Interested in seeing Vision Pro for yourself? Apple is now taking online reservations for in-store demos on February 5th and beyond.

We knew Apple planned to give in-store demos of Vision Pro, but initially the company said you could online get in line by going to an Apple store. And that continues to be the case for demos over this weekend.

But if you want to demo Vision Pro on February 5th and beyond, you can reserve a slot online. Just click here, sign in with your Apple ID, and look for availability at your local store.

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Apple says Vision Pro demo take about 30 minutes. You’ll be walked through calibrating and navigating the headset, launching and using apps, choosing a background environment, watching immersive video, and more.

If you’re curious about AVP but not enough to go into a store to try one yourself, this video actually gives a really good idea of what it’s like to use the headset.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • mellott124

    Just had one. It visually looks nice but needs more applications geared towards the HMD. All of the demos were about viewing photos, videos, 3D versions of those, and environments. It was also quite heavy as people have noted. Some display smear also that I didn’t expect and some distortions as you look around. Pass through is best I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t compelling enough to buy one.

    • XRC

      Early report from first adopters with VR experience seems to be that meta’s pancakes are superior to those in the aliens versus predator

      • MackRogers

        “early reports” are wrong.

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        I’ve seen people saying that reviewers wrote/said that, but despite watching/reading dozens by now, incl. some directly comparing AVP to Quest 3, I have not come across one that found the lenses to be bad or inferior to Quest 3. Do you have a name/source for one of these reviewers? I saw a couple of comments regarding blurriness in the peripheral view, though not due to the lenses, but due to ETFR.

        And since you’ve done a lot of hardware development, I’d highly recommend watching the (first) AVP teardown iFixit just posted on YouTube. Rather impressive amount of layers.

        • XRC

          The AVP sub Reddit has plenty of feedback from launch day owners rather than media reviewers.

          Something that has emerged from reading these reviews is inferior edge to edge clarity as well as chromatic aberration, alongside comments on limited FOV and physical discomfort.

          I’ve seen their manufacturing video, super impressive stuff, not an Apple user since college days many moons ago, but as a former industrial designer we always studied Apple products

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            I’m wondering how much of that is a rendering artifact instead of a lens issue, as a subtle “edge blurriness” even shows up in screen recordings. And how the same people would judge edge to edge clarity with foveated rendering turned off, which is possible in the developer options, but leads to a stuttering image. The chromatic aberration towards the edges I’d heard, assuming that this was more noticeable partly due to a smaller FoV. The physical discomfort I have no problems believing in, after seeing how the same solutions works or don’t work for different people, and struggling with it myself on any HMD I ever tried.

            I’ve seem the 82sec “Making Vision Pro” video on Apple’s YouTube channel, which made me wonder how much it cost just to develop the tooling for the bending of the outer glass shell, and very interested in how many strings are used to actually tighten the solo kit band while equally distributing pressure. Is that the one you are referring to or is there more manufacturing pr0n available somewhere?

  • MackRogers

    The Vision Pro is the best single item(not just tech) I have ever purchased or owned in my life.

  • MackRogers

    -Not heavy at all. Top strap combined with solo knit band is perfect, don’t even need bobo.

    -Keyboard nowhere near as bad as people said for searching or quick posts. Will only get better

    -built in speakers amazing, somehow better than index without goofy pop outs

    -eye tracking, even with early firmware, is 95% there

    -screens are perfection, no rival currently on planet

    -FOV as expected and in line

    -The potential over next 2-3 years of apps and iteration is limitless based just on this early base line

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      A lot of reviewers agree with you, often preferring the solo knit band over the dual loop. Many (not used to wearing VR HMDs) say it’s heavy, but that’s not a problem due to the good fit, mostly felt during head turns.

      Just finished watching a rather unusual review by Casey Neistat, who didn’t talk about details, instead wore it while walking around NYC, followed by a camera man, and carrying huge power banks. Interestingly he said that he sort of forgot he was wearing a headset after about 6h, instead windows floating in the middle of Times Square just become the new normal. According to him that was the moment it clicked for him, that this was not just the future of VR or AR, but how we will interact with computers in general.

      Of course for this to become widespread, the HMDs have to become much smaller, lighter and cheaper first. He didn’t recommend everybody should rush to buy a USD 4000 piece of glass and metal, with this being the worst AVP Apple will ever ship. He did recommend buying Apple stock because they are definitely going through with this idea, and it will be the future.

      • MackRogers

        No, the Solo knit alone is not good for me or most people.

        The dual loop digs into back of skull with zero padding and is too thin/cutting.

        What people are doing is using the solo knit and then pairing it with a top strap of some kind(similar to what was initially shown and what bigscreen uses)

        Those two things combined are perfect.

        I expect Bobo VR to come out with a really nice padded version of just that. RIght now a top strap WITH the solo knit is fantastic and is one of the most comfortable headsets I have ever worn.

        • XRC

          Seen a mod already on Reddit with another solo band used as a top strap (side to side).

          Creator said they are working up a 3D print, as it’s been zip tied for testing.

  • Star Centurion

    I tried it, very impressive stuff.

    I’m not sure about it at $3,500, but I’d happily save up $2,000 for it.

    Hopefully V2 is a little more… accessible.

  • Star Centurion

    Yeah don’t get me wrong, I appreciated the coverage but some of those mainstream media folks and/or tech youtubers that cover everything did not torture test the device or had the insight of people that focus purely in VR.

    Having tried it for myself and then seeing the reception from enthusiasts, it’s clear Apple struck a home run. Really happy for what this means moving forward.

    In the meantime, I’ll definitely be saving for V2 lol

    • ViRGiN

      Unfortunatetly most of available coverage is from people noone has ever heard about. It’s all normie stuff; most of them would have been blown away with Gear VR.

  • Dragon Marble

    Hello from Vision Pro.

    This thing is beautiful inside and out. There are shortcomings, though. I can understand why they keep saying it’s heavy. Even with a custom fit, it exerts more pressure on my face than Quest 3. Lenses are comparable. Quest 3’s being better is technically true, but to confirm that you have to turn your eyes to a very uncomfortable position. FOV is very noticeably smaller. Browsing the internet is a much more pleasant experience. Typing is still a pain and this is as much as I want to do.

    • ViRGiN

      I’ll hijacked and mention something I learned from random video – when you mirror your Mac to AVP, you can’t control that monitor with anything but Mac keyboard/mouse/touchpad.

      Every single day I learn more and more disgusting things about Apple way of things.

      Their spatial computing seems to be one bigger monitor surrounded by iPad apps.

      • Star Centurion

        You say this but like, controlling your PC on Quest 3 using any of the monitor mirroring apps is a pain, either w/ controller or with hand tracking. Would rather use my mouse any day.

        Would love to know what your setup is here, or do you just mean that you’d like to have the option available?

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      How was the experience with the eye and hand tracking latency and issues and issues from moving the eyes away before the pinch gesture had triggered, compared to your previous experiences with Quest Pro and PSVR2? These comparisons are a lot more interesting to hear from people that have tried other HMDs before than a lot of the reviews by people not used to wear headsets on a regular basis.

      • Dragon Marble

        I haven’t played any games, but the eye tracking has been working very well. There were only once or twice when my eyes were too fast. That’s when something popped up, blocking my view, and I was quickly trying to move it away.

        Comfort turned out to be a bigger problem than I thought. Similar to some other users, I ended up using the solo band as well. That’s not because it’s great. The dual band is worse. For a front-heavy headset, the top strap should go front-to-back, not left-to-right. Otherwise it lifts the handles rather than the headset up, creating even more pressure on your cheekbones. Unfortunately the Vision Pro does not have an attachment on the headset to hold a front-back top band. So this may be an unsolvable problem.

        Too bad for my face. The experiences are so good that I can’t take the headset off.

        • Christian Schildwaechter

          There are already several freely downloadable models for attaching the AVP battery pack to a belt or the solo band on Prusa’s Printables repository, so I have no doubt the hacking community will find a way to attach a front-to-back strap to AVP, by e.g. creating a clip-on frame. There is even a full size model of AVP (for reference dimensions, not optimized for 3D printing) for those wanting to mess with it now, but living on the wrong side of the pond, without a way to even try one for several months.

          • XRC

            Someone is working up a 3D adapter for adding another solo band as a top strap they’ve already proven it works with a quick zip-tie hack. Claimed much more comfortable than the dual loop band, but another $100

        • XRC

          Have you tried different light seals?

          I am reading from vision pro redditors that many versions are available (i.e. 21W, 23W, 33W, with different shapes and depth of cushion which directly effect perceived field of view, comfort and fit

          “I went back to the store with light seal and cushion in hand and they steered me to a store with the size in stock. I then went there and it was instant. They can even swap bands, but I did that through exchange online. Definitely do another face scan and also try it on. The employee said a lot of people are 33W. The first number is face width, second number is depth from the screen and the letter is nose bridge width”

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            The more I see people struggling with different comfort issues and counter measures, the more I become convinced that the fit of the facial interface is way more important than anything else, with Bigscreen’s custom made paddings based on face scans providing the best solutions. But even they sometimes need more than one scan/attempt.

            For example Marques Brownlee prefers the dual loop, stating the solo knit band creates uncomfortable pressure points on his cheeks, indicating the facial pad doesn’t fit his bone structure close enough and therefore doesn’t distribute pressure evenly. He was sent a review unit, so the cushion set was probably picked based on a 3D face scan. Which will measure the surface very precisely, but not the underlying bone structure. So Apple wanting customers to come into their stores for a custom fitting may be about more than introducing AVP and upselling. It may be the only way to make sure customers ends up with a well fitting HMD, as they will wear AVP for half an hour during the introduction. Which should reveal comport issues and allow trying different pads than what the face scan suggested.

          • XRC

            Ifixit are reporting in their new teardown blog that avp has 28 different light seal parts available from Apple:

            List of Light Seal Sizes and Their Corresponding Models

            11n: MVF13LL/A

            11w: MVFM3LL/A

            12n: MVF23LL/A

            12w: MVFN3LL/A

            13n: MVF53LL/A

            13w: MVFP3LL/A

            14n: MVF63LL/A

            14w: MVFQ3LL/A

            21n: MVF73LL/A

            21w: MVFT3LL/A

            22n: MVF83LL/A

            22w: MVFU3LL/A

            23n: MVF93LL/A

            23w: MVFV3LL/A

            24n: MVFC3LL/A

            24w: MVFW3LL/A

            25n: MVFD3LL/A

            25w: MVFX3LL/A

            26n: MVFG3LL/A

            26w: MVFY3LL/A

            33n: MVFH3LL/A

            33w: MVH13LL/A

            34n: MVFJ3LL/A

            34w: MVH23LL/A

            35n: MVFK3LL/A

            35w: MVH33LL/A

            36n: MVFL3LL/A

            36w: MVH43LL/A

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            Just watched a review by UrGamingTechie, who got a 33w padding based on the scan he made for in-store pickup. He tried it for some time, finding the FoV closer to the 95° Quest 2 than the 110° Quest 3. Then he noticed on thread on Twitter, warning that anything above 30 would significantly reduce the FoV, recommending a 21 instead of a 33.

            So he went back to the Apple store that happily swapped the part, and immediately got a massive increase. He now recommends going to the store for a fitting, but trying the smallest sized that are still comfortable to wear. The 3D face scans are either not yet working well enough or are playing it very safe.

          • XRC

            Haven’t seen any information on the maximum rendered fov.

            This should be available from the headset driver assuming it can be read on a Mac?

            Smartphone 3D scanning still isn’t as accurate as we really need, Apple seems to be having similar issues to Bigscreen (both using iPhone for scanning?) but at least AVP has adjustable ipd so only requires changing light seal

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            I’m wondering if there are fundamental issues with surface scans that higher resolution won’t resolve, and we’d need a device pushing into the face, measuring pressure at different points, to find the shape for optimal pressure distribution (if that’s even stable.)

            Bigscreen also uses iPhones, because they are the only ones with the exact dimensional results known. There are other phones with depth sensors too, but no standards that would ensure that the scale is the same. So the iPhone serves as a repeatable reference implementation.

            We’ll probably see more changes after more HMDs get custom fitting options. So far we only have Beyond and AVP, and apparently there’s room for improvement in the process. I’d hope that at least the IPD measurement is precise, as the AVP automatically adjusts it in guest mode. With two tracking cameras per eye with known distance in AVP, this should be independent of padding or 3D scan. My guess is they’re using two not for tracking precision, but for “compatibility” with different eyes. Tobii once said eye tracking worked reliable only for ~95% of the users due to large differences in people’s eyes.

          • XRC

            I’ve been very impressed with the Tobii eye tracking in my Pimax Crystal.

            However the automatic ipd didn’t always set my ipd correctly, from my understanding the calibration routine should be run each time the headset is mounted as it generates a customised set-up depending on the physical presentation, this shifts if the headset is mounted slightly differently which is inevitable with PCVR.

            However the dynamic foveated rendering is very impressive in terms of maintaining usable frame rates at full resolution whilst minimising any optical artefacts even if glancing about quickly.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            I’m really happy that things are moving in the right direction and already working a lot better. Having to recalibrate the headset to get the auto-calibrating IPD to properly work is kind of funny though. And a sign that there is still a lot of room for improvement.

          • XRC

            There are several calibration routines, the first is the eye tracking itself using a unity app, which is following a dot on different colour backgrounds.

            Then there is a vertical alignment calibration that takes a few seconds, and is activated every time the Crystal is removed to ensure the lenses are aligned correctly when refitting. A small graphic hints to move up or down and ok when aligned.

            Finally there is the automatic ipd that sets ipd to what it thinks is ideal. Once you are comfortable with the correct ipd many users switch off automatic, as another example I found my ideal ipd a little larger than suggested, so leave it set manually

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            What exactly does “fitted” mean here? Every time you change how tight the head strap is, or only when you e.g. change the length of the top strap, shifting the HMD, or whenever you move the padding on your face? So is there a way to put it on and off several times without having to recalibrate?

            I assume that it will work anyway, only the accuracy decreases, but wouldn’t understand how an error would accumulate so that at one point a recalibration is absolutely necessary. If the whole process only takes a few seconds, its probably not that critical, and for the situation in my head (permanently taking it of, changing a few lines of code, putting it back on to test) accuracy probably wouldn’t be an issue. But I know how annoyed I am every time the Quest “forgets” the guardian, even though it only takes seconds to recreate it.

          • XRC

            It’s really when removing the headset and putting it back on, because it’s not spring loaded like Index or CV1 (headband springs) but uses ratcheting dial like Vive Pro it means you need to loosen the harness to take it off, and tighten when refitting.

            This tends to alter the position very slightly each time and you may need to hunt for optimum, whereas on Index or CV1 you could leave it set-up and use the harness springs to extricate yourself and don without messing up the fit

  • Kissenschlachter

    Something similar. It’s an AI interpretation of my face. It’s years old, so I don’t remember which AI it was.