting this long and making their first headset a top notch one. It is a very impressive device, but VR overall is still far too expensive to be mainstream and this just pushes the price further into the extreme high end. 

 

Hopefully prices on VR will come down over the coming years, but so far it seems like it's only gotten more expensive. The fact that I could buy a gaming PC with a 4090 and a high end VR headset for less, or two PS5s and PSVR2 headsets for substantially less is a problem. But it's apple, this is what they do so no surprise there.

 

I can imagine a lot of old people with money to spare buying this in sort of the same way old people bought the Wii when it came out. 

[UltraMega]

Just to clarify something, the headset is not transparent. There is a screen on the outside that shows the person's eyes. 

 

I'm not up to date on the latest VR headsets, but I feel like there have got to be other headsets that do AR in this way but simply don't have a screen on the outside showing a display of the persons eyes.

[Andrew]

11 minutes ago, UltraMega said:

Definitely give them credit for waiting this long and making their first headset a top notch one. It is a very impressive device, but VR overall is still far too expensive to be mainstream and this just pushes the price further into the extreme high end. 

 

Hopefully prices on VR will come down over the coming years, but so far it seems like it's only gotten more expensive. The fact that I could buy a gaming PC with a 4090 and a high end VR headset for less, or two PS5s and PSVR2 headsets for substantially less is a problem. But it's apple, this is what they do so no surprise there.

 

I can imagine a lot of old people with money to spare buying this in sort of the same way old people bought the Wii when it came out. 

Remember when the iPhone first came out? Everyone made fun of it for being too expensive at $500? Now $1000 is the norm for a top-end phone with some reaching close to $3K.

 

I do see Apple announcing a "Vision SE" for around $800 next year.

[UltraMega]

14 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Remember when the iPhone first came out? Everyone made fun of it for being too expensive at $500? Now $1000 is the norm for a top-end phone with some reaching close to $3K.

 

I do see Apple announcing a "Vision SE" for around $800 next year.

Smart phones made computing accessible in a super mobile way. VR/AR headsets are a luxury device and it doesn't look like that will change anytime soon. People need smartphones today, but they don't need headsets. 

 

Personality I've never spent more than $300 on a phone. Phones are also a bit different since most people end up paying for them over time as part of their monthly bill. 

 

I agree they will likely release a cheaper version at some point, but I doubt it will be $800. $1500 maybe. 

Edited June 6, 2023 by UltraMega

[Sir Beregond]

I'll skip all these baby steps. Let me know when we have the Holodeck from Star Trek. In the meantime I have no interest in wearing a big bulky headset to do my computing.

 

For the Lolz:

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Sir Beregond

[Alex]

Interested... but also not sure if this is going to go to the AirPods Max route where it doesn't really become as big as people think or the opposite like the Apple Watch where it quietly became super popular.

 

I'm expecting the former, but hoping for the latter. VR is a good and fun tech, more players, diversity and public appeal is only better for developing it.