10 Things Apple Vision Pro Can Do (and Four Things It Can’t)

The Vision Pro, Apple’s mixed-reality headset (aka spatial computer), is officially out in the world — if you have $3,500, you can pick one up at an Apple retail store or order one online.

I’ve been using the Vision Pro for over a week and, well, it’s quite amazing — it’s essentially an iPad for your face. You can watch movies in a private theater, play video games on a super-big screen, and have multiple apps floating around your room. You can even connect it to your Mac (via AirPlay) and use it like virtual monitor.

Admittedly, there’s a lot you can do on the Vision Pro. But there are also limitations. Below, we break it down.

Apple

Apple Vision Pro

The Vision Pro is Apple’s mixed-reality headset capable of both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). You can use it as your own personal movie theater, VR gaming headset (for Apple Arcade) or virtual monitor for your Mac.

Pros

• The best and more high-res displays we've seen in a headset
• The eye- and hand-tracking controls are incredibly cool and unlike anything else
• Works well as a virtual display for your Mac
• A great entertainment device for watching movies

Cons

• Only works within Apple's ecosystem of devices
• Very expensive
• It's a headset, so you got to be prepared to wear it on your face for long hours

• $3,500 at Apple

It can let you see your screen, and what’s behind it

Photo by Tucker Bowe

Vision Pro is a mixed-reality device. It does augmented reality, meaning it shows virtual elements on top of the actual world; apps appear floating in front and around you while can still see the room and people around you. And the Vision Pro does virtual reality, meaning it can completely immerse you in a virtual world; the latter is similar to what existing virtual reality headsets, like the Meta Quest 3, can do.

One of the neat things about the Vision Pro is that it can seamlessly switch between augmented and completely virtual experiences. A twist of the digital crown (located on the top-right of the headset) adjusts the immersive level so that you see the world around you, completely overlay it with a virtual world (which Apple calls “Environments”), or have a kind of hybrid of the two.

Additionally, when people interact with you while you’re wearing the headset, the Vision Pro has a neat trick called “EyeSight” that lets them know if you can see them or not. When you can, its display shows a murky image of your actual eyes. When you’re completely immersed in something, like a movie or a game, the front display shows a purple-ish animation to let them know you’re busy.

Apple

You can control the Vision Pro with your hands and eyes. There’s no extra equipment needed

One of the coolest things about the Vision Pro is how you control it. Pretty much ever other competing headset requires special controllers, but the Vision Pro doesn’t. Instead, it just uses your hands and eyes.

The headset’s outward-facing cameras track your hand movements — a simply pinching action between your index finger and thumb is equivalent to a “click” on your Mac or “tap” on your iPhone.

And the headset’s inward-facing cameras track your eye movements— your eyes act as your mouse cursor. So when you want to open an app and click a certain button/action, you have to look at it with your eyes and then pinch with your fingers.

The entire experience of simply controlling the Vision Pro is unlike anything else and feels a bit like magic.

You can use the Vision Pro with your Mac

Photo by Tucker Bowe

One of the other standout features of the Vision Pro is that you can use it as a virtual display for your Mac. Basically, instead of working on your MacBook’s 13-inch display, you can pop on your Vision Pro, connect it to your MacBook and have a 100-inch display. When connected, you can use the same Mac accessories to control the screen; if you have a wireless keyboard and mouse, you can use them too.

The kicker is that while you can view a virtual display for your Mac, you can also run iPad apps and Vision Pro apps at the same time and have them all floating in space. It’s bananas.

It can play (spatial) audio. No headphones required

You don’t need headphones while wearing the Vision Pro. There’s a pair of “dual driver audio pods” that are mounted on either side of the headband and located above your ears. These use Apple’s Spatial Audio to project sound that seems as though its coming from your surrounding environment.

Because these audio pods are not headphones, they can be somewhat audible to the people around you. The good news is that you can use AirPods if you need truly private sound. Note: AirPods Max, Apple’s over-head headphones, do not work because they can’t fit on top of the headband.

Apple

Apple AirPods Pro (2nd-Gen, USB-C)

These are the only AirPods Pro that Apple now sells. They are mostly the same as the 2022-released AirPods Pro, but they have a USB-C charging port instead of Lightning. They pack Apple’s new H2 processing chip that enables them to support personalized Spatial Audio, which helps them deliver more immersive sound.

• $189.00 at Amazon
  $249.00 (24% off)

It can’t work with wired headphones

You can’t use wired headphones with the Vision Pro. Like so many other recent Apple devices, this headset does not have an audio jack — not Lightning, USB-C or 3.5mm — so don’t expect to be able to connect cheapo wired buds. If you’re planning on using the Vision Pro on a flight, bring some wireless earbuds.

Note: When paired with the Vision Pro headset, the newest AirPods Pro (USB-C) support lossless audio (up to 20-bit/48kHz) — they are the only AirPods Pro that support this capability.

It can be fitted with two different bands — so get the perfect fit

Photo by Tucker Bowe

The Vision Pro comes with two different headbands. There’s the Solo Knit Band, a single band that wraps around your head horizontally and can be tightened using the Fit Dial on its side. And there’s the Dual Loop Band, an upper and lower strap that kind of grip more evenly around your head.

While the the Solo Knit Band is definitely cooler and better engineered, I’ve found that the Dual Loop Band is actually more comfortable to wear and does a better job at holding the Vision Pro in place on your face.

You can’t wear glasses with the Vision Pro

If you wear glasses, you can’t wear them with the Vision Pro. Instead, Apple offers a variety of Zeiss vision-correcting lens inserts that use you use instead of glasses. You buy these prescription inserts when ordering the Vision Pro — they cost between $99 and $149.

But it can be worn without glasses (even if you wear them)

On the upside, you can wear your contact lenses if you don’t want to deal with the hassle (or extra cost) of these prescription inserts. Unless you have major issues with contacts, that’s what we would recommend.

It can do 4K

Photo by Tucker Bowe

The Vision Pro’s internal screens use micro-OLED tech to produce images in what Apple calls “Real 4K,” and that’s an important step toward making this headset a feasible replacement for a computer screen. Many virtual reality headsets struggle to produce the high resolution necessary to make for a suitably sharp picture so close to the eyes, which is absolutely necessary for rendering things like small text.

Apple

It can scan your eyes to tell who you are

Additionally, you can set it up so that you need to also enter a passcode to unlock the Vision Pro … for those who want an extra security measure.

Vision Pro cannot see your entire face and can’t use Face ID. Instead, it uses Optic ID to confirm your identity for things like making payments and logging into services.

It can capture and play 3D photos and videos

Photo by Tucker Bowe

The Vision Pro is capable is taking spatial photos and videos. It captures them using its external suite of depth-detecting sensors so that they have more depth and look more 3D.

Then, when you view them back on the Vision Pro, they make you feel more like you’re there in that moment. It feels sort of like you’ve jumped into a Pensieve (a la Happy Potter) and are experiencing a memory again. It’s kind of trippy and one of the cooler features of the Vision Pro.

You can capture spatial videos (but not spatial photos) on your iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max and then watch them back on your Vision Pro, but they don’t look quite as good. When captured on iPhone, these spatial photos and videos don’t have quite the same depth or aspect ratio.

It can scan your face and create a realistic digital avatar

When you set up Vision Pro, you have the option to create a Persona — a digital avatar of yourself that other people will see when talking to you on FaceTime or Zoom (or other compatible video conferencing apps) when wearing the Vision Pro.

To create this Persona, the Vision Pro scans your face with its depth-sensing cameras and uses that data (mashed up with some machine learning) to add depth. It’s admittedly weird, as most Personas look like video game versions of the wearer — me included. That said, this feature is still in beta so Apple will most definitely improve it over time.

It can’t be used wirelessly for longer than a few hours at a time

Photo by Tucker Bowe

The Vision Pro needs to be connected to its portable battery at all times. If you disconnect the battery at any point, the Vision Pro loses power and turns off. The portable battery comes attached to a nearly 4-foot cable, which gives you some flexibility to put the battery in your pocket while wearing the headset.

Apple rates the battery life of its battery at between two and three hours, which admittedly isn’t great. The good news, however, is that the battery has a USB-C port that allows you to charge it while using the battery. When connected to power, you can wear the headset indefinitely.

You can’t hot swap batteries

If you were hoping to avoid battery constraints by having a second battery queued up for a quick swap, you’re in for a disappointment —you can’t hot swap batteries. Because the Vision Pro has no onboard battery to speak of, it will turn all the way off while you’re switching them.