I walked into an Apple Store and got a Vision Pro demo: Here’s my experience

The setup formalities

Apple presented the Vision Pro as I have come to an upmarket restaurant. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

I walked into the store at Fashion Mall around 11 am, thinking I would get the demo instantly. However, I was told to get an appointment for the demo. The Apple staff checked for an available slot and asked me if I was okay to sign up for an 11:30 am slot. I agreed and came back to the store at my designated time. The staff member came up to me with an iPad mini and asked me to add my details so that I could get the slot. Once the formalities were over, I was told to wait for my turn. The time between signing up for the demo and the actual demo was approximately 10-12 minutes.

I patiently looked at the VisionPro units displayed on a table near the front. The headsets were secured tightly to their stands, and although I couldn’t try the device or even hold it in my hands, it was enough for me to picture the Vision Pro in my mind before the actual demonstration of the headset. I’ll be honest; I already knew so much about the Vision Pro by this time, but nothing beats the experience of the device in person.

After a few minutes, an Apple Store employee walked over (let’s call her Lucy, though that’s not her name) and guided me to a room behind the main storefront for the demo. While Lucy began prepping for the demo, I sat on the low-platform couch and looked at other people who were already getting demonstrations of the Vision Pro. For a second, I froze and felt as if I were in some dystopian world where headsets seemed to be pretty normal. Quite a sight it was and almost unbelievable.

I saw a bunch of people trying out the Vision Pro at the Apple Store. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

Lucy asked me about the type of prescription glasses I wore so that she could get the optical inserts to be used with the headset. These are not ordinary inserts; rather, they are magnetic prescription lenses from Zeiss. I had been hesitant about trying VR/AR glasses because I wasn’t confident enough about the display quality or how responsive the interface would be, given that I am someone who uses high-power glasses. However, how Apple handled optical inserts to use with the Vision Pro gave me confidence. Lucy took my glasses and verified the prescription of the eyeglasses using the Lensometer. She told me that the store had 38 different light seals and 900 corrective lens options in the backroom. The process was seamless, and in the next 5 minutes, the Vision Pro was ready with a custom optical insert.

After a teeny tiny wait, another employee brought my demo unit out on a round handcrafted wooden plate. It seemed like I was having lunch in a fancy restaurant. The Vision Pro looks like a pair of designer ski goggles. It’s made from an aluminum body, a curved glass on the front, woven fabric, and underneath hides a sophisticated technology. The headset was aesthetically arranged, featuring a front cover, the Solo Knit Band, and the external battery pack (this was the first and last time I saw the battery pack; I almost forgot the headset uses a battery pack).

Lucy asked me if the unit fit well and told me not to hesitate if I felt discomfort even once. I wore the headset and let her know how I felt so that she could proceed further with the demo. The Vision Pro comes with either the Solo Knit Band or Dual Loop Band around the back of your head that you tighten with a little knob. For the demo purpose, I tried the headset with the Solo Knit Band, which seemed well-designed and works well for shorter use times (say anywhere between 30 and 40 minutes). Since the headset rests above your cheekbones, adjusting the fit (and the light seal) to ensure it stays on is important. It comes down to personal comfort, eventually. That’s not how we are accustomed to experiencing existing devices. So, in a way, the Vision Pro opens a new chapter not only in selling a tech product but also in how the experience of using the headset will be different for each user. After I gave my feedback, I was ready to test drive the Vision Pro – of course, under the watch of Lucy, but I had full control even though it was a scripted experience.

As I wore the Vision Pro, Lucy gave me an overview of the headset. There are multiple cameras on the outside, along with a Digital Crown, much like what’s on the Apple Watch, which is located on the top-right corner and, when pressed, opens up the home screen. On the left side, you will find a rectangular button, which is called the “top button”. Both buttons are designed purposely, but the main inputs are your eyes and hand tracking, and more importantly, the double-tap gesture (more on that later). Inside, the Apple-made Micro OLED display boasts 23 million pixels and equates to an individual 4K display for each eye.

The Vision Pro is a US-only device for now. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

When you put on the headset, you’ll be greeted with a floating “Hello” and invited to press the Digital Crown to get started. Unlike the iPhone, which scans your face, the Vision Pro scans your iris. Basically, the headset measures your PD (pupillary distance) and moves the displays to match. From there, you’ll quickly move through hand and eye tracking setup. All you need to do is hold your hands up in full view as the Vision Pro scans them, and then you look at various colourful dots in either normal or bright light to set up eye tracking. You look at the dot each time and perform the double-tap gesture.

After setup, you’re on the VisionOS home screen, which feels familiar if you are an iPhone/iPad user like myself. Essentially, the interface consists of three rows of apps, and Apple’s core apps are all here: TV, Music, Notes, Mail, Keynote, and the App Store. The apps float in the room in front of you, and they look as real as other objects in the room.

Lucy had full control over what I would be able to see in the Vision Pro, which would beam directly to her iPad. Even though I had to follow her in every step (which I anyway needed to do to get familiarised), I still got the idea of how the interface works.

Vision Pro’s eye and hand tracking is very accurate, and unbelievably good. To select an app, just tap your thumb and index finger together. Your hand doesn’t need to move up to do this, just somewhere the headset can see it. When you open any application, it will appear as a window floating in your space. You can move it around and have it stick in that chosen position. To resize the window, look at the window’s corner, pinch, and resize. So, a Safari window can be stretched over 100 inches, for example. At first, I felt uncomfortable (and hesitant), but after a while, it became easy and intuitive, like opening an app on a phone.

Of course, it needs practice, and even if you are a pro user, you will still take time to adapt to the user interface. So there is a learning curve to the interface, even though it appears simple at first, like how you navigate on the iPhone. One interesting thing (which I found fascinating) about the Vision Pro is that spinning the digital crown on the headset lets you slide between being entirely in reality, partially in reality, and entirely in a virtual landscape. It’s magical.

I was getting familiarised with the interface (and the headset) as I was following Lucy’s instructions. On many occasions, Lucy insisted that I listen to her first and then jump from one experience to another. The techie in me wanted to spend more time with the apps – and she happily gave me time to do so. As expected, Apple picked carefully crafted experiences to show the capabilities of the headset: looking at photos, panoramas, immersive video, and spatial videos in the Photos app, browsing the web in Safari, and watching 3D movies and trailers within the Apple TV apps.

Lucy stuck to the script most of the time. I glanced at a few prepared photos and panoramas and then I moved to the spatial photos and videos of a happy family celebrating a birthday and blowing bubbles in the backyard. However, I must say there was a sense of real 3D “presence” in the videos. Our next feature to explore was to open a few flat app windows, placing them around my space and resizing them. Lucy then asked to open the Safari browser on the Vision Pro and search or enter a website using the built-in virtual keyboard. I don’t think I will be touch-typing as I can on a physical keyboard. I won’t say it’s bad but it’s not good either.

To me, though, one of the best-curated experiences that Apple had in store for me was an Apple Immersive Video, which transported me into the middle of some action. I watched someone walk a tightrope with no wires high across a mountaintop. I had goosebumps. The video promises immersion that you can only get on a headset like the Vision Pro. I saw rhinos up close in person, quite literally. I was also thrown right into the world of Avatar, all in 3-dimension.

My overall feelings

Having tried out the Vision Pro in person evokes a different type of feeling. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

The 30-minute demo that I got gave me a taste of what the Vision Pro can do, and Apple primarily focused on some of the headset’s standout features, which seemed obvious given how the company’s pitch has always been about the entertainment quotient of the headset.

However, I have a slightly different take on the headset even though I spent a little time with the device. I never felt the device was heavy, and I don’t want to use this term. Rather, I would say, that when I wore the headset, I felt I was entering a black hole; you feel there’s something on your face, and you are looking at a new space (or rather you find yourself in a new world). It’s like playing Nintendo’s hit The Legend of Zelda: Tears of Kingdom, which is an open-world game where the player is free to roam in virtual landscapes. You enjoy the time you are in that space, but when I removed the headset, I felt lonely and scared.

I don’t know if my impression of the Vision Pro will change if I try the headset a second or third time. But, right now, this is where I stand regarding the Vision Pro and Apple’s vision for a spatial computer. It’s unlike the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, both in concept and fundamentally where it leads us, even though on the surface, it may feel inherently familiar with the interface. The Vision Pro is a VR headset at heart, whether Apple likes it or not. I wish Apple had incorporated the headset’s AR capabilities during the demo, which sadly was missing. I wonder why.