Now reading that last part you probably already have a reaction to this article. After all, it’s been written by someone who still hasn’t had their hands on a Vision Pro, so what could I know. Practically not much, but thankfully a lot of reviewers and publications do have practical knowledge of this headset (such as The Verge’s Nilay Patel in the review above), and most of them agree on 3 things:

1. This thing is crazy impressive.

2. But also, not quite ready.

3. Nobody knows quite what to do with it yet.

Whether ,that’s the aforementioned The Verge, the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern, MKBHD himself or others. Because right of the bat Apple lead’s with its best foot with this device: a premium feel, some genuinely smart tech and an experience built around Apple’s ecosystem. Want to wirelessly project your Mac’s screen on a 50-inch ,4K virtual screen? Get a Vision Pro, want your special iPhone 15 videos seen in an amazing proprietary format? Vision Pro. Want your settings, preferences, available apps and photos all synced up the moment you turn a virtual headset on? Vision Pro. And you get to do all that in a very fast device that you literally use with your eyes and hands, that creates video frames faster than your eyes can see, feels nice and solid due to its magnesium build and has dual 5K displays that give the clearest and most crisp displays in any headset. Add in the M2 and R1 processors the outside tracking cameras and the best camera pass through mode tech on the market, which allows you to seamlessly change from an immersed VR environment to an AR environment where you can see the real world and overlay virtual objects over it. All of which creates an experience that yes, is very, very impressive. And in many ways unique. Apple decided the high price should mean a premium experience and in many ways it delivered.

So for anyone who wants this thing just on the basis of it being a fancy, unique, impressive toy, all your boxes are checked. But once that initial impressive luster washes over, you have to look at this device as what it is: a computer that you wear on your face. And well once we start looking at it that way, things change up quite a bit.

You see for as interesting and premium the Vision Pro is, it’s still a computer. In fact it’s very much a computer. One that’s meant to augment the things we already do on our PCs and MacBooks today, but in new ways that take advantage of that AR or “Spatial Computing” approach that Apple wants to take. But of course for you to want to use that computer, that computer should be easy and fun to use right? And well, it is…..sometimes. Because while this is in many ways a polished device, in many others, it’s very clearly a first-generation device with a lot of the flaws. For starters, the straps on the device have proven to be a typical Apple exercise in form vs function. The Solo Knit band that the company loves to market and advertise with the device is basically just for that: good marketing. It’s been proven to be worse to wear for a long period and the Dual Loop band (which looks like every other strap from every other headset on the market) is actually the one that’s great to wear and use long term, aka, like you would on a computer that you use everyday and all the time.

But that one could be forgiven as typical Apple hubris. After all , every company markets the best/most appealing look into a product and leave the rest in the fine print. What can’t be left as the fine print however is the Eyesight feature, aka the feature that let’s other people see your eyes and when you’re using the headset. It…kind of doesn’t work. I mean it does, but that’s like saying it works in the same way a Honda Fit works as a pickup truck. Apple overshot here, with the eyes looking blurry at best and a weird off-putting cross-eyed stare at worst.

It was another feature they made to differentiate the device from competitors, but it’s if anything turned it into a joke. What’s also a bit of a joke is the battery pack. In a time where the HoloLens 2 figured out batteries in 2018, the Meta Quest 2 and 3 soon after, it’s really weird that Apple requires a separate, detachable battery pack for the Vision Pro. Why Apple had to hang a battery pack out of the device that’s supposed to stay in your pocket? We don’t know. But are they obviously thinking most people won’t care enough to want to move around with a power pack in their pocket all day? Definitely. Regardless , it’s a flaw and whatever future version of this exists should definitely take a second look into Apple’s battery and power management.